Friday 24 July 2015

Revisiting the Twelfth Doctor: Deep Breath

Deep Breath

So here it is - the first full story for the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Here's a reminder of what I said in my last blog post I remembered about it:
I'll admit to some distraction here. I was very tied up with seeing how the 12th Doctor's personality would coalesce. I remember very little of the plot, beyond a burning T-Rex and lots of hand-wringing with the Victorian/Lizard/Sontaran crew. I recall annoyance that they spent so much of the episode making excuses for Capaldi's age - especially given that Clara had already seen The Doctor's entire regeneration cycle to date. A parting phonecall from Doctor #11 was a particularly insulting moment, although a clever bit of continuity from The Time of the Doctor.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. A few inconsistencies and weak ideas, but  actually a very interesting watch.

The apologetics for Capaldi's age now seems to me less self-conscious and more a genuine confusion on Clara's part. She has, as I said, seen his entire regeneration cycle - but this new man is a stranger, even to her. I enjoyed Clara's anger - a common response among the bereaved - and feeling of losing someone she was close to, to be dumped in the care of a man whose behaviour and trust she could not rely upon.


I had forgotten the additional guff about the Doctor now being Scottish. It seems nonsensical to me. He's not human, so gaining a Scottish accent is really just an affectation. But for a character who so recently had been mystified by the existence of "the bedroom" as a concept and couldn't tell the difference between Clara (Human) and Strax (Sontaran) because they were the same height, the Doctor's commentary on Scottish/English rivalry is divisive at best and comes across as the writer showing through, not the characters. It's nice, though, that in Missy/the Master's introduction, she demonstrates her obsession with the Doctor by taking on a Scottish accent as well. It plays effectively into the suggestion that the reason the Master loves/hates the Doctor is plain old envy.

Some nice dark moments with the new Doctor experimenting with the boundaries of callousness and pragmatism. As I've said, this rings throughout the series. He tries to take the coat from a cold homeless man ("I'm cold too, there's no point us both being cold") but this is an effective device as later when the Doctor abadons Clara in the "larder" ("There's no point us both being captured") we genuinely think he may have cast her adrift. The same when he leaves without her at the end.

I can't believe how much of this story related directly to The Girl in the Fireplace - my favourite episode of all time, modern or classic. I'm surprised that didn't stick in my memory better. perhaps because I don't really see how it relates. Hard to believe that the clunky wrought-iron android is from the same factory as the beautiful and delicate clockwork men.

A nice dramatic face-off between Clara and Madame Vastra. Lots of wit and sexual chemistry, which is always nice. Valid commentary about Vastra keeping Jenny as a bit of a sexual object. ("Doesn't exactly explain why I'm pouring tea for you in private.")

In terms of weaknesses, I don't really get how the androids are fooled by people holding their breath. If they're programmed to use human components to replace ship parts, they must have sensors which register something other than breath movement as a means to determine living tissue. Maybe I'm being harsh - maybe because they are part human means that the only difference between cyborg and human is the need to respirate.

The phone call from Doctor #11 grated less, now I knew it was coming. I didn't hate it second time around, in fact it was a nice character touch. But it strikes me that Moffatt is prone to sentimentality and finds it hard to let things go. In the same way that Amy's appearance in The Time of the Doctor felt like Doctor #11 couldn't let go of his big love, the phonecall in Deep Breath feels like a hanging on - an inability to accept that Matt Smith's time has gone.

But overall I enjoyed this way more than I remembered. A good Victorian crime romp, great wit in the script and some good character development. A slightly indifferent story plot, but with a great dilemma for the audience at the end. Did the villain jump, or did The Doctor push him to his death?

Seems pretty obvious to me that he pushed him.

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