Doctor Who: Deep Breath (8x01)
Aug. 24th, 2014 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xerinmichellexBecause ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gothrockrulz asked what I thought about the episode and this turned into a longer reply that befits its own post rather than be in the comments section.
Overall: I thought it was "meh". It wasn't "Let's Kill Hitler" or the last 15 minutes of "The Day of the Doctor" levels of bad for me; nor did it knock my socks off like "Doomsday" or "The Doctor's Wife". The stuff it did right was VERY good; but mainly it was comprised of boring parts and things that I did not enjoy. I don't care about the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny, and Strax), so the first 45 minutes (in US time, with all the commercials) bored me. But once Clara and the Doctor were actually together and doing stuff, the episode picked up.
(Rhoda, I know you mentioned not being all that into Doctor Who since Matt Smith's departure. I'd let a couple weeks go by, and then maybe binge watch them because it's hard to gauge right now what kind of Doctor Peter Capaldi's going to be.)
The Positive
--I'm glad they gave Clara stuff to do, because when she was on her own she proved to have a spine and be interesting and work outside of being the Doctor's Impossible Girl. I liked her calling out that half-robot, half-man (I'm gonna call him Two Face from now on) and standing up to him and using her mind. Sometimes being clever is just as important as being "hot" or witty or strong.
--I liked Clara and Twelve at the restaurant, and this is where the episode picked up for me. I was engaged with them and that's always important in a Doctor/companion relationship. I really think Capaldi and Coleman are the strongest pair of actors this show has had since the re-boot. I liked their banter; I liked that Clara wouldn't allow Twelve to steamroll over her. The creepiness set in when they tried to leave and the automatrons slowly surrounded them.
--I like the darker side of the Doctor they seem to be headed with Twelve. (He totally pushed Two Face out the window. I refuse to accept the alternative!) But. . .just because you say he's darker doesn't mean he will be if you don't back it up with evidence. I'm still on the fence with Twelve, but I like Peter Capaldi and how he "handles" the Doctor's serious tones. (I wasn't a fan of the beginning where he was stumbling around. It felt forced.)
It's a shame they've wasted "this is the Doctor's darkest moment" stuff on Eleven, though, if they intend Twelve to be darker than Eleven. We shall see.
--My favorite moment, and the one that really resonated with me, was when Clara stuck out her hand, knowing that if Twelve was the Doctor, he'd be right there for her. It's these "small" character moments that I like over the grandiose speeches and BIG! ideas and goofiness that Moffat sometimes relies on.
I also liked Clara after Twelve abandoned her. I like when characters push through their fear and press on. It tells me more about them than calling them a "control freak" or "egomaniac".
The Negative
--I can't believe how much time they spent on the "he's so ~old" conversations. On some level, I get that Moffat was probably addressing the fans. But come on, of all the people to complain about the Doctor being old, Clara should be the last one. She's been in the Doctor's timestream. She's seen older versions of him. She just met John Hurt's War Doctor, who isn't exactly a spring chick. And don't try and tell me that this is because of Clara's "crush" on Eleven. I have more on that below.
I'm also not here for Twelve's monologue on "I've seen this face before" and "where do these faces come from". I honestly don't care that Peter Capaldi's played two, different characters in the Whoverse. Colin Baker played a small role in Doctor Who before he became Six and it was never addressed. I've grown up on Law & Order, where they regularly recycle actors who go from criminals to a detective or an ADA. I DON'T CAAAAAAAARE!
--I can't figure out who I despise more in the Paternoster Gang: Strax or Vastra. Both are on my shit list. Strax isn't funny with his attempts to undress Clara. (It's creepy that Moffat keeps throwing in these moments where he wants Clara to be naked or the audience to view her naked. That kind of stuff doesn't belong in a children's program.) Vastra was really a snot to Clara. Boy, was it eye opening to see her treat Jenny, her goddamn wife, in such an appalling manner. Jenny deserves better. Everything with them felt like filler--and not even interesting filler. A lot of it was annoying and gross and sadly things that I've come to expect from a Moffat script.
--Clara and Eleven crushing on each other makes no damn sense and I'm resistant to the entire thing. For one, I never bought this overt flirtiness when you compare it to Eleven and River. I always got a "just friends" vibe off Clara and Eleven. Then again, I'm asexual so maybe I'm less inclined to notice subtle methods of flirting. Still! Given Eleven's actions towards Clara throughout Smith's farewell episode, I don't see how Eleven valued Clara in the same way Ten valued Rose.
But the biggest thing that makes me so resistant to it being a positive relationship, or a tragedy on Clara's part that she's lost her "crush", is the circumstances surrounding Eleven and Clara. Eleven's sole interest was figuring out why there were versions of Clara throughout time: A fact he deliberately kept secret from Clara. A fact that Clara never got the chance to confront Eleven about once she realized what he'd done.
Throw in Eleven's call to Clara after she's decided that she can't--won't--travel with Twelve, it's Clara once again losing her choice to make her own decisions. Which brings me full circle on how I hated that Clara, of all fucking people, threw a fit, and whined and moaned about the Doctor changing his face and getting old and grey and wrinkly. It made no sense and it felt like a cheap way to introduce conflict. (Much like the Ponds' divorce in Season 7's opener.)
Since I had issues with the largest components of the episode, this is why it's a major "meh" for me. Hopefully with Twelve's introductory episode out of the way, we can hit the ground running and see what kind of a man Twelve is. Whether he's a good man or a bad man, I want an interesting man. I believe Peter Capaldi can deliver.
Note: Since this is a post specifically about 8x01, let's just assume there will be spoilers in the comments and forgo those annoying spoiler tags. I can't stand how unformatted they are.
gothrockrulz asked what I thought about the episode and this turned into a longer reply that befits its own post rather than be in the comments section.Overall: I thought it was "meh". It wasn't "Let's Kill Hitler" or the last 15 minutes of "The Day of the Doctor" levels of bad for me; nor did it knock my socks off like "Doomsday" or "The Doctor's Wife". The stuff it did right was VERY good; but mainly it was comprised of boring parts and things that I did not enjoy. I don't care about the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny, and Strax), so the first 45 minutes (in US time, with all the commercials) bored me. But once Clara and the Doctor were actually together and doing stuff, the episode picked up.
(Rhoda, I know you mentioned not being all that into Doctor Who since Matt Smith's departure. I'd let a couple weeks go by, and then maybe binge watch them because it's hard to gauge right now what kind of Doctor Peter Capaldi's going to be.)
The Positive
--I'm glad they gave Clara stuff to do, because when she was on her own she proved to have a spine and be interesting and work outside of being the Doctor's Impossible Girl. I liked her calling out that half-robot, half-man (I'm gonna call him Two Face from now on) and standing up to him and using her mind. Sometimes being clever is just as important as being "hot" or witty or strong.
--I liked Clara and Twelve at the restaurant, and this is where the episode picked up for me. I was engaged with them and that's always important in a Doctor/companion relationship. I really think Capaldi and Coleman are the strongest pair of actors this show has had since the re-boot. I liked their banter; I liked that Clara wouldn't allow Twelve to steamroll over her. The creepiness set in when they tried to leave and the automatrons slowly surrounded them.
--I like the darker side of the Doctor they seem to be headed with Twelve. (He totally pushed Two Face out the window. I refuse to accept the alternative!) But. . .just because you say he's darker doesn't mean he will be if you don't back it up with evidence. I'm still on the fence with Twelve, but I like Peter Capaldi and how he "handles" the Doctor's serious tones. (I wasn't a fan of the beginning where he was stumbling around. It felt forced.)
It's a shame they've wasted "this is the Doctor's darkest moment" stuff on Eleven, though, if they intend Twelve to be darker than Eleven. We shall see.
--My favorite moment, and the one that really resonated with me, was when Clara stuck out her hand, knowing that if Twelve was the Doctor, he'd be right there for her. It's these "small" character moments that I like over the grandiose speeches and BIG! ideas and goofiness that Moffat sometimes relies on.
I also liked Clara after Twelve abandoned her. I like when characters push through their fear and press on. It tells me more about them than calling them a "control freak" or "egomaniac".
The Negative
--I can't believe how much time they spent on the "he's so ~old" conversations. On some level, I get that Moffat was probably addressing the fans. But come on, of all the people to complain about the Doctor being old, Clara should be the last one. She's been in the Doctor's timestream. She's seen older versions of him. She just met John Hurt's War Doctor, who isn't exactly a spring chick. And don't try and tell me that this is because of Clara's "crush" on Eleven. I have more on that below.
I'm also not here for Twelve's monologue on "I've seen this face before" and "where do these faces come from". I honestly don't care that Peter Capaldi's played two, different characters in the Whoverse. Colin Baker played a small role in Doctor Who before he became Six and it was never addressed. I've grown up on Law & Order, where they regularly recycle actors who go from criminals to a detective or an ADA. I DON'T CAAAAAAAARE!
--I can't figure out who I despise more in the Paternoster Gang: Strax or Vastra. Both are on my shit list. Strax isn't funny with his attempts to undress Clara. (It's creepy that Moffat keeps throwing in these moments where he wants Clara to be naked or the audience to view her naked. That kind of stuff doesn't belong in a children's program.) Vastra was really a snot to Clara. Boy, was it eye opening to see her treat Jenny, her goddamn wife, in such an appalling manner. Jenny deserves better. Everything with them felt like filler--and not even interesting filler. A lot of it was annoying and gross and sadly things that I've come to expect from a Moffat script.
--Clara and Eleven crushing on each other makes no damn sense and I'm resistant to the entire thing. For one, I never bought this overt flirtiness when you compare it to Eleven and River. I always got a "just friends" vibe off Clara and Eleven. Then again, I'm asexual so maybe I'm less inclined to notice subtle methods of flirting. Still! Given Eleven's actions towards Clara throughout Smith's farewell episode, I don't see how Eleven valued Clara in the same way Ten valued Rose.
But the biggest thing that makes me so resistant to it being a positive relationship, or a tragedy on Clara's part that she's lost her "crush", is the circumstances surrounding Eleven and Clara. Eleven's sole interest was figuring out why there were versions of Clara throughout time: A fact he deliberately kept secret from Clara. A fact that Clara never got the chance to confront Eleven about once she realized what he'd done.
Throw in Eleven's call to Clara after she's decided that she can't--won't--travel with Twelve, it's Clara once again losing her choice to make her own decisions. Which brings me full circle on how I hated that Clara, of all fucking people, threw a fit, and whined and moaned about the Doctor changing his face and getting old and grey and wrinkly. It made no sense and it felt like a cheap way to introduce conflict. (Much like the Ponds' divorce in Season 7's opener.)
Since I had issues with the largest components of the episode, this is why it's a major "meh" for me. Hopefully with Twelve's introductory episode out of the way, we can hit the ground running and see what kind of a man Twelve is. Whether he's a good man or a bad man, I want an interesting man. I believe Peter Capaldi can deliver.
Note: Since this is a post specifically about 8x01, let's just assume there will be spoilers in the comments and forgo those annoying spoiler tags. I can't stand how unformatted they are.
