Doctor Who - "Deep Breath"

 

"Here we go again."

After many months, countless hours of speculation, tons of Moffat complaining and so many pointless Tumblr wars, Doctor Who has returned with a brand new doctor at the helm. Peter Capaldi is now portraying the 12th doctor, replacing Matt Smith's widely beloved portrayal of 11. And as fantastic as Matt Smith was in the role...damn, is Peter Capaldi good.

Capaldi pretty much nails the Doctor right from the start, and why shouldn't he? He possesses just the right mix of comedy, drama and outright terror that's required for the role, and he also puts just enough anger to make you believe that this truly is a wearier, more world-weary version of the Doctor than we've been accustomed to lately. The 12th Doctor jumps from a lovable, sarcastic goofball to a genuinely terrifying force in a moments' notice, and Capaldi completely nails what could be a difficult transition. Sometimes it takes a few episodes for an actor to completely settle into their new role as the Doctor, but Capaldi's 12 already feels nearly fully-formed. He's a mysterious incarnation, someone who is far less earnest and trustworthy than his immediate predecessors and more obviously carries the weight of his past on his back. I'm incredibly excited to see where he's going to take us from here.

And I'm even more excited knowing that he has a solid companion by his side. Clara's half-season with Matt Smith last year was something of a letdown - it had some incredibly enjoyable episodes, sure, and the 50th anniversary special remains a high point of the new series, but Clara and 11 weren't given enough time to properly click, and the show became too obsessed with the mystery behind the character that it lost sight of who the character actually was. As such, "Deep Breath" feels like a quasi-reboot of the Clara character, presenting her as a confident control freak that holds a lot of trust in the Doctor but isn't afraid to call him out on his shit. This contrasts nicely with the 12th Doctor, and it results in a dynamic that already feels natural and is a complete joy to watch even in its nascent stages. Jenna Coleman is also given some of Clara's weightest material yet, particularly during the several times where she suspects the Doctor has abandoned her. Sure, we all know the Doctor didn't actually abandon her, but the way Coleman plays the scenes allows us to completely feel her pain. It's always been clear that Coleman was better than a lot of the material she was being given, and it's nice to see her talents finally being properly rewarded here.

Capaldi and Coleman's strengths managed to hold together a script that was mostly pretty strong but also sort of faltered at times, particularly when the show felt the need to call attention to the fact that Capaldi is, yes, older. I get that a lot of Doctor Who fans are used to young, pretty faces and that the show probably needed to make those fans comfortable with Capaldi, but having Madame Vastra practically look at the camera and address them felt a bit too on-the-nose. (It also didn't help that Vastra, Jenny and Strax didn't really serve that much of a purpose in the episode outside of those scenes and maybe to provide more of a bridge between the last Doctor and this one). Besides, all the show really needed to comfort those fans was that excellent Matt Smith cameo, which did a fantastic job of explaining just what's a little bit different about 12 and also put a perfect bow on his time on the show. That scene nearly single-handedly made an episode that occasionally felt a little bit all over the place snap into focus, and it made me appreciate the episodes' somewhat languid pace and darkened tone. This is going to be a different show than it was before, so if this episode wasn't quite the sweeping adventure that "The Eleventh Hour" was, it's not supposed to be. This is a different Doctor, a Doctor who's a little bit more serious and a little bit more contemplative. With a great actor and a newly strong companion to help him along the way, I'm excited to see just how this all ends up.