I know that sometimes Whovians and gamers overlap, so I thought this might be a good forum to bring this up. What do you guys think of the first episode of series 8, "Deep Breath"? How does Peter Capaldi stack up to Matt Smith, David Tennant and Christopher Eccelston? What do you think of the new intro?
I thought that "Deep Breath" was incredibly uneven. There were some solid throwbacks to past episode and I thought it did an okay job setting up the problems that will likely arise between the Doctor and his companion this season. However, there were a lot of parts that I thought were disappointing.
The first half of the episode I thought was actually kind of terrible. We all remember David Tennant and Matt Smith's regeneration episodes, where we see the Doctor go through the side-effects of regeneration: namely exhaustion and the craving for weird foods. But we never had to watch the Doctor be a senile old man with weird names for people. Even that would be okay if it didn't mean him getting amnesia and then suddenly losing it.
I thought the episode got a whole lot better after the Doctor and his companion wound up in Mancini's strange clockwork-robot restaurant. The scene in the restaurant was one of my favorites and I thought it showcased the potential for a workable dynamic between the Doctor and his new companion. I liked the reprisal of the clockwork villains from "The Girl in the Fireplace" and I thought the mechanical acting of the extras was genuinely great. I also liked the references to the SS Madame de Pompadour and to the fact that the Doctor was unable to remember what had happened.
However, the villains were a lot less scary in "Deep Breath." The gimmick of "Deep Breath" felt similar to "Blink," where our plucky heroes could remain safe as long as they did not do something basic to human survival. The weird, antiquated racial stereotypes were more comical than scary; the original French revolution-style androids were infinitely more terrifying.
Although I found the resolution unsatisfying (why can't a Sontaran with a laser gun unable to take out any clockwork soldiers with knives?), I thought that Peter Capaldi delivered a great speech toward the end and really showed off some of his talent. I liked that they left open the possibility that the 12th doctor might capable of murder. I think that the scene with Matt Smith was actually really well done, though it unfortunately demonstrates that Matt Smith has a lot more on-screen chemistry with Jenna-Louise Coleman than Peter Capaldi, whose stiffness with her is played for laughs.
And, entering spoiler territory: I really liked the very end, set in the Promised Land. I loved the ending teaser.
I thought that "Deep Breath" was incredibly uneven. There were some solid throwbacks to past episode and I thought it did an okay job setting up the problems that will likely arise between the Doctor and his companion this season. However, there were a lot of parts that I thought were disappointing.
The first half of the episode I thought was actually kind of terrible. We all remember David Tennant and Matt Smith's regeneration episodes, where we see the Doctor go through the side-effects of regeneration: namely exhaustion and the craving for weird foods. But we never had to watch the Doctor be a senile old man with weird names for people. Even that would be okay if it didn't mean him getting amnesia and then suddenly losing it.
I thought the episode got a whole lot better after the Doctor and his companion wound up in Mancini's strange clockwork-robot restaurant. The scene in the restaurant was one of my favorites and I thought it showcased the potential for a workable dynamic between the Doctor and his new companion. I liked the reprisal of the clockwork villains from "The Girl in the Fireplace" and I thought the mechanical acting of the extras was genuinely great. I also liked the references to the SS Madame de Pompadour and to the fact that the Doctor was unable to remember what had happened.
However, the villains were a lot less scary in "Deep Breath." The gimmick of "Deep Breath" felt similar to "Blink," where our plucky heroes could remain safe as long as they did not do something basic to human survival. The weird, antiquated racial stereotypes were more comical than scary; the original French revolution-style androids were infinitely more terrifying.
Although I found the resolution unsatisfying (why can't a Sontaran with a laser gun unable to take out any clockwork soldiers with knives?), I thought that Peter Capaldi delivered a great speech toward the end and really showed off some of his talent. I liked that they left open the possibility that the 12th doctor might capable of murder. I think that the scene with Matt Smith was actually really well done, though it unfortunately demonstrates that Matt Smith has a lot more on-screen chemistry with Jenna-Louise Coleman than Peter Capaldi, whose stiffness with her is played for laughs.
And, entering spoiler territory: I really liked the very end, set in the Promised Land. I loved the ending teaser.
Who is Missy, the woman in the Promised Land? A younger River Song? Someone we haven't seen yet?