12.1: Deep Breath

In which we truly appreciate the contribution editors make to Doctor Who.

Broadcast: August 2014 

Watched: February 2022

“Don’t look in that mirror, it’s absolutely furious.”

Interesting that they don’t just go for the comfort. Previous modern relaunch episodes (Smith & Jones, Eleventh Hour) have generally done the “Hey guys, no need to worry, it’s the same show” thing . This one doesn’t really do that. Okay, it’s got a recurring guest cast – though in what I can only assume is a deliberate homage to season 12 it’s the last we’ll be seeing of them and no one will ever tell us why... But it also makes the Doctor genuinely a bit frightening. The moment the Doctor abandons Clara it feels plausible he means it, and it’s terrifying. 

I think the main problem is that it’s far too long – at 76 minutes it’s clearly going for feature-length special territory (was this a cinema thing?) but there isn’t enough material to sell it, the first half drags horribly. The pre-credit scene is six minutes, which isn’t unusual for Moffat, but the fact it’s one long scene is. 

A lot of the direction and editing feels off (the comedy sound effect when the Doctor passes out, Clara being hit by a newspaper, the Doctor jumping on a horse, the entire Clara/Strax comedy scene which isn’t funny enough to waste our time with). And the big moment when it turns out Clara has a code word when she needs rescue – it is extremely unclear why she’s not used it before now.

All that said, it really kicks into gear in the restaurant (I’d remembered this as being the shift into the denouement, actually it happens at minute 33). And there are loads of good bits. The Doctor translating the dinosaur, and later talking to her, promising to get her home just before she explodes; the scene with the Tramp; abandoning Clara, and then rescuing her. I like Vastra telling Clara not to be such a spoilt child (though am less keen on her pushing back with the Marcus Aurelius bollocks). I love the retcon that the Doctor wears a young face specifically to show off.

And the monsters – robots stealing human organs, who’ve been rebuilding themselves for so long that they no longer remember what they were – are brilliant. I love the way they make clockwork noises and look like a variety of Victorian archetypes. The repeated references to Fireplace feel a bit redundant, Moffat doing the RTD thing of explaining stuff he doesn’t need to explain.

It’s great, I just think it’d be better with either more plot or fewer minutes.

Other thoughts: 

• I like that it starts with a dinosaur wandering around Victorian London, and the joke that the dinosaur is far too big. 

• More random Victoriana: Sweeney Todd but without the pies, Burke & Hare from space (actually they were pre-Victorian, but y’know), the gratuitous hot air balloon, the Lestrade analogue.

• Not a fan of the Capaldi title sequence, all the Roman numerals. Shame, as there's another 39 episodes of it. I am a fan of the new Doctor's theme.

• It's now Clara’s turn to quote Troughton in The Three Doctors. Perhaps she thinks she’s quoting the 10th Doctor.

• Matt Smith is bloody heartbreaking in that final phone call. I know it’s the show going meta, him trying to reassure the kids it’s okay to watch the new guy even if he is old and scary, but it mostly made me miss Matt Smith.

• In the same vein, “Do you want to go and get some coffee, or chips, or something? Or chips and coffee?” feels like a conscious. End of the World throwback. And both “You are stronger than you look”/”I’m hoping you are too” and “One of us is lying about our basic programme” feels like a something Moffat consciously parallels in World/Time at the other end of the era.

• Oooh, Missy. I think it’s blindingly obvious who she is, by which I mean I got it immediately, but it’s not blindingly obvious what she’s doing, so.

• Seriously, why ditch this guest cast?