You could take bottle tops off with these

[sovay]

Last night's dreams, including but not limited to: something about the ruins of high bridges and making love with the male-bodied version of someone I know as biologically female. Also they had small fanlike fins in the hollows of their hips, but that sort of thing is not uncommon in my dreams. I hope they don't mind.

I passed out before making any notes to myself on "Deep Breath," which derspatchel and I finally got the chance to watch last night, long after my friendlist had exploded about it. Short course: I expected to like Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor and I did. His erratic scenes post-regeneration worked much better for me than Eleven's manic madcap antics and his later shyness felt genuine rather than sympathy-rigged, especially now that he has some sense of himself and his recent actions rather than hands he doesn't recognize and difficulty not flirting with tyrannosaurs. I'm not sure I'm a hugging person now . . . He's the first Doctor in a very long time who looks as though human is not his default setting; he has some birdlike movements, a springy, wary fierceness which every now and then becomes something as bizarrely normal and diffident as an offer of coffee and chips. I find myself thinking tiercel when I look at him. (Of course he's dangerous; when was the Doctor ever not?) I am just hoping that the question of why this face is not really being set up as a series mystery; it answers itself pretty quickly. Capaldi ranting about his eyebrows is delightful. They probably want to secede from my face and set up their own independent state of eyebrows!

I was less endeared by the meta-plot of the episode, which seemed to feel the audience needed to be talked into accepting Capaldi's Doctor as strongly as Clara with her imprinting on youthful Eleven, stressing continuity with his predecessor rather than offering the latest iteration on his own terms. I believe it's a valid issue for Clara, but personally I was looking forward to Twelve; I don't need to be argued out of my bias against wiry grey hair and cantankerous brows. (I did like the Doctor being puzzled by his own reflection, lined with experiences he didn't live through; hearing the words out of his own mouth a beat too late to look away. You probably can't even remember where you got that face from.) The phone call was really pushing it. I am also decidedly unsure about the random jags of slapstick and not just one, but three characters casually condemning Clara's personality flaws. I don't like her much as a character, but that has to do with how thinly she's written, not because I think she's an emotionally needy passive-aggressive egomaniac or any of the other labels the script suddenly felt the need to hang on her. It was like reverse fan service. "Nothing is more important than my egomania!" is a great line, but a cheap shot. If it was meant to build up to her moment of bravery among the clockworks—which was well done—I think it backfired.

All through the episode I thought the clockwork leader looked familiar; I should have recognized him as the deserter Jacob from A Field in England (2013). To be fair, he had a beard there. And part of his face wasn't a naked metal frame.

I am all for seeing more of Jenny and Vastra as a marriage. It feels a little like cheating that their first kiss onscreen (that I've seen, anyway) is a life-saving sharing of breath rather than a moment of passion or everyday affection, but maybe people don't ever just kiss on Doctor Who. Anyway, lesbian ninja lizard-human couples: rock on.

I'm not sure what it is with Moffat and theatrically flirtatious female antagonists. I hope Rob is right that she's the Rani, who has not yet appeared in New Who. Maybe the umbrella's because she watched a lot of The Prisoner the last time she was on Earth.

I was really sad about the dinosaur.

Comments

[sovay]

She, more than any Companion in history, has firsthand knowledge of his alienness.

That feels like it should be true. And cheapened if she was only seeing them as former faces of Eleven, the Doctor she really cares for.

I was rather looking forward to something more along the lines of "I realize you are different now, let's figure out who that is together". If they wanted to break the fourth wall a little, a line like "You are the Doctor, but you are not my Doctor" might have gone over well.

Yes. Especially with Clara being so heavily positioned as an audience stand-in. It would have been a meta touch, but no worse than the Doctor's one, long look at the camera.

I also felt like Moffat was trying really hard to make a deep point about how people view each other and how they view themselves but that in the end that entire line just fell flat. One could probably write a good paper on it, though.

I would enjoy a season of newly regenerated Doctor Who where the series arc was the Doctor and his Companion coming to terms with the change in ways that were complicated and accepting (although I would probably enjoy it even more if the Doctor had, say, actually switched genders or ethnicities or something a Companion has not had to adapt to before). I'm guessing that's not what we're headed for, though.

I just wish the series knew how to take time. In the literal, prosaic sense of room to breathe. Just an episode of time travelers hanging out without a monster of the week or a mystery hanging over their heads. That would be great. These characters are interesting enough to sustain our attention without a jump scare before the commercials.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

I agree all around. It's like there's some secret pacing guide they feel that they must follow, which just makes everything feel predictable. This would have been a great time for an episode set aside for character building - we already have something of a feel for everyone except Capaldi's Doctor.

I just wish the series knew how to take time. In the literal, prosaic sense of room to breathe.

Doubly sad that they fail to do this in an episode called "Deep Breath". They built more of Clara's character in a 30 second flashback and five lines of dialog than they did the entire last half season. I would welcome more time to see it fleshed out. And the Doctor's character is so important that it's worth spending an episode without a bad guy just exploring who he is going to be.

[sovay]

It's like there's some secret pacing guide they feel that they must follow, which just makes everything feel predictable.

So many of the previous season's episodes needed to be two-parters. Is that now prohibited by the BBC? I had no other explanation for why they kept hurtling through episodes at a faster rate than the plots could take. It was like watching a stage play where the actors are paralytically afraid of silence.

Doubly sad that they fail to do this in an episode called "Deep Breath".

EXTREMELY GOOD POINT.

They built more of Clara's character in a 30 second flashback and five lines of dialog than they did the entire last half season.

This is also true. And it was a very good character-building moment: a few more like it (and less of Strax's tricorder phrenology) and we might have an actual person, not just a dark-haired plot device. It was nice to see that she actually had some life that existed separately from the Doctor—she can draw on it now, but it had nothing to do with him to begin with.

And the Doctor's character is so important that it's worth spending an episode without a bad guy just exploring who he is going to be.

Yes. That. Seriously.