Ever since shortfinals vanished last spring there hasn't been much whovian activity here on dkos. I thought I'd pass on my thoughts on the start of the new season and the new version of the doctor.
Before watching it I confess to being highly conflicted in my expectations. I liked the idea of an older doctor but I didn't like the idea of a 'darker' doctor that seemed to be bandied about. Not everything has to be about the 'long, dark tea time of the soul'. Angst has its place but I do think that modern television is rather overdoing it.
The last two episodes also left me uncertain whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. The 50th anniversary episode, The Day of the Doctor, was, I felt, quite magnificent, easily the best of the anniversary shows in the show's history. It was fast paced without being frenetic, not afraid to make fun of itself, and genuinely exciting. Given the scope of the story the moments of grand spectacle were restrained and highly effective. In contrast the Christmas regeneration special (I can't remember the title and am not inclined to look it up) was not at all inspiring. It has the unfortunate tendency of the new show to throw everything but the kitchen sink into big spectacles (Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, The Silence, oh my!). And the incredibly protracted ending just about put me to sleep.
So I was very pleased to see that 'Deep Breath', the start of season 8, was playing to the strengths of the new doctor who series. The new show is vastly superior to the old show in character development and portraying personal relationships that are at all complex. What I really liked about last night's episode was the attempt to build the characters of The Pasternoster Gang and, particularly, Clara, who has been one of the most underdeveloped of companions in the new series so far. The scene of the doctor and Clara in the restaurant through to Clara's capture and interrogation was the most entertaining and compelling part of the show and was largely driven by Jenna Coleman's performance.
The bad guys in this episode were quite underdeveloped and IMHO not particularly compelling. However they were kind of beside the point so I'm not going to knock the episode much for that.
What about Peter Capaldi? His more somber, low key persona is a nice change of pace from the rather manic recent doctors. He seems more genuinely introspective rather than simply broody. It also looks like the doctor/companion relationship is finally going somewhere different from "almost romantic but not quite" which is good as the variations on this theme were getting a bit stale.
A few technical notes. I liked the new opening credit sequence. The clockwork visuals were different than anything that's come before and seemed less grandiose than recent versions. The music also seems to be a bit more reminiscent of the original arrangement of the theme.
This episode in particular seemed to have a problem I've noticed in a lot of modern television dramas. The incidental music is too loud and the dialog is often not loud enough. Or maybe it's just my hearing. Capaldi's dialog in particular was often hard to follow. For me at least it was not due to his scottish accent. In fact the times he exaggerated it were when I had the easiest time following him. Rather his natural speaking voice seems to be rather low and muffled.
So, all in all, I was quite pleased. I'm not that thrilled that the next episode is a Dalek episode. Not that I have anything against the psychotic pepperpots per se but new who has had an unfortunate tendency to overuse the standard monsters. The new Doctor Who has seven seasons under its belt. Tom Baker played Doctor Who for seven seasons. The Daleks appeared twice in his era, the Cybermen once, and the Sontarans twice. I'm not going to go back and count but the appearance of all of the above is drastically more frequent in the modern era. Using the classics a bit less often would make them more compelling.
I welcome thoughts from others on 'Deep Breath' or other aspects of Doctor Who