Just fewer than 20 seats remained in the theater. People dawned tweed coats and bowties, blue dresses reading “POLICE BOX” and memorabilia t-shirts. On the screen played the end of the last aired episode — the Christmas special — of Doctor Who, forcing viewers to watch again Matt Smith’s emotional leave as the Eleventh Doctor. They waited for the premiere of the new season, titled “Deep Breath.”
Enter: Peter Capaldi, 56, who had been cast as the Twelfth Doctor in summer 2013 — tied as the oldest doctor since William Hartnell’s first. Fans anticipated The Thick of It’s star would bring something timeless, yet needed, to the role even before he appeared in the final moments of the Christmas special.
Right off the bat, Capaldi’s portrayal of the 2,000-year-old Time Lord did not disappoint. Altogether serious and outlandish, Capaldi’s Doctor delivered a maturity unknown to the show since its original run, which ended in 1989 with Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor.
Since its return in 2005, the Doctor’s character has been more of a boyfriend type than ever before (save for the 1996 movie). Before the episode aired, show runner Steven Moffat had teased the new Doctor would return the series to “the basics,” which proved a puzzling statement. However, it’s now abundantly clear at least one facet of the basics includes doing away with the Doctor’s romantic conquests, especially with his traveling companions, as Capaldi explicitly tells his companion, “I’m not your boyfriend.”
Jenna Coleman, who portrays current companion Clara Oswald, was among the few faces returning to the show. She has been a regular fixture on the show since the start of the second half of Series Seven, but made her debut at the start of the same series.
In general, the companion’s role is that of a stand-in for the audience. At the same time, companions ought to have their own stories and motivations. Coleman blended these roles quite well, taking cautiously to Capaldi’s aloof Doctor and maintaining her own goals and expectations.
Other returning Who veterans included Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint) and Dan Starkey (Strax). The trio forms the Paternoster Gang, and shows up occasionally as friends of the Doctor.
Most exciting about the inclusion of the Paternoster Gang was the show’s first-ever onscreen lesbian kiss between McIntosh and Stewart, who are married on the show. Though the kiss was presented as one’s transferring breath to the other, it still offered a semi-romantic and non-sexualized moment between the characters.
Further, Moffat, who wrote the episode, seems to have finally allowed feminist criticism of his writing to get to him. This episode passed the Bechdel test many times and included more named female characters than male, making for relatively well-rounded representation for women — at least compared to his previous works.
In the same vein, it was nice to see Clara (who had, up until the Christmas special, been used primarily as a plot device) undergo some real character development. The episode has quite a bit of fun poking at her egomaniacal tendencies and taking control away from the control-freak.
At times, the humor seemed dumbed down, especially thanks to the singular-minded alien, Strax. Considering, though, that this is a show for all ages, it’s understandable. Moffat made up for the easy humor with other more subtle and clever jokes, as well with allusions to such philosophic musings as the “Ship of Theseus.”
One of the best things about Doctor Who is its accessibility, and being in the theatre for the screening only proved that. Throughout the theatre, people reacted in all different ways — laughs, awing, gasping — at the same times. Part of what makes the show so wonderful is that it offers something for everyone, and “Deep Breath” was no exception.
