Doctor Who Series 8 Episodes 1-2 review (Deep Breath/Into the Dalek)

Doctor Who is back on our screens for a new series. With Peter Capaldi taking over the reigns as the Doctor, we are ready for a new era of the time lord’s journey. But where will the journey take us, well, let’s dig into the first two episodes and find out.

Deep Breath

Synopsis: The TARDIS crashes in Victorian London (because it’s been the default setting since the latter half of the last season) where Clara must get used to a new Doctor as a conspiracy wraps around them

This episode is… an interesting start, we get an old foe returning, sort of. I may be one of few, but I’m not all that keen on Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax, the doctor bumps into them a bit too often (he seemed curious that he met Donna twice, yet this is his third encounter with the three, 5^th if you include adventures not in Victorian London)

Honestly, I think the situation should’ve been played in reverse. Clara, the person who seen the Doctor’s entire life, including his regenerations, and most probably including a post-regeneration episode that doctor has almost every time. She would’ve also seen doctors that look older than the 11^th that were actually younger than him (war doctor for example) so she shouldn’t be surprised that the new version looks older

Meanwhile, Jenny, Madame Vastra and Strax, as far as I can tell, only knew the Doctor through his previous incarnation, and yet it is Clara who seems the least able to accept the regeneration, and his new appearance. (Yes I do understand that Clara had feelings for the 11^th, but did she not ask the time-lords for this regeneration)

On the up side it is nice to see Clara get a bit of a character arc, her inclusion in s7 was almost entirely as a plot device, her character was barely explored.

I do like the look of the new title sequence. It’s the first one to truly acknowledge that the Doctor has both time and space at his disposal. With previous ones preferring to choose space and/or use the ill-defined time vortex

Dinosaur in central London, much like that giant cyber-monster from Victorian future/past is not something easily forgotten about, especially when its set on fire. Previous series have at least made an effort to keep the larger scale events set in the future/on other planets.

But to the story, we see sort of return of the clockwork monsters from the girl in the fire-place. An adventure which (like many people) the doctor doesn’t remember, as before they’re using human body parts to make repairs. It makes for an interesting villain, a robot more man than machine, but there’s not a lot to say about it, really, as it’s more a side-story than the main plot

This story may not have been wise to take pot-shots at the Scottish given the coming vote for independence, although it is nice to have a Scottish doctor actually use his Scottish accent, unlike David Tennant

Then we’re introduced to the series overarching mystery. A person called Missy, claiming to be the Doctor’s wife, who knows his previous incarnation apparently, and currently resides in heaven. I’m intrigued

Rating: 7/10

Into the Dalek

Synopsis: Look out, there’s a good Dalek about, the Doctor, Clara, 2 redshirts and a lady with a gun are sent into the Dalek to try and fix it

I think we’re past getting any explanation as to how the Daleks survive the time war. Instead of an entire race being wiped out, Day of the Doctor retconned it to a few hundred ships destroying each other.

So, we start off with a new character who has no purpose in this story, at all. He is a soldier, who, clearly has a shot down someone who wasn’t soldier (I suspect by accident) and is new teacher at the school Clara works at (so he clearly didn’t get a record for it, or any kind of consequence whatsoever) with Clara only being a part-time companion, it is nice to see a little more of her personal life.

Then we get a concept with poor execution. A “good” dalek. As far as I can work out the explanation is, the Dalek was damaged by something that really has little effect on the outside but damages his power unit on the inside. The radiation activates the memory, which is kept hidden somehow, of a star dying and another replacing it. This somehow alters any programming it once had and makes it want to destroy the Daleks, because they’re pointless?? Yeah, the show is kind of hand-wavey about this

Speaking of hand-wavey, I’ve seen enough of the sonic screwdriver do things that it shouldn’t be able to do. I can handle unlocking doors, but making scans, repairing barbed wire, hacking ATMs and repairing damaged power core are not the functions of a sonic screwdriver. Really the sonic is a do-everything machine, that people haven’t tried to write out because it’s marketable. Seriously, the sonic screwdriver is the Doctor who equivalent of a magic wand.

So, in true star wars fashion, and by fashion I mean it’s practically a ripoff, a rebel ship is being pursued by a fleet of the Dalek empire. When the Dalek comes to its senses, it contacts the Dalek and the Daleks board the ship.

I don’t particularly care for this story, you might be able to tell. It’s better than Asylum of the Daleks and Victory of the Daleks, but that’s like saying a broken leg is better than a broken back. It’s still flipping painful. And Clara once again makes me wonder what the hell she was doing during the Doctor's life. She seems somewhat unable to understand why the Doctor would be prejudiced against a species that has killed MILLIONS! Most of them on-screen.

I like that she talks him around, but her lack of understanding is not making her a better character. So the Doctor is a telepath (and has been since the girl in the fireplace, don’t ask) and manages to communicate with the Dalek creature, and it sees the Daleks as evil and wants to destroy them, dashing the Doctor’s hopes of there being a good Dalek. Still it saves the humans and survives (the Daleks are not incapable of killing their own) and thanks to the power of hand-waving (again) they grow to normal size once this is done.

The doctor is darker, he gave someone a thing that people thought could save his life, but when the guy died, the Doctor claimed he was dead already. But 2 things, why would the machine part of the Dalek have anti-bodies, and why would they respond to a physical action. Surely the mechanical parts of a Dalek cannot feel pain!

Rating 7/10

Note: I will be uploading Doctor who reviews weekly in September, but it will be bi-weekly in October onwards

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