After nearly a year of teasing, we finally got to meet our
new Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Of course, first episodes with
new Doctors are tricky. The character himself doesn’t really know he really is,
so it’s difficult for audiences to get a handle on him as well. I felt that way
about Tennant and Eccleston in their first outings,
and slightly less so about Smith. The new Doctor — I’m honestly not sure what
number we’re supposed to refer to him as at this point — was all over the place
this episode, pinballing from confused naïf to needy
old man to heartless bastard. And honestly, I didn’t mind any of that. But the
episode itself had some significant issues, most of them symptomatic of showrunner and episode writer Steven Moffat’s
increasingly tiresome indulgences.

The set up: the people of Victorian London were astonished
to find a Tyrannosaurus Rex stomping its way up and down the Thames. The police
called in reptilian Sherlock Holmes analogue Madame Vastra,
who of course brought along sidekicks Jenny and Strax,
and gave the Victorian cops sophisticated alien technology that nobody bat an
eye at, which served to keep the dinosaur penned in the river. And then it hacked
up the TARDIS, which had been stuck in is throat.

That is, more or less, the entire extent
of the dinosaur plot. It was brought through to Victorian days after it
tried to eat the TARDIS, which was thrashing about through time during the
Doctor’s transformation. Yes, the dinosaur played into the larger plotline, but
in an extremely tangential way. It was basically just Moffat saying, “Look at
how cool and awesome I am! I can have a dinosaur!” Lots of
pretty, flashy things that ultimately mean very little. That’s Moffat
for you.

The larger plot unfolded slowly — too slowly, I would argue
— and involved cyborgs stealing human parts to stay
alive. If elements of the villains (who I don’t believe were ever named) seem
familiar, that is in part intentional, as this episode indirectly ties back to
an episode from Series 2…also not-so-coincidentally written by Moffat, and
featuring well-regarded monsters of his own design. And it ended with an odd
epilogue that introduced what I assume will be a recurring nemesis for the new
Doctor, Missy, a stern, vaguely batshit woman that at
first blush seems to be made from the same mold as Madame Kovarian
(the eyepatch lady who worked with the Silence to
kidnap Amy’s baby, who never had a pay off) or Tasha Lem,
the Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, who also
basically went nowhere. I recognize that we saw Missy for literally 2 minutes,
but my sense of déjà vu was powerful.

But the episode was ultimately much less about the villain
of the week and more about establishing the new Doctor, his relationship with
Clara, and his relationship with the viewers (that long exchange outside the
TARDIS in Scotland felt like it was delivered less for Clara and more for this
show’s legion of fairly new fans, who are used to cute young Doctors). And in
those respects, it was a qualified success. I’ll break down what I thought
worked, what didn’t, and what has potential.

WHAT WORKED:

-Capaldi is great when the Doctor
is playing mindgames or being menacing. No surprise
there. The rumor is that this is going to be a much darker Doctor, but the tone
of this episode was all over the place. It worked best in the moments when the
Doctor was showing us his dark side. There were moments where he felt a bit
like Fourth Doctor to me — dismissive of humans, yet still protective of them.
I would like to see more of that and less of the puppy-dog stuff we got toward
the end of the episode. But I like the moral ambiguity of the character and
hope we get more of that.

-Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are always welcome, and they held this episode
together from my standpoint — especially Vastra, one
of the few female characters Moffat writes well. (Possibly because there’s no
male-female sexual dynamic there, as she is a lesbian and also a reptile?
Discuss.) I will say, however, that Strax’s humor is
starting to fall a little flat for me. There are only so many times the “all
Earth creatures look the same to me” thing will be funny. But I did enjoy him beaning Clara with that newspaper. I also wonder if Moffat
used the trio as a kind of crutch here, because if it was just Clara and the
new Doctor, I don’t think this episode would have worked at all in terms of
audience buy-in. Which brings me to…

WHAT HAS POTENTIAL:

-Clara. Going into this episode I hated Clara. Well, not
hated. I was frustrated by her because she’s such a dud
of a companion. Jenna Coleman is lovely, and the acting has been passable at
least. But there’s no character there. Once the mystery surrounding Clara was
resolved at the end of S7, we were left with, basically, a very cute girl who
was often chipper but then sometimes cries. Seriously, if you had to describe
Clara’s personality, how would you do it? There’s just no “there” there.
Thankfully she got some meat put on to her character bones this episode, even
if it seems a bit revisionist. Clara is now apparently an egomaniac and a
control freak. I don’t recall that being the case prior to this, but hey, I’ll
take anything I can latch on to.

I was also glad to see her show some gumption this episode. This
was the most interested I’ve been in Clara since she was Oswin
in “Asylum of the Daleks.” That said, after nearly a
dozen episodes with her, she’s right down there with Martha as the least
interesting of the modern companions. So I’m not all that upset to hear that
Coleman’s leaving at the end of the season. Because even as the Doctor was
asking for her help, I found myself extremely dubious that this mature,
complicated man would really want to have this — forgive me — basic girl
zipping around time and space with him. The pairing just doesn’t make sense to
me. But she did grow on me this episode.

-The new TARDIS and the new intro look pretty enough
(apparently the new intro was based off of a fan-made one?), although feel a
little soulless. But we spent barely any time in the TARDIS this episode, so
I’ll have to see more before I decide. I do dig the Doctor’s new duds, and am
fascinated by the fact that he’s not overly attached to his sonic screwdriver.
I can only recall him using it once or twice this episode. Clara used it more
than he did. And it’s notable that he’s never using it in any of the promo
materials.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

-The broad humor fell flat almost every time, especially
when Capaldi was supposed to be handling it. I’m sure
he’s a funny guy, and god knows he can let out a stream of insults that will
curdle your innards. But he’s just not the right actor for the sillier moments
called for this episode. What would have worked with Tennant or Smith seemed
painfully awkward here, and I hope that Moffat and the writers recognize that
and stop trying to force it. Different actor, different
Doctor.Time for a different approach.

-Speaking of time for a different approach…how much longer
with Mr. Moffat be running this show? Listen, he’s had
a good run. He has contributed many great elements to the “Who”
canon and he’s written some crackling episodes with iconic moments. But his
flaws as a writer (and we all have them) have become more and more evident, and
he doesn’t seem to be interested in hiding them, or in progressing creatively.
This episode’s plot was classic Moffat: overly complicated, silly on the face
of it (a hot-air balloon…made of human flesh), a specific tension-building
gimmick (“Don’t blink!” “Deep breath!”), and everything was fixed tidy-widy with a deeply felt speech and one action. There’s a
word, “contrivance.” It can be both a compliment or an
insult. With Mr. Moffat, I used to apply it positively. I haven’t done so in a
very long time.

As I said in the beginning, first episodes for new Doctors
are always a bit of a mess. The audience doesn’t yet know its lead character.
The lead character doesn’t himself. The companion is
terribly confused, and sometimes even feels betrayed (Clara had good reason to
at various points this episode). I left the episode without a firm grasp on Capaldi’s Doctor, but eager to know more about him. What
did you think?

This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2014.