Deep Breath -- Reactions

[earlgreytea68]

Gah! I no longer have appropriate icons for this!! So have Matt Smith, he's the most appropriate I've got.

• I'll start the beginning and say: I loooooooved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I no longer feel the depths of fannish passion I used to feel for Doctor Who, but I watch a LOT of TV and there is really no other show that makes me laugh and smile and cry so readily as Doctor Who. There are just very few shows, I think, with such unabashed *heart.* And, I don't know, I dread Moffat's plots but as a writer who struggles with plots I feel for him and he writes some of the best dialogue ever, I think, witty and fun and I laughed so hard at parts of this episode I had to rewind because I missed the next point. And I said to a friend that it felt very Sherlockian and maybe I loved it so much because maybe I can pretend that somehow "Deep Breath" is the end of S3 of Sherlock and not HLV because I am still in perplexed denial about HLV but yeah, the fact that it felt Sherlockian actually isn't a drawback to me, as, again, a writer who feels like she also writes the same characters over and over and over and over (sometimes literally, in all the Sherlock AUs I keep restarting -- which is why I have thinky thoughts about writing Arthur and Eames because they feel out of my mold to me or have I just taken them and stuck them into my mold? I DIGRESS SO FAR OFF THE POINT)--


• Which is, I loved it.


• I actually didn't love Twelve. Not at the beginning. I really thought I would, as I have loved Peter Capaldi in so many things, but at the beginning I felt like I couldn't get a handle on what they were doing with Twelve and how they wanted me to feel about him. I've gone through several regenerations now, and this one was the rockiest for me, but he had completely won me over by the end. I was basically Clara for this entire episode.


• Which was one of the great pleasant surprises of this episode. I have always liked Clara -- I said at one point I thought Brem and Clara would get along well, which is the highest praise I can give someone, frankly -- but I *loved* her in this episode. Absolutely adored her. I thought it was the strongest Clara episode ever. She was awesome on her own with the crazy clockwork things after the Doctor took off. Was some of it because Clara was my familiar face now because the Doctor was so brand new? I don't know. I never felt like Jenna Coleman didn't have chemistry with Matt Smith -- although I never, ever understood everyone who thought, I don't know, that it was inappropriately shippy? or whatever? I never shipped them. But I thought Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi had spectacular chemistry together. That scene between them in the restaurant was the turning point of the episode for me, sold me on everything that might come in this season. In a weird way for a show that got all defensive about inappropriate shippiness in the TARDIS, I could see Clara and Twelve working together way better than I ever could with Eleven, who was basically just a Labrador puppy in a bow tie (and I *loved* that Labrador puppy. But still), and if that makes me inappropriate, well, I guess it's not the first time.


• We start with a dinosaur in London and at first I was like, "OH TEH NOES!!!1!! CALL IN THE PRIMEVAL TEAM!!!" Guys, remember that terrible show? Why did I watch that terrible show? <--life mysteries that can't be answered


• I love how DW has basically become "a few filler episodes and then we go back and hang out with Madame Vastra and Jenny and Strax BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME." I am, like, totally okay with this development. I just adore those three SO MUCH. And I really love the idea that the basis for ACD's Holmes and Watson mysteries was actually a lesbian - half-lizard couple that he turned into Holmes and Watson and then a century or so later we ended up with a 21st-century version of them and endless debate about the nature of their relationship and the writer of the 21st-century version decides to answer that debate by saying, "GUYS, THEY WERE ALIEN LESBIAN LOVERS AND LET'S BE DONE WITH IT," and there is some kind of weird performance art genius to me about that, like, I don't know, I'm doing a terrible job articulating it, but yeah.


• "Your grasp of biology troubles me." First great line of the episode and I laughed so hard. The delivery was perfect.


• I think the thing that threw me off at the beginning of the episode was Clara being like, "Hey, this doesn't seem like the Doctor's, like, totally with it, you know? Can we get the normal Doctor back who knew who I was and wasn't mean to me?" and Madame Vastra is like, "You're right, he's not with it, but let's have a weird conversation where I accuse you of being upset because you're shallow and not because, like, it's a difficult concept to get that your friend just changed so much without bothering to prepare you for it AS USUAL." I mean, I know it was trying to address all the comments about attractive people in the TARDIS and whatever else, but it was weird and clunky as I never really thought Clara was especially shallow or attracted to the Doctor???? I did like that Jenny raised criticism of Madame Vastra's treatment of Jenny during Madame Vastra's judgey preachy criticism of Clara. Like, "Yeah, Madame Vastra, maybe you should stop throwing stones from your glass house, nobody is perfect." And I did love Clara's put-down of Madame Vastra, like, "Maybe YOU'RE the shallow one." But I guess I just didn't follow what was supposed to be going on in that whole scene. I just didn't feel like the episode clicked into a rhythm until later. I could have done without that entire scene and I think the episode would have been better for it.


• And then, like, when they're going to the river because the dinosaur is dying, Clara is like, "Shouldn't we have told the Doctor?" and Jenny's like, "Nope, he's not ready to leave his bed." And then they get to the river and the Doctor's already there and Clara's like, "What the heck is the Doctor doing here?" and Madame Vastra's like, "Duh, idiot human, where else would he be?" I wanted Clara to be like, "...Did I not just ask if he should be here and your wife said no and you didn't contradict her?" Like, I felt like people were just trying to gaslight Clara at the beginning or something, like everything was just an elaborate test of Clara.


• I actually thought the whole first Doctor scene was weird and clunky. Like, the Doctor leaped around spouting nonsense for a while and then Clara says, "Hey, the Doctor's regenerated," and everyone's like, "Ohhhhh," but I was like, "...Well, surely you'd already reached that conclusion during the entire weird conversation that happened before this??" And, I don't know, everyone kept saying it was still the Doctor, the way, you know, happens in regeneration episodes, but Eleven started fresh with everyone so it didn't seem as jarring to me, maybe? But I was with Clara, really missing the Doctor, until I finally felt like I found him in there again.


• "You're very similar heights. You should wear labels." <--Basically how I feel about people.


• "Don't look in that mirror. It's absolutely furious."


• I loved all the Scottish stuff. Loved all of it.


• Strax is basically the best. He just cracks me up. "Don't get it scratched, or you and all your bloodline will be obliterated from time and space." / "We will melt him with acid." / "You look better now you're up." "Thanks, Strax!" "No, trick of the light, you still look terrible." / "By now he's most certainly had his throat cut by the violent poor." If I had household staff, I feel like I would want him to be Strax.


• I liked the revisiting of The Girl in the Fireplace, which has always been an episode I kind of like. I actually thought it was kind of a genius idea to bring back for a regeneration episode. Like, the whole finding-new-parts theme really fit really nicely in an obvious way that I had never thought about before, and I liked how it kind of took all the criticism of Clara having issues with the whole thing and was kind of like, "You know, it is a weird and tricky thing, when you replace so much of yourself and you have to wonder how much of you is left." I like that they raised it explicitly, because it is always so interesting to me how the Doctor stays the same Doctor except for the ways in which he is absolutely not the same Doctor, in a weird tightrope way that works on this show


• "Door--boring, not me."


• "Superlative bass guitarist. The Doctor really knows how to put a band together." I want this episode. Badly.


• "I brought you along by accident. That's mostly how I meet girls." I laughed *so hard* at that line. So hard. Oh, Doctor. You're such a ridiculous idiot.


• So I like that they really went for it with the fact that Peter Capaldi had been on DW before, but I'm not thrilled with the implication it's going to be some kind of season-long arc about the meaningfulness of why he chose that face and what he's trying to tell himself? But I did adore the entire eyebrow rant.


• "You ever look in the mirror and think, I've seen that face before?" "Yes." "When?" "Every time I look in the mirror." "Oh. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Good point."


• I loved the scene where Jenny thought Madame Vastra was painting her but she was putting together a crime scene board. THAT SCENE COULD HAVE COME STRAIGHT FROM SHERLOCK. IT SHOULD ALREADY BE IN SHERLOCK FANFICTION.


• The restaurant scene is where I fell in love with Twelve and never went back. And where I fell in love with Twelve and Clara together. That scene is genius in every way. Every. Way. A friend said that Moffat has a good feel for restaurant scenes, generally, because they have to be character scenes, dialogue scenes, there has to be a pause in the plot, and it's true that Moffat is just best when everyone's talking and the plot can take a backseat. That scene is HILARIOUS. And, weirdly, I think it's Jenna Coleman who especially knocks it out of the park. Her line deliveries in that scene consistently slay me. And they play off of each other *so* *well.* It is such a lovely, perfect scene.


• The "egomaniac, needy, game-player sort of person" exchange is literally my favorite thing in the episode. My. Favorite. Thing. "Nothing is more important than my egomania." "Right, you actually said that." "You never mention that again!" THE BEST. MY FAVORITE LINES.


• "I'm trying to measure the air disturbance in the room." "Right, moments when you know you are boring."


• "It's at times like this I miss Amy." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.


• "Sure, not sure, one or the other."


• "Destroy us if you will, we're still going to close your restaurant. ...That was going to sound better."


• "I've got the horrible feeling I'm going to have to kill you." I *loved* the entire last confrontation scene with the clockwork guy. Loved it. I'd been sold on Twelve with Clara, but this was the scene that sold me on Twelve independently, when I finally started to feel like I was understanding where they were going with him (and that I liked it). And I love that we don't know whether the guy jumped or was pushed at the end. Love it.


• A balloon made of skin. So gross.


• I love how Madame Vastra acts--AGAIN--like Clara is an idiot for being worried that the Doctor won't be back. Because, like, he messes up where the TARDIS goes all. the. time. He damaged a little girl's psyche last time by getting his return way off. So I don't think Clara is unreasonable, and actually, now that I've finished writing up my thoughts, my main issue with this episode is that I don't think I understand Madame Vastra and her weird, contradictory attitude toward Clara and the Doctor. But I guess that's a problem to reserve for the next time she shows up!


• I guess I'd forgotten that we never resolved the issue of the woman in the shop who gave Clara the Doctor's number?


• So I was having a hard time with the new Doctor and all and then Eleven showed up to say good-bye and it turned out I really weirdly needed that? Like, I felt *better* after hearing from him again. And then Twelve and Clara have that lovely scene where Twelve asks her to see him and I basically felt my heart break for him, poor Doctor. I really, really needed that scene. It bonded us together. AND THEN HE SUGGESTS CHIPS. OH MY GOD.


• When you have facial recognition issues, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether or not you are supposed to know the people on the screen. So, in the very last scene, I spent a LONG time trying to figure out how we knew Missy. And I've come to the conclusion that: we don't. Right? It's the season-long arc?

Comments

[kedgeree11.livejournal.com]

Enjoyed your write-up, particularly because it's nice to see someone else taking some enjoyment in the new episode! I liked it very much, overall, and although I certainly appreciate a critical eye (I think your view of Moffat's strengths/weaknesses is accurate), I'm also a little weary of some of the sourpussness the show has been getting. It's lovely to see some (non-blind) enthusiasm.

And, please, ALL THE VASTRA/JENNY. I will also never get tired of any incarnation of these characters! I find their relationship quite...fulfilling. Now if only we could get Mrs. Hudson to think a bit more like Strax. ;-)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I admit that sometimes I do feel a bit like I'm the only person watching this show who still likes it! I'm always so happy when someone else drops by to squee! :-)

So many thoughts, in no particular order:

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

First, I also really liked it. Which is somewhat of a surprise, because I've had some big disappoints from the Moffat years. I like his ideas, I just don't like his execution of them. I thought the Christmas Special was terrible because it just handwaved away so much important stuff.

Maybe this episode is good because we are being introduced to mysteries, and we aren't getting disappointed about their conclusion.

(for example: is Missy a Dalek/Cyberman robot mole plant or something? that would be boring)

I liked the episode as far as the pacing, dialog, action and the characterization of Twelve and Clara went. I like that Clara actually got to have a scene where she did something/said something.

One thing that confused me: Clara being so shocked when the Doctor had changed, because she was the only companion who actually had met the Doctor in all his previous regenerations. She should be comfortable with the idea that he is someone else. Nevertheless, when he said at the end that it hurts him to see her look at him and not realize he is the same person...I certainly felt it.

I also don't know which one was lying about their core programming.

Re: So many thoughts, in no particular order:

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have no idea what to make of the Missy thing. People have some ideas about it. I haven't read all of them, but yeah...

I think it wasn't so much the idea of regeneration that shocked Clara, it was what he was initially like afterward. I don't know, I get regenerations and have been through them and I still found it jarring, and for Clara it's her friend not even remembering her name, and in fact not really even remembering *her,* and I think she just wasn't prepared to deal with it in that way. I don't know.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I'm glad someone loved it. There were bits and pieces I really enjoyed, but put together, to me, it felt disjointed, and your review touched on a lot of the issues I had issues with. There was an awful lot of speech making, and the whole slew of them combined took away from the emotional weight of any one of them individually. In short, I feel like way too much was filler to detract one from a dodgy plot, multiple plot-holes, and a sketchy season arc. Good stuff, but in need of an editor. A few tweaks and it could have been GREAT stuff. If you hold this up to The Christmas Invasion, you can see similar ingredients, but two radically different souffles. And IMHO Moff's fell flat just before it came out of the oven.

But Capaldi? Knocked it out of the park once he got going, and yeah, the restaurant scene made the episode. It took ages for Matt to find "his" Doctor and for me to buy him as Doctor. Capaldi has apparently already found his.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I think I feel a little bit about it the way I feel about my own baking: I may not get it entirely right, but eh, it's mostly butter and sugar so it should be okay! ;-)

heh the "Mancini Family Restaurant" nod to SH

[(Anonymous)]

Was Mancini not the name of the restaurant where Sherlock Holmes took Dr. Watson to eat from time to time?

Re: heh the "Mancini Family Restaurant" nod to SH

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

...Wait, is it? I always just refer to it as Angelo's in my head, I admit.

[xebgoc.livejournal.com]

I agree with nearly everything you said... I enjoyed it a lot. At first I was a bit 'How could Clara be so freaked by his regeneration? she's the only one of his companions who actually knew about regeneration before it happened' but I think she's basically in shock.

as for your reaction to the bedroom scene... What we forget, a bit, I think is that every one of the Doctors - going back to at least Four (who went in and out of the TARDIS about 10 times with different costumes on before deciding on what he wore) - do weird wacky stuff when they regenerate. How is what he did in the bedroom any different to Eleven spitting food out in Amelia's kitchen or Ten coming out an talking non-stop at Jackie and Mickey before collapsing?

The replacement parts thing with the clockwork droids (and maybe a bit from The Doctor's Wife?) was brilliant (I am one of the few who liked Girl in the Fireplace)

I LOVED the phone conversation with ELeven/Twelve and the chips. OMG! Chips!

I thought at first that Missy was the woman in the xmas epsiode, but it's a different actor. I read somewhere that some people think she might be a crazy TARDIS persona - now I'm wondering if she's crazy HOUSE from The DOctor's Wife?

all that being said, there were definitely parts of it that were a bit of a hot mess - maybe it was just that there was a bit too much crammed in and not tied together entirely (though that probably means those elements are to be carried throughout the season).

But I do think Peter Capaldi was *brilliant* and Jenna Coleman was great too.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it was shock. I think she probably would have handled it much better if he'd seemed to remember her and stuff? I feel like it's one thing to know objectively that he regenerates and another thing to have your friend look at you and not know who you are, you know?

And actually I loved the bedroom scene, it was the scene when the Doctor first stumbled out of the TARDIS that I found weird. And not really how the Doctor was behaving but how everyone else around him was behaving. Which I guess was necessary to let him have the showcase, but it seemed weird to me.

Oooh, Doctor's Wife! Another good callback!

CHIPS. The chips reference was the best!

Hmm, a TARDIS persona. That would be interesting!

But yeah, there's always a bit that's a hot mess. :-)

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

There is alot of viewpoints that i generally agree with here.I am much more sympathetic to the episode and already beginning to love the new Doctor. I am glad to see Clara have more input. may this continue too.

[fuzzyboo03.livejournal.com]

Aww, I have prosopagnosia too!

I don't know, I haven't bought into 12 entirely yet. I'm trying, but 11 was my Doctor, and it's really hard to let him go. I thought the hug at the end was brilliant though, especially as someone who also doesn't really do hugging.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Solidarity!

I kind of love the idea of not having a huggy Doctor. It'll be a change of pace!

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

I was puzzled by Vastra until I began to see her as the equivalent to a slap in the face for Clara. As she kept "slapping" there had to come a point where Clara was willing to say "ENOUGH!" and when she had that moment and Vastra was pleased I thought, "Ah, I may have caught the drift there."

I do love Vastra and Jenny. The portrait painting scene was simply lovely. We rarely get to see Jenny being really feminine and I could appreciate that Vastra had her posing in such a pretty way and yes I saw John doing that with Sherlock without a glitch in my programming.

I think we were supposed to be Clara. We had her doubts and hesitations about Capaldi. By the time Smith appeared to help her over the last hump Capaldi had been allowed to make some damn freaking sense and appeared very vulnerable which I could equate with Smith.

I spent the episode amazed that I am older than Capaldi and look to be half his age. This is not vanity on my part since I am a woman who carries extra weight but damn, he has convinced me it is possible to be too slim and look withered.

I do love his Scottishness. I have several grumbling,complaining Scottish curmudgeon friends and I saw them in him right away.

I can do go with this pair.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I could see that, that Vastra was just really pushing at Clara.

Love Vastra and Jenny. Love how the love between them is palpable.

Yeah, I feel like this episode did a really good job of putting me in the companion's position. I really felt what Clara was feeling.

Hee! Scottish curmudgeons! :-)

[editrx.livejournal.com]

I was pretty sure I was going to like Capaldi's Doctor, and I LOVED it (though I agree that first scene was clunky -- I'm sure there's a story there, like everyone being hungover or something...).

"I'm going to blame it on the English."

I so want Vastra & Co. to be a spinoff show. I want it like fire.

Bother, now I need a 12 icon.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE BEING HUNGOVER. I WANT TO HEAR THIS STORY. ;-)

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I was SO looking forward to this, and it didn't let me down.

I seem to be alone in my opinion that the "you can't see me" speech was overdone and really unsubtle, but at the same time it brought tears to my eyes so there you go. I think anyone who had any hesitation over Peter Capaldi would have been won over - even a little bit - by that speech.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I think it was a bit much? But I also think that, if you were hesitating about Twelve--as I was for a bit--it really, really pushed you over the edge, you know?

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I wasn't hesitating over Twelve, I was actually looking forward to him as I like Peter Capaldi. That speech was designed to push hesitaters (is that a word? *g*) over the edge and I believe it did its job, albeit heavy-handedly.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Was it just me or did anyone else think of the first ever Futurama episode when Strax was examining Clara? There was more than a touch of the Zoidberg about him there, and that makes me happy.

I think Moffat is really trying to deal with the criticisms of the way he writes women here. Not sure he's completely succeeded but he's getting there. One thing I notice about Moff is that he very rudely rejects crit in public but often seems to have taken it on board later on, whereas it seemed to harden RTD's determination to go his own way.

The Matt Smith phone call left me utterly unmoved, since I never liked him much. Had that been Tennant, I would probably still be sobbing.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I do have to say, in all honesty, I actually think sometimes Moffat listens to his critics *too* much. Like, all that boyfriend stuff seemed to me honestly a defensive sort of "No hanky panky on the TARDIS! I swear it!" move, and sometimes I just want to be like, "Ugh, just move on, you'll never please all of the people all of the time."

I did like Eleven, but I was surprised by how much I missed him during that phone call. I felt Matt and Jenna both did a good job of letting the viewers say good-bye and move on fresh. I don't know, I didn't realize how much I'd needed that until that moment.

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

I was settling down to type up my thoughts about the new ep (which I saw in the cinema on Monday - DW on the big screen... with bonus Strax intro...WHOO HOOO!!)

Only, I read your post first and you literally hit everything I would have said! Which means I get to skip typing up a long reaction post and just reply to you and say how much I agree with you!

*grin*

I *loved* that last scene with Twelve and Clara, where the Doctor basically begs Clara to "just see me." And how uncomfortable he is when she hugs him.

Oh! And CLARA gets to complain about the redecoration of the TARDIS! I cracked up so much! Harks right back to when Two complained about Three's TARDIS!

Can't wait for the next episode!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is so awesome that you got to see it in the theater!!