And the Doctor has officially landed!
OK, I'll say this right off the bat: This is not better than The Eleventh Hour, or the classic Spearhead from Space. It is, however, pretty high on the list of post-regeneration stories, at third place in fact - fourth if we were to count Rose as such a story.
Capaldi really is the most confused of the Doctors after regeneration, that we've seen in a while. Since War's retroactive birth, all the Doctors had minor if any difficulties adjusting, 10 being the more obvious case against it - but then again, he was only confused because the Time Vortex energy that he absorbed from Rose was kicking in and that made him physically exhausted. Here, the Twelfth Doctor is seriously worried about his nature, whether he's a good or bad influence and I suspect thats because he's essentially a rebooted version of himself that he worries that, maybe, he rebooted himself too much. This is, until told otherwise, a whole new line of Doctors that begins here. I love how Capaldi is slighly acting like the Eleventh when he sees that Dinosaur in Victorian London, and then slowly settles in, personality-wise. He really does have a different gravitas from the get-go, and is far more serious than any Doctor since, well, the Sixth.
Anyway, I thought it was a solid episode, although it was a bit too long in the beginning. However, I like that there was some effort to make scenes have an actual pace instead of it being fast-paced all the time. I liked the villain, liked the direction a lot, and certainly enjoyed the ending(s) a lot. And while I do not like the Paternoster gang in general, they kinda worked in the story more than often, even though I fear this might be yet another pilot to a show about them.
And yes, I did not like Clara's characterization. At least, not as presented. The common problem with Clara has always been, that she has no discernible or specific personality, changing from episode to episode depending on the writer. Thus the character lacks any internal continuity, because she's never been as obviously standing out as companions of the past have, like Amy and Rory, obviously. As such, Moffat's way of using her character to channel the young fan-girls and prompt them to keep watching the show because, even if he now does look like an old man, he's still the same as before, is slightly, if not entirely baffling. I don't mind that she's having a bit of problem adjusting to the new Doctor - he changed before her eyes, thats expected, shock and everything. However, the level with which she treats him throughtout is just astonishingly annoying. Particularly at the end, and you all know what I mean there. If she hadn't just met two of the Doctor's past incarnations, or met all of them through her split personalities in the Doctor's timeline before, I'd be more forgiving. But she did. Thus, her behaviour in this is totally inexcusible.
Despite this, I really enjoyed it. I've seen the rough, B&W cut six weeks ago, but I didn't say anything as not to spoil anything. However seeing this now, I enjoyed it a tad more. Capaldi's Doctor, admitteldy, takes a bit getting used to, especially after the spontaneity of Doctors 9-11. However, I am confident that he find his fans, very soon, and I am hoping that most NuWho will equally accept him.
And thus a new era of Who is ushered.
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