Doctor Who Season 8 “Deep Breath” Recap

The Tardis has landed for a brand-new Doctor and brand-new season of “Doctor Who”! Last night, Peter Capaldi appeared as the twelfth Doctor in the much anticipated season eight premiere. Of course, there’s never a dull day in the life of the Doctor, even when he’s fresh off of a regeneration and still suffering from some post-regeneration loopiness. So how do you start off the new season with a bang? A T-rex marching through Victorian-era London seems like a good start. At the beginning of the episode, we immediately get to see the Doctor’s old friends Strax, Vastia and Jenny (who have finally gotten married and are all into the flirtatious interspecies-lesbian-newlyweds banter, like you do), and out of the dinosaur’s mouth pops the Tardis, with a frazzled Clara and Doctor in tow. The Doctor emerges—wrinkled, gray hair and all—disoriented and with a cranky demeanor (“Planet of the pudding brains,” he scoffs at one point, appalled at the stupidity of humans) to match his grizzled look. As the Doctor slips in and out of consciousness and wanders about in a cloud of confusion, Clara struggles with the idea of facing this new—or, to be exact, old—Doctor. The usually sprightly and upbeat Clara is noticeably thrown by the twelfth Doctor (who, by the way, also sports a Scottish accent that would make Amy Pond smile) but gets chewed out by Vastra regarding her superficial reaction to and judgement of the new Doctor, to which Clara responds with a defensive verbal bitch-slap. Oh, and …