Do NOT Read If You Haven't Seen Last Night's Episode Yet.
If You Have, Read On.
Right.. if you've read this far you've seen it; if you haven't why are you still reading? Oh well, I did try to warn you..
I've seen mixed reviews for the opener of series 8 and Peter Capaldi's first outing as The Doctor, inevitable really as he is the first doctor to break the 50 year old tradition of every successive actor to be younger than the last. Some who may have liked the eye candy of Eccleston, Tennant and Smith might baulk at an older actor, but frankly that's hard luck. Deal with it. It's the character that is important not what he looks like.
Capaldi brought a gravitas and depth to the role which I think has been missing. That's not in any way to denigrate the above named, but he brought his experience and, yes, age to bear in an extremely powerful performance, giving in my view a superb performance as someone who - unaccountably for someone to whom it had happened 11 times before - was struggling to cope with the new face and person he had transformed into, a kind of multiple personality disorder as his brain seemed to think he was the previous incarnation, but the evidence of his eyes told him something different.
Jenna Coleman was superb as Clara, and her reaction to the change in the Doctor was extremely well portrayed. In her own way Clara too seemed to be conflicted but in her case with her mind telling her he was the same inside but another part of her believing her eyes that he was a different person.
Neither seemed able to reconcile the conflicting evidence before them.
Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra played the part in this episode very much in the mould of Irene Adler as portrayed in the Carole Nelson Douglas books, that of essentially a female Sherlock Holmes, complete with companion, Jenny Flint played by Catrin Stewart. With respect to their portrayals I am going to stick my neck out and say I don't see what people are whining about with Moffat's alleged attitude to women. What attitude? IMHO he is to be commended for not sticking to the tired old 'acceptable to polite society' conventions. Not only that Clara was a well rounded complex character with depths yet to be plumbed.
Strax.. now I have read complaints about Strax and again I am going to stick my neck out and disagree absolutely with them. Peter Capaldi brought, as detailed above, a dark gravitas to the role and if the episode had concentrated solely on that it could in my view have become too dark. Any successful drama needs variation, 'light and dark' is I think the term the industry uses. Strax for me sat in the same role as Dobby the House Elf in the Harry Potter series. While having his own serious side, he provided the occasional much needed light relief, both by himself and with his behaviour giving other characters the opportunity to react in, what for the viewer was, a humorous manner.
All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable and well crafted episode. The ending scene was superbly well done, even if the plot device of a character calling from the past was not new - I saw it a week or so ago rewatching Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure on DVD. The fact of a plot device not being new does not detract in any way from its implementation, it's a tool in the script writer's box, and it's how it's used that is important, and in this case it was extremely well done.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next episode!
