It's Midnight! - The Deep Breath Review

Now after 10 months of waiting (and for yours truly four month of waiting, schooling and working) we finally get to usher in Peter Capaldi's reign as the 12th Doctor. We kick off the new era with the premiere episode Deep Breath. The episode begins in Victorian London where we find its citizens and the overused Paternoster Gang (Strax, Vashtra and Jenny Flint) witness a T-Rex wandering about only to spit out a certain blue box launged in its throat. The trio went to the TARDIS only to run into a silver haired man with a chilling glare instead of a fresh faced young man and Clara still in shock about the regeneration she witness. However, things take a turn when the newly regenerated Doctor investigates who brought the Dinosaur in to the time perior and why they killed it. So how does this new Doctor debut fair compared to the previous?

The Good:

• Peter Capaldi- Right from him popping his head through the TARDIS doors is fantastic. Like the first three before him you know he's not human but still passionate when injustice is caused. Plus his costume is sublime and I can expect many a cosplay (and the risks of buying 800 pound Crombie coat
• The new titles based on the fanmade YouTube video that caught the BBC's eye
• Strax throwing the newspaper at Clara's head. Gif, anyone?
• Cyan, no more! After seven years,  they've finally chose a different color for the console core.
• The showdown between 12th and the Clockwork Robot
• The new theme music
• Clara being assured via phone by 11th (cameo by Matt Smith) that he's still the same man; only he's not the hugging type. Jenna Coleman really acted her butt off here to where the scene feels stronger than Rose coming to terms with 10th back in the Christmasn Invasion
• The Nethersphere arc does seem to be the main arc for the season plus the mystery of its Gatekeeper Missy (Michelle Gomez)

The Bad:

• Clara's struggling with coming to terms with the regenerations and missing 11th; the most glaring plot hole ever have seen the last ten faces prior to him (ignoring the two unnecessaries who shant be named). It was like Moffat made her a soundbite of the multiple Tumblrs who express their ageism toward our new Doctor for not being younger.
• The worn out welcome of the Paternoster Gang. The novelty pretty much started to wear thin beginning with The Crimson Horror and still does here. Plus the fight scene was naff to where it really should've been trimmed down considerably. Try as he might with them, Steven Moffat will never get the trio a spin-off
• No middle 8 in the theme until the next live performance at Proms (again!)
• The T-Rex now predating the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs
• The following words "boyfriend" and "husband" should be banned.
• "Clara the egomaniac" running gag mid-way

Bottom Line: Deep Breath on its own stands up with a now darker Doctor and beginning a new arc that's not rewriting time and and having our hero chase his own tail throughout his entire existence in the process. However, it suffers from extra screentime for the Paternoster Gang to where it feels more like a backdoor pilot to a spin-off rather than a new Doctor debut story with the leads as the guest star. Maybe this will be the last time we have the trio turn up again. Then again, this is Steven Moffat.

6/10 Jelly Babies

DISCLAIMER: No dinosaur was harmed during the making of this episode