Strange episode. The dinosaur was just a minor curiosity in the story. The real story was something completely different.
It was nice seeing the companion question whether she still wanted to travel with this Doctor. He is so much different that it’s like she’s with a stranger in the Tardis.
So far, I’ve only found three of the leaked preview episodes. Is their a fourth one out there?
The ones I found have Preair in the filename and are black and white. It’s cool seeing them without the CGI.
Yes, and sorry.
Wow, I have two different Usenet servers and accounts. I haven’t seen the 4th preair listed. I’ll keep searching with google then.
Never mind. It was posted a few hours ago under a odd name. Preair wasn’t in the title. Odd this one wasn’t named like the other three.
I was all prepared for a grim and dark Doctor, so I appreciated the humor. And I loved Clara driving the action, and Jenna Coleman getting to show her chops. The veil scene, with Madame Vastra, I really enjoyed - it seemed to hint at Vastra’s … well, can’t really say “alienness”, since the Silurians were here before us naked apes showed up - her non-humanness. She is an interesting character (and a good actress) that I’d love to see further developed.
I don’t love Capaldi yet, but that’s just because he’s new - I was shaky on Smith for a few eps, too. But his Doctor will be compelling, I think. And I’m glad to see the romantic tension subtracted from the Doctor - companion relationship.
All in all, a promising start.
Capaldi seems to be channeling a teacher. Writing on a blackboard constantly, and posing questions out loud. Maybe they need to call him The Teacher instead. LOL
I’ll go with that. The first episode for each Doctor seems to be him trying to find himself…so most of our impression is based on the search, not on the character he will become.
I did like the Matt Smith scene. That was unexpected.
Some Good News: The Gallifrey Base forum is still up and running. These long Doctor Who hiatus haven’t been doing their membership much good. They’re buzzing over there tonight talking about this first episode.
Question
Was I supposed to recognize the lady and the garden at the end when the android woke up? And what was with the reference to the Queen Mary? I admit I’ve missed some episodes so perhaps these are stupid questions.
David Tennant’s episode Girl in a Fireplace? I think there’s connections between that episode and this one.
I don’t know if it was deliberate or just a similar story. It was written by Steven Moffat. I’d strongly suspect there’s a connection.
I think that she will be a season’s villain just being introduced.
I like the parallel themes with contrasting answers presented:
The Doctor posing the Ship of Theseus identity issue with the cyborg, and stating that the broom is no longer the broom even though you can still sweep the floor with it, as we deal with The Doctor yet again changing, personality and all parts and us (and eventually Clara) accepting that he is still The Doctor even though all parts and personality bits have been similarly changed out similarly multiple times.
Also, why did he choose that face, the face of the character Capaldi previously played in the Pompei episode? What message is he allegedly trying to send himself?
And have we seen the cyborg before? The Doctor seems to vaguely recall …
I think she’s just this season’s Big Bad. I don’t recall a Queen Mary reference, as such. However, the ship was the SS Marie Antoinette, sister ship of the SS Madame De Pompadour, featured in The Girl in the Fireplace, Series 2, Episode 4. See it before the Doctor remembers.
And by the way, I resent Clara calling him old, as Capaldi is several years younger than I.
Yes, that’s the solid connection. The automata for this episode clearly resemble those (though they had glass housings for their noggins). Also, the name of the ship was explicitly shown at the end of that episode.
(I’ve left the spoilers boxed in the quote, but we’re past zero hour now so I left my comments unboxed.)
By the way, why does Moffat like to kill dinosaurs? Did he have a troubled childhood or something?
You are of course correct and I’m quite impressed with your memory 
I liked the new episode. It did a good job of introducing the new Doctor, we got to find out who he is as he found that out himself. He’s certainly something different from Ten and Eleven, more alien. He also seems more grown-up.Maybe because (old spoiler) He knows how the Last Great Time War really ended
We got to see Clara as more than just… I’m not sure how to say this, maybe more than she was before? More… Clara-ness? More of who she really is, maybe more of who she can be. She reveals more of her true potential, I guess.
I liked the new intro sequence, it was different enough to show that this is a new Doctor and similar enough that it can be recognized as Doctor Who. I have to admit I threw my hand up and shouted ‘YEAH!’ when then new Doctor’s face showed up in it :D.
All in all I say it was a promising start.
SPOILERS AHOY, BE WARNED!
Now on to the specifics! No spoiler boxes because the West has seen it!
Yes, the clockwork ‘robots’ using human parts is a connection to ‘The Girl in the Fireplace.’ (Although my first thought upon hearing the phrase “spare parts,” was “CYBERMEN!”) I don’t know who the woman at the end in ‘paradise’ was I’m pretty sure she’s a big bad. And I know who I want the big bad to be. The Doctor has had three big bads that have have troubled him since before I was born: the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master. It has been established that Time Lords can change gender during regeneration and “listen (one-two-three-four).” Maybe the Master is now the Mistress. Or maybe the mysterious woman is the Master’s creature. It’s thin, I know, but I want the Master to be back. I want the Master and the Doctor to have a long, protracted cat-and-mouse game.
And to anyone who’s seen the leaked episodes, all I have to say is, “DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING! DON’T TELL ME IF I’M WRONG! DON’T TELL ME IF I’M RIGHT! DON’T TELL ME THAT I’M UP OR DOWN OR SIDEWAYS, FOR THE LOVE OF OG, KEEP YOUR SILENCE. Also I’m sorry for the yelling, but I wanted to make sure that you heard me.”
Some thoughts on the new aliens:
I found them to be a blend of three past monsters - the aforementioned clockwork guys from the Girl in the Fireplace; the Cybermen in reverse (instead of a human to robot transition, it’s robot to human); and the Weeping Angels, because evading them relies on suppressing a natural, necessary instinct (with the Angels blinking, with these guys breathing).
Oh, and points for
the human skin hot air balloon. A perfect mix of horrific and cool. I’m pretty sure skin is much too porous to contain helium, but on second thought, that’s a hypothesis I’d rather not test . . .
I was a bit annoyed with the
Ship of Theseus question, because I thought it didn’t really apply in this situation. You can see from looking inside their heads that they don’t have human brains; their minds are mechanical. To me, the brain is the only thing that makes a creature human or not - if you have all human body parts except the brain, you’re still not human. Of course, you could counter this by saying the Cybermen are therefore humans, but I’d agree - it always seemed unrealistic to me that just because people’s minds are shoved into a metal body, they turn evil. Because I expect the highest standards of realism and logic from Dr. Who. 
I liked those moments where
the Doctor said things aloud about his foes, and you could see it dawn on him that what he was saying also described himself. The example that’s in my head right now is when he shows the clockwork guy his face in a mirror/silver dish; when he held it up, he saw his own face as well while saying “you don’t even know what your own face looks like” (or something along those lines). I have a feeling the writers crafted these aliens especially for moments like those - the whole aspect of literally taking others faces contrasted with the Doctor’s regeneration.
I don’t think we were meant to recognize
the woman at the end - I got a strong whiff of Crazy off her, and my guess is she’s a new archenemy. Yay! The whole Paradise idea intrigued me; it had a religious feel to it, which is something the show has never really explored. I wonder if the Doctor’s “myth” comment will get the show flak here in the US - it would be extraordinarily stupid, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
All in all, I already love Capaldi’s doctor; at times the craziness was irritating, but it’s similar to the episode after John Pertwee became Tom Baker and had a period of disorientation. I fully expect it to wear off in the next one or two shows. I’m very glad the whole romantic subplot thing’s gone - it looks like the show is headed in a good direction. There are still Moffat’s trademark issues with plot, but I’m optimistic. I’d give the episode a 6.5, maybe 7/10.
I loved it! I **LOVED **it!! I was so *meh *about the last season with Matt Smith (except for the 50th Anniversary special, which was awesome) but I am already in love with Capaldi’s Doctor. I know that it was the first episode and so had to introduce things, but I really liked that it wasn’t centered around some big convoluted mystery involving the Companion. More one-off stories like this one Moffat, please!
I liked that they didn’t just completely ignore Peter Capaldi having played a different character during David Tennant’s run. Whether they will spend more time on that, or if it was just a quick mention, remains to be seen.
And Holy Shit, Matt Smith!! They kept that under wraps, didn’t they! That was a total surprise!
The woman at the end:
I’m betting she’s The Rani. She’s an old Who villain that hasn’t been used yet. She’s a renegade Time Lord like The Master, so a worthy opponent for The Doctor. And … the biggest clue of all … at the end of Mark of The Rani she was trapped in her tardis with a T-Rex that was growing uncontrollably because of exposure to the time stream. That dinosaur at the beginning of tonight’s episode was way too big to be a normal dinosaur.