Deep Breath (Doctor Who)

242 – "Deep Breath"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Doctor Peter Capaldi (Twelfth Doctor) Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Guest Neve McIntosh – Madame Vastra Catrin Stewart – Jenny Flint Dan Starkey – Strax Peter Ferdinando – Half-Face Man Paul Hickey – Inspector Gregson Tony Way – Alf Maggie Service – Elsie Brian Miller – Barney Ellis George – Courtney Mark Kempner – Cabbie Graham Duff – Waiter Peter Hannah – Policeman Paul Kasey – Footman Michelle Gomez – Missy
Production
Directed by	Ben Wheatley
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	Derek Ritchie
Produced by	Nikki Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Brian Minchin
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 8
Running time	80 minutes
First broadcast	23 August 2014 (2014-08-23)
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Time of the Doctor" Followed by → "Into the Dalek"

"Deep Breath" is the first episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One and released in cinemas on 23 August 2014. It was written by showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley.

The episode stars Peter Capaldi in his first full episode as the Twelfth Doctor, alongside Jenna Coleman as his companion Clara Oswald. It also features Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, and Dan Starkey reprising their roles as Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. Capaldi's predecessor, Matt Smith, also appears.

Plot

In Victorian London, the Paternoster Gang, comprising of Silurian Madame Vastra, her human maid and wife Jenny, and Sontaran butler Strax, are summoned by the police force when a dinosaur suddenly materialises outside the Houses of Parliament. Vastra observes that the dinosaur has something stuck in its throat, and moments later it spits out the TARDIS onto the banks of the Thames. The Paternoster Gang announce that they will deal with the dinosaur, before heading down to the TARDIS, only for the Doctor to emerge, closely followed by a confused Clara Oswald. As the Doctor deliriously begins speaking to the dinosaur, and struggles to remember who the people around him are, Clara explains that the Doctor has just regenerated. Overwhelmed, he collapses, and the Paternoster Gang take him and Clara back to their residence.

Vastra manages to trick the Doctor into sleeping, while she confronts Clara on her prejudiced attitude to his changed face. Clara admits that she is struggling to adapt to the new Doctor, due to his stark difference to the old one. The Doctor awakens and heads down to the river, hearing the dinosaur's pleas for help due to its loneliness. However, as he arrives, closely followed by his concerned friends, the dinosaur bursts into flames. Angry and seeking answers, the Doctor discovers that this is not the first case of spontaneous combustion in London recently, and after spotting a seemingly unfazed man across the river, he jumps into the Thames to begin investigating. Clara is convinced to return home with the Paternoster Gang.

The next morning, the Doctor is roaming the back streets for answers, and questions how his body chooses a new face when regenerating. He steals a man's coat and finds something in a discarded newspaper. Back at Vastra's house, Clara reads the same newspaper and discovers a message left for her, 'The Impossible Girl', pointing her towards a restaurant across London. Believing this to be from the Doctor, she heads there and meets him there. He reveals he didn't leave the message, but before they have time to contemplate who did, they realise that the restaurant is full of robots, who stop them from leaving. They are then entrapped in their seats and lowered into a lair, where they find the man they saw at the river sitting in a chair. Escaping via the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor and Clara realise that the man is a cyborg, but instead of the conventional human turning themselves into a robot, he is a robot turning himself into a human, using body parts, taken from the victims of 'spontaneous combustion' across London, including the dinosaur.

The robots begin to wake up, and, although the Doctor manages to escape, Clara is trapped inside, believing the Doctor has left her to die. Although she nearly escapes by holding her breath so the robots do not realise she is human, she collapses from spending too long without air and is caught by their leader. He questions her on the Doctor's whereabouts, only for him to reappear, revealing he has been disguised as a robot since his apparent departure. The Paternoster Gang suddenly arrive and, along with Clara, begin fighting off the robots, while the Doctor chases their leader up into the main restaurant.

The restaurant is carried up into the air by a hot air balloon made of human skin, with the Doctor and the lead robot inside. The Doctor realises that the robots are similar to the ones he faced in "The Girl in the Fireplace", but from another ship. He also recognised that their leader has become more human than robot, as seen by his desire to find 'paradise' by flying into the sky. He forces the robot to look at London from above, and tells it that either it is going to kill itself or he will have to murder it to protect the human race. Just as the robots close in on Clara and the Paternoster Gang, the lead robot is seen falling through the sky, and is impaled on the top of Big Ben. Its 'death' shuts down the rest of the robots.

The Doctor vanishes, leaving Clara to fear she will be stranded in Victorian London. However, Vastra reveals that, as she is the person who knows the Doctor best, she knows he will return for her, and, sure enough, he does. He agrees to return her home when she tells him she does not know who he is any longer, but when they land, Clara's phone begins ringing. Taking the call outside, she is shocked to hear the Eleventh Doctor, phoning her from his final moments on Trenzalore (as seen in 'The Time of the Doctor'). He tells her that the new Doctor needs her more than ever, and she agrees to help him adjust to his new body. The Twelfth Doctor, remembering the conversation, asks her whether she will help him, and she agrees to go with him for coffee.

The robot leader awakens in a beautiful garden, and meets Missy, a mysterious woman who claims to know the Doctor very well. She tells it that it has reached paradise at last.

Continuity

• Towards the end of the story, the Doctor mentions the person who wrote the Impossible Girl article, and the "woman in the shop". The unnamed woman was first addressed in "The Bells of Saint John", who gave Clara a number to the Doctor's TARDIS. Both occasions subsequently helped bring together the Doctor and Clara, which the Doctor believed was incidental.
• The Doctor, after having redecorated the TARDIS, mentions the roundels, or "round things", that he used to have and wonders where they went. These roundels were primary decorations of the TARDIS throughout the Doctor's first seven incarnations, with a one-season absence during the Fourth Doctor era. They were also a part of the War Doctor's TARDIS.
• After the Doctor redecorated the TARDIS, Clara notes it and that she doesn't like it. This trait has been shown throughout half of the Doctor's incarnations.

Production

Filming

Shooting for the episode took place at the Maltings in Cardiff on 7 January 2014, and later at Mount Stuart Square on the 13th. Scenes were also filmed on Queen Street on the 28th.

Promotion

Steven Moffat has announced to the fans that this episode is going to be a "big introduction" for Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. He says that there will be "plenty of action and nonsense and jeopardy, as there ever is in Doctor Who."

On 11 August 2014 a 30 second trailer for the episode was released on Twitter.

Broadcast and reception

Pre-broadcast leak

On 6 July 2014, the scripts for the first five episodes of the series (including "Deep Breath") were inadvertently leaked online from BBC Worldwide's Latin America headquarters, prompting a plea from BBC Worldwide to keep the storylines of the five episodes secret. Also leaked was a black-and-white rough cut of "Deep Breath", missing most of the visual effects but otherwise mostly complete. The BBC blamed the leak on the fact that the files had been stored on a publicly accessible server in its new Miami-based headquarters. Steven Moffat, speaking at the London Film and Comic Con, called the leak "horrible, miserable and upsetting".

Television

The episode was set to be simulcast worldwide on 23 August 2014.

Cinemas

The episode had its world premiere in Cardiff on 7 August 2014 as part of the series 8 world tour. As part of the tour, advance screenings were also held at other destinations on the tour. As with "The Day of the Doctor", "Deep Breath" received a worldwide cinema release at participating cinemas on 23 August 2014. The episode received a midnight screening in 12 cities across the United States on 23 August, and will be shown in 550 cinemas on 25 August. The cinema screenings of the episode were accompanied by a five minute prequel.

Reception

Critical reception

Upon airing, "Deep Breath" received highly positive reviews from British TV critics, with many praising Moffat's script, the introduction and stylisation of the new Doctor, and the performances of Capaldi and Coleman.

The Guardian responded well to the episode, labelling Capaldi's performance as "intimidating, bold and unsettling", and praising Ben Wheatley's direction in the episode's tenser moments, calling it "the stuff of true terror and wonderment". Matt Smith's cameo as the Eleventh Doctor was criticised by The Mirror. However, it ultimately labelled the episode "impeccable" and stating that Capaldi "has all the hallmarks of a great Doctor".

The episode was also met with multiple negative reviews, most notably Forbes, who panned the story as "strangely recessive, unheroic, [and] dull" calling both Capaldi and Coleman's characters "insipid".

Home media

"Deep Breath" will receive a standalone DVD and Blu-ray release in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2014, the United States on 9 September, and Australia on 10 September. Thereafter, it will be released in the Complete Eighth Series DVD and Blu-ray boxset in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2014, and Australia on 19 November.

External links

• "Deep Breath" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• Deep Breath on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• Template:Brief
• "Deep Breath" at IMDb