After eight months of waiting The first episode of Doctor Who Series 8 called "Deep Breath" which is also the Twelfth Doctor's (Peter Capaldi's first episode). BBC and Stephen Moffat have hyping the new Doctor and this series up for months and it really hasn't paid off in this episode. In fact I am astounded by the lack of care was put into this story. It was an outright mess.

The Episode

The Doctor, who's dealing with post regeneration trauma, and Clara land in 19th century London and bring a T-Rex with them. When they land they meet Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax and they help get the Doctor to rest. While the Doctor's resting, Clara spends her time complaining about the Doctor's new change, Vastra calls her out on being shallow all while flirting with her, Jenny's not pleased with her wife's behavior and Strax is up to his usual funny antics.

The T-Rex is just doing...nothing. It's just roaming around confused all while the people are either gawking at it or moving along with their day. You'd think the T-Rex would be on a feeding frenzy but nope, it's just wandering around London. A man is off to the pub, writes the Dinosaur off as fake and then our villain appears and plucks his eyes out off screen. The Doctor wakes up, promises the T-Rex he'll get it home and then the T-Rex spontaneously combusts and the Doctor escapes and goes to investigate. Clara continues to complain, Vastra is then discovers that people have been combusting and is on the case while she has Jenny pose for no reason (much to Jenny's displeasure as she thought Vastra was painting her, poor girl) then tells Clara to take her clothes off when she enters the room (again Jenny takes offense) and Strax does his usual thing and knocks Clara out with a newspaper. Meanwhile with the Doctor, he's scaring a hobo with his post-regeneration trauma and finds a paper on the combusting people and then goes on the case, which he already was on. Nothing really important happened in that scene.

Clara who's only ever been complaining throughout the episode, not listening to the criticism heading her way and not caring at all about the spontaneous combustion case, goes to look for the Doctor and sees an ad in the newspaper about "The impossible girl" and an ad about a restaurant and sees it as message. She arrives at the restaurant, sees the Doctor and begins to argue with him while he’s more focused on this case. During the argument they discover that neither of them sent the ad and find out that everyone at the restaurant is an android and they won’t let our heroes leave. They get sent to the basement of the restaurant to find out that it’s an alien spaceship full of androids and that these androids have been repairing themselves with human parts. No explanation was given on how this even works given that androids are machines they are just somehow compatible with human remains.

After the lead android wakes up the Doctor goes through a door which closes leaving Clara with the android, she then holds her breath and does blink which tricks the androids into thinking into one of them. (You’d think these machines would be able to tell human for android) So she tries to escape but ends up going into a room with more androids and then passes out from being unable to hold her breath. When she wakes up the leader of the androids interrogates her and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t tell him where the Doctor is. She then tells the androids to go ahead and kill her but they won’t get the information they need. Clara gives the androids an interrogation of her own and finds out they crash landed here a long time ago (how long is not specified) and they’ve been repairing themselves and the ship by harvesting organs, The androids then go to torture her for not giving her information and the Doctor appears and rescues her.

The lead android then goes to the top floor and the Doctor follows it and then Vastra, Jenny and Strax appear to help Clara to fend off against a hoard of androids. The Doctor then talks to the lead android and finds out that the android’s plan is to go to a “promised land” (no elaboration on how) and then the ship takes off in a balloon made of human skin. Yes that is just as ridiculous as it sounds. The Doctor then tries to reason with it, saying that there is no promised land and that android’s mind has been affected by the human remains it’s been repairing itself with which makes no sense considering that it’s a MACHINE’S MIND!! Clara, Vastra, Strax and Jenny have been having a difficult time fighting these androids and decide to trick them by holding their breath. Meanwhile the Doctor finds that there’s no reasoning with the android and will have to kill him as it will shut down the other androids. We then go back to Clara and the others who eventually have to stop holding their breath and the and the androids shut down as the lead android was killed off-screen.

The Doctor and Clara leave 19th Century London and go back to modern day London. Clara decides that she can’t travel with the Doctor as she doesn’t know him anymore but then gets stopped by a phone call from the Eleventh Doctor from the past. Eleven talks her into staying with Twelve and they go on their merry way to get some chips. Meanwhile, we see another scene with the android, who wakes up in “the promised land” and he meets this mysterious woman who knows the Doctor and has plans for him. That’s where our episode ends.

So what are my thoughts on it?

NEGATIVES

- That T-Rex running around in 19th Century London. You know if a T-Rex is running around in London you'd expect it to be like the Lost World Jurassic Park or Invasion of the Dinosaurs (another Doctor Who episode) where there's chaos, people are running for their lives, looting and trying to avoid getting eaten, the T-Rex is on a rampage eating people and the army is out to destroy it and let's face it, that would happen as people tend to panic whenever there's a bear or cougar running around in the area. However the people of 18th Century London don't even seem to be phased by the fact that there's giant flipping dinosaur running around! They just stare at it for a bit and are all "Oh look it's a dinosaur. That's nice, I'm off to the pub." and move along with their day. Someone even called it a fake? HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO SCARE PEOPLE BY MAKING A GIANT DINOSAUR!?!? Then to top it off it was just killed off by spontaneous combustion and latter hand waved by the antagonists saying it had parts that were useful despite giving no evidence that they made use of it. The inclusion of the T-Rex was entirely pointless.

-There was little to no back-story behind these androids at all, no indication of where they come or anything. All we know about them is that they're really old, they've been repairing themselves using human parts and that they are stupid enough to be tricked by someone holding their breath. We didn't know what their plan was, all we got out of them was that they wanted to reach "the promised land". They elaborate on how they just wanted to reach it. This android plot was a complete afterthought. Who even put that ad on the newspaper anyway? The Doctor didn't. Clara didn't and the android didn't so who did then?

- CLARA OSWALD SUCKS AS A COMPANION AND A FRIEND!! I never liked Clara to begin with, throughout the entirety of Series 7 she hasn't even a character, just a puzzle for the Doctor to solve. All they did with her was play her up as the "speshulest snowflaek that ever flaeked" by erasing records of the Doctor from history, separating into a thousand different Claras and getting involved with the Doctor's history to the point where she told the First Doctor which TARDIS to take. I really didn't like that at all. But hey this is a new season, we're past all the "Who's that impossible girl?" crap so surely they'll give her an actual character, right? Well this episode did and it has solidified my dislike for her. We found out that she's only been with the Doctor because he is a pretty face despite her insistence on the contrary. Throughout the entire episode she didn't even give a damn about the situation at hand, all she did was bitch and moan about how the Doctor is different and how he looks old. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I am glad that Madam Vastra called her out on being shallow, because really that's what she is, a shallow...well I'm trying to avoid using vulgar language but I will say that there's a four letter word that starts with a 'c' that perfectly describes her! She's seen the Doctor's past incarnations she should know by now that he can regenerate into an old man. The Third Doctor is a prime example! He saved her life and she was willing to ditch him simply because he looked different and that she "doesn't know him anymore?" What does she mean exactly? Yeah, he may act different and look different but he's still the Doctor, other companions knew this and she should know this considering that she went through his bloody time stream! She didn’t even adjust to him, she’s only sticking around with him because Eleven told her to. If wasn’t for Eleven’s phone call from the past she would have ditched him without a second thought. That is not the actions of a true friend. At least the past companions while they were uncomfortable with the change, adjusted to it eventually by themselves and some even went to help the Doctor through his regeneration crisis! Even Peri tried to help the Doctor out despite the fact that he strangled her! If this were any other Doctor we would have gotten one of two responses. The Doctor would have let them go and say "Go ahead and leave, If this is how you're going to act then I don't need you." (One, Two, Four, Six, Seven and Nine) or "I'll respect your decision but I would like it if you gave me a chance. I'm still the Doctor." (Three, Five, Eight and Ten). Instead Eleven begs for her to stay with him, how does she have this much power over the Doctor!? Twelve must have the patience of a saint, I feel bad for him. Honestly for me, Clara is the worst companion in Doctor Who history! She makes Adric look more likable in comparison, she's that bad!

- When you see a regeneration story you expect to see The Doctor trying to deal with the situation at hand while dealing with post-regeneration trauma and his companions adjusting. Instead most of focus of this episode went towards Clara bitching about the Doctor regenerating into an old man. Really, Moffat? This is where most of the focus of this episode went? The act with the T-Rex was pointless and Android plot was a complete afterthought! Before anyone brings up 'The Christmas Invasion' at least that one wasn't entirely focused on Rose complaining about the Doctor, the story was balanced out. While Rose did complain about the new Doctor, Davies built up the invasion of the Sycorax fairly well with an excellent pay off and he even handled Ten's regeneration crisis rather well! When Ten was up and ready for action he made an instant impression, he let you know what kind of Doctor he is and he showed what he can do. In this story I can't even form an opinion on the Twelve, he was reduced to a minor role in his own regeneration story. We got three scenes of him going through post regeneration trauma and the final act. His third scene where he jumps into figuring out what the situation felt very forced and the final act was focused more on Clara than on Twelve handling the situation. We saw him disappear for a bit and him telling the lead android that there is no promised land that was it! The closing scene I think I pretty much covered. It was more about Eleven convincing Clara with Twelve than Twelve convincing Clara to give him a chance.

- As for Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax I have to say that Moffat is really starting to reduce the role of these characters to the point that they're being wasted on the show. They were just in this episode for comic relief, they really weren't essential to the plot at all. When they were introduced these I was amazed that the Doctor managed to get the Silurians and even a Sontaran on his side, and the fact that a Silurian, a species that used to hate humans with a passion managed to befriend and even get into a relationship with a human was amazing. I was also amazed to see a Sontaran fight alongside humans and while he was funny due to his Sontaran nature he was also a badass who was loyal to his friends. Since their first appearance however Moffat hasn't given these characters any room to evolve. Strax's funny antics have been starting to get old and predictible though I did find it hilarious when Strax knocked out Clara with a newspaper. As for Vastra and Jenny they seemed to be only used for the sake of lesbian jokes. Why is it that no-one in the west can write a proper LGBT relationship!? I've noticed whenever somebody brings an LGBT character into a television show in the west, their role is reduced to being a gay stereotype, the butt of jokes or just their so that the creators can say "Oh look at us, we put in a gay couple look at how diverse we are." This is one of my problems with the Russel T Davies era of Doctor Who, it was obnoxious about introducing gay characters in almost every single episode that had relationships or a reveal that they were gay that wasn't even essential to the plot or expanded upon. It was just Davies going "Oh look at this, I'm adding gay characters in the show, aren't I diverse" without giving us a reason to care for these characters or their relationship. When Vastra and Jenny were introduced, it was a different story, the relationship was interesting and the show gave you a reason to care about these characters, we got to see how much they cared for eachother, the relationship felt genuine, it was beautiful! Now they're just here for the sake of obnoxious lesbian jokes? It's really saddening to see what Moffat has reduced these characters to. Yeah they were in the Final Battle but they really didn't do much.

POSITIVES

+ The acting was fine. Granted the actors really had nothing to work with, Jenna Coleman put in her all and I honestly sorry for her as so far her time on Doctor Who has been rather wasted the whole way through, I wish I had something positive to say about her character but really there isn't anything good to say about Clara Oswald other than "Her voice actress is good". She's thankfully leaving at the end of this season (Welp, looks like 11's phone call was wasted after all.) so I really hope that whatever moves on to makes better use of her talents. As for Peter Capaldi, while we saw very little of him, gave a good performance. I can't give a proper opinion on his Doctor though as he was shoved to the side for most of the episode but hey next episode hopefully he'll make a good impression. He performed well so far so I have confidence that he'll settle into the role well.

That, sadly is the only positive I really have for this episode. The story was over the top and all over the place and was a major let-down. Moffat, when you introduce a new Doctor the show needs focus on who this new Doctor is and to show how the companion adjusts, whilst dealing with the situation at hand. I'm a person who has seen every single episode of Doctor Who, both classic and modern and by far this has been the WORST episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen and that is not a phrase that I toss around casually. When it comes to Doctor Who I've only applied this one other episode! Yeah, I'm going there, this episode is WORSE than 'The Twin Dilemma'! The same episode that's infamous this:

At least The Twin Dilemma had a proper story. It wasn't a very good one but at least it was straight forward and wasn't all over the place!

Anyway, The next episode is a Dalek episode so hopefully Moffat will give the Twelfth Doctor a proper introduction as well as make the Daleks intimidating again but so far I'm really not liking the way things are going. Also I hope that woman at the end is the Rani. I've been wanting for the Rani to make an appearance in Modern Doctor Who, especially now that the Time Lords are established to still be alive.