- BBC
- Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) says hello to the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi).
It’s been three days since “Deep Breath,” the season eight (counting from the reboot in 2005) premiere of Doctor Who, and the response seems to be a collective sigh—of relief. The show has had twelve actors in the lead role and over 800 episodes since debuting in 1963, yet every new lead and season is met with some resistance. The newest Doctor may look a little worn, but he ushers in a return to form for the show.
Meanwhile, the Doctor’s superior intelligence and physiology, as mirrored by the “control node” droid, are seen as liabilities. Both the Doctor and the droid have pieced together—literally, in the droid’s case—a semblance of humanity. But the droid has been programmed to repair itself with whatever is available; its human appearance is incidental, not intentional. The Doctor, on the other hand, has chosen to appear as disarmingly “normal” as possible.* He seems to be in hiding.
