As this episode opens one could be forgiven for thinking you were watching an episode of 'Primeval' as we see a tyrannosaurus rex rampaging through London
that is until it becomes apparent that this is Victorian London and it coughs up the Tardis! The Doctor who emerges from it is quite a bit older than the one in the previous series and he is having difficulty with the names of people he should know and with his new appearance. The Doctor and Clara are taken to Madame Vastra's house but the Doctor wanders off. It looks as if he and Clara are to be separated but she spots an advert in The Times which could only have come from The Doctor; it leads her to a restaurant where they are reunited and he tells her how he found her advert! Clearly it was a trap; they are in a room full of creepy automata and it would appear they are on the menu!.
The first episode of a new Doctor is always a little difficult to judge; the character is familiar yet also unfamiliar; both for the viewer and the characters who know him. Much of the first half of the episode was given over to getting Clara, and through her the audience, to accept the change then the real action started. The villain of the story was suitably creepy without showing us what he did in any detail a family show can't show organ harvesting robots who have made a balloon from human skin! It isn't all scares though; we get a few laughs too, mostly from Strax.
Peter Capaldi got off to a fine start in his first full episode as The Doctor; it certainly looks as though he will be quite different when compared to the other 'new-series' Doctors. He is still somewhat manic, so much so that I feared he'd end up in Bedlam as he wandered around London in a nightshirt! Jenna Coleman continues as assistant Clara Oswald so we don't need to get used to two new protagonists as we did when Matt Smith took over and the presence of Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny and Strax provide more familiar faces. The episode is almost double the usual length but at no point did I think the story was dragging. Overall I found this to be a fairly enjoyable episode and have a feeling I'll like this new Doctor.
The first episode of a new Doctor is always a little difficult to judge; the character is familiar yet also unfamiliar; both for the viewer and the characters who know him. Much of the first half of the episode was given over to getting Clara, and through her the audience, to accept the change then the real action started. The villain of the story was suitably creepy without showing us what he did in any detail a family show can't show organ harvesting robots who have made a balloon from human skin! It isn't all scares though; we get a few laughs too, mostly from Strax.
Peter Capaldi got off to a fine start in his first full episode as The Doctor; it certainly looks as though he will be quite different when compared to the other 'new-series' Doctors. He is still somewhat manic, so much so that I feared he'd end up in Bedlam as he wandered around London in a nightshirt! Jenna Coleman continues as assistant Clara Oswald so we don't need to get used to two new protagonists as we did when Matt Smith took over and the presence of Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny and Strax provide more familiar faces. The episode is almost double the usual length but at no point did I think the story was dragging. Overall I found this to be a fairly enjoyable episode and have a feeling I'll like this new Doctor.