As Vastra (Neve McIntosh) Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Strax (Dan Starkey) look at the commotion at the River Thames, they see a dinosaur in the river. Which then spits something out, turns out to be the TARDIS. Cue the new Doctor Twelve (Peter Capaldi) followed by Clara (Jenna Coleman). Dinosaur in Victorian London, wait, where have we seen dinosaurs before, er, in space perhaps. (Dinosaurs On A Spaceship). Though he doesn't seem to recall who he is, or anything of the sort, this Doctor doesn't recall much of anything and has a lot of help and needs it as he too adjusts to his new face. Seen when he has a turn and faints and is brought back to Vastra's house. Where he wonders why there's a room with just a bed in it and where you go when you're awake. As well as the comments about seeing the face in the mirror.
This scene is later revisited in the alley when the Doctor goes missing after the Dinosaur is set on fire. He jumps into the River. Before pondering some questions. What is the question they all ask, and who is the strange man wondering the bridge when everyone else is gawking at the burning dinosaur. As said, alley scene where he's rummaging around in the rubbish and finds another mirror to look at his face again. But we don't get any comments about where he came from or what he looked like before, whether he has a nose. Sorry I added that in, ha.
Vastra also talking to Clara with her veil on, which slowly vanishes. It's not as if she hasn't seen Clara before, but she's trying to get her to see that he really is the Doctor even if he's got a different face. Clara saying he's, "renewed" himself, but he's old. Though she's adamant she didn't flirt with him, he flirted with her. Vastra reinforcing it doesn't matter what he looks like, underneath it's still him. (Though millions will argue that point. Ha.) Clara also facing some home truths and who she really is. The Impossible Girl, but is she still this?
She finds an ad in the paper where The Impossible Girl is invited to lunch, but she doesn't know where. "On the other side." It's a puzzle, and she reverses the paper to find out where she must go, Mancini's family restaurant. He arrives wearing a smelly coat which he got from the tramp in the alley, but says he paid for it, without money, meaning he took it from him, but says he gave him his pocketwatch, which Clara loved. So there goes the pocket watch now. But he's certain he didn't place the ad. he wouldn't recall her as the Impossible Girl, since as said, he doesn't recall anything.
He takes a strand of her hair and tells Clara there's no air, meaning the people aren't breathing and they're not eating either. They're robots, as he finds out when he removes the waiter's face. Of course, worked that out ages ago. Again another reference to face. His face, being different. Transported to the basement and using the Sonic to get out of their bonds, actually call it a screwdriver, not a sonic. The Doctor feels he's been here before. Finding the man/robot who took the eye of the man in the street, they find he's turning himself into a man. As he wakes up, they manage to leave, but Clara must return for the Doctor, only for her to get stuck with the man. As the Doctor runs out on her, it's better for her to be caught than both of them. That came as a shock to her, cos the Doctor (Eleven)wouldn't leave her behind.
She tries to escape, holding her breath and trying to act like a robot too, which works until she can't hold up the pretence any longer and is caught again. He wants the Doctor, but she won't talk, going back to her teaching days where the unruly pupil tells her to, "do it then." Which Clara tells the man (Peter Ferdinando) to do as well, if he's going to kill her he should do it, cos she won't talk. However she gets him to talk, giving up he wanted something from the dinosaur's optical nerve. She knows that the Doctor won't give up on her and will be right behind her, as she holds out her hand, wishful thinking perhaps, but he does turn up.
The Doctor ends up in the balloon made of skin with the ship being there for millions of years, cue aspects of The Lodger here. With the ship and the house. Also reference to the lodger here too as he mentions the woman who leaves messages in the shop, thus she must have placed the ad in the paper for her. Although it's more an allusion to the woman in the shop in The Bells of St John episode. The first one with Clara. Not forgetting to mention he says he wishes Amy was here, re her legs. The Impossible Astronaut. Why did Clara ask who that is?
So he has a conversation with the man/robot about how he's looking for the Promised Land, cos he's looking for it too, but he won't find it cos he's old now as well. Convincing him that it doesn't exist and he ends up on the spire. Causing the other robots to cease functioning too. After being engaged in a fight with Vastra, Jenny and Strax. Did the man/robot fall or was he pushed? As he ends up in the Promised Land with Missy (Michelle Gomez) a bit boring wasn't it, a long way off from Victorian England. What's Missy's game then? Or as Vastra would say and did in this ep, "the game's afoot. [Sherlock]," I thought to myself, ha.
The title telling us to take a deep breath as we go into the new series with a new Doctor. Was Strax's examination of Clara for a reason? Lots of Scottish/English references too, with him turning up in Glasgow he thinks at the end when Clara wanted to go home.
A new interior TARDIS and he finds a new outfit to wear as well. It takes a phonecall from Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) to convince her to stay with him and to help him, cos he needs her help. This may have been talked about on the Net and elsewhere, but luckily I didn't see or hear any references to it, just as I like it, so it came as a nice surprise, shock, but took us back to the final moments with Matt in the Christmas special when he left, so it brought it all back again, just when we had laid to rest those feelings of not seeing him as the Doctor anymore and moving on! Thanks Moffat! Taking us right back to the sad moments of remembrance all over again! All that hurt too!
He calls from Trenzalore telling her he's changing, but it's still him, also making reference that he's older now, he wasn't expecting that, even if he is really old in reality. "Help him, and don't be afraid."
One for old time's sake!
not forget having to clarify to Clara that he's not her boyfriend, which she knows. But spelling it out for her, even if he had a young face, it wasn't about the romantic aspects, but somehow, you know it was, cos as Eleven, he didn't really set her straight, even if River was his wife. Those little flirty moments were a nice touch with Eleven cos we knew they wouldn't really go anywhere and anyone would have been in awe with Eleven! Clara saying twice she doesn't have a boyfriend. Thus they go for coffee. It was a little sad? that he needed to be Eleven and she had to hear it from him before accepting the Doctor (or at least his face) is not what she'll see anymore, or reaffirming there'll be nothing between them.
But that little hint of romanticism was fine by me and many others with Eleven or even Ten. But rightly so, different face, 'older' Doctor means it doesn't feel right. Oh and yes I did/do still miss Matt, always will and no, I'm not a teen fangirl! Cos he really did take the Doctor to a new level and took on the mantle brilliantly from Doctor Ten in David Tennant. But then my Doctors will definitely always be Ten and Eleven.
There's some hints of Ten and Eleven though, when he traipses out over the rooftops to get to the Dinosaur and constantly saying, "Shut up." Then there's his own lines, with saying his eyebrows "are attack eyebrows" well maybe they are, pretty scary too, cos there's no fun in this Doctor, he's more serious with maybe a dark sense of humour. "Beware the eyebrows!"
"Hold your breath", "Don't blink." Oh and one last final "Geronimo!" As well as Clara getting to say Ten's line from The Day of the Doctor, " you've redecorated, I don't like it;" when she enters the TARDIS. I said that too. It's got too many round thingys! Making it feel kind of claustrophobic and compact, instead of looking bigger on the inside. Some other differences from The Eleventh Hour was that this Doctor already has a companion, but she can't accept him with that face. Doctor Eleven had to come to terms with his regeneration alone and had to find his own companion in the form of Amelia Pond. Or rather she found him, in a way. Doctor: "Planet of the pudding brains" Anyone for fish fingers and custard? Ha.
Other hints here and references were to the sister ship of Madame Pompadour which was the SS Marie Antoinette and references to The Girl In the Fireplace, as he recounts he's come across robots harvesting human organs but can't quite put his finger on where. The opening titles were inspired by Billy Hanshaw, a fan and motion graphics specialist, which he put on Youtube and Moffat loved them. Though they were very steampunk in nature, extending back and referencing to the age of the Doctor, which went well with the Victorian London aspects of it. Not sure about fitting in with the entire series though, given also the reference that he gave his pocketwatch away, the clocks seemed to fit.
Then he mentions having a scarf but it looked stupid, well don't let the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) hear you say that. He's positive he's seen his face before, an allusion to The Fires of Pompeii, where he played Caecilius.
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