Cooper - Steven Moffats Doctor Who 2014-2015: The Critical Fans Guide to Peter Capaldis Doctor

Steven Moffats Doctor Who2014-2015:

The Critical Fans Guide toPeter Capaldis Doctor (Unauthorized)

Steven Cooper

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Published by Punked Books atSmashwords

Steven Moffats Doctor Who2014-2015:

The Critical Fans Guide toPeter Capaldis Doctor (Unauthorized)

Copyright 2016 StevenCooper

This ebook is licensed for yourpersonal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or givenaway to other people. If you would like to share this book withanother person, please purchase an additional copy for each person.If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.comand purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof these authors.

Published in 2016 by PunkedBooks

An Authortrek imprint

(www.authortrek.com/punked-books)

Copyright 2016 StevenCooper

Steven Coopers reviews(Copyright Steven Cooper 2014-2015) were originally published (inabridged form) on Slant Magazines House Next Door blog,whose editors have kindly granted permission for them to bereprinted within this book.

Cover imageistockphoto.com/agsandrew

First Edition

ISBN 978-1-908375-32-2

Steven Cooper asserts the moralright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to beidentified as the author of this work.

All Rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system ortransmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consentof the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of bindingor cover other than that which it is published and without asimilar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Foreword

Deep Breath

Into the Dalek

Robot of Sherwood

Listen

Time Heist

The Caretaker

Kill the Moon

Mummy on the Orient Express

Flatline

In the Forest of the Night

Dark Water

Death in Heaven

Last Christmas

The Magicians Apprentice

The Witchs Familiar

Under the Lake

Before the Flood

The Girl Who Died

The Woman Who Lived

The Zygon Invasion

The Zygon Inversion

Sleep No More

Face the Raven

Heaven Sent

Hell Bent

The Husbands of River Song

Foreword

After three successful seasonsat the helm of Doctor Who, masterminding the adventures ofMatt Smiths Doctor, and culminating with the shows FiftiethAnniversary celebrations at the end of 2013, Steven Moffat wasfaced with the need to establish a whole new direction for the showwith the introduction of a new Doctor, Peter Capaldi. This bookcovers all 26 episodes broadcast in 2014 and 2015, from the startof the Capaldi era with Deep Breath to the latest Christmasspecial, The Husbands of River Song.

With two full seasons worth ofepisodes to cover, the book follows a slightly different format tothe three previous volumes in this series, each of which dealt withone season of the Matt Smith era. Each chapter contains anextensive review and analysis discussing its particular episode indepth; these pieces are based on the reviews I wrote for SlantMagazine (published online in their House Next Doorblog) as the episodes were first being shown, but have beencompletely rewritten and expanded (by a factor of three to fivetimes in each case). Following each review is a short sectionentitled Reflections, in which I look back on the episode fromthe perspective of having seen the two completed seasons. In thissection, I will note links and foreshadowings for future episodes(the inclusion of which is a favourite device of Moffat), point outcases where related interviews or DVD extras are of interest, anddiscuss external factors such as the reaction to the episode byfans and/or the general public.

I wish to thank Kevin Mahoney,owner of Punked Books and co-author of the previous volumes in thisseries, for giving me the opportunity to expound upon myappreciation for Doctor Who in general and the work ofSteven Moffat in particular. For me, these two years contain someof the best work of Moffats time on the show along with someelements that fail to hit the mark for a variety of reasons. But itwas ever thus with Who, which should always be striving todo new things. If ever a season came along whose reach did notexceed its grasp, it would no longer be the same show I fell inlove with nearly forty years ago.

Steven Cooper

July 2016

1: Deep Breath

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Ben Wheatley

Originally Broadcast: 23 August2014

Cast

The Doctor: Peter Capaldi

Clara: Jenna Coleman

Madame Vastra: Neve McIntosh

Jenny: Catrin Stewart

Strax: Dan Starkey

Half-Face Man: PeterFerdinando

Inspector Gregson: PaulHickey

Alf: Tony Way

Elsie: Maggie Service

Cabbie: Mark Kempner

Barney: Brian Miller

Waiter: Graham Duff

Courtney Woods: Ellis George

Policeman: Peter Hannah

Footman: Paul Kasey

The Eleventh Doctor: MattSmith

Missy: Michelle Gomez

When it was announced in August2013 that Peter Capaldi would be taking over the role of the Doctorfor the following years series, Doctor Whos public profilewas bigger than ever before. The show was riding the huge wave ofmedia interest building up to its Fiftieth Anniversary celebrationsand the departure of Matt Smith which would follow shortlyafterwards at Christmas, and the reveal of the new Doctor became aglitzy live, prime-time TV event in its own right. In 2014, Capaldiand co-star Jenna Coleman would embark on a whistle-stop tourtaking in half a dozen cities around the world to promote the newseason a sign that the growing global recognition for the revivedDoctor Who series over the past decade had now reachedunprecedented levels.

Unlike the mixed reaction tothe virtually unknown 26-year-old Matt Smith becoming the Doctor,Capaldis casting was met with almost universal approval. Thehighly respected actors long list of film and TV roles includedtwo previous appearances in the Doctor Who universe asCaecilius alongside David Tennants Doctor in 2008s The Firesof Pompeii, and his powerful performance as the doomed civilservant John Frobisher at the centre of the Torchwoodmini-series, Children of Earth (2009). At fifty-five (thesame age as the original Doctor William Hartnell was when he beganin the show, although Hartnell both looked and played older thanCapaldi) he would clearly provide a huge contrast to the previousDoctor and an opportunity for the show to change direction. Writerand showrunner Steven Moffat spoke of how the new Doctor would bemore in the patrician mould of the classic series than theyouthful boyfriend exterior projected by both Smith and Tennant(though both of them could show plenty of power when needed, ofcourse). Its ironic, then, that by the end of Deep Breath,the viewer is left decidedly equivocal about the new Doctor. Thisis quite deliberate on Moffats part: the Doctors new pricklyattitude, towards both humans in general and his companion Clara inparticular, is meant to be uncomfortable and challenging. With MattSmiths entrance in 2010 (The Eleventh Hour), it wasessential to immediately win over the audience and quash any doubtsabout the new lead actor, a task which that episode accomplishedexcellently. Here, with Capaldis quality as an actor already knownand highly anticipated, Moffat was able to take a different tack,instead crafting a very similar transition from a youthful Doctorto an older, spikier personality as the classic series tried in1984 when Peter Davison gave way to Colin Baker.

Its an approach that carriesconsiderable risk, as that earlier attempt proved; Colin Bakersfirst story was a shambolic failure (although the performance ofBaker himself is by far the best thing in it) which heralded theclassic series entering its final years of terminal decline.