Doctor Who Thread VI: "The Very Model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer" [SPOILERS]

[dehro]

so.. I've watched the episode only once because internet, so I might make a few mistakes or have misunderstood a thing or two.
random considerations:

Spoiler

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I'm confused: did the doctor say he was 2000 years old? I thought we'd gotten to approximately 1200 years.
The dinosaur was a bit too big to be taken very seriously.
The whole confusion about Clara's confusion was.. confusing. Whether it was bad writing or an ominous warning that something's wrong with this Doctor, it wasn't handled very well and just felt a bit all over the place. Whatever the role of this particular "thing" was, it didn't play it out.
I like Clara mostly on a shallow and aesthetic level. There is some depth to her too and Coleman does fit the role very well... but in this episode I wasn't convinced half the time of what she was about.
I think we've gone over this enough times.. We get it, Vastra and Jenny are married. Stop telling us already and make us believe it. I still like the idea of the Paternoster gang, despite this flaw in the rendition. Has something changed in Vastra's make-up? I have a feeling she's displaying a lot more "human" facial expressions than before.. and I'm not sure I like the change. It makes her less "alien" and therefore less believable. But maybe I'm just misremembering.
Strax rules! Just looking at his bemused expression nudges my funny bone, the gags only add to the sentiment. I could happily sit through an entire episode of him being confused, confusing others and struggling to keep his urges for physical violence and rampant nationalism at bay.
Capaldi shows a lot of promise, but the first half of the episode I was very confused by this Doctor's persona. I can fully accept him being confused and all over the place, somewhat lost and busy "rebooting".. but I don't expect him to confuse me.
Him shushing Strax was hilarious to watch, but it was counteracted immediately when he confused him with the seven dwarves.. that was just.. poor, really, though I guess it gets laughs from the main demographic target of the show... and then the whole confusion of Clara started which became irritating real quick.
So the Doctor actually has a subconscious influence on what faces comes out of the regenerating process? (you'd think he'd managed to go ginger before then...).. is that an estabilished thing or is the whole "why did I chose this face" this season's crack in the wall/universe?? or is it a red herring?
I'm quite curious to see where they'll go with the weird/creepy woman at the end.

Spoiler: oddball theory on who she is

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she is Future Clara, gone ape**** crazy over time (for having witnessed so much of his centuries of adventures)... and become possessive and conniving. She's acquired powers and knowledge and is now plotting to manipulate herself and the Doctor to whatever end her madness hastold her to strive for.

As for her garden having been used before, it may just be a convenient set/location that has been reused and not have any in-universe significance.
... or not.
The new Tardis looks.. neat, a bit sombre and cold, courtesy of the colour-scheme chosen. A strong deviation from the warm, steampunk-y previous Tardis into an almost sterile environment. That look sets the tone of things to come more strongly than anything said by the Doctor himself.

The one biggest gripe I have about the plot in this episode is the whole breathing thing and the reaction not breathing gets from the other robots.
When the gang and Clara are fighting the robots she tells them to stop breathing and suddenly the robots loose interest and start withdrawing, despite having clearly recognized them as the enemy. So.. if all it takes to be left alone is not to breathe.. why not take a deep breath, move a few dozen steps, breathe again (the robots are shown to be rather slow on their feet).. hold their breath again, run some more..etc etc.. and get the hell out of there?
Putting that aside, all in all the episode was decent entertainment in the finest Doctor Who tradition and to be fair, any sort of plot would have fallen short, given how the focus of this episode was always going to be how Capaldi portrayed the Doctor and what the new Doctor would have been like, not how he beat the episode's bad guy.