YMMV / Doctor Who S34 E1 "Deep Breath"

• Accidental Innuendo: While doing a mandatory medical exam on Clara, Strax points to her "upper thorax" and mentions that she will probably be retaining "fluid" in the future.
• Adorkable:
  • Clara during her "medical examination" by Strax.
  • Vastra and Jenny during the "art posing" session.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The unexpected slapstick moment where Clara gets knocked down by a newspaper thrown by Strax is never referenced again. We see her knocked down and in the very next scene we see she's dressed — somehow managing to do her hair extravagantly and put on a corset and dress without help from anybody — and when she sees Strax again she makes no reference to the mishap.
• Broken Base:
  • Perhaps "broken" is too strong a term, but the episode and the introduction of a new Doctor lived up to the tradition of fans (and critics) being divided on their merits, with some fans declaring it an instant classic while others decried it as a waste and called for Steven Moffat's ouster; Peter Capaldi's bow as the new Doctor received a far more positive response, though there were still vocal fans who felt he'd been miscast.
  • Clara's reluctance to accept the Twelfth Doctor comes off as rather strange to some fans considering that this is the companion who is aware of all the Doctor's previous incarnations and has met two of them. Others note that knowing something and experiencing it are two separate things. Other fans were upset that this was blatantly a Take That, Audience! addressed at those who opposed the idea of an older Doctor, while shippers decried what was initially thought to be Ship Sinking even as the Doctor's revelation that the Eleventh Doctor had thought himself to be Clara's boyfriend actually served to definitively confirm the much-debated Eleven/Clara ship ("Time of the Doctor" having previously confirmed that, for part, Clara was attracted to the Doctor).
  • A few fans were upset over the Scottish vs. English jokes in this episode, given the tensions that were running high in the UK at the time of its broadcast with Scotland's independence referendum only a few weeks away with the vote expected to go in either direction.
• Fanfic Fuel: We never do learn how the Doctor and Clara regained control of the TARDIS (after the just-regenerated Doctor indicated he'd forgotten how to fly it at the end of "The Time of the Doctor") or how they ended up inside a dinosaur.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • It was of course implied before, but in this episode, the Doctor clearly cements that the companions' occasionally freaked out reactions to regeneration-related weirdness really bothers him (justified since regeneration is as natural to him as puberty, and being telepathic wouldn't rely on physical appearance), adding an extra layer of "Ouch" to previous situations like "The Twin Dilemma" or "The Christmas Invasion" where he had to win his companions back over or at least feared they might leave. (And at least in the latter, he'd regenerated from one relatively young and attractive body into another that also happened to have a warmer personality. In this most recent case, the perception is the opposite is true.)
  • Strax's comment that Clara's lifespan will "do quite well" becomes this, as of "Face the Raven".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Series 9 introduces some bisexuality teasing suggesting Clara might have been attracted to (and even kissed) Jane Austen, and she also shows some interest in Ashildr (enough to spark some teasing/criticism from the Doctor). With that in mind, and knowing Strax's proclivity to get human genders mixed up, watch the scene again where Strax scans Clara's mind and sees images of "young men" doing "sport."
  • The Doctor's various Scottish vs. English comments become funnier — in hindsight — when one recalls the episode originally aired a few weeks before Scots voted in a contentious referendum regarding independence.
• Les Yay:
  • Jenny is already an established lesbian, there are shades of her being frustrated with Vastra (made to pour tea, used to "brighten up the room"). Clara is coming down off of her attachment to the young Doctor, so fans can be excused for wondering if the two felt a little more than friendly with each other as they spoke on the steps. It obviously doesn't pan out, though.
  • Clara openly accuses Vastra of being attracted to her, and Vastra's later request that Clara take her clothes off for "art" doesn't exactly prove her wrong.
  • Clara also insists that she isn't interested in pretty young men, and while Strax's brain scan apparently disproves this statement, it should be noted that Strax also thinks that Clara is a boy, so it's possible it isn't young men he's seeing images of when he scans her brain.
  • When Clara thinks the Doctor won't come back for her, she asks to join Vastra's household and Vastra would be delighted to have her there. Considering the maid/wife situation with Jenny, there's a definite subtext.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • On second viewing of the scene where Clara is recaptured, it's apparent that the head-covering of the "robot" which brings her to the Half-Faced Man isn't fitted quite properly, because the Doctor's wearing it over his hair. There's also a visible seam on the back, although that wouldn't be surprising in a Droid either.
  • When the Doctor rips that face off, it looks oddly like Matt Smith's◊. That's because it is. They took a cast of the mannequin of the Eleventh Doctor from the Doctor Who Experience for the Twelfth Doctor to pull off; he literally pulls off his old face to show his new one.
• Ship Sinking: The Doctor's proclamation that he no longer sees himself as Clara's boyfriend (at the same time confirming that his previous incarnation did), coupled with Word of Saint Paul statements from Peter Capaldi that there would be no further romance between the Doctor and Clara, and the episode establishing a new older character, Missy, who declared herself the Doctor's girlfriend, was seen — at the time —- to signal the sinking of the Doctor-Clara ship.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The Eleventh Doctor makes one last cameo after his last episode. Although it had been rumoured for months that he would appear, the fact Matt Smith actually filmed a scene during production of his own finale a year earlier was successfully kept a secret until broadcast.
  • Missy makes her début much earlier than the BBC itself had publicised, making this the second season premiere in a row to do this after Oswin (Clara) Oswald's surprise debut at the start of Series 7.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Vastra gives Clara a chewing out for trying to get the Doctor to act and look the way she wants, then proceeds to spend the episode using the Doctor's regeneration as a metaphor for how she herself has to hide her face in public, and acting as if Twelve is still the same man as Eleven, not once considering if he won't act the way she anticipates.

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