Inspirations: Deep Breath

Deep Breath's principal role is to introduce a new Doctor. Peter Capaldi's Twelft Doctor had actually been glimpsed earlier - when his "attack eyebrows" were seen as the various Doctors saved Gallifrey from the Daleks. We had also seen the actor in the series prior to this, as he was the second person to have been cast as Doctor despite appearing in another role - Colin Baker as Commander Maxil being the first.

Fans have often speculated about the latter, whilst JNT and Eric Saward simply glossed over the fact that the actor was being recast as the Sixth Doctor.

Fandom theories ranged from Time Lords only having a limited number of faces to call upon when regenerating, to the trauma of being shot by Maxil somehow influencing the Doctor's next regeneration.

Steven Moffat decides to make a thing of the fact that the new Doctor looks like the Pompeiian marble merchant Caecilius - and its related to that fan trauma theory.

The Doctor's encounter with the Roman pater familias has left an impression, which finally comes to the fore here.

As Pompeii fell, Donna Noble talked him into setting aside his "fixed moments in time" stance by saving someone - Caecilius' and his family.

The new Doctor comes into being not sure of who or what he is, in terms of purpose and morality, and this face will remind him of the sort of man he ought to be - as we'll see confirmed in a later episode.

Capaldi opts to use his native Glaswegian accent as the Doctor, and this is also made part of the new Doctor's make-up. He doesn't just sound Scottish, he sometimes acts Scottish.

Moffat shows some concern about casting the first older Doctor in the role, after Eccleston, Tennant and Smith. Younger fans who had only ever watched the revived series might have problems relating to an older person (Capaldi being the same age as Hartnell when he played a grandfatherly figure).

To help new fans accept him, Moffat does a couple of things. The first is to have the Eleventh Doctor call up Clara from her past to ask her to accept his new persona. This scene explains her noticing the TARDIS phone dangling off the hook in The Time of the Doctor.

This will prove to be darker Doctor than previous incarnations - basically it will be the Sixth Doctor, but done properly. (The Sixth Doctor was blamed for some violent stuff - but nothing as bad as "murdering" his opponent).

Clara's difficulty accepting the new Doctor is there to mirror the viewer's, and hopefully  - like her - they will decide to give him a chance.

The other thing Moffat does is use elements from the series' recent past, to show that this is a continuation of the same programme they were watching when Matt Smith was Doctor.

We have the Doctor and Clara reunited with the Paternoster Gang, partly because he has some fighting planned but mainly because they are familiar and popular figures.

Then we have the Half-Face Man and his kin. These are robots who use human (and other animal) body parts to achieve a particular goal - just as the Clockwork Droids did on the SS Madame de Pompadour in The Girl in the Fireplace. And guess what - these are robot cousins from a sister ship - the SS Marie Antoinette. The Clockwork Droids simply wanted to repair their ship, whilst the Half-Face Man wants his kin to become human.

The way that he goes about obtaining body parts, in this Victorian setting, naturally reminds us of Jack the Ripper, who removed body parts from his victims.

It should also be noted that the TARDIS is given only a cosmetic make-over, to make it a warmer, lived-in space. It hasn't blown up this time and necessitated a drastic redesign.

The TARDIS did crash following the regeneration, but was eaten by a T-Rex instead of blowing up. The dinosaur's inclusion is pretty much there of the visual imagery and provide a startling opening to the story. Its apparent spontaneous combustion is a nod to Charles Dickens. The character Krook in Bleak House perishes by this means.

At the episode's end, we have a strange little coda. The Half-Face Man arrives in what appears to be heaven, suggesting that he did finally achieve his desire to be human. The woman who greets him will prove to be key to this year's story arc, as will this domain.

Next time: the Doctor and Clara take a fantastic voyage into the heart (and soul) of one of his oldest foes...