My Hartnell mini-marathon was one-half of a larger countdown to Twice Upon a Time. This month is the other half: 24 Nights of Capaldi, wherein I revisit a lot of my favorite Capaldi episodes (and some I didn't really like but were overall important, or had some nice bits to them) before seeing him sign off. Appreciate the responses from people who said they liked my Hartnell write-ups, but for my sake, I'm gonna try to keep these much shorter!
1. Deep Breath
The worst Doctor intro episode of the modern show - not to say it's a *bad* episode, though it does tread that line pretty often. Things pick up a lot once we get to the restaurant and on to the end, but the 30-40 minutes preceding it is just not good. Too much sermonizing from Vastra about how Clara/the audience needs to get over their Eleventh Doctor crush (which, frankly, I think is a pretty overdone reaction), padding all over the place (a dinosaur on the Thames or the Doctor digging through trash has nothing to do with anything), some really odd direction with wacky sound effects that play like the WWIII/Aliens of London two-parter from way back -- and, up until the restaurant scene, Capaldi is acting too BIG. I get post-regeneration mania, but this is too much. I guess that's my main issue with the first half of this episode: it's just too annoying, and it's a generally bad first impression for both Capaldi himself and Capaldi and Clara as a duo. The restaurant scene is where things turn around because Capaldi's performance is more restrained and we star to see the beginnings of his and Clara's rapport, which would define their two seasons together.
2. Into the Dalek
I always remembered liking this one but forgot how much I liked it until now. This is a much better debut for Capaldi's Doctor, where we get to see that darker and brusque edge to his character without it feeling obnoxious as in Deep Breath. I had forgotten about that last exchange with the Dalek, and it was a gut punch all over again: "I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek."
3. Listen
My first impression of this episode is that it's something of a modern classic, like Blink. And it holds up! It's a clever and somewhat subversive take on Moffat's own Moffatisms, and the last scene with Clara in the barn, where she realizes where she is and who's in the room with her, still works damn well. I'm sure this bit of revisionist history pissed off quite a few people, but it worked for me.
4. The Caretaker
Probably the most underrated episode of Capaldi's whole run. This episode is hilarious, and Capaldi's best performance up to this point (which, granted, is still in its early days); every one of his interactions with any character here is gold. There were moments where I thought Danny acquit himself nicely, and (many) others when he was coming off as just too much: a mix of suspicion and hostility toward Clara's time-traveling life which, on paper, is kind of understandable but does not make for an endearing character when in action. The scene where the Doctor sees Clara hanging out with a teacher who really does resemble Matt Smith, followed by the scene on the TARDIS where he and Clara are unknowingly talking about two different boyfriends, is just perfect.
