Deep Breath (TV story)

 was the first episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. After a brief cameo in The Day of the Doctor and a short appearance at the end of The Time of the Doctor, this episode marks the full first appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. It also saw the appearance of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor in a surprise cameo set directly before his regeneration.

Following the success of the theatrical simulcast of The Day of the Doctor on 23 November 2013, this premiere episode also received a release, simultaneous with its broadcast on television, in cinemas across the world.

Synopsis
The Doctor arrives in Victorian London, bringing with him a dinosaur which runs rampant in the Thames. Soon after he discovers a spate of deadly spontaneous combustions. Meanwhile, Clara struggles to embrace the new man the Doctor has become.

Plot
A Tyrannosaurus rampages in the River Thames much to the shock of onlookers, with the exception of the Paternoster Gang. Jenny notices the beast has something lodged in its throat that caused it to time travel, and then the dinosaur coughs up the TARDIS, which lands upright on the banks of the river. Vastra gives a policeman a device which will keep the dinosaur in one place, before she, Jenny and Strax descend to the bank. Strax knocks on the door and the newly regenerated Doctor appears, shooshing him and telling him that he thinks he has escaped the dinosaur, before leaving the TARDIS and refamiliarising himself with the gang, albeit poorly due to only just recently regenerating. After failing to identify his companions, the Doctor suggests to "take five" and passes out. The Gang learn from Clara that this strange man is indeed the Doctor regenerated, and take him to their home.

Back inside, the Doctor is conscious again. But he is puzzled by the bedroom he's in, complaining on what you do in this room when you are awake. He is also annoyed about the accent Jenny and Clara speak with as his accent is now Scottish. Madame Vastra however, talks properly according to him using the same accent as his. She then uses a psychic link to trick him into getting back to sleep. Clara is more troubled by the fact that the Doctor's new face looks old and different. Meanwhile the Tyrannosaurus is making moaning sounds in the city. The Doctor then seems to be translating the moans in his sleep, perhaps also echoing his own situation. Strax comes in and escorts Clara to Madame Vastra who asked to have a word with her.

Outside on the street, people are still looking at the giant dinosaur. A man called Alf guesses the Tyrannosaurus is part of a government plan, in conversation with his wife. Alf then says to a mysterious man there is something wrong with the dinosaurs neck, that makes it look unreal. The man replies that Alf has good eyes, and he needs them as a gift to replace his bad eyes. He reveals the other side of his face and looks much like a droid, and then proceeds to remove Alf's eyes.

Madame Vastra questions Clara about how she and the Doctor came to be in Victorian London after Trenzalore. Clara remarks that Vastra has put on her veil again, Vastra says she wears it to be accepted. The conversation escalates as Clara thinks Vastra is judging her. Vastra retorts by implying that Clara is judging the Doctor. Upstairs, the Doctor wakes up smelling something. After sniffing about on the floor, he finds a piece of chalk. He writes calculations with the chalk, around the whole room. He then escapes through the window to check on the dinosaur. Shouting across London at the dinosaur. He apologises that his time machine got stuck in its throat and vows to get it home, eventually the dinosaur suddenly spontaneously bursts into flames and is killed, prompting the Doctor to action.

Falling from a tree and getting stuck on a branch, he stops a horse and carriage and asks that he will need to relieve him of his "pet" much to the driver's confusion. The Doctor replies that he was talking to the horse. Jumping onto the horse, he uses the Sonic Screwdriver to cut the ropes linking the horse to the carriage. As the Doctor struggles to properly control the horse, the Paternoster Gang and Clara unknowingly follow nearby. The Doctor arrives at the bridge and quietly observes as the dinosaur burns in the flames. Clara questions the Doctor's sudden appearence here. As Vastra locks the carriage like a car, she begins to question who would do such a thing. The Doctor points out that it's not the question. The question is: "Have there been any similar murders?" Vastra answers that there have been many similar ones. The Doctor then points to a man who seems unmoved by the situation. The Doctor then dives into the water. Clara worriedly informs Vastra that he'll drown, but she doubts it, claiming that the Doctor has taken up the case.

Clara wakes up the next morning and discovers Strax threatening workers with their lives when they return with the TARDIS. Strax informs Clara that the Doctor will always come looking for his time machine and takes it too far when he says that once he returns, they'll melt him with acid. Clara asks for 'The Times' newspaper article to be sent up to her. Strax immediately throws the paper up to Clara, striking her in the face.

Now dressed in a Victorian dress, Clara makes her way downstairs and meets Jenny, who warns her not to disturb Madame Vastra as she investigates on a different matter. Clara encounters Strax once again, who offers her water. Clara at first accepts, but then declines when Strax gives her the bucket of water he has been using to mop the floor. Strax then gives her an unexpected medical examination, while also peeking inside her head and seeing what she's thinking.

In a dirty alley somewhere, the Doctor examines his face in a small mirror and rummages through debris. As a disheveled old man stumbles by, the Doctor is confused over why he now has this face. Ranting and belligerent, he asks the man's input on why he gave himself this face, noting that it is somehow familiar to him. The Doctor asks the confused and frightened man if he has seen the Doctor's face before, which the old man indicates he has not. Intimidated by it, he says he doesn't like the Doctor's face, which the Doctor doesn't seem to fond of, either, due to a new, potent set of eyebrows that seem like they want to cede from the rest of his face and "set up their own independent state of eyebrows". Playing along with his madness, the old man agrees he has mighty eyebrows. The Doctor then notes that he has a Scottish accent, which the man confirms. The Doctor rants on that he can now complain about things, before demanding the man's coat. The man whimpers in fear, until the Doctor brings up a newspaper, showing the article 'Fourth Case of Spontaneous Combustion'. Jenny is posing supposedly for a painting for Vastra but discovers her wife is working on a map of the various deaths.

Meanwhile, Clara discovers a message on a newspaper addressing her as the 'Impossible Girl' revealing this to Vastra and Jenny. She figures out the newspaper by looking at the opposite side indicating to her where to go. She arrives at a restaurant and is soon joined by the Doctor, now wearing the man's coat. The two talk calmly with the Doctor noting that whoever put an ad in the paper as a message is an egomaniac. Clara accepts this as an apology but the Doctor thought he was referring to her. They argue before realizing that neither of them placed the ad. While Clara is upset over the Doctor's words, the Doctor is more interested in their surroundings. He makes Clara look at the diners and notice how they are mechanically cutting food and bringing silverware to their mouths but not actually eating anything. The Doctor plucks a hair from his head, then Clara's, holding them up to see no movement and realizing the diners are not breathing either. The two stand up to leave only for every diner in unison to rise and block them off, forcing them to sit again. A waiter comes over to scan the Doctor and recite various body parts. Clara wonders why such things would be on the menu but the Doctor informs her they are the menu. He reaches up to remove the waiter's face, revealing a mechanical form underneath. He presses the face to Clara's own as she realizes in horror that it's an actual human face. The waiter locks the two down into their chairs as the booth lowers itself into a tunnel.

Finding themselves in a chamber, the Doctor manages to get his sonic screwdriver out which Clara kicks into his face. He uses it to free them, Clara asking why the screwdriver isn't voice-activated and then realizes the Doctor forgot it is. They make their way to a chamber and find the Droid from before sitting in a chair. Around him are pods containing other droids, all dressed and resembling real Londoners. Examining the Droid, the Doctor realizes it's recharging and this is not a case of a man building himself into a cyborg but a robot who adds human flesh to himself. The restaurant is their way of capturing random humans to harvest their flesh and organs for themselves. The spontaneous combustion is their way of killing the victims quickly, including the dinosaur. The Droid begins to awaken and the Doctor and Clara start to run. A door slides closed between them, Clara begging the Doctor to let her in but the Doctor shocks her by saying it's better they're not both captured and leaves her behind. Clara remembers the Doctor saying that the robots don't breathe and holds her breath as she tries to walk to the exit. She nearly makes it but eventually is forced to take a breath and passes out, remembering taunts from her school classmates in the past.

Waking up, Clara is confronted by the Droid, who demands to know where the Doctor is. She asks why he killed the dinosaur and the Droid states it was to harvest its eye. Clara realizes that the Droid was specific, knowing exactly what a dinosaur's organs were like and asks how old it is. The Droid states that they have been working for millions of years to rebuild themselves over and over, all in search of "the Promised Land." It threatens to kill Clara but she remains strong and defiant despite her obvious fear. When it asks once more where the Doctor is, Clara replies that if the Doctor is still the Doctor, he will be right behind her and extends her hand behind her. She whispers for him to be there and suddenly, one of the robots grabs her hand. He pulls her back before peeling off his mask to reveal himself as the Doctor in a new suit who thanks the Droid for "all the gratuitous information." He places his sonic screwdriver into the charger, warning the Droid he will blow the entire room if he sees one thing he doesn't like "and that includes karoke and mimes." Clara is still upset over being left behind as the Doctor states he's not really sorry about that. The Droid asks why they are there and the Doctor replies because of the ad in the paper. The Droid's confusion makes the Doctor and Clara realize he didn't place the ad, the Doctor ready to go in embarrassment. He tells Clara to "say the word" and with reluctance, she touches her brooch, which lights up as they both intone "Geronimo." From a hole in the ceiling, Vastra and Jenny twirl down attached to curtains with Strax falling behind them.

Vastra reports the restaurant has been cleansed "with maximum prejudice" and the police summoned. The Droid calls in more robots as the Doctor states that killing isn't their way. Clara protests that the restaurant is a slaughter house and the Doctor shrugs that it's no different than any other restaurant. The Droid declares they are in search of the Promised Land but the Doctor snaps that after millions of years, he should know it doesn't exist. The Droid makes his way to the booth elevator and rises up with the Doctor holding its bottom while Vastra, Jenny and Strax fight the other robots. The police are in the restaurant, stunned at its mess when the Droid informs them it is closed, showing off his flame-thrower arm. The police leave, the head detective declaring the restaurant off limits to anyone. The Doctor is sitting at a table, pouring a drink into a glass. He tells the Droid he is afraid he is going to have to kill him and offers a drink first. The Droid moves to a control panel with the Doctor following and observing the controls. The Doctor states there is no way to escape, the Droid stating that the escape pod is there. The Doctor insists the pod cannot have enough power but the restaurant shakes. As the police outside stare in shock, the restaurant rises up, lifted by a hot air balloon made up of human skin. Below, the rest of the group continues to fight the robots, who keep rising up after stabs and laser blasts.

The Doctor examines a control button that had fallen off while sniffing at flowers. He sees that this pod belonged to the SS Marie Antoinette, sister ship to the SS Madame de Pompadour but despite how familiar it all is, he cannot place it exactly. The Doctor realizes that the ship fell through time, crashing in England millions of years earlier, the only survivors the service robots who began their cycle of repairing themselves over. He tells the Droid to look out the window at London, the Droid noting how small the city is but the Doctor responds that humans are never small to him and he will fight for them. The Droid continues to talk on the need to find "the promised land" as the Doctor rails on him for the fact that he's rebuilt himself countless times but has lost any semblance of humanity he once had, comparing him to a broom that is broken and rebuilt but still not the same broom. He holds up a silver plate to say the Droid does not even know where he got that face from. As the Droid stares at his reflection, the Doctor does the same. He finishes by saying that he knows that killing this Droid will stop all the others and will do so for Earth. They struggle at the window as below, the Gang are overwhelmed by the robots. Clara suggests they hold their breaths, the robots freezing as they do. It's too much for Jenny, Vastra giving her wife a long kiss to share oxygen. Just as Strax is about to pass out, all the robots collapse. Above, the Droid is shown impaled on the spire of Big Ben as the Doctor looks outward.

Clara finds the Doctor and the TARDIS have both vanished but Vastra assures her he'll be back. She's proven true as the TARDIS returns, Clara entering to find the interior changed, a lighter shade of coloring and furniture about. The Doctor admits he's not sure about the new look himself after Clara says she doesn't like it. The Doctor talks to Clara on how he is over two thousand years old and has made many mistakes and "it's about time I did something about it." Clara asks who put the ad in the paper and the Doctor reminds her of the woman in the shop long ago who gave her a line to a computer help line that instead connected her to the TARDIS. It seems someone wants the two together and maybe they should find out who. Clara is unsure as her phone rings, the Doctor asking if it's her boyfriend. Clara walks out of the TARDIS in modern times and answers and hears the voice of the Eleventh Doctor. He explains he's calling through time from Trenzalore just moments before his regeneration. Clara is shocked to hear from him again as he says that the man before her is still him, just changed. He tells her that the new Doctor is just as afraid and confused as she is and needs her help to handle all this. When he hears the voice of his future self, the previous Doctor groans over "turning old" which makes Clara laugh, as she also says his hair will be gray as well. The Eleventh Doctor says a final goodbye to Clara before he hangs up and meets up with his Clara to regenerate. As Clara realises the Doctor had planned this to help her cope with him regenerating the current Doctor comes to her and says he remembers the call and it's still true, and asks her in person if she will help him. Clara hugs him, which the Doctor says that in his current incarnation isn't his thing. He reveals they're in Glasgow, Clara pointing out he'll fit in with the accent and they go off in search of chips...with the Doctor revealing Clara will have to pay for them as he has no money.

In the epilogue, the Droid awakens in a beautiful garden, and meets Missy, a mysterious woman who claims the Doctor as her boyfriend. Helping it up she asks whether he fell from the balloon or was pushed out. The droid then asks where he is. She tells him that he has reached the "Promised Land" at last.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Madame Vastra - Neve McIntosh
 * Strax - Dan Starkey
 * Jenny - Catrin Stewart
 * Half-Face Man - Peter Ferdinando
 * Inspector Gregson - Paul Hickey
 * Alf - Tony Way
 * Elsie - Maggie Service
 * Cabbie - Mark Kempner
 * Barney - Brian Miller
 * Waiter - Graham Duff
 * Courtney - Ellis George
 * Policeman - Peter Hannah
 * Footman - Paul Kasey
 * Missy - Michelle Gomez
 * and Matt Smith as The Doctor

The Doctor

 * The Doctor enhances the TARDIS control room with furnishings such as a chalkboard, bookshelves, and a recliner. He also changes the cold blue neon piping in the time rotor to a warmer amber.
 * The Doctor once again has a Scottish accent, an accent he hasn't had since his Seventh incarnation.
 * Knowing that Clara would have a hard time coming to terms with his next incarnation the Eleventh Doctor quickly comes up with a plan to help her cope: by phoning Clara in the future moments before he regenerates and asks her to help him as he gets used to his new body. After the call the current Doctor asks her in person if she'll help him.

Story notes

 * Matt Smith's cameo was recorded during the filming of The Time of the Doctor, as confirmed by Steven Moffat in several interviews following the preview screenings.
 * Moffat joked that Matt's return was the fastest return ever, considering the fact that he last appeared in the previous episode.
 * This episode (and its script) was leaked online when stored on a publically-accessible server, with incomplete CGI, watermarks and timecodes in black-and-white, prompting a plea from BBC Worldwide not to watch it. The rough cut held the nomenclature, "Prepared for Marcelo Camargo at Drei Marc".
 * The BBC gave this episode a world tour in seven countries over twelve days.
 * No shots of the TARDIS interior are shown before the reveal of its redesign, due to the permanent remodeling of certain parts in the control room for Peter Capaldi's Doctor, which would make the replication of the pre-redecorated console highly tasking.
 * During the read-through of the script for this episode, the cast and crewmembers filled the room with laughter when Peter Capaldi reached the lines ridiculing his eyebrows.

Specific to theatrical presentation

 * A five-minute "prequel" was shown before this episode, consisting of a specially recorded scene similar to the Strax Field Reports, featuring the Paternoster Gang: Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. The scene primarily focused on Strax humourously describing the first twelve incarnations of the Doctor, making note of the War Doctor as well as the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration, to his people, before alerting them to the appearance of the latest Doctor. He also made fun of the Ninth Doctor's ears and the Eleventh Doctor's chin.
 * The first installment of Doctor Who Extra, a new documentary series conceived as a smaller scale replacement for the former Doctor Who Confidential, which was cancelled by BBC Three, ending with Series 6. Otherwise exclusive to BBC iPlayer, this initial installment was screened to participating cinemas following the showing of Deep Breath and focused on both the production of this episode and Peter Capaldi's inauguration as the Twelfth Doctor. Doctor Who Extra was in turn followed by a live Q & A in London, hosted by Zoe Ball with Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Steven Moffat.

Common among all versions

 * The story's premier broadcast date, 23 August, is the same date as the in-universe setting of The Fires of Pompeii, in which Peter Capaldi made his first appearance in Doctor Who as Lobus Caecilius.

The Hanshaw Title Sequence

 * This episode saw the debut of a new title sequence designed by Billy Hanshaw after executive producer Steven Moffat saw a video of his conceptual Doctor Who titles sequence on YouTube and decided to draft him aboard to do a professional version of his sequence. The new titles features a vast expanse of golden-bronze clock gears whizzing by in empty space, and then the TARDIS flying through a tunnel of Roman numeral clock face numbers spiraling into a literal depiction of a time vortex with glowing engravings of circular Gallifreyan. The TARDIS passes across the screen in a way very similar to the Series 1 title sequence as the TARDIS jumped from the blue to red time vortex, and then launches past a group of planets. Peter Capaldi's piercing eyes are shown, rather than a full insert of the actor's face.
 * Moffat replied in an interview, "I happened across it [the title sequence], and it was the only new title idea I'd seen since 1963. We got in touch with him, and said, 'OK, we're going to do that one.'" Billy Hanshaw responded, "I had to pinch myself because I didn't know if it was really happening. It's one of those stories about people putting something on YouTube - it's usually a musician this happens to. They put a performance on there and they get picked up by a label. It's a similar kind of story. I thought, these things don't generally happen."

Ratings
6.8 million overnight

Filming locations
The Maltings, Pontprennau

Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff

Queen Street, Cardiff

Production errors

 * The end of Vastra's mask is visible during the opening scenes.
 * When the Doctor is in bed, Jenny walks to the window and looks up to see the dinosaur. But in the next shot, the T-Rex is clearly at eye-level.
 * When the Half-Face Man wakes up in "Heaven", he clearly has a left brow, despite him only having a right half of a face.
 * The dinosaur slime that covers the TARDIS appears to disappear from the door when the scene shifts to show Strax knocking.

Continuity

 * The Cloister Bell is heard as the Doctor collapses on the bank of the River Thames. (TV: Logopolis, Doctor Who, et al.)
 * The Doctor often reflects that he finds the current situation of robots harvesting human organs to repair a ship to be naggingly familiar, but his addled brain is unable to remember. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
 * The Doctor mentions Amy, making reference to her long legs. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * While performing a physical examination of Clara, Strax makes an observation on her thorax as did Linx with Sarah Jane Smith (TV: The Time Warrior) and Commander Skorr with Martha Jones. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)
 * The Doctor wonders who gave Clara the phone number of the TARDIS. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * The Doctor is sure he has already seen his new face before, and comments that it has frown lines that he didn't frown. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)
 * Clara learns why the TARDIS telephone was hanging off the hook when she returned to the TARDIS after the Eleventh Doctor began regenerating. Because he did not patch it back to the console unit, the Eleventh Doctor dragged the phone by its cord into the entrance of his console to make a private and final phone call to Clara in the near future. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Twelfth Doctor's claim to speak "Dinosaur" echoes the Eleventh Doctor's claims to speak the languages of horses and babies. However, this claim is not played for laughs, and seems less dubious. (TV: A Town Called Mercy, A Good Man Goes to War, Closing Time)
 * The Doctor and Clara yell "Geronimo!" as a code word to spring the Paternoster Gang into action, a catchphrase used by the Doctor's previous incarnation. (TV: The End of Time et al.)
 * Jenny snaps at Vastra for calling humans monkeys, or apes, as Silurians often have. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Strax again mentions using deadly acid. (TV: The Crimson Horror)
 * When Clara sees the improved console room, she says, "You've redecorated... I don't like it." This was said verbatim by both the Second and Tenth Doctors at the sight of new TARDIS console designs. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Day of the Doctor) The Second and Eleventh Doctors have also said this about other rooms. (TV: The Five Doctors, Closing Time)
 * The Doctor wishes he had more "round things" in his updated control room. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) He remembers he "had many round things once" and wonders where he put them. (TV: An Unearthly Child onward)
 * Clara's last interaction with the Eleventh Doctor takes place on the phone, mirroring the first interaction she had with him as an adult. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * The Doctor states that he is over 2,000 years old. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, PROSE: Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand)
 * The Doctor once again confirms that he does not see the human race as "small" (TV: The End of Time, Hide)
 * The Doctor remembers that he wore a scarf once. (TV: Robot et al.)
 * After seeing the new Doctor, Madame Vastra says "Well then, here we go again.", just as the Brigadier did after the Third Doctor's regeneration. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
 * Clara recalls her first day working as a teacher in Coal Hill School. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Strax continues to call Clara "boy", as he still has trouble telling male and female genders apart. (TV: The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror)
 * According to Strax, Clara is now 27 meaning that she has in fact been traveling with the Doctor for a few years as she was only 24 when they met. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * This is the second time that Clara asks the Doctor who Amy is, as she previously did when he referenced her as "Amelia". (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor wonders where he got his face. Romana chose her appearance based on someone she had previously met. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
 * Clara reveals she had a poster of the philosopher Marcus Aurelius in her room when she was 15. She previously quoted him in her classroom. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * A dinosaur who befriends the Doctor is brutally killed, as happened when Tricey was shot by Solomon's robots (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
 * The Doctor previously took a companion to Scotland accidentally when trying to take her home. (TV: The Hand of Fear, School Reunion)
 * The Doctor commented on his new face, saying that he saw it before. This is a reference to Peter Capaldi's first appearance in Doctor Who, as Lobus Caecilius, whom Doctor met in his 10th incarnation. (TV: The Fires Of Pompeii)
 * The reason for the Doctor accidentally bringing a dinosaur with him back in time, along with getting the TARDIS stuck in it's throat could very well be because as soon as he regenerated he completely forgot how to fly the TARDIS. (The Time of the Doctor (TV story))

Home video releases
to be added