Yesterday, the BBC released the first actual trailer for the new season of Doctor Who, premiering on August 23. So, what can we expect from Peter Capaldi’s first outing as The Doctor? Questions, Drama and Daleks, oh my! Also, apparently a t-rex.
I know, like many of you, I have not-so-patiently been awaiting the return of my favorite time traveler. I have to say, I’m excited. In Day of the Doctor, we learn that the 11th Doctor is the one who forgets, who is so damaged by pain and regret that he wants to block it all out.
This trailer shows us a man bent on redemption. My first impression is that he’s owning up to his past and wants to make amends. He’s lived for over 2,000 years and made a lot of mistakes and “it’s time I did something about that,” he says. When I think about this part of the trailer I think of healing, the five stages of grief and even the 12 step program for addicts, and isn’t that an interesting idea if applied to The Doctor.
The Doctor asks Clara if he’s a good man, and I really want to know what’s prompting this. We saw the 10th Doctor’s struggle to determine what kind of man he was and deciding that he was “rude” and “still not ginger”. Is this more of the same? Possible, but I get the feeling that it is something more. Also, why can’t Clara answer him? What happens between the end of the 11th Doctor and this conversation that makes her question whether or not the Doctor is a good man?
Fans have seen Doctors fly by the seat of their pants, making things up as they go along and generally proceeding through each crisis with little to no plan at all, but I can’t remember a Doctor who truly doubted himself. Is admitting to his mistakes putting a dent in that infamous confidence? If so what consequences could it have? One of the Doctor’s greatest weapons is his certainty that he is absolutely correct, and since in so many of his adventures the fate of the world/universe/all of time and space rest on his actions…well, if he’s not sure that could have a devastating effect.
What do you think? You know if left to my own devices the theories and supposition will just get out of control.
‘Til next time,
Jessica
I Love Geekology 101 
I want to read your out-of-control theories. 😉
I’m eager to see the story go in a new direction. Series 7, while it had some really good episodes, seemed disjointed to me. Part of that, obviously, is switching companions 1/3 of the way through, but even still, the earlier series felt more like parts of a whole. The Clara concept was cool but the execution felt rushed, and her character was ill-defined. One episode she is clever and inqusitive and the next one she seems helpless and caught up in something she way too complex for her to understand. Credit to the talented and charismatic Jenna Coleman for making it work anyway, but I hope the producers and writers are able to recapture some of the good things about the Russell Davies era: More genuine emotion and a sense of connectedness between episodes while avoiding some of the childishness that sometimes marred those early series.
Apropos of nothing, I wouldn’t mind if they cut back a few episodes per series. There are usually 2 or 3 that are pretty silly (Power of Three was a lame penultimate episode for Amy Pond).