Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who 8.1 Deep Breath.
I know thats no use to you whatsoever he laughed, but its true.
Few will understand that better thanDoctor Whofans.
And since 2005 at least, so does psychological truth.
Under Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat,Doctor Whohas probed the Doctors human psychology further than ever.
), but the writing and performances since 2005 have consistently and insightfully explored what kind ofmanthe Doctor is.
Beneath the bluster,Deep Breathis a contemplative story about loneliness and identity.
The chief role of both is to be a corollary for the Doctors situation.
The dinosaur is alone, bereft of home, familiarity and kinship, and out-of-time on a geological scale.
And theyre not the only ones.
Capaldis finest scenes inDeep Breathall involve mirrors of some sort.
Dont look in the mirror, its absolutely furious!, the frenzied Doctor tells the gang.
Both cracked wise, but unlike Twelve, neither actuallycracked.
Twelves Regeneration saw him genuinely unhinged; it shattered the Doctors image of himself.
Why did I choose this face?
Its like Im trying to tell myself something, like Im trying to make a point.
But what is so important that I cant just tell myself what Im thinking?.
He told Harriet Jones that hes literally him.
Humans have a much more banal equivalent to the Doctors whole me/not me thing: ageing.
When you look at a photo of yourself taken decades ago, are you seeing you?
Or not, because we didnt do it with these eyes?
And there Time Lords were, thinking they had the monopoly on Regeneration.
Down whichever path the why this face?
(Okay, the broom thing existed before the much-missed Roger Lloyd Pack brought it to lifehere.
Its developed the non-droid concept of beauty, he suggests, because its now more human than machine.
Which brings us to the final furious mirror the Doctor faces inDeep Breath Clara.
Without them reminding him who he is, he tends to get lost.
In Donnas words, the Doctor needs someone to stop him.
In addition to being Time Vortex-absorbing Gods and temps from Chiswick, the Doctors companions are also his mirrors.
So when Clara doesnt recognise the Doctor inDeep Breath, it shakes his foundations.
We only understood who we werethroughthem and so without them, were left spinning.
At his most confused and vulnerable, the Doctor needs that from Clara, desperately.
Thanks to Capaldis performance, when he tells her You look at me and you cant see me.
Have you any idea how that feels?
and begs her to hey just see [him], its not just affecting, but genuinely poignant.
Next week exploding Daleks!
Or so weve been told…
