Doctor Who?

Sometime in the last year or so I developed a small addiction to Doctor Who - mostly to David Tennant's 10th doctor, but over time, Matt Smith's 11th doctor grew on me.  The sad part was, as soon as the 11th finally found a way into my heart, it was time for him to go to make room for the 12th.  As a sobby mess as the 11th's farewell left me, I'm usually an optimistic person so I was one of the few that was pretty excited to see Peter Capaldi take over the reigns.  He's a brilliant actor who is a bigger Who nerd than most and seemed utterly delighted to jump into the Who-niverse.

After almost 8 months, it was his turn to shine this past Saturday and all the world (seemingly at least all of Twitter) joined around the telly to watch. I couldn't but DVR'ed to watch today.  I was spoiled by the over-abundance of spoilers on Twitter including one big one that would have been a great surprise which I'm still ticked about so I won't mention it here for fear of spoiling it for someone else.  And the verdict, you may ask?  I'm not sure.

Peter Capaldi is brilliant, as expected.  He didn't seem to be the problem.  It was the show in general.  It was still quick and exciting.  The doctor still got all the best lines.  Clara, Vastra, Jenny and Strax were there to bring the laughs, but the show wasn't as "sparkly" as it usually is.  I understand Moffat's hoping to go a bit darker and I'm actually ok with that.  But in doing so he lost all the optimism the show has had from the start.  Capaldi has that same twinkle in his eye that all the former doctors have had, Moffat just needs to let it loose for a bit.  

After all the build-up of the last few years; of the doctor discovering who he is and what his mission is, it sort of just grinded to a halt during this hour.  Also, the distinct lack of plot, was a bit distracting to say the least.  You can have all the great dialogue you want, but not having a plot seems a bit counter intuitive.  I have faith, it will eventually get back to its roots so I'll continue to watch, if for nothing else than to see Capaldi work his magic on Moffat lines ("attack eyebrows" may be my new favorite!) but I know for a fact, it's already turned off at least a few viewers.  My hope is that they don't blame Capaldi though, he really is quite terrific!