"You can't see me, can you? You look at me and you can't see me. Have you any idea what that's like?"

AKA: "Sweeney Todd without the pies."

If The Eleventh Hour was Nu Who's caffeinated answer to Spearhead from Space - right down to the post-regeneration Doctor stealing his outfit from a hospital - then perhaps it was inevitable that the influence of Robot would loom largest over Deep Breath. An earnest reevaluation rather than a ground-up reboot, with a manic new incumbent upending an adventure seemingly engineered for their predecessor. Just as Tom Baker was given licence to run rings around Jon Pertwee's UNIT co-stars, Peter Capaldi is able to bid farewell to the Paternoster guest cast of Matt Smith's era, and more specifically Series 7B. There's also a faint hint of Castrovalva here, as that dive into the Thames (having supposedly "taken up the case") proves to be a misdirect: in both midsections Peter Davison and Peter Capaldi wander off for a confused bout of introspection and self-discovery in lieu of solving the plot. Speaking of the Paternoster gang, Vastra and Jenny are hardly an obvious fit for an inaugural story, yet both contribute to Clara's metatextually resonant struggle of accepting this new Doctor, alleviating her and the audience's anxieties even before Smith's poignant torch passing cameo.

Naturally Clara provides the connective strand that facilitates the handover, and Steven Moffat seizes his opportunity to quietly reintroduce his companion in a post-Impossible Girl context. Deep Breath consequently jettisons the divisive baggage of Series 7B's mystery box arc, enabling Clara's characterisation to shine through afresh and allowing Jenna Coleman more room to, well, breathe as an actor. The sequence where Clara is apparently abandoned by the Doctor and tearfully stands up to the Half-Face Man - following an intense escape attempt where she almost asphyxiates herself - is the highlight of the episode, with Coleman delivering a performance that is simultaneously fiercely defiant and achingly vulnerable. Capaldi's return acts as triumphant punctuation to this, reaffirming the viewer's trust as he literally tears off a Smith-shaped mask to reveal a brand new hero. It's telling that this is the moment Murray Gold chooses to debut his Twelfth Doctor theme, a relentless composition of constant rising action that ranks among his best work.

To use a second tedious title reference, this all feels like a breath of fresh air. As much as I enjoyed the preceding three series of the Moffat era, it was clearly time for a change. Peter Capaldi's mere presence electrifies proceedings, and while he doesn't entirely define his incarnation here, there is a great deal of pleasure to be derived from observing him experiment with the part, wondering what kind of persona he will adopt. The Half-Face Man makes for an unnerving first foe, effectively coupling Peter Ferdinando's mannered physicality with some eery design. And the direction by Ben Wheatley (the British auteur behind Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England) is pleasingly cinematic with some subtle audiovisual flourishes. The chief criticism I can make here is Strax, whose comedy dialogue was already wearing a bit thin in prior appearances. But frankly, if that's my only noteworthy complaint then you're probably doing something right. Overall, Deep Breath is an impressive introduction to the Twelfth Doctor, not to mention an equally impactful reintroduction to Clara Oswald. Much like Series 8 as a whole, it's underrated as hell.