Deep Breath gave us a bi-racial lesbian couple in Victorian London, a dinosaur on the Thames, and screams this is how you kick off a new Dr. Who

The eighth season premiere of Dr. Who got underway on Saturday on BBC America with the episode "Deep Breath." On the surface, it reunited us with some clockwork/steampunk robots, and as I was watching, I remarked to my friend Adam that Dr. Who seems to revisit dinosaurs a lot. Because Dr. Who is so well-known, I won't recount any of the characters backgrounds and just assume you know who they are. What I want to talk about are the things that I liked about the episode, and (I suppose) what I liked about Peter Capaldi.

Married lesbians in Victorian London: Yes, please. Madame Vastra and Jenny were wonderful. They're a lesbian married couple (Madame Vastra being a lizard from the time of the dinosaurs who just happens to eat people, but only the really bad ones). She's also quite the warrior, and it got particularly cute in one scene when Madame Vastra looked like she was painting Jenny (so Jenny was holding perfectly still), but it turned out that Vastra was just working. Jenny seemed a bit pouty when she discovered that Vastra had been working the entire time and asked, "Why didn't you tell me?" and Vastra responded "Because you brighten up the room so much." That was a really nice thing to say.

More Clara. I'm utterly fascinated with "The Impossible Girl." The conflict with Clara in "Deep Breath"all comes to a head when Clara gets a phone call from the dying Matt Smith Doctor, sent through time to his own future. He reveals how scared the Peter Capaldi Doctor is and basically begs her to help him. It's a rare turn to see Clara put in such egomaniacal light because she's been so self-sacrificing for the Doctor. Literally, she's the only person that exists in all times and in all places at once  because she dove into the Doctor's timeline in Trenzalor to save him. So here she is being asked to save him again and yet, the Twelfth Doctor has been basically accusing her of ignoring him because she was in love with the Eleventh Doctor. Mind = Blown.

The Doctor Sees Himself in the Half-Faced Man. This part was really good. The Twelfth Doctor is having a hard time with his new face (and his Scottish accent). As an aside...my friend Adam suggested that David Tennant must be pissed that Capaldi was allowed to speak with a Scottish accent as Tennant wanted to but was specifically forbidden to do so.

Sad David Tennant is sad. They made him hide his Scottish accent.

But I digress. In an important conversation, the Doctor says to the Half-faced man that he has probably forgotten who he stole his current face from. "You are a broom," the Doctor says. "At some point you replaced the handle. At another you replaced the brush. You can still clean a room, but you are not the same being as when you began." The thing is, neither is the Doctor, and I guess that's the point. He is not the same person he was. The regeneration creates a whole new Doctor and by counseling the Half-Faced Man to give up on his dreams of reaching Paradise, I think he comes to the realization that he has a lot in common with the Half-Faced Man and should give up on reaching Gallifrey (the Doctor's Promised Land).

The Half-Faced Man. "You are a broom!"

A new Big Bad? At the very end, there's a scene where a somewhat governess-ish woman greets the Half-Faced Man when he arrives in the Promised Land (after his death). She tells him that he's reached Paradise and that he need strive no longer. One thing that's interesting here: the lady refers to the Doctor as "her boyfriend." There's only two individuals that can lay that claim: River Song and the Tardis. So is this woman the Tardis? If that's true, then perhaps the Half-Faced Man didn't die but was instead imprisoned somewhere within the Tardis? But if this is just a lie, then perhaps we're meeting a New Big Bad who has powers over life and death.

Peter Capaldi will do just fine. It took some getting used to because he's much older than the previous versions of the doctor. But I like the calmer, more thoughtful Dr. Who (in contrast with Matt Smith's zaniness which at times seemed like a ball bouncing off the wall). But I suppose I'll always miss the time that Matt Smith's Doctor kissed Rory. They should have revisited that more.

Thoughts on the season opener Whovians?