Doctor Who returns to our screens this week with a new, much older, form thanks to the casting of 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi. For Capaldi's debut episode, titled Deep Breath, the Doctor Who team are going all out to ensure success. Penned by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Kill List and Sightseers' Ben Wheatley, Deep Breath surrounds Capaldi with plenty of familiar faces, from Jenna Coleman's returning companion Clara to the inter-species lesbian mystery solvers (and their baked potato headed manservant) the Paternoster Gang. As the presence of the latter should clue us in to, the episode sends the Doctor back to the Victorian age where, in this case, a tyrannosaur is loose on the streets. Thanks in part to this recurring cast of Victorian characters, 19th century London (or Cardiff) is rapidly catching up with 21st century London (or Cardiff) as the place the Doctor keeps coming back to out of all of space and time. The Victorian period has, however, always been a popular one with the Doctor Who producers. Maybe it's because the popular fictions of the period provide ample (and public domain) inspirations as the Victoriana aesthetic makes up so much of the Doctor's personal style. Maybe it's because a period drama view of BBC Britishness is easily marketable to the show's increasingly keen US audience. Maybe it's just because of the abundant, easily accessible filming locations that aren't quarries. Whatever the reason, the Doctor loves a Victorian adventure. Here are ten of the best against which to measure Deep Breath.
Honourable Mention
For the purposes of this list, "Victorian" has been defined as Britain in the 19th century (albeit not necessarily bound by the reign of Queen Victoria herself). Doctor Who's love of Victoriana, however, extends to other times and places. Not only have there been relatively frequent visits to other parts of the world in the 19th century (from the Wild West to Van Gogh's Arles, and that's just in the past couple of years), but even other worlds in the distant future are not averse to a Victorian theme. Perhaps the standout of these future-Victoriana-worlds is A Christmas Carol, the Michael Gambon starring festive special set in a Dickensian city with bonus flying sharks. Probably the best of the Christmas specials of the Nu-Who era, A Christmas Carol is a fine piece of neo-Victorianism, but let's get on with the Doctor's adventures in the real 19th century.
