In season 8 episode 1, when the Doctor encounters the episode's villain(s), he keeps saying that this is all very familiar to him, but he can't quite put a finger on it. Is this a case where the audience is supposed to know more than the Doctor (like when he can't keep Clara and Strax straight), or is he referring to something we (the audience) haven't seen yet? As in, are the serious Whovians yelling at the screen, "it's [insert name of classical Dr. Who villain here]!", or are they as puzzled as the Doctor is (and I am)?
Answer
At the end of the episode, there’s a throwaway line which hints at the explanation: the ship is called the SS Marie Antoinette, the sister ship to SS Madame de Pompadour.
This was a ship which featured in the Tenth Doctor episode The Girl in the Fireplace (2006), in which clockwork robots were trying to repair their ship using the body parts of the human crew, in much the same fashion as the cyborg in this episode. That’s what the Doctor can’t quite remember, presumably as a result of recent regeneration.
That was the third episode written by Steven Moffat (as a guest writer), who’s now the showrunner and wrote Deep Breath.
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