I really disliked the new theme tune and intro sequence. The music feels like change for change's sake, and loses a lot compared to previous seasons' themes, and the intro feels too busy and too gimmicky - do we really need whirling clock faces to tell us that the Doctor travels through time?
I had trouble with the idea that Clara had so much difficulty accepting a new Doctor. This is the Impossible Girl, who travelled through the Doctor's entire lifetimes undoing the Great Intelligence's interference - she's seen him in every incarnation, and more recently she interacted directly with his ninth and eleventh incarnations. Of all possible companions, she should have been the least likely to be thrown by such a change. In hindsight, though, I can accept that "least likely" doesn't necessarily mean "unlikely" in this context.
The villain lacked any screen presence whatsoever, failing to summon up the creepiness of the Clockwork Robots from Girl in the Fireplace or the body-horror of the Borg. The Doctor's attempts to talk him down felt utterly one-sided, with little impression that he was affected on an emotional level, or even that he had an emotional level upon which to be affected.
On the other hand, the Paternoster Gang turned in an excellent performance as always, continuing to be some of the better recurring characters in the series, and once we'd gone through the usual post-regenerative rigmarole, Capaldi's Doctor was on very good form, a promising sign for future episodes.
