Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Jamie Childs
The Doctor (to Tim Shaw): "We're all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve, whilst staying true to who we are. We can honour who we've been and choose who we want to be next."
With that line, I think the show found a more succinct way of acknowledge the change in gender of the Doctor than the It's About Time tagline that's made up the marketing in the last few months. It's not a line that will win points for subtlety but it's a good way of telling audience that change isn't bad and that it's still the same show we've all loved for the last 55 years.
There was a lot riding on this debut episode for Jodie Whittaker to make her mark and to make it a good one. It's not an episode without it's flaws and it's not going to be my overall favourite debut story for a Doctor but everything it needed to do, it succeeded in doing pretty damn well if I'm being candid.
The Doctor herself - Jodie Whittaker is the Doctor. There's no denying it after this episode. She gets the role and honours the fine men who have come before her as the mischievous Time Lord of Gallifrey while at the same time, very much making the role her own as well. It's not an easy feat and there's 10 episodes left to go (including this year's Christmas special) but she's off to a flying start.
Stranded without a TARDIS in the middle of Sheffield, the Doctor doesn't overextend her post regeneration crisis but the effects are still felt as she's on the hunt for an alien menace named Tim Shaw or Tzim-Sha (Samuel Oatley), who has come to Earth for a hunt of his own with unfortunate crane operator Karl (Johnny Dixon) being the target in question.
Monster wise, we've had better looking/more menacing ones but Tzim-Sha did serve as an adequate enough opening menace, even if parts of his story are clearly Predator influenced along with a sinister take on the Tooth Fairy for good measure. His methods of kills are surprisingly gritty in parts and the use of DNA bombs was pretty clever, even when the Doctor managed to turn it on him along with Karl making his own decision to deal with the baddie after the Doctor neutralised the threat.
As for the companions - well, we've got three of them and they're pretty well defined in this opening episode. The focus is primarily on warehouse worker, Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), a dyspraxia sufferer who along with his grandmother Grace (Sharon D. Clarke), her second husband/retired bus driver, Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh) and police officer, Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) are the ones to get caught up in the Doctor's crazy world.
The lot of them are thoroughly engaging characters with a natural rapport with one another and with the Doctor. It's easy to see how this lot work as a team and when Grace tragically dies during the defeat of the main baddie, it's an actual gut punch. I genuinely thought she was going to be a recurring this series and was surprised to see bumped off so early as well. I also loved that this Doctor also went to Grace's funeral as well as Ryan, Yasmin and Graham not holding her responsible for what happened to Grace.
As for the costume bit - you really can't beat a good charity shop. It was a good way to see Whittaker gets her outfit and the end scene where all our regulars wound up in deep space during a botched attempt to locate the TARDIS was a nice cliffhanger moment. I know the format for this series is going to be standalone with no two parters but I do wonder if every episode might have a cliffhanger leading into the next one. It could be a fun thing to do. As for the TARDIS, I really do hope it's located next episode. I don't want to wait that long to see what it looks like.
- We didn't see the opening credits but the closing ones were stunning with new composer Segun Akinola evoking some 60's theme music for good measure.
- The next time trailer gave us an impressive list of upcoming guests to look forward to over the next nine weeks as well as a trailer for The Ghost Monument.
- 8.2 million overnights so far, proving that audiences are clearly fine with a female Doctor and that moving the show to a Sunday night was the right thing to do.
- Character bits: Ryan wants to be mechanic, can't ride a bike and is a vlogger, Graham had cancer/is in remission and was married to Grace for three years. We didn't learn anything about Yasmin's family but I assume we will pretty soon. Not to mention poor Rahul (Amit Shah) whose attempts to save his sister resulted in a brutal death by Tzim-Sha.
- Like The Day Of The Doctor, this episode was also a simulcast event. The new cinematic look really highlights certain scenes, more so the day time ones.
- Chronology: September 2018. There was a moment where a drunk guy when he wasn't flinging his salad at the main baddie mentioned that Halloween was a month away.
The Woman Who Fell To Earth is a rather strong opening episode for the Thirteenth Doctor. Is it the best opening episode for a Doctor? Maybe not, but it's certainly one of the most important and while the monster could've been a little better, it doesn't detract from the fact that the episode succeeded in doing everything it needed to do while also captivating casual viewers. I'd say we're off to a good start, am I right?
Rating: 8 out of 10
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