Doctor Who #11.1 "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"

[darkphoenix21]

The countdown is on to the series/season 11 premiere and the start of Jodie Whittaker’s (hopefully long) run as the first ever female Doctor. It all begins a week from this Sunday on BBC One and BBC America.

Episode Description: “We don’t get aliens in Sheffield.” In a South Yorkshire city, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan and Graham O’Brien are about to have their lives changed forever as a mysterious woman, unable to remember her own name, falls from the night sky. Can they believe a word she says? And can she help solve the strange events taking place across the city?

[jon-el87]

the start of Jodie Whittaker’s (hopefully long) run

She'll probably do three series. It's the usual number.

as the first ever female Doctor.

Well, the first female Doctor to star on the show. Joanna Lumley portrayed the 13th Doctor in a BBC special for Comic Relief in 1999 (non-canon, but prominent enough to be featured on the Tardis wiki, with the special being available on the official DW Youtube channel). And Arabella Weir voiced an AU (female) third Doctor in the audio drama Exile in 2000.

[darkphoenix21]

Well, the first female Doctor to star on the show. Joanna Lumley portrayed the 13th Doctor in a classic sketch for Comic Relief in 1999 (non-canon, but prominent enough to be featured on the Tardis wiki, with the sketch being available on the official DW Youtube channel). And Arabella Weir voiced an AU (female) third Doctor in the audio drama Exile in 2000.

Officially she’s considered the thirteenth Doctor; so I was basing it solely on the show itself and what’s considered canon on the show. I wouldn’t consider anything on wiki as “official” since it’s a website that can be edited by anyone.

[darkphoenix21]

Less than 24 hours and counting until the premiere Plus it’s a simulcast; so many regions will be watching it earlier than usual. I have my DVR set just in case I’m out and about tomorrow

[KSiteTV]

8 minutes! I'm awake and ready!

[KSiteTV]

All of these commercial breaks on BBC America remind me why I don't like watching Doctor Who on BBC America.

So far I'm mixed. I like Jodie Whittaker and I want to see and know more about her Doctor. Don't really care about the other characters or the alien plot though. Also, this is too long....

[DJ Doena]

I enjoyed Jodie's performance. It was a quirky regeneration as it should be and was with Ten and Eleven. The general plot described at its basic was very similar to Eleven's introduction.

But I also did not care much about the companions so far.

The end was funny though with Jodie's hair flowing in all those vacuum winds.

[darkphoenix21]

I enjoyed the premiere. I got Predator vibes from the episode; having seen the movie last month I don’t know if it was a good thing.

Anyway...

I also preferred the more quirky, hyperactive, fast talking Doctors of previous regenerations (e.g. Matt Smith and David Tennant) and Jodie’s performance was on par.

I think the companions felt weak because they had to introduce not one but three of them. More importantly, they had to introduce the audience to the new Doctor (which as we know was controversial to some) and make us like her. Once she arrived we quickly got rolling with the plot and solving the mystery.

On a side note...Out of all the guest stars they showed at the end for this season, I knew about 3 of them.

[jon-el87]

Because of the recent announcement, I decided to rewatch their first episode. TBH, I don't care for it. Too talkative. Tim Shaw should've been after the companions, instead of that minor (one-off) character Carl. Let's look at past companion introductionary episodes (besides Clara... as I don't know which one should count):

"Rose": shop girl Rose Tyler finds herself attacked one night, by the Autons. She's rescued by the Doctor. Then the Autons keep coming after her, because she's been in contact with him. Because of Rose's two encounters with the Doctor, she becomes curious and starts investigating him.

"The Runaway Bride": Donna Noble has been filled with this energy (or something) that causes her to be pulled into the Tardis. Giving the Doctor a mystery about her to solve, while Donna is the target of robots and an alien spider queen.

"Smith and Jones": Martha Jones is a doctor at a hospital, that gets transported to the moon. Martha becomes involved, partly because she has no choice. The Doctor uses her help, because he could use a staff member, who knows this place (and the only other option available at that time, would be a problem or something).

"The Eleventh Hour": Amy Pond is a girl who once had a crack in the universe, on the wall of her bedroom. Through it, Prisoner Zero escaped and lived in her house for years. She tags along with the Doctor, because he's a mysterious man, who had dropped into her life for a few minutes when she was a kid (and she wants answers).

"The Pilot": Bill Potts is a young woman, who befriends the Doctor. She also has a thing for a girl (Heather), who shows her a strange puddle (that turns out to be alien in nature). After Bill mentions the puddle to the Doctor, it catches his attention. After Heather merges with the puddle, she starts to chase Bill. Motivating Bill to seek help from the Doctor, while motivating him to help her.

Now looking at "The Woman Who Fell to Earth": five people on a train. The one whom Tim Shaw is after, is the one who doesn't get involved. Rather it's the four that isn't the target. They have no motivation for getting involved, outside of "this weird thing happened". They're not presented with a situation, where their lives are in danger... until they throw in a bit about them being implanted with DNA bombs (a thing that keeps feeling like it's forgotten. Honestly, if I had one of those in me, I wouldn't shut up about it), by which point they're already involved and helping.

The whole thing would've been simple: Tim Shaw is after Ryan... because Ryan touched that blue thing (that they actually have him do). Tim Shaw is after Yaz, because of the same thing. Tim Shaw is after Grace, because she is Ryan's grandmother (making her a familiar DNA match. Tim Shaw is tracking Ryan's DNA, which is 1/4 Grace. Causing his system to register them both). Graham gets involved, because Grace and Ryan are his family (and their lives are in danger).

The writing for the companions isn't impressive, though that's not limited to this episode, but a running issue with Chibnall's era. They're bland characters, who are there for exposition. If you (the writer) want more than one companion, fine. But make sure that they stand out as individuals... rather than all serving the same function: exposition (basically, he's giving us the same characters 3-4 times, depending on how you count Grace). Compare it to Bill and Nardole: Bill is the audience insert, there for exposition. Nardole is there as comic relief, not exposition. The fifth Doctor had three companions (Tegan, Adric and Nyssa), but they stood out as individual characters. Possibly because they're all from different backgrounds. Meanwhile, Ryan, Yaz, Grace and Graham are all from the same time/planet/city/social class. Sure, as were Amy and Rory, but they had a more unique dynamic, that made them stand out as characters. Both in relation to each other, and through that, in relation to the Doctor (also, for much of series 5, Rory wasn't traveling with them).

I also don't think that this should've taken place, right after "Twice Upon a Christmas". Let it be some time, after the Doctor was expelled from the Tardis. Getting around all of the post-regeration craziness, that ends up feeling like something that drags down the episode.

The episode feels like it's borrowing a bit from Predator (1987). However, they establish that this has happened (at least) once before, with that guy's sister. Does Tim Shaw's race always pick this one city? If that's the case, you'd think that there'd be some kind of local mythology surrounding it. Like what the female main character (a local person) tells to the male characters in the film. Her people have long told stories about these things, because it has happened so many times. It not only serves as exposition, but gives the feeling of history. This isn't some random thing, that just happened to have happened here and now, for no reason. The aliens are attracted to a certain type of situation. A certain type of prey.