Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Karl: 'I'm with him. We don't get aliens in Sheffield.'

First things first: whoever decided it'd be a spiffing idea to lead us virtually blind into the new series—with just a shitty teaser and two trailers entirely devoid of substance to guide us—deserves to be dragged naked through the streets of Sheffield. This episode was nothing like I was expecting—and it really wasn't my fault. They gave us nothing but generic blandness going in, so I expected generic blandness. Thankfully, it was pretty solid. Sure, it might not feel like Doctor Who yet, but it felt Doctor Who-ish.

Immediately after it aired, Twitter was ablaze with people lauding Chibnall's first offering as 'a breath of fresh air'. I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, the air was never stale. To my mind, the Capaldi era will one day be looked back upon as an era of freakishly consistent and compelling storytelling. Yes, season ten was arguably (and believe me, people do) Moffat's weakest, but this in no way undermines the two seasons which preceded it. For reasons which entirely escape me, people just didn't take to the dream team that was Capaldi, Coleman and Moffat. Oddly enough, I think this episode worked because it bore little resemblance to Chibnall's prior Who output. It's hardly news that Chibnall's contributions to the series pre-tonight's episode have been disappointing, so if anything was a breath of fresh air, it was Chibnall's writing. It hardly whiffed at all. If fact, despite knowing he'd written it, I still found myself checking the end credits to make sure.

My worst fears were that the show would feel like Class: a spin-off with tenuous links to the show proper. And it kind of did. But, instead of being Class, it felt more like Torchwood. You know, decent Torchwood, not season four what-the-fuck-did-they-do-to-Torchwood, Torchwood? Which should come as no surprise, as Chibnall wrote for that show too. That said, it was still a bold decision to change just about every aspect of the show. Not only did they give us a new Doctor with a new gender, we also got three new companions, a new team of writers, a new special effects ensemble, a new composer, ten episodes instead of thirteen, fifty minutes instead of forty five... it's almost as if Chibnall went out of his way to make the show as un-Doctor Who-ish as possible.

Yet despite stripping away many of its traditional trappings, I liked it. Sure, there were a few dodgy lines here and there, but even the stinkers from the trailer ('I'm the Doctor. When people need help, I never refuse'), once put in their rightful context, weren't half as cringeworthy as they felt back in September. Hopefully 'Would you be my new friends?' will have a similarly mitigating context. I'm also confident that once the titles and TARDIS are back, and we're off-world again, it'll be pretty much business as usual. There were probably enough residual elements—the Doctor's post-regeneration confusion, rebuilding a sonic screwdriver from scratch, the odd burst of the Doctor Who theme music—to remind us that we're still watching the same show, but on the whole I think the changes have detracted rather than added to the experience.

Of course, Jodie was predictably excellent. I've never had an issue with Whittaker's casting; the only issue I've ever had with them casting a woman, is that they should have done it a decade ago. When you wait until people are clamouring for change, you've procrastinated too long. So although I'm glad to see Jodie at the helm, I wish they'd been more proactive in shaking things up. A couple of reviews I read earlier in the week said that Jodie was a little too child-like for their tastes. I really didn't see any of that tonight. I think that Chibnall writes women well, and I liked that they didn't make an issue out of the gender swap. In fact, according the Chibbers, such was the secrecy surrounding Jodie's casting, that many of the episodes were written for a male Doctor. Whether this becomes more noticeable in the non-Chibnall penned episodes, we'll have to wait and see, but so far the signs are good.

Companions wise, I liked Yaz and Ryan. Ryan was served well by the script, came across as likeable if a tad troubled, and I was pleased that they didn't have him riding his bike by the end of the episode. Shows have a tendency to treat disability as either a gimmick or something to be fixed, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of utility his dyspraxia has beyond the opening episode. Yaz is still a little underdeveloped, but I read somewhere that they'll be focusing of different companions in different episodes, so there's probably plenty of backstory to come for her too. I also love the idea of everyone already knowing each other, thus eradicating the need to spend precious time developing their relationship. I was less enamoured with Graham. Bradley Walsh coped well with some of the funnier lines, and did okay with the funeral scene, but seemed a little wooden elsewhere.

Grace's death was predictable—there were only three advertised companions, after all—although it's plausible that she could have somehow avoided their impromptu trip into space. I found her death affecting though, which is good going for a one-episode wonder. In fact, if I had to pick a single strength of tonight's episode, it's that it was primarily character driven. Of course, the payoff was that the plot suffered. There was nothing particularly complex about the story, particular after living through six seasons of Moffat's narrative what-the-fuckery. The Doctor removing the DNA bombs off-screen felt a little naughty, but apart from that, it was pretty much Who-by-numbers. Which is fine for an opening episode with lots to do, but might turn out to be a problem as the season progresses.

Other Thoughts:

—The blast of music when Jodie first appeared was brilliant; in fact, a lot of the music was effectively done. None of that Murray Gold over the top nonsense this season.

—Ryan's youtube video had 19 views and two dislikes. The internet really is an unforgiving place.

—I'm glad that Yaz took the piss out of the Doctor's choice of new clothes. Truth be told, they're a bit shit.

—Yeah, Rahul, I know that chains are heavy, but when confronted by a killer alien, it's fine to push your way through.

—I loved the crane to crane jump, but was less happy with the characterisation of Karl. He felt like someone from a different show. He was like the comic relief which never quite paid off.

Quotes:

Doctor: 'Why are you calling me madam?'
Yaz: 'Because you're a woman.'
Doctor: 'Am I! Does it suit me?'

Doctor: 'Right then, troops. No, not troops. Team. Gang. Fam? I'm distracting myself.'

Doctor: 'That nap did me the world of good. Very comfy sofa.'