Doctor Who Series 11 Premiere ‘The Woman Who Fell To Earth’ Review
Now is the best time to jump into Doctor Who. With a brand-new cast, a new showrunner, and bells and whistles including higher-quality VFX, the Series 11 premiere is a fantastic entry (or re-entry) point into the series.
The Doctor was last seen at Christmas time in 2017 as Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor regenerated into Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor. What has followed in the year since then has been a very loud and obnoxious voice of “fans” yelling about the fact the Doctor is now being played by a woman—even though it had already been explained in the show that Gallifreyans could regenerate into different races and sexes. Well guess what, Jodie Whittaker is amazing and, although it’ll probably take me the rest of the season to decide where I place her against previous incarnations, she’s off to a charming, funny, fantastic start.
Director: Jamie Childs
Writer: Chris Chibnall
Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Sharon D. Clarke, Tosin Cole, Johnny Dixon, Mandip Gill, Asif Khan, Samuel Oatley, Bradley Walsh
‘The Woman Who Fell To Earth’ Air Date: 08/10/2018
Doctor Who is currently available to stream on ABC iview and you can catch the show Mondays on ABC at 5:55 PM.
We’re introduced to the Doctor’s new friends (not being referred to as companions anymore) for a lengthy period before the Doctor even makes her entrance.
Ryan Sinclair, played by Tosin Cole, is instantly likeable. He is introduced as his Gran and step-grandpa try to help him learn to ride a bike. Ryan suffers from dyspraxia, a coordination disorder which was not only something I hadn’t seen from one of the lead characters on-screen before, but I was also interested to learn it’s currently Dyspraxia Awareness Week as the episode airs. This is fantastic timing as I’m sure more than just myself will be Googling the disorder to learn a little bit more.
Sharon D. Clarke plays Ryan’s Gran with a lot of charm, and her husband Graham, played by Bradley Walsh, is equally charming as soon as he’s on-screen, with Walsh bringing a lot of gravitas to the role (nearly 300 episodes of Coronation Street will do that, I’m sure).
The last of the crew is Yasmin, played by Mandip Gill. Yasmin is a police officer and gets entangled with our crew when Ryan rings in a strange object he finds. When we first meet her she’s dealing with petty crime and dreams of doing something bigger, which makes her the most obvious and easy click for the Doctor out of all the new crew.
The Woman Who Fell To Earth plays out like a sci-fi horror movie at first—our characters are slowly introduced and we learn of an alien presence. Then just when things look to be heading in a dire direction—bam! The Doctor literally falls to Earth.
Jodie Whittaker, who was born in Yorkshire, bursts into Doctor Who in Yorkshire as a character proclaims “we don’t get aliens in Yorkshire.” Well, you do now. Of course, you can’t understate how many new things you’re getting in this series of Doctor Who from in front of the camera to behind: a female Doctor, a cast of characters of different ethnicities and genders, and behind the camera the same—with the show having its first writer of colour this series after 55 years of making the show. When Russell T. Davies rebooted the series he brought with it a lot of things, most notably openly LGBTQ characters on-screen. As much as I enjoyed Steven Moffat’s writing, who took over as head of the series following Davies, he didn’t move the show forward in as many necessary ways as he could have. Chris Chibnall seems to be fixing a lot of those problems and it’s great to see.
The show looks better than ever as well, with great cinematography and improved special effects from the new team working on Doctor Who from Double Negative, who most notably did the SFX on Blade Runner 2049.
Steven Moffat also shot himself in the foot a bit with very involved plotlines that I personally loved and equally hated at times—but I understand how annoying they made the show for newcomers. If you’re looking to start Doctor Who, now is the time. Like a classic adventure, The Woman Who Fell To Earth focuses on the human element first, and then the Doctor comes crashing into it to help out. Who is she? they all wonder—and if this is your first time watching the show you’ll be able to safely join in and look forward to learning more as the series continues.
The premiere episode is all about the banter and, as with most episodes with a new cast, meeting them and getting the time to like them. The villain is fine—reminded me a bit too much of a variation of The Predator—but it’s kinda gross and sure to scare the kids a bit.
With a refreshing feel to the series, a cast of new likeable friends for the Doctor, and the Doctor herself being an utter joy, Doctor Who is back and better than ever.
