Doctor Who Series 11 First Impressions: Episode 1 (The Woman Who Fell To Earth)

It's poetry in motion.

Gather around, everyone, because an interesting new show has just started up. It's called Doctor Who, and it's about this lady who crashes on Earth and assists a small group of people who witnessed an alien encounter in figuring out the whys and hows of it all. Okay. I can't keep that up forever, as it turns out, but an attempt was made. Doctor Who, as a 55 year-old media property, has only survived due to periodic total reinvention of itself. Same concept, different aesthetics/settings/themes. (Those of you following this year's Halloween marathon on the blog: we'll be touching on another series like this in a couple of hours.) For the past four years, I've been covering one of those total reinventions. The Peter Capaldi era was a wondrous and wild one, and I'm having difficulty summarizing it. I don't need to, because I have the words there for you all to read. Well, here we are again. Doctor Who, the character and the show, have been reinvented. Jodie Whittaker is Doctor Who now, and Chris Chibnall is the man in the producer's chair. Two hours ago as I write this, the first results of their reinvention have aired. I am here to tell you that it's a wonderfully fresh foot forward that, while different from what came before, still has enough essential Doctor Who in it that I'm excited for what's to come. This is The Woman Who Fell To Earth, the beginning of the Jodie Whittaker era, and may it shine this brightly going forward.


The woman, as it turns out, doesn't fall until like 10 minutes in. We get to know a lot of new people in the meantime. There's Ryan, his nan Grace, his... step-granddad Graham, and his old classmate Yas who's a police officer now. There's also a big blue Hershey's Kiss in the woods that's cold to the touch. There's ALSO a writhing mass of live electric wires attacking the train where Grace, Graham, and another poor man are riding... and into all of this falls Jodie Whittaker. Thank Christ they mostly do away with the whole post-regenerative trauma thing. Sure, her headspace is a bit scrambled and she can't remember her name, but she's still acting like... well, Doctor Who. She's not yelling nonsense or laying in bed for minutes at a time. Okay, she has a little faint for a bit there near the midpoint but after that she's all business. Oh my god, I adore her. If I had to compare her to another Doctor, it'd probably be Peter Davison. She has that same charming personality and kind air about her, and it really endears her to me. I can still remember how Deep Breath, Peter Capaldi's debut, didn't gel with me on first viewing. He was really kind of abrasive in his opener, but his abrasion gave way in later episodes to show that he was a man who was laser focused on saving the day, and left his politeness at the door in favor of saving lives. Jodie Whittaker is formed from the get-go, albeit from lacking her name... but she'll get that back soon enough. She's charming and resourceful, able to make her own brand-new sonic screwdriver from spoons and used machine parts. In short, she has the potential to be a wonderful Doctor Who.


Alien design in this one is a real standout, and I like the way the plot slowly unfolds. At first you have a blue Hershey's Kiss and a livewire orb, and then the Hershey's Kiss hatches to reveal a big cyborg or something, and then the cyborg is using the livewire orb as its tracking device or whatever, and... well, Stemshaw of Stensa's entire deal is made quite clear before too long. Doctor Who's eternal reinvention and changing of itself means that it can mesh with a lot of stories. This one, as it's revealed, is Doctor Who Does Predator. It fits all the beats. An alien here on Earth, hunting down a human and killing everyone in his way... all for sport and the thrill of the hunt. Of course, the Predator was kind of stacking the deck in his favor in the first movie. Advanced technology vs. muscular men with machine guns? It's a wonder Arnold was able to survive. Doctor Who, not being a show where people blow up aliens with guns (well, most of the time...), has to take a different approach. This results in Jodie Whittaker basically taking the piss all out of this menacing alien hunter who takes teeth from his victims as a war trophy. Hell, she doesn't even call him by his name; she dubs him Tim Shaw. This is both a mishearing of his name and a mockery of this supposed proud hunter... but he isn't even that noble when it comes to that! His livewire thing is there to save him the work of tracking down the random person he's supposed to capture and bring back home for his personal glory. The fucker can't even hunt humanity without cheating, and she calls him on it. She regains her memory, regains her name, right at the critical moment. Doctor Who faces down the Predator, and calls him a cheating bitch before demanding he fuck off back to his home planet without any of his fortune and glory. He refuses and blows himself up in the process, because the Doctor always gives you a chance. Jodie's speech has airs of peeking over the fourth wall and acknowledging the new changes in this reinvention. The show deserves a chance, and I'm more than happy to give it.


That being said, there's one bum note. Grace dies in an attempt to stop the livewire orb. I don't like this. It leads to some bittersweet and sad dramatic moments, sure... but all I can see is the infinity of missed potential here. She didn't even have to go to other planets. We could have checked in on her, a la Jackie Tyler. Killing her is just too final for my liking. You lose more than you gain by doing it. Regardless, things dovetail into next week with Ryan, Graham, Yas, and the Doctor warped into space in an attempt to find the Doctor's TARDIS. what will happen next, I don't know. What I do know is that I really enjoyed this. Not since Matt Smith have I been so quickly sold on a new Doctor Who and their new era. I quite like the three new companions, and giving them all interpersonal connections that predate the narrative will hopefully give their interactions some weight going forward. Jodie Whittaker is an absolute joy as Doctor Who, and I welcome her to the role with open arms. I welcome Chris Chibnall as well, who's delivered quite possibly the best episode of Doctor Who under his penmanship so far. This is a really intriguing start, and I hope the high lasts. All that's left to say is...


Welcome to the Jodie Whittaker era.