Fifteen long months since the last full series, the Timelord was back. And rather a lot had changed: new star, new gender, new companions, new showrunner and new Sunday evening slot. But would the timey-wimey magic still be there?
Here are all the talking points from episode one, titled The Woman Who Fell to Earth…
Wonderful Whittaker defied the naysayers
As the beloved 55-year-old institution’s first female star, the was plenty of pressure on Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor – but she proved straight away that she had the charisma and sheer chutzpah to handle it.
At the nine-minute mark of this episode, she crashed through the roof of a Sheffield train, having tumbled out of the Tardis at the climax of the Christmas special, and cracked straight on with the Doctorly business of taking charge, charming the locals and fighting off an alien threat. I don’t know about you but I soon stopped noticing her gender. This was just The Doctor and there was a monster to defeat.
We had some of the traditional post-regeneration disorientation as she settled into her new body – nose niggles, leg length moans, the small matter of her gender (“Why are you calling me madam? Am I? Does it suit me?”) – but these were dealt with briskly and didn’t get in the way of this adventure’s breakneck, barrelling pace. This new incarnation didn’t crave fishfingers and custard like Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, but“a cuppa and a fried egg sandwich”.
Whittaker’s time-traveller was energetic, endlessly curious, warmly witty and fittingly heroic. “When people need help, I never refuse,” she said – one of two mission statements slipped into the script, along with: “I’m the Doctor: sorting out fair play throughout the universe.” There were hints of sadness – see that bittersweet speech about her losing her family a long time ago – but little of the darkness that has haunted the character in recent years.
Whittaker used her natural Huddersfield accent to play the part, which worked well, and is proud of the fact that she did all her own stunts in this opener – most notably that death-defying crane-to-crane leap. This felt like a dashing young daredevil Doctor in the David Tennant/Matt Smith vein, rather than the moodier Christopher Ecclestone or “white-haired Scotsman” Peter Capaldi. All in all, a highly promising start.
Bargain three-for-one deal on companions
“Right, troops. No, not troops. Team. Gang. Fam?” This chock-full hour also introduced us to the three companions who’ll be hopping aboard the Tardis (well, just as soon as they find it) for the Doctor’s new-look adventures.
Dyspraxic 19-year-old warehouse worker and wannabe mechanic Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) was the standout of the trio: a lost soul with low self-esteem but a sweet, guileless nature. You felt an emotional connection to him from the start, thanks to those “greatest woman who ever lived” vlogs that affectingly bookended the episode.
Yasmin “Yazz” Khan (Mandip Gill) was a bored probationary police officer (“You’re a Fed!”) in search of more interesting cases. Well, she certainly got one here. She and Ryan remembered each other from primary school. Were there hints of potential romance here? Or would that be too Amy Pond-and-Rory?
Bradley Walsh was the sardonic, sceptical one as Graham O’Brien: retired bus driver, cancer survivor and Ryan’s step-grandfather. His touching funeral eulogy towards the end hinted that Walsh will be flexing his full range of acting muscles, as well as providing laughs. And wearing a striped West Ham scarf (a subtle nod to the Tom Baker era, perhaps).
A quick word too for the other pair of human guest stars. Holby City’s Sharon D Clarke was a scene-stealer as plucky nurse Grace O’Brien: Ryan’s nan and Graham’s wife who poignantly sacrificed herself during the building site showdown. Sob. Amazing Grace, let’s call her.
And hapless crane operator Karl Wright (Johnny Dixon, best know as Grange Hill’s Matthew “Mooey” Humphries) provided comic relief as he listened to self-help audiobooks (“I am special! I am valued!”) and pulled a string of Spud-from-Trainspotting-esque goofy faces.
Tooth-faced monster was camp but kid-frightening
The number of new characters to introduce inevitably meant that the alien menace in this episode was almost incidental to the action. Thankfully so, because it was no classic.
Played by Samuel Otley, hammy baddie Zimshah was a frozen blue warrior in Marvel-meets-Predator armour – but beneath the helmet, his appearance might have given some children nightmares. He took a tooth from each victim, which often involved breaking their jaw, before embedding it into his face. “A Stenza warrior wears his conquests,” he boomed.
Old molar-face flew down to Earth in a sort of giant fig, accompanied by a writhing mass of electric tumbleweed – bio-tech cables that collected data and embedded “DNA bombs” in witness’ collarbones. No, we weren’t quite convinced either.
Sunday slot will take some getting used to
Apart from a period in the late Eighties when the show was withering on the vine, Doctor Who has always aired on a Saturday. So it felt rather strange to be watching it at 6.45pm a Sunday.
Still, sandwiched between the welly-clad rural wholesomeness of Countryfile and the sequin-spangled Strictly results show felt like a suitable slot for a family drama. A treat to round off the weekend. Let’s hope the schedulers don’t start shunting it around again. Series like Doctor Who need to become a viewing habit.
New outfit and sonic screwdriver were DIY affairs
The Doctor being stranded in South Yorkshire without a Tardis meant a pleasingly lo-fi feel to the unveiling of her costume and sonic screwdriver – two more rites of passage for each new incarnation. Presumably we’ll get to see her new-look Tardis next week.
Whittaker spent most of the episode in Capaldi’s old clothes, before being sent off to buy a new outfit by her three sidekicks. “It’s been a long time since I bought women’s clothes,” she said, heading for a charity shop and emerging in the blue overcoat, cropped trousers, rainbow-striped top, braces and boots familiar from all the pre-launch publicity material.
Meanwhile, she was forced to build her own trusty tool in an A Team-style sequence, using Sheffield steel cutlery, wielding blowtorches and sledgehammers in satisfyingly gung-ho fashion. The resultant ergonomically shaped device was: “More of a sonic Swiss Army knife. Only without the knife. Only idiots carry knives.” Sound the “socially responsible message” klaxon at BBC HQ.
Sheffield was ready for its close-up
Not since The Full Monty can the Steel City have featured so heavily on our screens. There were skyline shots from rooftops and gorgeous scenes set in the surrounding Peak District. There was a glimpse of Bramall Lane football stadium and several nods to the city’s industrial heritage. We trust ratings were high in the South Yorkshire region.
Chibnall’s script wasn’t perfect but it worked
After the fiendishly clever tricksiness of predecessor Steven Moffat, new head writer Chris Chibnall – he of Broadchurch, Torchwood and Law & Order UK pedigree – has vowed to make the show accessible again to first-time or lapsed viewers.
He largely succeeded with a relatively straightforward monster-of-the-week plot, easy-to-follow chronolgy and a compassionate script that might have lacked some of Moffat’s rat-a-tat wordplay but had more heart and broader humour.
We enjoyed the running “Tim Shaw” gag, colloquialisms like “Get in!” and “Scout’s honour”, and how the Doctor “never goes anywhere that’s just initials” (ruling out not just A&E but M&S, B&Q and H&M, which limits the Timelord’s shopping opportunities).
Dialogue was exposition-heavy at times and the scientific gobbledegook could have been woven in more smoothly but first episodes tend to have lots of heavy lifting to do.
Chibnall might have been talking directly to the audience with lines like “All of this is new to you and new can be scary” and the Doctor’s heartfelt speech: “We’re all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve, while still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we’ve been and choose who we want to be next.”
New-look show didn’t shy away from dark side
Apart from the train scene and unmasking of the tooth-faced baddie, this episode wasn’t hide-behind-the-soft- furnishings scary. However, it did have a pretty high on-screen death toll.
Five humans lost their lives: the train driver, nerdy alien-catcher Rahul (Amit Shah), the drunken kebab-eater (“Eat my salad, Halloween”), the building site security guard and, of course, poor Grace.
Too much for early Sunday evening? It will be instructive to see if there are many viewer complaints. Excluding the ones from Sheffield Wednesday fans.
Production values had gone up a gear
Headlines will be hogged by the new stars, showrunner and time slot but the show’s behind-the-scenes revamp also paid dividends, with new camera lenses and special effects by new VFX team Double Negative, who’ve won Oscars for their film work.
In its new widescreen format, this episode looked crisp and cinematic. Meanwhile, new composer Segun Akinola atmospheric electro-tinged soundtrack added urgency and a more contemporary edge. We approve.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space
We finished on an ethereal cliffhanger (or should that be a space-floater?), with the Doctor and her “fam” suspended in space, presumably beamed to the Tardis’ last known location.
We’ll find out the Whos, whys and wherefores in the next episode, The Ghost Monument, which finds the team facing their first hostile alien environment. See you back here to run diagnostics with a sonic Swiss Army knife.
The 13th Doctor has landed. Or, rather, crash-landed through a train roof, fully introducing Jodie Whittaker as the first female Time Lord.
Whittaker’s first episode as the Doctor drew the programme’s biggest series launch viewing figures in 10 years.
The show saw an average of 8.2 million viewers in its new Sunday teatime slot.
After her first episode, many fans took to social media to give Whittaker’s portrayal of the Doctor their approval.
Whittaker’s first outing as Doctor Who, which has moved from a Saturday night slot, saw more people tuning in than for the debuts of her predecessors Peter Capaldi and Matt Smith.
This makes the broadcast the most-watched, according to overnight ratings, since David Tennant’s 2008 series opener – which garnered an audience of 8.4 million.
View from the BBC’S entertainment correspondent, Lizo Mzimba:
The first episode featuring a female Doctor was always going to draw a big audience. But last night’s figure of 8.2 million has exceeded many people’s expectations – the biggest Doctor Who overnight figure in almost five years, and the biggest overnight audience for a Doctor Who series launch in 10 years (the first episode of David Tennant’s final series got slightly more with 8.4 million).
It’s significant not just because, obviously, large numbers of people chose to tune in, but because it underlines with hard stats the overwhelmingly positive social media reaction in declaring the new Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker as being a huge success. And in an era where catch-up viewing for a show like Doctor Who typically adds millions to an overnight figure, BBC One will be thrilled with how the first episode has performed.
Still, the true test will be what happens over the remainder of the series. A (not too big) fall in the figures will still count as big success, as inevitably some will have only viewed out of curiosity over the show’s new era. And it’s possible, if perhaps unlikely, that it could even perform like BBC drama Bodyguard which started off well and massively increased its overnight viewers as the series progressed.
Viewers were quick to take to social media to give their feedback on the show’s first female Doctor.
Comments ranged from “A breath of fresh air” to “This is everything the show was ever meant to be” and “Jodie has nailed it at the first attempt“.
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Whittaker’s Doctor was first seen hurtling out of the burning Tardis in the Christmas special, and she finally landed at the start of Sunday’s series opener.
She fell to Earth in the middle of an alien invasion in Sheffield, and picked up three new companions – played by Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh – along the way.
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The West Yorkshire-born former Broadchurch actress was wearing Capaldi’s outfit for most of the episode, and addressed her status as the first female Doctor early on.
When someone told her she was a woman, she replied: “Am I? Does it suit me? Oh yeah, I remember. Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.”
There was also a thinly-veiled message to any sceptical fans when her character said at one point: “Don’t be scared. All this is new to you and new can be scary.”
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Not since the Daleks were confronted by a flight of stairs for the first time has the Doctor seen a challenge quite like it. As she begins her mould-breaking tenure as a female Time Lord it falls to Jodie Whittaker to confirm a woman can wield a sonic screwdriver as skilfully as any bloke and that gender is irrelevant when pinging across space and time.
After all the hype, hyperbole and inevitable internet hate, she acquits herself wonderfully in her full-length debut. In the Doctor’s new uniform of rainbow sweater and bright yellow suspenders (think Bay City Rollers by way of Robin Williams in Mork & Mindy), Whittaker is a force of breezy nature – rambunctious, quirky but with a reassuringly familiar aura of Gallifreyan uncanniness.
When we initially met Whittaker’s Doctor, in the 2017 Christmas special, she had just transformed from the great hooting owl of tea-time sci-fi that was Peter Capaldi and fallen out of the Tardis. It was the ultimate blink-and-you-miss it entrance – though Whittaker, with just two words of dialogue (“oh brilliant”), had radiated kooky charm.
The Doctor’s wheezing police box is conspicuously absent as we resume acquaintances with Whittaker’s 13th iteration of the character in the esoteric realm of … contemporary Sheffield. She has crash landed in the city unable to recollect her name and understandably shaken (“Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman”).
Some will claim Doctor Who holds up a mirror to our times and that the casting of a woman in the title role is an overdue acknowledgement that old stereotypes have been blasted into deep space. That’s well and good – but for many Doctor Who always has been and will be about the monsters.
There will be no Daleks, Cybermen or killer wheelie bins this season, according to new showrunner Chris Chibnall (who previously worked with Whittaker on Broadchurch). Taking over the reins from Steven Moffat, he establishes his own tone early on with a fantastically gristly baddie – introduced, via a hilarious misunderstanding with the Doctor, as “Tim Shaw”.
He’s a classic villain of the week: an icky Predator-type hunter who wears victim’s teeth as pimple-like trophies studding his face and whose prey had been randomly selected to be a Sheffield crane operator named Karl.
Moffat was the intergalactic equivalent of Marmite. His storylines were ingenious, the world-building occasionally breathtaking. His supremely creepy Weeping Angels for instance hold the title of scariest Doctor Who antagonists ever. But under him Doctor Who increasingly resembled his other series Sherlock, in that it was much too besotted with its own cleverness and delighted in confounding the audience just for the sake of it.
It’s foolhardy to make definitive statements based just on one episode but it’s clear that Chibnall has a very different vision. The look of the new Doctor Who is more cinematic – somehow the lack of Netflix-scale budgets has not prevented BBC from making “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” as sumptuous as a blockbuster or Sheffield from bearing an unlikely resemblance to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Whittaker, it is true, starts off delivering an unashamed Capaldi impersonation. And she only gets around to donning her colour-clashing new costume in the final five minutes (having flapped about in Capaldi’s suit jacket in the interim). Yet this is gradually revealed to be a reflection of her inner turmoil as she processes her sudden transformation – “brain and body, still rebooting, reformatting”– rather than a lack of imagination on the part of Whittaker or Chibnall.
Still, she’s soon in her stride with a turn that swerves satisfyingly between whimsical and tom-boyish. “That’s exciting,” she says in a piece of patter which feels as if it will be typical of what she brings to the part. “No, not exciting. What do I mean? Worrying.”
Similarly flushed out the airlock is the traditional paternalistic dynamic between Doctor and assistant. For the first time this is an ensemble affair with the Girl from Gallifrey joined by Mandip Gill as policewoman Yasmin Khan, Tosin Cole as teenager Ryan Sinclair and Bradley Walsh as Graham O’Brien, Ryan’s geezer-ish step grandfather (actually, make that four supporting characters if you count Walsh’s potentially sentient hairpiece).
The Doctor tumbles from the sky as Walsh’s character and his wife Grace (Ryan’s nan) are menaced by a tentacled probe on a train bound for Sheffield – a juxtaposition that underscores the show’s unique ability to contrast the everyday and the extraordinary. Also onboard is poor Karl (Jonny Dixon), on whom hunter “Tim” has decided to do some reconnaissance by sneakily dispatching a fact-finding robot (against the rules of his initiation ritual, as the Doctor discerns)
Chibnall’s promise that each instalment will be essentially self-contained appears borne out. Having donned steampunk goggles and fashioned a new, improved sonic screwdriver the Doctor and her team track “Tim Shaw” down to Karl’s building site.
Here, a high-altitude standoff concludes with the the Doctor rumbling the hunter’s dirty secret regarding his illicit use of a probe, after which he grumpily beams himself back to where he came from. The only lose end is left when the Doctor, in an attempt to locate her missing Tardis, accidentally transports herself, along with her three new pals, into deep space.
“The Woman Who Fell To Earth” also squeezes in a teary-eyed coda, as Grace (Sharon D Clarke), who died fighting the probe, is laid to rest. Doctor Who is known for many things – but a lump-in-throat meditation on grown-up love and visceral mortality is undoubtedly a first for the series. It is a brave departure – almost as plucky as the omission of the familiar title credits and, until the end, the “woo-woo” score (which appears to have been underlaid with heavy metal drums).
These Whovian staples will, we are promised, be present and correct in episode two, along with the Tardis. And yet, no matter how familiar the trappings it will be hard to avoid the suspicion that after just one week with Whittaker at the controls, Doctor Who has changed profoundly and for the better.
It’s official – Doctor Who is back on top after nabbing their biggest season opener for ten years. The Woman Who Fell to Earth, which aired yesterday night, saw Jodie Whittaker head off on an adventure for the first time as the long-running time traveller. The landmark episode managed to rake in a staggering 8.2million viewers in the overnight figures, beating Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as they took to the TARDIS for the first time as Eleven and Twelve respectively.
That’s a massive 40.1 percent share of Sunday night TV viewers. When Matt joined the show in 2010, the raggedy doctor brought in 8.2million viewers, while Peter Capaldi only managed 6.8million in 2014. However, despite her impressive efforts, David Tennant still reigns supreme in a Doctor debut, with 9.4million (but then again, use of BBC iPlayer wasn’t as prevalent, and neither was catch-up telly, so Jodie’s number could still be given a boost.)
Having been stranded in Sheffield, The Doctor met and befriended wannabe police officer-in-training Yaz, her old school friend Ryan, Ryan’s grandmother Grace, and her husband Graham. Without even having the time to finish regenerating, The Doctor soon found themselves on a mission to discover who was hunting and killing a series of humans, seemingly at random. Viewers were gripped as the team went on the mission across the northern town, which ended in a shock death and a cliffhanger that’s left us gagging for next episode.
JODIE Whittaker’s Doctor Who debut pulled in 8.2million viewers on Saturday night – nearly 4million more than the last series’ opener with Peter Capaldi.
The actress has been unanimously praised by fans for her performance as the first ever female Time Lord, and the viewing figures matched up.
Pointless’s Richard Osman tweeted this morning: “8.2m for Doctor Who last night. Biggest rating for years.”
Last year’s series opener brought in just over half as many viewers at 4.6 million.
TV bosses will be hoping the new cast and Sunday time slot will help revive ratings.
In 2014, 6.4million people tuned in to see Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, while Matt Smith’s first appearance garnered 8million.
Who fans went into meltdown last night as Jodie made history by becoming the first female to take over the role.
Viewers hailed as her as the “best ever” doctor after she made an electrifying entrance to the new theme tune.
Fans finally got to see the actress in action as she made her debut in the role in the BBC1 show by crashing through the roof of a train.
Jodie, 36, was introduced to new companions Bradley Walsh as Graham, Tosin Cole as Ryan and Mandip Gill as Yasmin after the Doctor was ejected from her Tardis and crash landed in Sheffield.
After 10 minutes of waiting, fans finally got to see her appear on screen – and many were left in tears as the new theme tune played during her poignant arrival.
One tweeted: “I’m crying I love 13 so much #DoctorWho.”
Another wrote: “Jodie Whittaker is amazing, and I am so overwhelmed that I’m sitting here crying tears of joy and pride. #DoctorWho.”
After finding herself on the stopped train, the new doctor spent a moment acknowledging her new form.
When a train guard called her “madame”, the doctor was confused to find out she was actually a woman.
She joked: “Half an hour ago I was a white haired Scottish man.”
Her sonic screwdriver also got a makeover – she had to make a new one and branded it a “Swiss Army sonic – now with added Sheffield steel”.
The star’s quirky humour and passion resonated with fans, who have already declared Jodie to be the “best doctor ever”.
One wrote: “Jodie is the best doctor by so far #doctorwho.”
Another added: “13th doctor really is the best doctor #DoctorWho.”
A third tweeted: “Best dr EVER #JodieWhittaker @BBCOne @drwho #DoctorWho.”
There were plenty more tears at the end of the episode as Ryan’s beloved gran Grace died after an explosive showdown, leaving him and his dad Graham to help the doctor along with Yasmin.
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