“We’re all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve, whilst still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we’ve been, and choose who we want to be next – now’s your chance. How about it?” – The Doctor

I think a lot of people forget that Doctor Who is a series where anything can happen and that change is the reason it has lasted 55 years. The people who seem to forget this are some fans, sometimes the production team …and me. I am going to be completely honest, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see a female Doctor. Now, I know this is dangerous territory because I have seen well-respected people such as Peter Davison himself chased away for sharing this view. I never looked at not being sure about a female Doctor because women were inferior (as I feel the exact opposite) nor because they would not be able to handle the rigors of the role. I have been a fan for 34 years (starting to watch the show when I was 10) and as someone who is averse to change, this was tough for me because this was all I knew. I feel like I am much more confident now how I feel about a female Doctor after watching tonight’s episode.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth, as we all know, is the series premiere to Series 11 of Doctor Who, the first episode of the new era under Showrunner Chris Chibnall, and of course the first episode to feature Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. Yes, I am following THAT numbering system. I am giving you so many reasons to stop reading on with this review! The episode starts off with a video Ryan Sinclair posted on YouTube about the greatest woman he ever knew. I don’t know if this was a red herring but I think we all knew he wasn’t talking about the new Doctor as that would have been too obvious. Ryan has dyspraxia which is a chronic neurological disorder that begins at childhood. Because of this, things that many people take for granted, to be able to do such things as ride a bike, is very difficult for Ryan. Ryan is 19 years old and his Gran, Grace and her second husband Graham are trying to teach him. After falling off the bike, Ryan literally throws the bike over a cliff. This is where the story starts.

Where the bike landed, in a tree, Ryan finds a big pod and with the pod, he sets in motion something that will bring him and others together with The Doctor. In fact, remember at the end of Twice Upon a Time last Christmas, the newly regenerated Doctor is pulled out of the TARDIS and is free falling to Earth?. As Graham and Grace are on a train returning home, something enters the train. It’s withering coils and electricity is bounding its way through the train. That’s when the Doctor arrives, or rather, falls through the roof of the train. Basically, the creature on the train is looking for a man named Karl because he is being hunted by Tzim-Sha, a member of the Stenza warrior race who kill their targets through physical contact with their exposed sub-zero bodies and claim a tooth as a prize. The Doctor needs to not only stop Tzim-Sha but also figure out who she is!

I’m not going to cite the entire plot in this or in any of my reviews. You should watch it to know what happened. My job is to give my opinion on what this new era of Doctor Who is all about. There is a lot to talk about here. The first thing to hit me in the face was the pacing of the series. It’s funny to look back at Series 1 with Christopher Eccleston which, at the time was ultra-modern television storytelling and it is much slower to what we had in the last number of years under Steven Moffat. The pace of The Woman Who Fell to Earth is much slower than what we have seen in quite some time. I wonder if at times it is too slow in some areas?. I struggle with my thoughts for this because there is a need to take time to allow all the new elements to sink in. This is the first time we’ve had a complete change of production since The Eleventh Hour. It’s not just the Doctor we need to meet but also the new crew that will be joining her on her adventures. What I feel The Woman Who Fell to Earth does is ground the series and this is, in my opinion, very needed. I sometimes feel like continuity can be the series worse enemy so here we have an episode that has very little reference to the past. I would have been bothered about that in the old days but this was refreshing. It’s crazy that one of the only things familiar watching this is the regeneration animation while the Doctor is on the couch and the sound effect to the Sonic Screwdriver.

I feel the story isn’t necessarily anything remarkable. It some areas, I felt it really dragged. I wanted to give the plot a kick to get it going. I think some of my problem with it was that I wanted to get to the Doctor. She appears 9 minutes into the episode and that is a long time to wait. We have been waiting forever for her to start yet to be honest, I think it’s been just about 15 months from the time of her announcement to the role. So I do think when I sit down to watch it again, I have seen it twice so far, that I will be lenient to the pace. I think so much effort is put into focusing on the new Doctor that Tzim-Sha is just a side plot device but I really like the idea of Tzim-Sha as a cheater among his own race to get ahead. Also, I felt the concept of Tzim-Sha collecting teeth was a little hokey. That being said, the type of death he brought to people was gruesome. I love it when we don’t see stuff like this but we completely “get” how they die. It felt grown up; it felt important when these people died. The death of the grandfather at the construction company reminded us that these people lived a life and didn’t deserve to die; they were innocent bystanders.

The new team for the Doctor made their debut. I am looking forward to seeing their personalities but I feel like there wasn’t a lot of time to dig into who they were. We know that Ryan, Graham and Grace are a family. We know that Yasmin is a police officer who was looking for forwarding her career, not in a greedy way but in a way that would help people better. Yasmin and Ryan went to school together. She also was willing to follow the Doctor and risk losing her job by following the Doctor. Yes, this sounds like we know a lot about the characters but their personalities were all pretty agreeable. Over time, I look forward to learning more about them individually.

Then there is the Doctor herself. She is a fresh approach to the role. There is an eccentricity to her that doesn’t feel forced. She plays it in a sort of almost nutty professor sort of way. She’s forgetful, trying to remember things as she goes along. She does it with a fun energy but the part is played seriously. Perhaps my favorite characteristic with the new Doctor so far is that she is not some god-like power that is trying to intimidate to defeat evil. She doesn’t look at the human race as something that MUST have her guidance because she’s seen it all but rather she wants to help out wherever she can. She has a more polite tone when she tells Tzim-Shaw “Now, please – get off this planet, while you still have a choice.” It’s an approach I really appreciate and look forward to seeing more.

Behind the scenes, everything has changed too. Obviously Chris Chibnall has taken over. That we know. This is also the first episode since the series returned in 2005 that did not have music composed by Murray Gold. I have always been a fan of Murray Gold and will always champion his work but after over 10 years of music I think everyone deserves a rest. Enter Segun Akinola. The music is very low key. It’s not big themes but rather atmosphere that adds to the story. It’s different from what Murray Gold did and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean one is better over the other. It’s refreshing to hear something a little different and this lends itself to adding to the overall unfamiliarity to what we are watching. Uniquely, we did not see the new opening credits in this episode. My guess is that Chris Chibnall may have decided to hold off because she wasn’t the Doctor until the end thus beginning her era. That’s just a guess but we did get to listen the to the new theme arrangement at the end with the new end credits. It sounds good but I want to hear it a little more to decide. I think it is the best I’ve heard since Eccleston’s theme music in 2005 which also incorporated elements from the original theme. As a side note, Series 1 theme may be my all-time favorite arrangement of the theme.

The only thing weird about all of this was the strange procession of guest stars for the upcoming series. Some of them looked miserable and the whole thing was odd. I’ll be honest, I recognized maybe 4 people in that line up. I am not watching for the guest stars, I am watching for the stories. This year, all of the promos and trailer do nothing to show what we are going to see in the series as far as monsters or stories and I appreciate why it’s done but it made me feel like there was nothing to look forward to except for the new Doctor. I hope this strategy changes.

So much was made of the new lens for how the episodes would be shot and the cinematic aspect ratio. I see it! I really like it. Apart from the god-awful lens flares I thought that camera work and overall look was exceptional. I am really excited to see how it all looks when the action takes place on another planet.

Finally, there is Grace. Ryan’s grandmother who was full of love for everyone. I felt like she was the most thought-out character (besides the Doctor). I thought she was in the series on a semi-regular basis but she dies. It is emotional without forcing the emotion down our throats. It is a natural reaction to her dying and is more real than other deaths in the recent series. We find out that Ryan’s YouTube video about the greatest woman he ever knew was about his grandmother Grace. Is it possible that the title of the episode also actually alludes to her because she was such a strong character and like the Doctor, was Grace the woman who fell to earth to save others?

Next week: The Ghost Monument