It's Grim Up North | Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell To Earth (Review)

The Woman Who Fell To Earth is the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, written by Chris Chibnall, who has now taken over from Stephen Moffat as Showrunner and Head Writer. Beforehand, I rewatched all of the previous ones written by Chibnall (AKA 'Chibs' to his friends), 42 from Tennant's era (some people use 'era' to describe an actor's time on a show, when, in his case, it was only five years. 'Era' feels like it denotes a longer timespan than that. It fits a monarch's reign better than an actor's tenure on a TV show.) The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship and The Power Of Three, from Matt Smith's tenure, all had a bright playfulness to them that TWWFTE certainly did not. Giving extra validity to the phrase, 'it's grim up North' by being set in Sheffield(God knows why), mostly at night and having a generally dour mood, Chibs' opening episode for new Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, is more like ones he wrote from Torchwood, the darker, more adult DW companion show on which Chibnall worked before being upgraded to Who. I understand the production team's desire to do Who differently but, honestly, this one was hard to get into, not least due to the lack of two of the most exciting aspects of a new Who...a fresh title sequence and main theme, as well as a regenerated TARDIS, neither of which did we get in TWWFTE.

I thought I heard the theme about to start when Ryan (Tosin Cole) touched a curious, glowing diagonal tunnel, shimmering in mid-air. How experimental would that be, how aptly metaphysical, for the new main titles to be activated by a character touching something within the story? The effect even had a similar look to the graphics of the titles used during Jon Pertwee's tenure. I even thought I heard the familiar bass line of the theme but no. My crazy brain interpreted the weird, unpeeled onion-like object Ryan found in the forest as an newly-created but unhatched TARDIS console. After the interior explosion seen at the end of previous episode Twice Upon A Time, as a post-regeneration Doctor was seen being ejected into space by the time machine, I imagined that the ship, having completely broken up within, yet being a partly organic, sentient being, recreated its constituent parts that were then distributed across spacetime and the Doctor had to assemble them in order to utilise her new TARDIS. This could've taken place across a one or two episodes, or even the whole 10 episode run, although, within the fiction of the show, this could take thousands of years to reassemble a ship of infinite proportions. Also, how would the Doctor travel to wherever the pieces were located? In the end, the object was actually a transport pod for T'zim Sha (AKA 'Tim Shaw', played by Samuel Oatley) of the Stenza race, the episode's main villain. No TARDIS as yet...

My hope rose for a new title sequence again, when The Doctor finally fell to Earth (after under 10 minutes but it felt like longer), crashing through the roof of a train, then leaping upright, with no visible ill effects of her swift descent from above the planet's atmosphere.When the new Doctor got up, I heard that familiar old bass line, only for my hope to lower again as I was denied a title sequence a second time! The incidental music (by Segun Akinola) was mostly made up of the kind of industrial, electronic groans and beats found in Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch's soundtrack to Blade Runner 2049, which worked well for that film's downbeat, futuristic tale but not really for Doctor Who. It's better than more from previous series compose, Murray Gold, who, despite doing great work on the show between 2005-2017, did a very annoying version of the theme tune that we had to endure for the whole 3 years of Capaldi's tenure.

Never mind, there's now a cool, sparky, tendrilly thing to enjoy...at last, because I was getting a bit bored of all these Northerners (bar Bradley Walsh) falling off bikes, etc (crikey, has Chibs gone back to Born & Bred?) Ooh, look, it's stung everyone, then buggered off through the roof! The Chase is ON! (Couldn't resist...)

Now we're in familiar territory, I felt that things were beginning to pick up a bit, although I was still struggling to care about these new characters. It's early days, though and this is almost as new to them as it is to me. This is the weirdest opening episode to a Doctor Who series I've ever seen, yet, it's at least better than the dreadful Deep Breath, which began Capaldi's tenure.

I enjoyed the Doctor's description of the regenerative process. 'I'm still rebooting, brain and body reformatting.' She says (I guess that's how she survived her earlier fall from the stars). 'There's this moment...when you're sure you're about to die and then...your born! it's terrifying.' She goes on, 'Right now, I'm a stranger to myself. There's echoes of who I was and a sort of *call* towards* who I am and I have to hold my nerve and trust all these new instincts, *shape* myself towards them. I'll be fine...in the end.' With dialogue like that, she surely will be and 'I'll/it'll be fine' is said enough to be in danger of reaching the status of a Doctor catchphrase ...something I dearly hope Chibs has also done away with from previous versions. Moments like this, though, remind me that I'm watching Doctor Who and there's hope, then, that the series' core positivity has been retained amongst all the gloom.

It's nice, though, that The Doctor refers to a newly regenerated body part (her nose, you pervs and gender obsessives!) as Ten did his 'new teeth', Eleven celebrated his 'new legs', yet Twelve bemoaned the colour of his fresh kidneys. 'This is gonna be fun!' Promises Thirteen I do hope so. The Thirteenth Doctor is quirky, scatterbrained, manic and excitable, which is encouragingly Doctorly but is hopefully just a post-regenerative effect, as it felt a little grating, at times. I liked the fact that The Doctor created her new Sonic Screwdriver ('Swiss Army knife') on Earth, which must be a first for the show.

Chibs has decreed a 'no cliffhangers' and 'no new monsters' rules for this series, which is slightly disconcerting, in that it could lead to an unmemorable monster of the week formula setting in, as new monsters often have less impact than the classics, like the Daleks or Cybermen, which is why they returned, over and over again, in the post-2005 series, I suppose. Then again, the comeback of old villains became a formula during Russell T Davies' time as Showrunner. Moffat at least played around with old villains, having them team up to trap The Doctor, for example.

So, excluding old enemies completely from Thirteen's first season could be a blessing, although Tim Shaw (good Northern name, that) is unlikely to become memorable. Whilst not an old Who villain, he is very reminiscent of an old Hollywood one; as an alien who scans his environment and hunts humans, retaining a body part from each victim as a trophy, he is like a child-friendly version of the Predator, collecting teeth, as opposed to a whole human skull, for his collection. Mr. Shaw looked like a generic Who villain for Thirteen to cut her, um, teeth (sorry...not to mention her nose) on, before moving on to, I hope, more interesting ones.

This episode was surprisingly dark for any DW episode, let alone the introduction of a new Doctor. There are always deaths in any story but to get a funeral as well felt a bit too much. Not to worry, I anticipated a new TARDIS interior to look forward to...and maybe a new rendition of the theme over the end credits, please?

Hope rose in me again as The Doctor set up some rig that she hoped would deliver her to her waiting, no doubt impressively redesigned, timeship. Nope, instead she's in space...with her new 'friends' (do we have  to call them that, now, instead of 'companions'?) Damn. Still, at least that's a beautiful shot of Jodie's hair and hood floating as she looks around to see her comp...*friends* with her. Ah! So it's a cliffhanger, then? If Chibs lied about that, then maybe he's keeping some old villains from us, too? So, no TARDIS, then but then, FINALLY, we get Akinola's new theme and what a cool version it, with a driving electronic beat and a faithful adherence to Ron Grainer's original. I was dubious but I guess I'll *have* to tune in next week, now...