Hello, it is Reviewsday Tuesday and today I am going to be reviewing The Woman Who Fell to Earth,
The first episode of Doctor Who series 11,
Which is, of course, the first episode with Jodie Whittaker playing the thirteenth Doctor.
A few years ago I reviewed every episode of Doctor Who series 8.
I am not going be doing the same for series 11 unfortunately.
My plan is to review this episode and then the series as a whole at the end.
I couldn't wait months to talk about Jodie Whittaker
So we just have this random review of the first episode and then a normal review of the whole series.
Just a note to start: I will be including spoilers for the episode
So please don't watch this review if you haven't seen the episode yet.
The episode is set in Sheffield and we meet Ryan Sinclair
And his grandmother, Grace, and her husband, Graham.
Ryan has dyspraxia and Grace and Graham are helping him to learn to ride a bike.
After Ryan gets frustrated he comes across a weird pod in the woods.
He calls the police and Yasmin Khan comes to investigate
And it turns out the two know each other from school.
Meanwhile Grace and Graham are getting the train home
And they come across a weird spherical, tentacled alien creature thing
And they also come across the Doctor, who falls into the carriage,
Then the whole big group team up to try and work out what these two weird alien things are doing in Sheffield.
I really like how we got to meet the companions, well, the Doctor's new friends, first.
They are already part of the story, part of the mystery, before the Doctor even appears.
And I really liked that choice, to make us wait a bit to see the Doctor.
It good jumping on point for Doctor Who
Because we start off with a bunch of normal people who we can relate to and recognise
And crucially don't know about aliens beforehand,
They are discovering this brave new world and we are discovering it with them.
I really loved all these new characters, Tosin Cole was so fantastic as Ryan
And I loved his relationship with Grace and Graham.
And although I feel like we got to know Yasmin Khan less,
I was interested enough in her to be excited to see how her character progresses
And I'm really interested to see how all these relationships change over the course of the series,
Even discounting the Doctor.
And now on to the Doctor!
Jodie Whittaker felt like the Doctor immediately to me, which was really exciting to me.
I liked how she was recognisably the Doctor in traits and personality
Even before she could remember who she was.
I liked how much of a team player she was
And how she took charge but without alienating her new friends,
And there are a lot of things in this doctor that I am really excited to see, again as the series progresses.
I thought the episode was well paced overall, I think it was the right length,
And generally I think of Doctor Who episodes as having to be be 45 minutes long
Just because that's what I started the show with.
And I really liked the tone, it felt a little darker.
There was quite a lot of death, including of one of the main characters.
I could have done without that particular death, to be honest,
Although I think she will be back in some form which is interesting.
But I liked the sort of theme of things not going perfectly and not ending perfectly
But that life still goes on and that there is still light to be found and purpose to be sought,
And that that's okay, and there's merit in continuing on.
Ryan never managed to ride a bike, we still don't have a TARDIS.
Everything didn't tie up neatly and I liked that. There's a lot to explore in the future.
Visually, I really loved the episode.
That felt to me like one of the big changes for Doctor Who.
It felt very cinematic. I loved the way that Sheffield was shot.
There were some great choices made I thought in the overall look of the episode.
So I really enjoyed this episode, as you may have gathered.
It reminded me of how I felt when I first started watching Doctor Who in 2005.
I had that excitement to see more, to see where the characters are going and where the story is going.
The episode did have its flaws.
It did have a lot of things to do and to introduce in a short space of time and you could see that sometimes,
I am also, as I said before, sad about Grace,
And I would have liked to have felt like I got to know Yasmin a little better in the episode,
I think there was time for that,
I feel like I got to see enough of her but I don't feel like I got to know enough of her.
But that's something to look forward to in the future because this is just episode 1.
But despite those things I felt like it was a fantastic start to the series
And a good introduction to Doctor Who as a whole.
It feels like it's been quite a while since the last good jumping on point
So it feels exciting just from that perspective.
And I can't wait to see how the series grows over the next few weeks.
I will give The Woman Who Fell to Earth 4.5 out of 5.
I would love to know what you think about the episode and of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor.
Did you like it as much as me? Did you like it a little bit?
Did you not like it? Were you disappointed? Were you really excited?
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I hope you have a fantastic day and I will see you later on in the week!