Rate and Review S11E1: The Woman Who Fell To Earth

[Philipnet]

A New Doctor

And She's a Woman!

But was it Doctor Who?

[SiHart]

I really enjoyed it.

Jodie just is the Doctor. She hit the ground running and like Matt Smith, I just loved her from the moment she arrived. No doubts, she was just absolutely right.
I liked her making things! I hope she does a lot of that!

Sheffield looked fantastic. I knew lots of those places from my time there are university!

The story was simple but effective. The New regulars seem to be good. Poor Grace though!

The New theme is bloody awesome!

[Philipnet]

It seems the Poll system isn't playing ball with us tonight , so please give it a score out of 10

[SiHart]

8.5 from me!

[Rob McCow]

I really enjoyed that. This might be the best Doctor Who has ever been.

It got so much right, so many beautiful and iconic moments from Ryan riding his bike at the top of the hill to Jodie emerging in her new outfit - my god I cheered at that.

Bulletpoints of random thoughts:

• The alien seemed properly weird and dangerous. The glowing lights in the forest and the colourful pod were bizarre. Then he's got - not a necklace of teeth as you might expect, but TOOFS IN HIS FACE! And he's called Tim Shaw!
  The tension in the train sequence was magnificent. I was so excited. What a thrilling introduction to the new Doctor!
  Holding off on remembering her name was a great touch.
  OMG Bradley Walsh was bloody good wasn't he?

In summary, it was a bit like Matt Smith ep "The Power of Three" if that had been really good. Can't wait for next week!

[Dino]

Can accept Jodie will grow on me as a Doctor. It's never looked as gorgeous, it's never had such effective scores. But the dialogue just seemed well as if they didn't want to upstage fan productions(!).
If it's onwards for the show from here then we've got mine weeks of highs coming!
I suppose it would feel as if The Caretaker was the first thing from series 8.
I enjoyed it. None of the cast really stood out for me.
See what they mean about user friendly. Marking hard but I don't think it's higher than ,7.
Well imagine how the photography will seem in the series classics? The dialogue interactions I can't get into. But OK. 9 to go. There's going to be some really amazing nights to come. Did the job, but not enough to keep the job (not heard back from my job interview for another week btw).

So a sixy seveny it was good. But not out from the gate. Enough to keep me coming back next week though!
IMO as it goes.

[Andrew Curnow]

Other than 'by the end I found that I really loved it' I'm struggling to articulate much of a response. Jodie's superb, but actually so are all 'the gang' - the fact that I was genuinely shocked when Grace fell & died shows how much I'd warmed to her, and the others, in such a short time. And Bradley W superb, especially in the funeral scene, beautifully managing NOT to overdo it.

It's possible the phrase "Lee Mack?!" may have been shouted out as the episode ended - followed by "Art Malik?!" and "The guy from Sex & The City!!"

If I hadn't been so busy shouting out random celebrity names I'd have had more of a chance to listen to the new theme arrangement - so I don't know whether that was good, bad, or just plain weird. But, given the rest of the episode, I suspect really really good!!

[Alex]

I enjoyed it a fair deal, mainly because Jodie was so superb. The story was a bit by the numbers and the sort of plot I've seen in other sci-fi shows / comics, but it worked as a decent introduction to all of the characters. I kind of guessed that Grace was going to die given that she's not one of the new companions (which is a bit of a shame as I think she'd have been great) but other than that I've no complaints. 7.5/10 and it would have been a bit higher if the plot had been more intriguing, but I'm optimistic it's only going to get better and better. As long as they bring back the title sequence of course, I was miffed we didn't get to see the new one!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

A very strong start. My husband really enjoyed it which is always a good sign (and a huge relief after four years of a Doctor he really DIDN'T like!).
Really great to have a genuinely fresh feel to the series and a nice mix of action and quieter poignant moments (loved the scene of the Doctor referencing lost family members).
8/10 for me.

[duncan]

A 7 from me.

I liked Jodie but found her a touch hyper at times. I'm sure that will settle down as she is still regenerating. I liked the companions and was glad Bradley wasn't there just for the laughs. The incidental music has been toned down and I'm grateful for that as I could actually here the dialogue. The new theme is great and sounds quite old school on first hearing. I look forward to hearing it over the opening titles.

I suspect we may be Tardis hunting for the bulk of the series but I could be wrong and was pleased to see the episode end on a cliffhanger. I've always hoped the series would go down the Lost in Space and Quantum Leap route and end on a cliffhanger each week so I for one am hoping for more of the same. The cliffhanger is something I have missed since 2005. There's just not enough of them anymore.

All in all, a good start and I look forward to more.

[MacNimon]

I'll give it a 6. There was a lot to like about this, but post-regeneration stories don't really tend to be among my favourites anyway going back through the majority of Doctors. Too much finding their feet/setting the scene sort of stuff interferes with a good story.

However, this was a good story here, albeit padded out to an hour. I liked the straightforward storytelling, not trying to be too smart or pretentious. A bit more 'old school' so let's hope they continue in this vein.

I'm not convinced by Jodie yet, but importantly she wasn't unlikeable just a bit grating...I'd file under 'trying too hard' at the moment (I found that it's actually a bit reminiscent of Derek Jacobi's Master regenerating into John Simm). Hopefully she'll calm down a bit once the regeneration stuff is done with. Bradley Walsh rather reminded me of a weaker version of Bernard Cribbins Wilf from a few years back, but not quite as likeable. The other characters were ok but nothing spectacular so far.

The post-credits 'Coming Soon' seemed a bit pointless...just an endless stream of forthcoming guest-stars (many of whom I'd never heard of!) rather than showing us some exciting scenes to grab our attention.

Overall, a bit overlong and dull at times. Tried too hard, but can't fault them too much for this as it's their first episode. I'm reasonably optimistic about the future though, casting a woman is neither the greatest thing that's ever happened to the series, nor is it it's death-knell as the naysayers would have you believe. But Jodie has to be more than just a female Tennant-style Doctor (which is what she seemed to be trying for). It has rather predictably fell somewhere in the middle, not living up to the hype.

Still looking forward to next week though!

[Alex]

The post-credits 'Coming Soon' seemed a bit pointless...just an endless stream of forthcoming guest-stars (many of whom I'd never heard of!) rather than showing us some exciting scenes to grab our attention.

Mette and I hate trailers so turned it off the moment it began, but then I read online that it didn't give anything away in the slightest and so watched it and thought it was a bit odd as I didn't know many of them, though a lot seem to be stars of soaps or gritty crime dramas. I guess they just don't want to give anything away about the forthcoming season which suits me perfectly as I'm a spoiler-phobe, but I can understand why most would want more from it.

[Stuart Wallis]

A decent enough first episode, particularly for a new Doctor. I like the new companions. but I have problems with the Doctor - not with gender, but with the costume - still hate it, and think she'd have been better off with Capaldi's - and with Jodie's voice; nobody's fault, but unfortunately it's like fingernails down the blackboard to me, and she sounds like Jane Horrocks. At the moment, let's give her time to settle in, the doctor is like a cross between Tennant and Bubble.

7/10

[Antony Cox]

I rather enjoyed The Woman Who Fell To Earth!

Although Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor seems to share the tenth and eleventh’s trait of being a chatter-box who scarcely draws breath, there’s something fresh and exciting about her (other than the obvious).

While I think that the Doctor being a woman will give the series a much-needed re-boot, the only thing which will take a bit of getting used to is when other characters are actually calling her ‘Doctor’ – it’s just a bit jarring against what we’re used to!

Not sure I’m totally convinced about the new theme arrangement, though. I really like the melody itself – it definitely has haunting quality of the original version – but the bass line is just weird!

Loving the new incidental music, though. It has a totally different feel to Murray Gold's output, and far less intrusive.

7/10

[Paul Clement]

I hate to say it, but that episode realky bored me. I ended up stopping watching it with about 20 minutes left to go and watched the rest a couple of days later. Jodie was ok in the role but the story was poor and didn't do her any service.

3/10 from me

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[Rob McCow]

I hate to say it, but that episode realky bored me.

To my mind it did sag a bit in the middle. Perhaps it didn't really need to be an hour long.

However the good bits more than made up for it. The aliens felt really weird and different. I loved the build up in the first third and the showdown with the tentacle-thing on the train, I thought that was wonderful.

What tipped it for me were the scenes with Ryan on the bicycle, which I found very involving. Then there was poor old Grace and her funeral, with Graham's speech which I found very moving.

The scenes with the guy filming the pod in the warehouse were where it dragged. We didn't need the security guard getting killed in the compound either, that seemed a bit forced. "Hey kids, I'll be home soon, one more week to retirement!" That guard was doooomed.

Like a lot of things though, a few minor tweaks and a bit of tightening up might have made all the difference.

Chibnall was running Broadchurch before this, which I haven't seen, but wasn't that episodes and episodes of nothing happening interspersed with tense drama?