I get more of a Ten vibe off her - that same sort of eager-puppy act that Tennant was good at.
You must have had some interesting bedtime stories.
If you’re going to compare it to previous episodes it needs to be against the first eps for the other NuWho Doctors. On that basis I thought this was a lot sharper and fast-paced than “The Eleventh Hour” and packed more substance than “Rose”. It’s probably comparable to “The Christmas Invasion”, and I can’t even remember Capaldi’s first full episode. Anyway, it ticked all the boxes for a new Doctor episode - sets the tone for the Doctor, hooks in the new companions with appropriate backstory, and sets up a few potential plot points for the future (for example, there’s no way we got told the Stenza are holding humans in stasis without there being a future rescue attempt). A solid start to the season. Here’s hoping the writing quality goes up from here rather than down.
I’m not sure what the point of the “here’s all the guest stars for the season” montage was. I didn’t know who at least half of them were (and Susan Lynch, up next episode, is unrecognisable).
Floating, not blowing. But I agree they all look way too okay to be in actual space.
As for talking too much, with the possible exception of Nine most of the NuWho Doctors have tended to babble. Twelve was annoying as hell in his preachy moments.
Funny, but the Doctor has always been a jury-rig kind of guy, although usually it’s “point the screwdriver and click”. This time she built one from scratch.
It was a regeneration episode, so I didn’t expect too much from it, except as an introduction to the new Doctor and companions.
As that, it did well. I liked Number 13, and the companions seem interesting. I was worried when Ryan began the episode talking about the most incredible woman he’d ever met, but was relieved that we didn’t have a companion who was secretly in love with the Doctor. They all seem to be ordinary people caught up with The Doctor - in other words, proper companions, not Super Secret Extra Special People.
It was better than most of the last season, so that is promising. Jodie Whittaker seemed solid enough. It at least was good enough for a few more episodes.
Also former Whoniverse evil alien Elijah Spellman / Odd Bob the Clown / the Pied Piper (he appeared in different guises) in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode “The Day of the Clown”. I’m not particularly clown-phobic but Odd Bob is one of the few Doctor Who villains to seriously creep me out. The character abducted children and tucked them away in another dimension to feed off their fear until they faded away, which was creepy enough. But Walsh played Odd Bob with an odd tilt of the head and a quiet Texan twang that, without ever being overt about it, projected an amoral glee in the pain and anguish he was causing that was chilling.
A pity that the rest of the episode was awful and he was defeated with a magic rock.
For an episode primarily focused on character development and also attempting to introduce new fans to the universe I am quite impressed.
Jodie did a great job as expected and I am betting that most people who had concerns will be less concerned about the casting even if the change in show runners impact is still to be seen.
With a new Doctor, a whole new set of companions, and a new showrunner, I did not expect it would be terrific. I expected an OK episode as the new series just starts to find its legs. But the episode was actually better than I thought it would be, if (as mentioned above) it was just a riff on “Predator.”
Jodie is good in the main role, but I agree that some of the Doctor’s typical “zaniness” is a little forced. But that’s probably imposed upon her as a continuity thing…Chibnall telling her to “channel Tenant or Matt Smith a bit.” I expect she’ll find her own characterization soon enough.
Her speech towards the end (paraphrasing) “We can change! We can keep the essence of ourselves while evolving and becoming different.” That seemed like a meta-message to the haters out there who are furious about a female Doctor. I felt it was a bit too “on the nose” and probably unnecessary.
The show looks terrific! I can’t remember an episode that looked as cinematic as this one did (barring a few minor bad SFX shots - the alien’s face with the teeth, etc.)
My one big concern is that there are now too many regular characters. I fear it’s going to end up like Peter Davidson’s era of the Doctor - the hero and three sidekicks and simply not enough episodes or time to flesh them all out or to give all of them something meaningful to do. As it was, this episode had too many scenes of the Doctor running around doing things with a whole gaggle of companions (excuse me, friends) standing in the background looking puzzled.
Of the three new companions, Ryan stands out the most. But perhaps that’s because the story gave him a little more attention and at least a rudimentary story arc. So far, Graham and Yaz seem like they’d be decent secondary characters like Mickey or Wilf, but there’s nothing too exciting about them. I hope that changes.
No offence but ya, grumpy old man mode. The Dr has often held the hypocritical view on weapons and soldiers, abhors violence and then destroys billions of lives or entire civilizations.
This conundrum has been mentioned and explored enough to make it expected, and the fact that Sheffield is known for it’s knives; the statement was probably meant to directly demonstrate the Doctors lack of social refinement.
This comment in Sheffield would be like setting an episode in Wisconsin and dissing cheese.
I really liked Whittaker as the Doctor. The alien predator story was kinda crap, but the overall look and feel of the episode was good. Looking forward to more.
Speaking of which, why did she give the crane operator shit when he knocked Tim Shaw off the crane? I think the fact that he was being hunted Predator style does in fact “give him the right to do that”.
Also, am I to understand that after hundreds of years of invasions and incursions by Daleks, Cybermen, and dozens of other civilizations, every single one of them was concealed such that to this day the concept of aliens from other planets is still considered absurd?
It is a show about a time traveling alien with a time machine that looks like a 1960’s police phone box. I personally don’t really bother looking too closely at the suspension of disbelief. As time travel is absolutely impossible from what we currently know it wouldn’t make it very far and enjoy the show.
The Doctor’s companion, Leela, carried a knife. On the other hand, regeneration sometimes changes the Doctor’s opinions, and the Doctor sometimes seems to say things just to say them, without being very serious about them.
At this point in the series, I think most people are aware that aliens exist, but don’t expect to meet them. On the other hand, public knowledge of aliens (which clearly did exist in the Tennant era) might have been erased by any number of subsequent events that either affected the minds of everyone on Earth, or actually affected the timeline.