#like how I was like in 2017 ‘chibnall as the new show runner

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DOCTOR WHO (SEASON 11, EPISODE 1) REVIEW:

Finally, our female doctor is here!

Jodie Whittaker was first announced in July of 2017, and now a year and a few months later: she’s officially The Doctor! We get to see her in action!

Now, if you don’t know what Doctor Who is, I’ll explain: this show is about The Doctor, who is an alien that travels through space and time with human companions. The Doctor can change (or regenerate, as they call it on the show) when he dies, which is the main reason the series has been going for more than 50 years now. There’s been 12 previous main Doctors; Matt Smith, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi were the last three actors to play the main character.

Every first episode of a new Doctor is meant to be a starting point for new fans to start watching. It works as a pilot. There’s so many episodes that you might not know exactly where to start. This first episode is meant to do that. For example, my first episode of Doctor Who was “The Eleventh Hour” of season 5, which is the Eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith) first episode. And other than the actual pilot of the 2005 series, this is one of the best places to start loving Doctor Who. This episode, the first episode of season 11, wins over both of those other episodes.

“The Woman who Fell to Earth” is not only the best introduction for our 13th Doctor, but I think it’s the best introduction to Doctor Who period.

This episode not only introduced Jodie Whittaker as our new Doctor, but also our new companions and our new Series Runner/Writer Chris Chibnall. We said (a much needed) goodbye to our past show sunner Moffat, on season 10. I was really excited to see how a new writer can bring a new perspective to the Doctor. We’ve had Moffat for such a long time now, that we really needed this new fresh take.

I think Chibnall did a great job in the pilot, we didn’t get too much information on The Doctor. Which is great because we’re placed in the same position as the companions. We usually get one or two companions, usually girls, but this season we have three people! We have Graham, Ryan and Yaz! A very diverse group! The last time we had three people as companions was with the 5th Doctor in 1980s.

And I feel like we really got to know each of the companions and how they know each other, their interactions were fresh and something we really haven’t seen before. They’re just humans! Which is just perfect for the Doctor; a nice contrast.

The plot itself was pretty simple by the end, compared to other more convoluted storylines we’ve had in past seasons. But it was engaging enough where I didn’t end up guessing what the ending was going to be! The alien was something we haven’t seen before (which is impressive after 50 years), and we really ended up caring about the companions!

Whittaker brings such spirit to the role of the Doctor! She really reminded me of the Third Doctor a bit. The Third Doctor’s main plot was that he was stuck on Earth without a Tardis (his time/space machine) and had to MacGyver a lot of his tools with normal objects he found on Earth. This is totally something Thirteen did in her episode! We usually don’t see a lot of modern Doctors have Third Doctor qualities; there’s usually more influence from the Second Doctor and the Fourth Doctor. But I found it really fascinating that they brought some qualities from the Three and the plot is really similar too! I love that!

Something I noticed was how much less dialogue this episode had! I feel like we got so much dialogue and just endless talking from Moffat that this felt so refreshing! Moffat is famous for his “clever” lines and they were great at first but after so many years, he realied on that more than necessary. Sometimes you don’t need characters so much; the performance benefits from it. Instead of telling us, this episode SHOWS us. And if that’s the theme for the rest of the season, I couldn’t be more excited for it.

Would I reccomend it? YES

10/10 Stars (but maybe I’m biased)

-- Mercedes

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