Review of The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
I really wish I could remember the exact moment—I wasn’t taking notes during that first viewing—when one of my daughters felt moved to declare her verdict: “Yep, she’s the Doctor!”
I think that, no matter their view on changing up the actor’s gender, that question gets at the crux of what fans have really been especially anxious about for this particular regeneration: would the Doctor still feel like the Doctor? The answer we got after this opening episode of Jodie Whittaker’s first series was, as far as I’m concerned, a resounding “yes.”
It always takes me a while to warm to a new Doctor (the exception being Capaldi, whom I was so ready to love going in that he was the Doctor to me from the moment those attack eyebrows first appeared). Even though I’ve been eagerly anticipating Whittaker for months, it was a tough change even for someone as favorably inclined as me to wrap my head around. But my kiddo is right: she’s the Doctor. She showed us so over and over again throughout the episode as both she and we recognized some parts of herself and not others.
For example, when she first remembered she’d lost her TARDIS, she totally channeled Ten: “Don’t panic. Not the end of the world. Well, it could be the end of the world, but one thing at a time.” And there were strong shades of Seven’s treatment of the Daleks in Remembrance when she allowed Tzim-Sha/”Tim Shaw” to kill(?) himself with the DNA bombs she’d (indirectly) transferred back to him.
So the Doctor did plenty of Doctor-y things throughout the story, including not quite knowing who she was at first. She solved the puzzle like she always does, and that puzzle was complicated enough to be interesting without being so complicated as to be confusing. But—as one would expect from Chibnall—the real strength of the episode (and presumably the new era in general) was in its characters and their relationships.
I love that the newly-forming TARDIS crew is so diverse. With a woman of color and a disabled man of color joining our now-presenting-as-a-white-woman Doctor, it feels almost weird to have an old white dude, too. But Chibnall manages to make the mix feel mostly natural. Only the fact that Grace, an older and totally awesome woman of color, was far more obviously Companion material—confident, curious, instinctively running towards trouble and looking for ways to help others—than her timid, second husband Graham left me wondering how he would end up with the Doctor instead.
Of course, our cliffhanger moment gives us the answer. Only Sarah Jane Smith and Tegan Jovanka ever ended up making such a thoroughly unplanned trip with the Doctor to begin their travels. It will be fascinating to see not only how the Doctor gets them all out of their current pickle, but how the dynamics among the group evolve as they become one crew. And I have to say I like this episode-into-episode continuity that harks back to the Classic era.
I think “harking back” is one of Chibnall’s goals here. He hasn’t been blatant about it—no Daleks or Cybermen, no references to former Companions—but there’s a distinct flavor of what’s gone before, both in the Classic and modern eras (could Ryan’s YouTube video be any more Love & Monsters?). And the Doctor states it directly herself, inviting both her adversary and her audience to give this new paradigm a chance: “We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honor who we’ve been and choose who we want to be next. Now’s your chance. How about it?”
There’s a lot that’s “who we want to be next.” It’s great that such a large number of the supporting cast and extras are people of color. (This episode looked a lot less heterogeneous—more like my own neighborhood—than previous series have, and I can’t imagine there aren’t lots of British viewers who feel the same.) It’s great that even the “redshirts” occasionally get humanized (though how come it’s an older, white dude who gets a name and a grandkid, while a young man of color just gets to be a drunk with a salad?). And it’s great that the characters are modeling respect for each other and are given agency. (Yaz specifically asks Ryan if he’s okay climbing the crane, and he gets the chance to decide for himself whether or not he is.)
And one of the best parts of all is that the Doctor’s gender was a complete non-issue. It’s only mentioned once. “Why are you calling me madam?” she asks.
“Because you’re a woman,” replies the understandably confused Yaz.
“Am I? Does it suit me?”
Why yes, Doctor. Yes, it does.
FYI if it wasn’t clear to non-UK viewers the drunk guy was probably picking the salad out of his kebab. These are usually purchased on the way home after a night out at the pub or clubbing or both!
I loved the characterisations that Chibnall brought to the episode and in an introductory episode I can cut him some slack on the depth of the story (limited IMHO). The most amazing thing for me was that I barely noticed the Doctor’s gender, so hopefully the antis will be mollified somewhat, though I doubt it.
The only thing that I really didn’t like was the surviving the fall without a scratch. Yes I know it’s in the first 15 hours after regeneration but if a relatively small fall from a radio telescope can cause a regeneration then some acknowledgement that Te Doctor had just fallen several miles would have helped.
I have to say it was two days later before I realised that Grace was The Woman Who Fell to Earth. So maybe there was more subtlety that I have to reflect on.
And finally, after disliking Capaldi’s theme music with a passion the new theme was a delight and I barely noticed the background music during the episode, so another plus. Less is more (I’m looking at you Mr Gold!)
Well, you’re ahead of me—I still hadn’t caught on that the title referred to Grace! ~headdesk~
But yeah, your point about the fall from the radio telescope is valid, though Tennant also “survived” his fall from space before being (oh-so-slowly) killed by a huge dose of radiation, so…
I don’t mind a less complex plot. I’m really ready for more character-focused storytelling. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Overall I loved the episode but I had a few quibbles: She (and her clothes) were also in pretty darn good shape given the fall and entry through the train ceiling. I also couldn’t really buy into her being able to pick up a phone and have it instantly formatted and turned into a tracker.
As for the title, I thought it was a straightforward reference to the movie starring David Bowie, in this case it being the doctor who is minus her ship. But I dig the other interpretation.
I’m pretty sure the title was meant to be interpreted several ways. 🙂
The fall was pretty hard to accept, though I can headcanon it away with the “she was mid-regeneration” explanation. And reformatting the phone was the kind of handwavium that Doctor Who uses all the time. Yes, she could’ve used a bit more jiggerypokery, but that could’ve interrupted the forward momentum of the plot at that point.
In other words, I agree with your points to a degree, but for me, they didn’t pull me out of the story or interfere with my enjoyment.