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Doctor Who S11.01 The Woman Who Fell To Earth (actual thoughts)
If anyone is curious, here is a trailer for The Man Who Fell to Earth, the 1976 movie about an alien who fell to earth, starring David Bowie. As a title it’s a very clever pun, and thankfully the episode is nothing at all like the movie, except for the titular alien. (Not that it isn't a fascinating film, but um, not really suitable for children.)
But onto my thoughts, such as they are this early on.
Chibnall Who
So, after 6 years of poetry we are back to prose. This is neither a bad thing, nor an ‘improvement’, it’s just a different kind of storytelling. What it does mean is that I can’t really compare this story to The Eleventh Hour - which would be the logical thing to do (new Doctor, new showrunner, new everything) - since The Eleventh Hour is a fairy tale. (I know I just said Moffat Who is poetry, but as you know it has layers). Instead we need to go back to Russell T Davies’ ‘Rose’ to find the ‘ordinary people’ into whose ‘ordinary lives’ an alien comes crashing down (literally!). Now for an indepth exploration of what ‘Rose’ did, you should read Liz Sandifer’s People Made of Smoke and Cities Made of Song (Rose), which delves into how the ordinary ‘normal’ tv world that Rose belongs to is invaded by weird sci-fi and how it draws her (and us) in. (It’s good, but very, very, very, very, very long.)
Now, however, I think we are one step further. I have repeatedly said that they were re-booting Doctor Who. RTD started it, changing some of the fundamentals, inventing The Time War, making the Doctor a Lonely Wanderer with the all the attendant guilt & a god complex on top, so that people felt this was a new show, something different from the silly monsters and wobbly sets. When Moffat took over he began putting things back together, fixing the Doctor, fixing his world, saving Gallifrey, and making the Doctor a renegade again [who stole a magic box and ran away]. There was a lot of soul-searching along the way, but - it worked. Reboot complete!
Now as I began to mull over The Woman Who Fell to Earth I realised that the tone, the texture of it all felt like Classic Who. So, what we have now, I think, is simply the Classic show in modern format. Of course it was a single hour of TV, rather than broken up into 4 or 6 twenty-five minute episodes (and thank goodness for that!), but you could go from the old show straight to this and immediately know it was the same thing.
Where RTD had to entice the viewers, explain/remind what Doctor Who was and what it did, and why, Chibnall has no such concerns. The show has been on for 13 years. All he wants is to get on with making Doctor Who - and he can! (Which is quite funny, considering the old!skool fans who whined about a ~lady~ Doctor…)
Thirteen
One of the ways we see the change/evolution/whatever is in the Doctor herself. All of our post-Time War Doctors have been fairly guarded, with various kinds of walls (charm, distraction, lies, rudeness), and the difference in Thirteen lies in her openness. She readily communicates her emotions and thoughts, no fuss.
The most striking moment is probably when she is asked about her family, but rather than giving a swift answer and then moving on (signalling that this is something marked Private), she gives a quiet reflection on how she carries those she has lost with her (and she was totally speaking about her Companions/friends, and not just the family she lost millennia ago). I was half-expecting her to echo Two’s ‘they sleep in mind’. It’s disarmingly open, and something (IMHO) borne out of Twelve’s great introspection.
And I like how she describes herself as ‘just a traveller’. (The Doctor in the TARDIS, next stop everywhere…)
The episode isn’t exactly brimming over with meta, but Promethia and I identified two Doctor mirrors: A dark one and a light one.
Dark Mirror - Tim Shaw
Come to earth to find someone special/chosen
When they get home, they will be a ruler
Carries a piece of their victims with them
The chosen one is kept in stasis between life and death. They're 'not important.'
Kills people by freezing them
Cheats. Also, the Doctor infers, cheats because they feel inadequate by the standards of their people
Is an alien who falls to Earth
The Doctor uses their transport pod to try to get back to her transport pod. And threatens to strand them on earth just as she's stranded.
Light mirror - Grace
Nurse
Adventurous and curious, rushing towards danger
Looks after her family
Brave - ready to jump into danger, no matter the cost to herself
Is a woman who ‘falls to Earth’
Ryan's monologue at the beginning is meant to make it sound as if he's talking about the Doctor, but then we find out he's talking about his Nan
And then Grace dies and Tim Shaw *might* be dead, we don’t know if he had a way to stop the micro bombs.
I don’t really know what to do with any of that, or what it means - is it in any way significant that the Doctor’s ‘light’ mirror died? I don’t even know if it’s an intentional thing. It’s quite possible that Tim Shaw was just a dick, and Grace was a tragic death.
Having re-watched it to see what actually happens, it seems Thirteen’s plan was quite similar to both Ten’s first episode and Eleven’s - send the bad guy back home so thoroughly beaten that the species would stop coming to Earth. Which is nicely consistent. :)
The Companions
Well, the Companions (or friends) are lovely and I look forward to getting to know them better. There’s a great article here on the BBC that should definitely read if you haven’t already seen it. Doctor Who: How the dyspraxic assistant became my hero. And I am v sad that Grace died, and yes it’s problematic.
However, there is the fact that no one blames Thirteen for Grace’s death, nor does the Doctor try to take responsibility for it - Grave’s actions and choices were hers, and hers only.
My only caveat wrt our new Companions is that I am straight back to my main issue with ‘Rose’: The shopgirl was never a point of identification, and although she was very nice I had been promised an alien!
Exactly the same here, except this time I am not curious about who the Doctor is; no this time I am busy being delighted every second Thirteen is on the screen and finding the others… less exciting. Not thanks to any lack on their part, Thirteen is just that mesmerising. <3
And here is her theme:
But onto my thoughts, such as they are this early on.
So, after 6 years of poetry we are back to prose. This is neither a bad thing, nor an ‘improvement’, it’s just a different kind of storytelling. What it does mean is that I can’t really compare this story to The Eleventh Hour - which would be the logical thing to do (new Doctor, new showrunner, new everything) - since The Eleventh Hour is a fairy tale. (I know I just said Moffat Who is poetry, but as you know it has layers). Instead we need to go back to Russell T Davies’ ‘Rose’ to find the ‘ordinary people’ into whose ‘ordinary lives’ an alien comes crashing down (literally!). Now for an indepth exploration of what ‘Rose’ did, you should read Liz Sandifer’s People Made of Smoke and Cities Made of Song (Rose), which delves into how the ordinary ‘normal’ tv world that Rose belongs to is invaded by weird sci-fi and how it draws her (and us) in. (It’s good, but very, very, very, very, very long.)
Now, however, I think we are one step further. I have repeatedly said that they were re-booting Doctor Who. RTD started it, changing some of the fundamentals, inventing The Time War, making the Doctor a Lonely Wanderer with the all the attendant guilt & a god complex on top, so that people felt this was a new show, something different from the silly monsters and wobbly sets. When Moffat took over he began putting things back together, fixing the Doctor, fixing his world, saving Gallifrey, and making the Doctor a renegade again [who stole a magic box and ran away]. There was a lot of soul-searching along the way, but - it worked. Reboot complete!
Now as I began to mull over The Woman Who Fell to Earth I realised that the tone, the texture of it all felt like Classic Who. So, what we have now, I think, is simply the Classic show in modern format. Of course it was a single hour of TV, rather than broken up into 4 or 6 twenty-five minute episodes (and thank goodness for that!), but you could go from the old show straight to this and immediately know it was the same thing.
Where RTD had to entice the viewers, explain/remind what Doctor Who was and what it did, and why, Chibnall has no such concerns. The show has been on for 13 years. All he wants is to get on with making Doctor Who - and he can! (Which is quite funny, considering the old!skool fans who whined about a ~lady~ Doctor…)
One of the ways we see the change/evolution/whatever is in the Doctor herself. All of our post-Time War Doctors have been fairly guarded, with various kinds of walls (charm, distraction, lies, rudeness), and the difference in Thirteen lies in her openness. She readily communicates her emotions and thoughts, no fuss.
The most striking moment is probably when she is asked about her family, but rather than giving a swift answer and then moving on (signalling that this is something marked Private), she gives a quiet reflection on how she carries those she has lost with her (and she was totally speaking about her Companions/friends, and not just the family she lost millennia ago). I was half-expecting her to echo Two’s ‘they sleep in mind’. It’s disarmingly open, and something (IMHO) borne out of Twelve’s great introspection.
And I like how she describes herself as ‘just a traveller’. (The Doctor in the TARDIS, next stop everywhere…)
The episode isn’t exactly brimming over with meta, but Promethia and I identified two Doctor mirrors: A dark one and a light one.
Dark Mirror - Tim Shaw
Come to earth to find someone special/chosen
When they get home, they will be a ruler
Carries a piece of their victims with them
The chosen one is kept in stasis between life and death. They're 'not important.'
Kills people by freezing them
Cheats. Also, the Doctor infers, cheats because they feel inadequate by the standards of their people
Is an alien who falls to Earth
The Doctor uses their transport pod to try to get back to her transport pod. And threatens to strand them on earth just as she's stranded.
Light mirror - Grace
Nurse
Adventurous and curious, rushing towards danger
Looks after her family
Brave - ready to jump into danger, no matter the cost to herself
Is a woman who ‘falls to Earth’
Ryan's monologue at the beginning is meant to make it sound as if he's talking about the Doctor, but then we find out he's talking about his Nan
And then Grace dies and Tim Shaw *might* be dead, we don’t know if he had a way to stop the micro bombs.
I don’t really know what to do with any of that, or what it means - is it in any way significant that the Doctor’s ‘light’ mirror died? I don’t even know if it’s an intentional thing. It’s quite possible that Tim Shaw was just a dick, and Grace was a tragic death.
Having re-watched it to see what actually happens, it seems Thirteen’s plan was quite similar to both Ten’s first episode and Eleven’s - send the bad guy back home so thoroughly beaten that the species would stop coming to Earth. Which is nicely consistent. :)
Well, the Companions (or friends) are lovely and I look forward to getting to know them better. There’s a great article here on the BBC that should definitely read if you haven’t already seen it. Doctor Who: How the dyspraxic assistant became my hero. And I am v sad that Grace died, and yes it’s problematic.
However, there is the fact that no one blames Thirteen for Grace’s death, nor does the Doctor try to take responsibility for it - Grave’s actions and choices were hers, and hers only.
My only caveat wrt our new Companions is that I am straight back to my main issue with ‘Rose’: The shopgirl was never a point of identification, and although she was very nice I had been promised an alien!
Exactly the same here, except this time I am not curious about who the Doctor is; no this time I am busy being delighted every second Thirteen is on the screen and finding the others… less exciting. Not thanks to any lack on their part, Thirteen is just that mesmerising. <3
And here is her theme:
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My reaction to it was much more akin to a sustained squee of glee at the prospect of new Doctor who with the perfect actor in the role.
Oh, my gods that theme! ♥♥♥♥♥
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I saw! Twas brilliant. And WHO tries to explain things to someone who has actually written for Doctor Who? I can't even.
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