Doctor Who (2005) 11-01: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Episode:

841

|

Serial:

277

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

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Air Date:

07-Oct-2018

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who series 11, episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth. It's the very first Jodie Whittaker story, arriving just 14 months after the end of series 10.

We're actually in year 13 of the revival series now (we didn't get seasons in 2009 or 2016), and the classic series ran for 26 years so it's halfway to matching it! If you're curious, if the classic series had started airing in March 2005, we'd be up to The Talons of Weng-Chiang right now, three years into Tom Baker's run. Somehow I don't think they'd get away with airing that in 2018 though.

There's been two distinct eras to the modern series so far: the Russell T Davies era of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and the Steven Moffat era of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors. But with this we've entered the third era, of Chris Chibnall and the Thirteenth Doctor. Man, it's going to get awkward writing the Doctor's names out like this once we reach the One Hundred and Twenty-First Doctor. The transition from RTD to Moffat was pretty noticeable, and that was with a lot of the team staying on, including composer Murray Gold. This time around they've apparently got a lot of new people working on it and it seems like it's going to be a much bigger change in tone and style. But I don't know yet as I'm writing this intro before I've watched it.

I have seen a few of Chris Chibnall's episodes before though, like The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and The Power of Three, and to be honest I don't see this series being disappointing in the same way Steven Moffat's run could be sometimes. Because I had sky-high expectations for Moffat's episodes after he amazed me with his early stories and I'm just hoping I'm not too bored during these ones.

There will be SPOILERS for the episode below and perhaps earlier ones as well, but I'll say nothing about happens after it. And not just because it's the latest episode and I don't know what happens next. I won't be spoiling the David Bowie movie The Man Who Fell to Earth either as I've never seen it.

Doctor Who (2005) 8-01: Deep Breath

Episode:

801

|

Serial:

242

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Writer:

Steven Moffat

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Air Date:

23-Aug-2014

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the first story to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. I keep forgetting if it's called Don't Breath or Deep Breath though. I'm fairly sure it's not Don't Speak at least, because that's a song.

Peter Capaldi was the oldest actor to the take the role, as he was 56 at the time he filmed this, just slightly older than William Hartnell had been when he made An Unearthly Child. That means this is the biggest age gap between Doctors, as Matt Smith had been the youngest. Unless you count John Hurt and complicate everything.

There was no change in showrunner this time, as Steven Moffat remained the producer and main writer, but there was a bit of a shift in tone for this era. I've noticed some people aren't all that keen on the Peter Capaldi seasons, but I've also noticed that it's usually the writing that gets blamed for that. Me, I think that all of Doctor Who's seasons are a mess, classic and modern, with plenty of terrible stories to go along with the great ones, and the Twelfth Doctor's seasons were no exception.

Just this once I've decided not to bother warning people about the massive SPOILERS below this point, so if this is the first review you've seen on my site and you don't know by now that I only drop in spoilers for other Doctor Who stories that aired before it and none that came afterwards, then that's your own problem I'm afraid.

Doctor Who (2005) 5-01: The Eleventh Hour

Episode:

757

|

Serial:

203

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

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Director:

Adam Smith

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Air Date:

03-Apr-2010

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing words about The Eleventh Hour: the first episode of series five, the Steven Moffat era and the Eleventh Doctor's four year run.

This is the first time we've been introduced to a new Doctor, companion and producer at once since Rose. In fact it's only happened five times ever: An Unearthly Child, the TV movie, Rose, The Eleventh Hour and the upcoming Girl Who Fell to Earth. It's become a tradition in the revival series for each new producer to get a bit of a clean slate but that wasn't the case in the classic show.

It's also the first time the Doctor's number has been referenced in the episode title. The Eleventh Doctor was played by Matt Smith who remains the youngest actor to take the role. He was 27 at the time, almost 30 years younger than William Hartnell was when he first stepped into the Tardis. This wasn't Smith's first time playing the role though, as besides his cameo at the end of The End of Time, he also filmed both episode of The Time of Angels first. So he'd had a bit of practice by this point.

The episode was originally going to be called The Doctor Returns, but Moffat decided to come up with something else because the Doctor hadn't actually gone anywhere. He finally got a chance to use the title for the 2016 Christmas Special after the series took a year off, but he gave it a bit of a Spanish twist, turning it into The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

One last first: this was probably the first episode of Doctor Who that I decided to watch properly, from the start, and I think I even watched it the day it aired. Well okay, I also saw the TV movie, but that's not an episode so it doesn't count.

Warning: There'll be SPOILERS below for the episode and perhaps earlier ones. No spoilers for later stories though.

Doctor Who (2005) - Christmas 2005: The Christmas Invasion

Episode:

710

|

Serial:

167

|

Writer:

Russell T. Davies

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2005

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about another episode of Russell T Davies era Doctor Who!

This one's called The Christmas Invasion because it's the first of Doctor Who's annual Christmas specials. I don't watch enough TV to know what kinds of series usually get Christmas specials and how rare they are, but I do know that the classic series never had any. Well okay, it had a Christmas episode one time in 1965, but that's only because serials would continue throughout December back then and Christmas Day just happened to coincide with one of the episodes. But since Christmas Invasion they haven't missed a year, even on occasions where they pretty much took the rest of the year off (I'm looking at you 2009 and 2016).

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point, for this story and perhaps earlier ones as well. For instance, I'm going to spoil that this is David Tennant's first episode as the Tenth Doctor.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-01: Rose

Episode:

697

|

Serial:

157

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Air Date:

26-Mar-2005

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Rose, the first episode of modern Doctor Who. Because after writing about the first eight Doctors it seemed a shame not to write about a Ninth Doctor story.

It's kind of amazing to me that this actually features the actual Ninth Doctor instead of a new First Doctor, and they didn't reset the continuity despite the huge gap between stories. This aired 9 years after the TV movie and 15 years after the final episode of the classic series. Doesn't quite beat the 18 year gap between Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Original Series but it's pretty close.

Here's some more facts for you, to save me from writing an actual introduction:

• This is the first of just three episodes of Doctor Who to have a companion's name in the title (four if you count the Feast of Steven chapter of The Daleks' Master Plan). The others are Smith and Jones and Amy's Choice.
• The episode had the shortest title in all of Doctor Who's then 42-year history until it was beaten a couple of years later by an episode called 42. I don't think that one's in any risk of getting outdone any time soon.
• If they'd kept the numbering, this would've been the first episode of season 27.
• It's the first season opener since The Ribos Operation in 1978 to introduce a new companion, and the first to also introduce a new Doctor in the same story since 1970's Spearhead from Space.
• It's the first story since Mission to the Unknown in 1965 to not feature a single returning actor (even the TV movie had Sylvester McCoy).
• It was directed by Keith Boak, the same guy who did the farting aliens in the Aliens of London two-parter and then never came back. Though to be fair he didn't write it. The episode was written by Russell T Davies, the same guy who wrote the farting aliens in the Aliens of London two-parter. Also the producer for this era.
• I'm not actually sure if I watched this episode on the day it aired, the only Doctor Who I'd seen at that point was the 1996 TV movie, so I wasn't exactly hyped. But it seems very plausible that I walked into a room with it on, saw a wheelie bin burp and then walked back out again. (I watched it a few years later though).

This is going to be a full recap review commentary full of screencaps and SPOILERS, so I'd suggest watching the episode first before reading it. In fact, to be safe you should probably watch all 696 classic episodes as well, even though I'm sure any spoilers I drop about them will be incredibly minor. And I'll be spoiling absolutely nothing about episodes that aired after it; I won't even say the words 'bad wolf' because there's no reference to them in this story at all.

Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Era (1996)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I finally get to stop writing about that bloody Twitch Doctor Who marathon I watched over the summer. I'm all out of classic episodes now, but I do have some a few lists for you and maybe some final thoughts. Also, the 1996 TV movie wasn't actually part of the Twitch marathon or the classic TV series, but it didn't seem right to leave out the Eighth Doctor, so I'm giving you a bonus review as well! You probably guessed that already from the title though.

It's weird how the Eighth Doctor's run ended just as soon as it began, but his logo stuck around in continuous use longer than any other. This slightly modernised version of the Third Doctor's logo introduced here went on to be used for things like books, DVDs and Big Finish audios relating to the classic era for 22 years, until everything was unified under the gold Jodie Whittaker logo this year. Which is good, because to be honest this is maybe my favourite logo of all of them, classic or modern.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for the TV movie and I might even throw in the odd spoiler for the classic series, but I'll not spoil anything that might happen during the revival series. Not even that.

Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor Era (1987-1989)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of classic Doctor Who! This is it, these 12 serials I'm writing about here were the last ones I watched during that two-month Twitch marathon I sat through. That also means that they're presumably the most vivid in my mind, dramatically increasing my chances of remembering things that happened in them!

I definitely remember how glad I was that they'd changed the bloody logo. RIP that terrible neon tube logo, 1980-1986. I get the impression this 3D rendered opening title sequence isn't many people's favourite, especially considering how dated the effects look now, but I'm just happy that it was something different (plus I like the chunky metal WHO). It was nice to get a new arrangement of the theme as well, even though it's far from being my favourite.

There will be SPOILERS below, so if you don't want episodes ruined by a stream of spoilery opinions you'd best leave the article alone for now. Though I'll only ever be spoiling backwards, never forwards, so I'm going to resist the temptation to bring up Asylum of the Daleks or The Magician's Apprentice while writing about Remembrance of the Daleks.