TV Review Dr Who The Woman Who Fell To Earth

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Lovely first episode Quite a nice fast paced intro, Jodie Whittaker is full of wry cheeky humour and frantic pacing even in dialogue, constantly trying to be somewhere else. Shouting down aliens with 'Oi' is the new Alonse catch-phrase. The companions were mostly just tagging along and doing as they were told. Some lovely moments, especially the new Sonic Screwdriver with added Sheffield Steel. The creature of the week was basically Predator, with its teeth trophies quite a grizzly add-on touch. Bradley Walsh is like a slightly younger version of Bernard Cribbins's Wilfred Mott. There was some expositional talk, as characters spent a lot of time telling us what each of them already knew. The finale fight on the crane ending in tragedy was a huge contrast to the light-weight fun of the rest of the episode. The other deaths were of fairly unknown characters, but Ryan's Nana's death was less expected and how it tied to his Youtube broadcasts was really poignant. The train crash and human character reactions were not too convincing. Most passengers are seen leaving the train safely but no one calls out the emergency services? Yasmin's fellow officers make no effort to find her, nor does she report herself safe. Overall, a fun episode to start the series with a great new Doctor and reluctant companions who should hopefully grow on us as the series rolls on. I expect the TARDIS should reappear soon. The character being hunted in himself seems rather unambitious for the hunter, and in pushing him off the crane after the Doctor has already effectively killed him by triggering the DNA bombs she transferred back into him seemed to make her 'no right to do that' statement superfluous. The entity was doomed anyway. I thought her ragged Capaldi outfit looked even better than the one she finally settled on. Arthur Chappell