Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Big Questions After 'The Woman Who Fell To Earth'

10. Exactly How Different Was This Doctor Who?

Series 11 has been heavily marketed as a new direction for the show. A break from the heavily nostalgic and complex plotting of recent years and the perfect entry point for new fans.

It was pretty evident from this first script that characters have been prioritised over story. This was very much a back to basics approach with the Doctor stepping in to save the day and by making the threat personal rather than global it allowed the dialogue to focus on the individual characters – the Doctor, the new companions and the Stenza’s target Karl. Even the alien was treated as an individual, with his own personal hang-ups and ambitions.

The Doctor is immediately more accessible than her predecessors, happy to settle for tea and a fried egg sandwich – a deliberate contrast to the Eleventh Doctor’s quirky fish-fingers and custard. Indeed, this story is what The Eleventh Hour might have been had Amy not been such a mysterious character, or had the plot not been part of a wider series-long arc. With Yaz a probationary Police Officer we have moved away from the ‘not as it seems’ approach of much of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who, which was initially signalled by Amy Pond turning out to be a strip-o-gram and not a real officer.

There is much here to delight the long-term fan, however – from the sampling of the original theme tune to the presentation of the Doctor as a great improviser and blagger. “Don’t worry, I have a plan” is a line that could have been uttered by any of the Doctors, before stepping into the breach in blind faith. The Doctor is still very matter-of-fact about death, only this time she doesn’t walk away oblivious to the impact on her human friends. She takes stock, considers, watches and above all understands.