Doctor Who Series 11: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best
5. The Woman Who Fell To Earth
Establishing a fresh direction for the series, whilst retaining a continuity with the past is the basic goal for any new producer who wants to make his or her mark. The Woman Who Fell To Earth succeeds in that respect. Doctor Who certainly felt different with Chris Chibnall’s opening episode. It was more like Torchwood meets Stranger Things with its rather gruesome villain and dark and ominous tone. Grace’s death was a shock and became the central peg of this let’s do things differently from Steven Moffat rationale that the BBC had barely disguised in the build-up.
One thing that wasn’t dark was the character of the thirteenth Doctor. Whittaker radiates positivity and that alien naivety of a hero who believes in us. Gone is both the grandstanding and the borderline narcissism of Moffat’s Doctors with Messianic Complexes. This is a Doctor who owns her vulnerability and her need to have others around her.
The regeneration story isn’t meant to be a complex affair and this plays well to Chibnall’s character driven approach. A serviceable, but unremarkable plot is all that is required here. With great economy Chibnall is able to elicit from the audience just enough empathy and understanding to buy into the new companions in the making. To expect us to feel so much for them, so soon, is a tall ask, but it largely pays off thanks to Sharon Clarke’s brilliance. Without her, Tosin Cole never quite reached the same heights.