What an episode! I have not felt this excited for Doctor Who since Matt Smith’s first episode and that was 2010! 2010! Mental. And yet a simple young woman called Jodie has completely changed Doctor Who for me and I am proud to say I am excited to see where it goes.

So this episode was a long one. It was just over an hour long and I swear older episodes were only about forty-five minutes. Anyway, we don’t meet The Doctor straight away but more her companions. Firstly we meet Ryan, a lad who has a YouTube channel, and is talking about ‘the greatest woman he has ever met’ (no it’s not The Doctor like we all thought, don’t lie, you did). We’re then introduced to his nan and his step-granddad, Graham. It’s quite a weird beginning because, because of Ryan’s dyspraxia he has not learnt how to ride a bike and is taking time with his grandparents to learn. This is where he meets the monster (encased in basically a giant garlic bulb) and accidentally lets it loose in Sheffield.

The monster’s ‘cheat’ I will call it (it’ll be clear later) drops into a train and finds the prize it is looking for, just a random lad sat with his headphones in. But of course Ryan’s grandparents are also on this train and they get messed up in this whirlwind of a story.

The Doctor drops in, literally, and fends off the alien but we find out that is not the true alien. Really he is a man called Tim Shaw (I love it) who collects teeth from his victims and wears them on his face.

I don’t know either.

He uses Earth as a hunting ground seeking out humans he must collect as trophies to become leader. But The Doctor wants to put a stop to this because it is unfair and cruel. She devises a plan which involves Ryan, his grandparents, and a new character called Yasmin who must all work together to defeat the monster. They do but in the meantime Ryan’s nan is accidentally killed.

And this is where the episode takes a turn. The monster is gone yet The Doctor sticks around with the group because of the loss. She attends Grace (Ryan’s nan)’s funeral and even watches Ryan as he finally learns how to ride his bike. We learn at this point too that it is his nan who he is talking about as the ‘greatest woman he has ever known’ which I thought was very sweet and a great bit of misdirection.

And finally, The Doctor is ready to leave and wants to find her TARDIS when accidentally she teleports herself, and the three companions, to the middle of space. Oopsie!

Now this episode, as a first episode, but also as an episode in general was fantastic. It was funny, sad, heartwarming and a bit scary like the good old Doctor Who’s used to be. When Jodie said ‘I’m the Doctor’ I literally got goosebumps with how cool that scene was.

But the best thing I loved about this episode, besides the awesome colour palette and the story, was the writing of Jodie herself. She didn’t draw attention to the fact that she was a women. Just oh this is a change I need new clothes and move on. She was still the Doctor and I think that’s the most important part. The writers could’ve easily made her a worn out stereotype and given her a sonic lipstick and a dumb purse etc. but they didn’t. Instead they showed her building her own swiss army sonic as she calls it and doing her own amazing stunts. She was definitely a character that I, and people younger than me, could look up to. She was strong, powerful, and smart and none of it came off forced or awkward.

It may not have been the usual Doctor Who we are used to but I absolutely adored it and it has given me great hope for the series. As I said before I found the older series’ to be boring and overdone and a bit too forgettable but this is definitely one episode I’ll be talking about for a long while.

What did you think of the new Doctor Who?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding