Doctor Who: 5 takeaways from The Woman Who Fell to Earth

The first episode of the Thirteenth Doctor’s brand new series gave us a lot to takeaway from it. But what five things leapt out the most?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

The Thirteenth Doctor’s first episode, unsurprisingly, gave us a lot to discuss and take away from it. Here are five takeaways from The Woman Who Fell to Earth, and what they could mean for the rest of Series Eleven.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth was a great introduction episode to the new team in Doctor Who. In many ways, it was rather light on plot, but it also gave us a lot when it came to its characters. All of the new companions – Ryan, Yas and Graham – were given plenty of focus. But we also got a good idea of their relationship to one another, too.

Of course, we also got a really good idea of Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, too. Having a lot of the quirkiness of previous Doctors, while also giving her own take on the role, it’s a strong start to her era. I’m sure many of us are already looking forward to seeing more of her performance in the role.

But along with both Doctor and companion introductions, we were also given our first major death, too. While we only knew Grace for one episode, her death will leave an impact on the rest of the series, as Raphael described in his article.

But what else was important about this episode? What did we learn about the Doctor’s character? How important are the relationships between the four characters? And what else will affect the rest of the series? Let’s find out, as we take a look at five key things we can take away from Sunday’s premiere.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth not only focused on the new Doctor, but also focused on Ryan and his dyspraxia.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

A companion with disability

From the episode’s very beginning, The Woman Who Fell to Earth made it clear that Ryan was a companion with a disability: dyspraxia.

Throughout Doctor Who’s history, there’s hardly been any companion in the television series who was portrayed as having a disability. Ryan Sinclair might very well be the first. Interestingly, writer and new showrunner Chris Chibnall decided to go with one we couldn’t see, and explored how Ryan feels about that.

But not into too much detail, though. Ryan does have difficulties with key things, such as riding a bike. But on the other hand, it doesn’t stop him from helping the Doctor out as much as possible. Even when it comes to climbing the crane towards the end of the episode, while he certainly has more difficulty than Yas does, he also knows that it’s something he can do.

It’ll be interesting to see how his dyspraxia continues to be explored over the course of the series, and how that affects his adventures with the Doctor over time. Personally, I’m hoping that the writers strike a nice balance. I don’t want it to be forgotten about for the rest of the series. But on the other hand, I don’t want it solely focused on in every episode, and thus, take away from Ryan as a fully fleshed out character.

However, considering how well Chibnall has handled disability so far, I’m confident that he’ll continue to treat it just right, and as show runner, hopefully encourage other writers to do the same.

At the very start, all the companions knew each other already. What will this add to their relationship as travelers in time and space?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Companions who know each other

While the companions have been heavily promoted throughout the teasers and trailers for Series Eleven, what wasn’t made clear was that these are people who knew each other from the start. Ryan and Yas knew each other from school, while Graham is Ryan’s step-grandad.

I must admit, I love the added personal connection between all three companions. It gives the writers something else to explore than just their relationship with the Doctor. I’m curious to see how their relationship develops over time.

This is particularly true of Ryan and Graham. Grace was the key person who kept them together as a family. Without her, they’re two very different people who don’t know each other well. It’ll be interesting to see how their relationship develops over time, particularly in the aftermath of Grace’s death and how they both cope living without her.

In some ways, it almost feels like the exact opposite of Wilf’s and Donna’s relationship. Whereas those two were always very close, certainly closer than Donna was with her own mother, Graham and Ryan haven’t known each other for very long at all. And while they do occasionally try to make an effort, so far, they also seem to rub each other up the wrong way.

Perhaps Grace’s death will help them to bond, or perhaps it will simply drive them further apart. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

The new Doctor seems to have a very strong moral core. How will this be affected over the course of the series?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The new Doctor is fiercely moral (but not a pacifist)

This was something I really appreciated about the new Doctor. Yes, the Doctor usually does have strong morals. They are the hero, after all. But sometimes, those morals are flexible.

When the Twelfth Doctor started, for example, there were moments in his first series when he came across as very cold and distant, making choices for the greater good. A good example of this was in Into the Dalek, when he did nothing to save a soldier from being killed, but instead used his death as a way of saving everyone else.

The Seventh Doctor was an even bigger example. A man who dealt with huge, epic threats on a regular basis. He also wasn’t afraid of using people as pawns in his schemes, including his own companions.

But the new Doctor isn’t like that. She wants to save everyone she can, and at least give the bad guys a chance before stopping them. This was especially made clear with how she dealt with the villain of The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Tzim-Sha. He was defeated, but only because he tried to kill the Doctor and her new companions. It’s a genius backfire move that only the Doctor could do, and on a regular basis.

However, when Karl deliberately knocks Tzim-Sha off the crane, the Doctor was immediately angry with Karl. It’s a small moment, but it says a lot about who this new Doctor is. She’s not afraid of stopping the villains if she has to. But she also sees no need in causing pain or death to those villains when it’s completely unnecessary.

It’ll be interesting to see if this changes at all over the course of the series. But for now, Thirteen has a lot in common with both Eight and Ten: Doctors with a very strong sense of morality.

The opening episode left us with a lot of questions. But perhaps the biggest one was: where’s the TARDIS?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Where’s the TARDIS?

Even though we saw the TARDIS dematerialising while the Doctor was falling outside it at the end of Twice Upon a Time, the fact that she didn’t find it by the end of her first episode was definitely surprising. We’ve seen the Doctor unable to enter his TARDIS in The Eleventh Hour. We’ve even seen him stuck on Earth and unable to fly it for a whole season.

But the TARDIS has always been near the Doctor, at least in the TV series. Whenever they lost it (usually at the start of a story), they usually found it again by the end.

(This was especially common in the pure historicals. Something always caused the TARDIS crew to be separated from it, hence why they simply never left eras that didn’t require their help and in fact were usually more likely to kill them or enslave them.)

There is one exception to this, at least in the expanded media. From Scherzo to Caedroia, the Eighth Doctor was separated from his TARDIS in another universe. I was never particularly keen on this arc, however. While some of the stories were absolutely brilliant, the fact that the Doctor and his companions were encountering radically different zones, which might as well have been different planets, felt a little contrived.

This is why I’m hoping that the Doctor gets it back by the end of the next story. While we know that her and her new team will be travelling around time and space across the whole series, I’m hoping that it’s due to them finding the TARDIS again really quick.

Then again, having said that, it’s possible that they could find a vortex manipulator, which we know the Doctor can control in the past. And perhaps a search for the TARDIS across different times and eras would be interesting, particularly as a hook for the series. Either way, we’ll see.

Ryan, Yas and Graham are some of the first companions of the New Series who didn’t choose to travel with the Doctor. How will this affect their journey for the rest of the series?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

Accidental companions

This was another surprise: the fact that for the first time since Doctor Who came back, the new regular companions didn’t choose to be with the Doctor. Instead, it’s quite by accident that they’re stuck with her.

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If the rest of the series is the Doctor trying to get them back home, I must admit, that could be interesting. And would certainly be fitting, too. After all, one Doctor and three companions certainly feels like a nod to the original crew, with the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan.

I expect the dynamic will still be different, though. While they still only barely know her at this point, I think it’s likely that they’ll trust far more quickly and easily than the original crew trusted One. (With really good reason, in the latter’s case. The First Doctor could be very devious and selfish in the early stories.)

Either way, companions who find themselves with the Doctor purely by accident should present a different dynamic compared to all the previous ones of the New Series. It also makes the second episode already interesting, just to get all of their different reactions at finding themselves far from home.

Overall, the first episode of this new series has not only given us a lot to enjoy, but it’s also given us quite a few things to be excited about for the rest of the series. I can’t wait until the next episode. (Especially as we should finally get to see the brand new opening!)

What did you think of The Woman Who Fell to Earth, overall? What did you take away from it? Anything in particular from the episode that you’re curious about and would like to see developed further? Let us know in the comments below.