"Change, my dear. And, it seems, not a moment too soon." Thus utters the Sixth Doctor moments after the Fifth Doctor regenerated. Change as a driving force in television can be tricky; change too much and you risk losing the audience. Change too little and your show will become stagnant and stale, as if you have nothing more to say. But sometimes change is necessary because the outside world demands it. Perhaps demands isn't the right word--change occurs because the outside world needs it. We are in the midst of a watershed moment here in America and abroad with a heady mix of a new feminist and gender equality movement coupled with a particularly nasty strain of sexist conservatism and, while television will never have the answers to those complex issues, it can not sit idly by and not try to unpack them. And Doctor Who knows this. It has always known this. There has never been a better time to introduce the series's first ever female Doctor. "The Woman Who Fell To Earth" is a celebration of everything we've loved about Doctor Who for 50 plus while gently telling us that a change is a'comin'. The future is female; don't let it scare you. Embrace it. Or get off this planet.
Introduction episodes in Doctor Who are never the best but at least there's usually a template to follow. The Doctor acts slightly more maniacal than usual as the regeneration levels out while brand new companions look on in bewilderment. It all leads up to a grand moment when the Doctor names his/herself, dresses in their new official clothing and defeats the baddie of the week. The companions stand in awe of this truly bizarre alien before them before agreeing to travel the stars and see all of time and space. It's a formula that works; I would never say otherwise and I have fifty years worth of evidence to back that up. The issue is that while, yes, the formula works--so well, in fact, that had the show not cast Jodi Whittaker as the new Doctor and instead cast another white English male, this episode still would have worked because that formula is so rote--the outside world is clamoring for a new sort of hero. We're not living in a world where we can watch another middle aged white man preach the lessons of the universe to a group of young (usually female) ingenues. The formula may work but that doesn't make it easier to swallow in this day and age. Enter, then, a fresh female face who's here to remind audiences--whether they want to hear it or not--that heroes come in all colors, genders, sizes, shapes, and more. I've been blogging Doctor Who a long time now and have been watching for far longer. I've talked about archetypes and how the Doctor seamlessly moves between different ones with ease which makes her the perfect hero, but at the end of the day an archetype is one thing: a blank slate that we fill in with details as we see fit based on our own culture and society; just because the archetype is different from one group to the next doesn't make the archetype any less powerful or meaningful or true. The Doctor's chief characteristics are as follows--maniacal, weird, intelligent, exasperating, and above all caring. There is no hard and fast rule saying that those traits belong to men alone and that to place those details on to a female body is to betray the role of the hero. The Doctor is a Hero, full stop. Sometimes that hero is an old man wearing a suit and sometimes it's a woman in a lavender coat (which is gorgeous) and yellow suspenders.
The episode is a success, then. It follows the same path that other introduction episodes do. The companions are fun and easily likable, especially Yazmin, and there were several proper scares and science fiction goodies to feel right at home with any episode from Doctors One through Twelve. There are flaws and things to iron out and we still really need to see what kind of Doctor our new leading lady will be once the kinks of regeneration have worked themselves out and she's herself once more, but to expect all of that in the first episode of a new Doctor (and showrunner!) is to put too much pressure on a singular experience. The main takeaway from this week's episode is put rather perfectly by the Doctor (of course): "We're all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still being true to who we are. We can honor who we've been and choose who to be next." The showrunners chose what they want this show to be now, how they want it to look and feel and act. We can make choices to: we can whine and pitch fits about tradition and what constitutes both "The Doctor" and this magnificent show, or we can choose to accept changes, to embrace the new, and to sit back and enjoy the ride because, by God, didn't The Doctor look like she was having the time of her life?
Miscellaneous Notes on The Woman Who Fell To Earth
--Big round of applause to Jodi Whittaker. She nailed the role; she's the Doctor through and through.
--"I hate empty pockets."
--The companions are all enjoyable for this first outing but obviously we need to see much more of them. I am worried about there being so many; it might mean that someone gets the short end of the stick in terms of development.
--"Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman!"
--The Doctor built herself a Sonic Screwdriver out of a lot of spoons.
--"I'm just a traveler. Sometimes I see things need fixing. I do what I can." Yeah, she's gonna do just fine.
