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Spoilers The Woman Who Fell to Earth grade and discussion thread

How do you rate The Woman Who Fell to Earth?

  • Total voters
    130
I can not say if I liked the episode. BBC America, for some unfathomable reason, decided the commercial break needed more minutes with the conference questions. Couldn't they have put the conference at the beginning or the ending? I am struggling with remembering what came before, for the latest images in my mind are of commercials and the conference. Thanks, BBC.:brickwall:
 
Jodie will make a fantastic Doctor and Walsh was great. I'm a fan of the more cinematic look, the music and the deliberately slower pace.

But...

*Grabs sides of head and starts squeezing*

Why did it have to be sooooo boring OMG dull dull just so annoyed bugger punctuation just venting ahhhhhhhh!

The plot was ludicrously thin. So, this hunter alien transports from 5000 galaxies away to hunt a random human for ... reasons? Aren't there any species in their own galaxy that would suffice for the hunt? Anyway, the whole thing fell flat as a pancake; really disappointed a great cast got saddled with this story on their maiden outing.

Next week! Now that we've got the intro out of the way hopefully we can get underway proper with a decent story.
 
I wondered at one point if the tentacle ball was a Rutan. I’d like to have seen that story, I think.
 
I think there's enough there to count it as promising. With better writing and pacing it's got the bones of a good show.

I might not like the companions particularly, but I've been there before with Rose, Mickey, Donna and others. I warmed to the others over time, with the exception of Donna.

At least I like The Doctor (if not her outfit) - I'll reserve judgment.
 
matthunter said:
I think he means the British Transport Police - since the terror attacks there's often a BTP copper on a train.
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Very rare. Not as rare as old slam door trains on a rural northern line though.

A dozen or so people escaped the train. Clearly they would have phoned the police (phones worked to start with - that's how they phoned Ryan).

Yet not one police officer turned up aside from Yaz (who wasn't dispatched). There was plenty of time - after the train stopped and the phone call was made, Yaz and Ryan returned from the middle of the peak to the car (how did she find him so quickly anyway) and race off with blues and twos to a non descript site.

The whole "locked in the train" part was equally dumb. All train carriages (including aincent Gatwick express ones) have emergency hammers to break windows. They didn't even try to break the windows to get out.

Does anyone know what those trains were supposed to be doing?
 
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Christopher said:
US "garter belt" = UK "suspenders"
US "suspenders" = UK "braces"
US "braces" = UK "mouth brace"

I used to think that in Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song," the line "I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra" was talking about mixing and matching women's clothes with actual lumberjack-style suspenders to keep one's pants up. Once I learned what the word meant in the UK, it made more sense.
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In the UK we call braces on teeth just braces. I thought in the US braces were called retainers.

Evil Headhunter said:
Wow, if this is how you react to fictional people with disabilities, I hate to think how you treat real people with disabilities. Get some fucking compassion, man.
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Yeah that was just...well that was just :(

What I really liked was that Ryan wasn't suddenly able to ride the bike at the end, there was no magical solve. He has an issue and it'll take a while to resolve it, and maybe he never can, but that tells us so much about the character's determination. I really hope they build on that.
 
Starkers said:
In the UK we call braces on teeth just braces. I thought in the US braces were called retainers.
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In the US, recalling high school, braces are the glued on metalwork that put the teeth in the desired alignment. Retainers are a wire frame like dentures that are used after the braces are removed to keep the teeth from shifting once the braces are taken off.
 
Gov Kodos said:
In the US, recalling high school, braces are the glued on metalwork that put the teeth in the desired alignment. Retainers are a wire frame like dentures that are used after the braces are removed to keep the teeth from shifting once the braces are taken off.
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You learn something new every day :)

Thanks!
 
There's far more to retaining my viewing than the actor playing the doctor. Don't get me wrong, she's important, and based on last night's performance has potential, but the writing and the companions are equally important. Matt Smith's tenure was far better with Amy than with Clara.
 
StCoop said:
And that will add on another couple of million in the final figures! So that's even better than 'The Bodyguard'.

Naturally this will drop in further weeks but she could lose 20% off that and still easily beat the past few series.

Or to put it another way; suck it Haters.
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The move to Sunday night was a bit of a masterstroke really.
 
I thought the companions were a bit AmDram, not too impressed with their performances, however Whittaker was great as the Doctor and the episode was very entertaining. Certainly I did not find myself questioning whether I was watching The Doctor at any point.
 
Kaos said:
I wondered at one point if the tentacle ball was a Rutan. I’d like to have seen that story, I think.
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I thought the same thing when we first glimpsed it but I figured right away that it wasn't one because Chibnall said we wouldn't see any old monsters this series. That and it wasn't glowing green. ;)

That said, it would be nice to see a Rutan again.
 
Whittaker was almost there, but didn't quite nail it for me. Very much felt like a performance, almost a throwback to the pre-reboot Doctors, and not in an especially good way. Overall plot wasn't terrible, but the script wasn't especially well written or clever either (setting up a deux ex machina off screen, bleh). I appreciate really emphasising the danger they're all in by actually killing the supporting cast, but the way they telegraphed it all diminished its impact significantly. Companions seem. . . sufficient. Introducing three of them all at once was always going to make the job tougher than it needed to be, but I can name a dozen guest stars over the last few years who left more of a lasting impact.

Overall, it feels like there's a lot of potential. I'm hopeful, but I won't be making an appointment to watch it live if the next few episodes aren't a solid step up.
 
Will happily go along with Whittaker if she acquires the edge the character needs, just look at the recent turns from Jodie Comer in Killing Eve or Michaela Coel in Black Earth Rising, it can be done brilliantly.
The Doctor should be smart, quirky and rather dangerous.
 
VDCNI said:
8.2m overnight rating, the best for a long time.
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And higher than the first three episodes of the much-vaunted "hit", The Bodyguard, which was hailed as a ratings conqueror.

That said, the first episode of a new Doctor with an all-new crew as a jumping-on point is always likely to draw curious viewers - it'll be interesting to see how the figures are retained as the season goes on. Leading into the Strictly results show is a good position though.
 
StarMan said:
Jodie will make a fantastic Doctor .
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She was pretty good, and so far, she's not really channeling the personalities of previous Doctors (in the way Tennant did with his favorite Davison) as far as I can tell, and maybe that's a good thing, so her run will have its own feel.
 
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