Caution: There Are Spoilers In Our Doctor Who The Pilot Review
One of the things I was most surprised to see just before I sat down to write my review is that this is the 10th series of Doctor Who (the new series). As someone who has been watching the show since it started, I can’t believe that it has been that long!
This is a big episode for the show for a few reasons, it’s the series premiere episode (usually big on it’s own), it’s the first episode for the show’s new companion Bill and it’s the first episode for the last year we will get to see Peter Capald’s Doctor on screen.
As a fan of the show, I have quite critical of it, especially in recent episodes as I really have been wanting something more from it. I was incredibly disappointed with everything inside the last episode “The Return of Doctor Mysterio“, which in my view was awful and not the direction I wanted the show to take this year. Thankfully The Pilot turned out to be a stronger episode than the last, with many entertaining points for fans and viewers alike to enjoy.
Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who has in my view always delivered when it comes to acting for the role and in this episode, he does exceptionally well. The actor has been unfortunate at times in that quite a few episodes he’s been in have been pretty crazy and the writing hasn’t always been great, even for Doctor Who which is bad, because he’s a pretty great Doctor and I will actually miss him once this series ends. Peter Capaldi has always enjoyable.
Possibly the biggest thing about today’s premiere episode is the appearance of Pearl Mackie’s character Bill. Bill is going to be The Doctor’s companion for this year and there’s always a bit of pressure to please the many Doctor Who fans out there. In the lead up to this episode, I wasn’t so keen on this new companion and from much of the teasers, I had no interest in this one at all. But once I started watching the episode, I found Pearl Mackie to actually be pretty good.
Bill’s background is that she works at the university where The Doctor is teaching, she’s the girl who serves out the chips to all of the students. She frequently sneaks in to listen to The Doctor’s lectures, which she finds very interesting and the two eventually become closer as the semester progresses. I do like this start for the character, it’s very humble, although the retail aspect is a bit similar to series 1’s Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). Bill is a curious character who is also pretty loud and opinionated, her dynamic with The Doctor is interesting, let’s see how she goes throughout the 10th series.
As an episode, the plot was decent. We got to see a new type of water/monster/alien who takes over someone’s body and then goes after Bill, who runs to The Doctor for help. My favourite part of the episode was when Bill first entered the TARDIS and The Doctor turns the lights on for the first time this year, I loved the way it all looked. From that point on, I was hooked on the episode. Be it as it may, with 10 years of the show, I can still be impressed with the TARDIS lights, they’re just so cool!
Overall this is a decent premiere which introduced a new character fairly well and left us as an audience with hope for what’s to come this year. I’m looking forward to see what they do with Bill going forward and what the fate is of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor.
