The Woman Who Fell To Earth: Rank - 284

 The Woman Who Fell To Earth

(Season 11, Dr 13 with Graham, Ryan and Yaz,  7/10/2018, showrunner: Chris Chibnall, writer: Chris Chibnall, director: Jamie Childs)

Rank: 284

It's the debut of Jodie Whittaker's Dr and Chris Chibnall's time as showrunner, not to mention 4 varying companions (one of which they kill off here) on a story not really much like the era to come that might more accurately be titled 'Space Oddity'... 

Re-watching this one after the end of the Jodie Whittaker run is a very different experience to watching it at the time, now that we can see which bits were quirks of this particular episode and which were of the series as a whole. At the time I might have put this one right at the bottom rung of the ladder, given that it lacks the 'special' feel of all the other DW debuts - a lowkey start to a new era with a bonkers but pathetic new enemy, no links to the past beyond the name (not even the Tardis) and post regenerative trauma that makes the Dr quite unwatchably bonkers for long periods. Most of all though the chance to see the universe through a whole new showrunner's eyes is reduced to wandering around the uglier parts of Sheffield in the dark. Watching it again though lets you enjoy the things that the rest of the Chibnall era didn't really do. Keeping so much of it to the 4 regulars (plus Grace) gives them all more character than they'll ever have again, in time we'll get so bored of old monsters returning Tzim-Sha doesn't seem so bad and it'll end up being quite rare staying in the present day for quite so long as this. Oh and that post regenerative trauma? Actually it's gone within a few minutes and this regeneration of the Dr is really going to be like that for 30 whole episodes. Still, you can't win them all. Thankfully the preaching here is kept to a minimum and even the speech about gender equality we feared might come after the Dr changed gender was handled nicely with 'why are you calling me madam? Wait I'm a woman? Really? Busy day!' one of a few great lines this episode. Like the era that follows its a bump watch, with a big finale set on a crane particularly something of an anticlimax following 'Rose' and 'The 11th Hour' et al. At times though it does take off and that fall to Earth is in style.

Positives + Grace is great. She's sassy, naughty, rebellious and has all the best lines. I'd have been more than happy to see her as a regular, particularly compared to the three drips we got. So of course she's the one who has to snuff it before the end credits. One of many confusing writing decisions that sum up the era.

Negatives- Ryan, for instance, is very poorly handled. As a dyspraxic I can't tell you how much the scenes of him trying and failing to ride a bike made me wince. Even undiagnosed I knew at 8 that riding bikes just wasn't going to be a thing for me. Ryan is 19 and knows why he can't ride one. Presumably the scenes of him trying and failing over and over again are meant to make him seem determined and for it to seem endearing. But it doesn't. So he can't ride a bike? No problem - he's 19, everyone's out in cars by then anyway. Had they made his dyspraxia make him fail his test I would have believed it more. The 'struggling to climb stairs' scene also hints that Ryan can overcome his co-ordination problems if he really tries hard enough. Trust me, you can't. Dyspraxia is a fault of the brain where the synapses don't line up properly. All the wishful thinking in the world ain't going to put that right. What's worse is that future episodes will have Ryan doing the most ridiculously accurate co-ordinated things with no mention of his dyspraxia. We don't get much representation on TV; it matters when they get it this wrong. What makes it worse is that Chris Chibnall says he got the idea after knowing a relative with the condition - yet he clearly didn't understand it at all. They had all the right intentions and could have done so much good and they blew it! Ultimately its that aspect of this episode that's going to sum up the era more than anything else.