New Doctor? It’s about time

Sorry, WHO are you..?

Considering she fell out of an exploding TARDIS back in the spring, it’s taken the new Doctor Who a long time to crash onto our TV screens.

Jodie Whittaker, taking over the role from Peter Capaldi, certainly did arrive with a bang, crashing through the roof of a train before post-regeneration befuddlement saw her surprised by her new gender and unclear what to call her own tongue.

Her dramatic entrance was preceded by a handy introduction to the characters that are set to be The Doctor’s companions on her adventures as the thirteenth incarnation of the two-hearted timelord.

If, like me, you were hanging on for a new version of the theme tune and opening title sequence, then it appears you’ll have to wait until this Sunday - The episode ran the full hour before bothering with tune or graphics.

Happily the first outing, under the direction of new boss Chris Chibnall, soon helped you forget about the missing theme, with a twisty tale of a tooth-faced alien, a malevolent swirly ball and lashings of Northern-ness – it was even set in Sheffield (the obvious choice for an alien invasion).

It was clearly eagerly anticipated too, narrowly missing out on the accolade of most viewers for a season opener with a new Doc, beaten only by David Tennant showing up glowing (literally) in 2008. 8.2 million viewers tuned in, and generally seemed pretty happy with what they saw.

Perhaps acknowledging the furore over the doctor switching gender, one particular line seemed aimed at the doubters, rather than the startled new companions; “Don’t be scared. All this is new to you and new can be scary”.

Ensuring that the Doctor’s wardrobe isn’t taken too seriously, it was only near the end that Whittaker managed to ditch Capaldi’s clobber, picking her new rainbow top and bit-too-short trousers from the enticing range in a local charity shop – much to the amusement of her newfound friends.

The first episode didn’t feature the Doc’s bigger-on-the-inside Blue Box at all, and ended with a botched attempt to return to it that left the new gang floating in the void of space. With some great one-liners and a more cinematic style it was a good start, then.

If you’ve not watched Doctor Who in a while, make yourself some Time and give it a go on Sunday. You may be pleasantly surprised.

This post first appeared as my "A wry look at the week" column, in The Mail, on Friday the 12th of October 2018. It appeared on their website, but re-titled as "It's great to see the time Lord back on TV".

I genuinely did enjoy it - looking forward to see where the new cast and writers take it during the rest of the year. Just need to sort that theme tune out...

(CD A-Z: A fab mashup project, called "Mixed Temptations - The Within Temptation Mashup Album". 2 CD's-worth of mashups using Within Temptation songs? #winning)