DOCTOR WHO, SERIES 10 EPISODE 1:

THE PILOT

Doctor: Twelfth (Peter Capaldi)

And introducing...Bill

May 2023

Screencap from The Pilot: the reflections of the Doctor and Bill looking at a puddle on some pavement. Several tall modern buildings are in the background. Bill is a young black woman with an afro in a lavender jean jacket with a few patches.

You might look at this review, written and published long before I remotely approach Peter Capaldi’s first two seasons as the Doctor, and ask, “Hey, Kate? Why did you begin here? Why not start earlier? Was it because it’s a sort of half-reboot of the show, as the episode title “The Pilot” would seem to suggest?” To which I would respond, “No, it’s just what was available on DVD from the library.”

It’s actually rather weird to have reviewed exactly two episodes of the modern show, both of which are pilots. On the one hand, I could compare them pretty directly: on the other, I don’t know if I’d actually get much out of that, and anyway I don’t want to. What does The Pilot bring to the table on its own merits?

Let’s be clear here: The Pilot is a pilot. It’s a pilot for a show that’s been extant for going on 55 years at this point, but it is a pilot nevertheless, in the same way Rose or The Eleventh Hour or Spearhead from Space or, hell, the TV movie was a pilot. It’s a pilot because it’s meant to introduce an unfamiliar audience to our recurring concepts: the Doctor, the TARDIS, time and space travel, weird sci-fi, Nardole (sort of); it also introduces new ones (Bill). And it pulls off this mission statement with aplomb.

Firstly, Bill, who is simply lovely as a companion and as a character, has a stellar introduction. The opening scene of her talking to the Doctor (now, somehow unsurprisingly, a professor at a university) is a phenomenal way to introduce her character and endear us to her. It’s also, for what it’s worth, a great way to introduce the Doctor. She feels almost like the closest we’ve gotten to having a regular person as a companion for some time. Maybe that’s just after the hurricane that is Clara (I love Clara), but she feels casual in an almost unfamiliar way. The fact that this story spans months is also great, because it allows the characters some narrative downtime and for some stuff to, you know, grow. The photos, for example, are a standout moment from this episode as an extremely strong moment of characterization for the Doctor specifically.

As with a lot of stories that I find myself extremely enjoying, I’m finding myself having difficulty writing much about it. Except, no wait, there’s a thread: Bill Potts is a lesbian. She is very explicitly and almost aggressively defined as such, through not only repeated dialogue but also the entire plot of the episode being defined around a lesbian love story. And this is just downright...phenomenal? Other people have said more eloquently why representation matters in media, so I’ll just leave it at this: writing about this now, writing about this modern incarnation of a 60-year-old show that vocally says it’s okay to be a person like me, to love the people that I love, to be an awkward lesbian college student with an awkward crush, something I have now been!—is making me verklempt. [SPOILER] Not only this, but how, in the end, the Doctor beckons Bill back to the TARDIS with the line “Maybe we’ll find her”? [SPOILER] I. I don’t have the words for this, but it is deeply emotionally touching. Maybe it’s just the right story or character for me, right now—but jesus. It hits.

The Pilot takes great pains to slowly introduce you to just about everything you might need to know about Doctor Who, especially the TARDIS. This is mostly done with a sort of wink-wink-nudge-nudge outlook—things like the shot of the mug full of sonic screwdrivers and the photos of River and Susan, for example—but it’s also a real mystery for Bill, and if someone somehow doesn’t know what the TARDIS is, it introduces them to the concept slowly, one step at a time, and downright brilliantly.

Nardole is here also. As I suspect may become a running theme in my discussion of him, he sure is here! He’s funny, sometimes (often, in this episode), and so far he hasn’t become grating, though I’m a little afraid that might happen. I’m slightly more afraid that he won’t really be given any dramatic depth: he’s very clearly playing second fiddle as companion to Bill Potts, which I don’t have a problem with, but when you have the overtly-comedic character of Nardole and him being set mostly in the background so far I’m a little afraid that he’ll remain there without any standout moments. But then, what do I know? I’ve never seen most of this season. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Screencap from The Pilot: the Doctor and Bill in a sort of futuristic doorway, next to a girder. Both look off to the left of the screen, and the Doctor holds Bill's wrist.

I’ll talk more about my thoughts on Peter Capaldi’s take on the Doctor somewhere else, but suffice it to say for now that he is (to take a cliche) “my” doctor. He’s the Doctor who was on TV when I was a kid watching this show: I remember going over to my friend’s house to catch the latest Doctor Who (because he had BBC America) and watching the start of Series 9. He’s brilliant, I love what he brings to the role, and it’s on full display here: this whole season is something of a victory lap, in fact.

The ending of the episode I touched on above, but it is a phenomenal moment. Even not knowing what comes before! It is extremely powerful, evocative of who these two characters are (and the acting strengths of Pearl Mackie and Peter Capaldi), and leaves you (or me, at least) truly hooked. It is damn lovely.

Some brief spoiler thoughts:

One thing that didn’t really work for me was setting the climax of the episode in (presumably) the Time War. Maybe it’s because the last “New Who” (making a resolution never to use that term again) episode I watched was Rose, where it holds immense narrative weight: here, it’s little more than a backdrop. Oh look, Movellans! Moving on. Daleks, too, are tossed at us with weirdly little fanfare considering how carefully we were introduced to concepts as iconic as the TARDIS or the Doctor himself. Perhaps it’s not the Time War itself but just the war between the Daleks and the Movellans, but it’s a little strange nevertheless.

Overall Thoughts:

This is a hell of a pilot, and I mean that in the best way. It’s a strong start to the final season of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Steven Moffat’s showrunning (even though I do have significant qualms with the latter!). I love Bill, I love the setup of the Doctor being a university professor, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds. I suppose there is something of a season-long arc here, regarding whatever’s hidden in the university basement, but it hasn’t come up very much so far—which I think is great. Let that stew in the background until it becomes relevant! For now, we’ve got Bill Potts and the Doctor, and that’s more than enough.

Next up is Smile, which I think is set in the future? I’ve only seen through Knock Knock before, but it’s been years, so I’m very excited to see what all I’ve forgotten!