Who Reviews The Doctor Has Landed by DJ Forrest

Return of the Scribble Monster

Shame on us all for doubting the brilliance that is, Jodie Whittaker. Shame on us all for expecting a female Doctor to screw it up and be nothing like her predecessors. The Doctor comes in all shapes and sizes and wrapped up inside the 13^th is all of those past Doctors, and I am loving it.

There are several things I enjoyed about the first episode – the first being the choice of cast and where it was set – because let’s face it, if you’re going to have a Doctor from ‘Hoodezfield’ then you should ideally have the cast from pretty much that area too, after all, hasn’t everything been covered in Cardiff by now? Although I’m sure someone will tell me that actually, it was all filmed in Cardiff, but hey…

I loved that we didn’t bounce straight into the first episode with the credits; that it took an immensely long time before the Doctor appeared. I liked how we followed the white van carrying its alien cargo of space onion transporter. It didn’t look like a Doctor Who episode from that point. Having recently watched Bodyguard, if I had just wandered into the lounge mid way through the episode, I wouldn’t at that stage think I’d been watching Doctor Who.

I liked the build up of the characters and how they were all linked, how the family of the boy with dyspraxia and the girl WPC were connected, and how it tied up the characters on the train perfectly, even to the point of tying the team together at the end. We knew Bradley Walsh and two actors from Hollyoaks were going to be playing the new team, so it was no surprise really that the gung-ho chemo nurse was not going to make it to episode 2. It would be out of character to have kept her alive and at home, given that she was as dedicated to saving and protecting her grandson, but wouldn’t be travelling with the rest of them – unless of course you planned on recreating Jackie Tyler.

Nah, it wouldn’t have worked unless she’s somehow worked back into the script at a later date?

The build up on the train was brilliant. When the lights went out, I instantly thought, oh, Harry Potter, and given that Neville Longbottom lookalike was sitting on the train with them, it’s hard not to imagine that the Dementors were tampering with the lights, and something was trying to get through the driver’s door.

Then with the appearance of the Scribble Monster – I was almost too excited for words. Of course, yes, I know it wasn’t the actual scribble monster from Fear Her but close enough!

I suppose the one disappointment was the transportation device that Tim Shaw arrived in that made it feel extremely Wizards Vs Aliens – in so much that, the series was believable up to the point until Brian Blessed voiced the monster in the wall – then I was less than convinced this was going to be anything as exciting as I first thought.

However, the Tooth Fairy definitely had nothing on this guy and kudos for not showing the savagery of a jaw broken and a tooth extraction.

It was definitely an edge of the seat bit when the Doctor took a running jump onto the other crane arm. I was holding my breath, to the point of mentally trying to pull her up – as you do – and I liked how when she finally convinced Shaw of who she was, that as much as he didn’t feel convinced that she could do anything, and he would take his chances and detonate the devices in the humans from the train, that a touch of the old switcheroo had occurred and I felt a nod to the 10^th, with the Daleks in Manhattan episode, when he had tampered with the Dalek/Human DNA which turned the humans against the Daleks, and in turn, as in this, sent the DNA bugs back to old Shaw.

See these are the things I enjoy about Doctor Who – when you see the smug grin of the Doctor, when you yourself are not sure they’re going to pull something off within the time limit before Strictly comes on, and you really hope that the first episode is not going to be a ‘To Be Continued’ episode and it loses momentum after that build up – but then within minutes to spare, the bad guy is doomed to fail, and with an added boot!

I liked the way that the Doctor Macgyver-ed her way through the lock up and made a mashup of a sonic screwdriver that many of us are still unsure of, but it’s crafted for the right Doctor, although I’m not convinced that the toy Sonic Screwdriver is really as cool as the one put together by 13.

I was a doubter from the very beginning. I didn’t want to see the Doctor become a different gender. I didn’t think it would work – but then I think a lot depends upon who you cast, and how they can win over the audience. Jodie Whittaker suits the role, and the costume, and having seen her on chat shows and on various other internet videos, I think we’re onto a winner. I like her.

See, you can change your views. You can admit you were wrong.

Funny thing mind – as the music played and the stars of the series were posted up on the screen, I thought to myself – we’ve got a Hollyoaks cast who will meet a variety of Coronation Street in the coming weeks.

This is going to get messy!