Earlier this evening saw the welcome return of Doctor Who to our TV screens after a prolonged absense, when the first episode of Series 10, "The Pilot", aired on BBC1 at 7.20pm.
This is the beginning of not only Peter Capaldi's final series as the Doctor, but Steven Moffat's final series as showrunner. We're also introduced to the new companion, Bill Potts, a "canteen lady" at a university, who has, for some reason unknown to her, somehow been called up for an interview with one of the university's most prestigious and popular professors, who just happens to be the Doctor, ably assisted by his rather strange companion, Nardole. After her interview at the Doctor's office, he becomes her "tutor".
Much of the episode focuses on Bill and her personal life (she may not be the first openly gay companion in the series - that honour goes to Captain Jack Harkness - but she is certainly the first gay, black, female companion). She starts a relationship with a student called Heather, but things immediately take a turn into the twilight zone when Heather shows Bill a weird puddle, which gives "wrong" reflections of the people who look into it.
The puddle is actually an alien "space oil" entity that eats/absorbs Heather and proceeds to chase after Bill in a watery form that mimicks Heather. First to Bill's flat, then to the Doctor's office, where Bill, the Doctor and Nardole are forced into the TARDIS, which jumps first to some kind of locked, guarded vault (which I reckon we'll see a lot more of later in Series 10). Then it's to the other side of the world, to Australia (where the Doctor has to explain about himself to Bill). The Heather-water thingy follows them there.
Next the TARDIS travels to a planet on the other side of the universe, twenty-three million years in the future. The Heather-entity finds them even there. The damned thing can time travel. It can go anywhere that the TARDIS can go. Finally, the TARDIS lands in the middle of one of the greatest space battles in all of time and space, between the Daleks and Movellans. The Heather-entity follows them there as well. Bill, against the wishes of the Doctor, decides to confront her pursuer, and realizing that the Heather-entity is only following her because of the promise that Heather had made to Bill that "she would never leave her", Bill releases Heather from the vow, and the entity just melts away and vanishes. It hadn't been following Bill to harm her, but to invite her to join it (unfortunately she would've ceased to exist as a human, just as Heather had). The TARDIS returns to the Doctor's office, where he tries to wipe Bill's memory, but she refuses to let him, and leaves, only to meet him waiting outside with the TARDIS, inviting her to join him.
Overall, I quite liked "The Pilot". It wasn't Earth-shatteringly brilliant, but it was a pretty decent story, and although quite subdued and relatively low-key, it served as a good introductory episode for the new companion. It was a nice "character" episode, and I thought that the whole introduction of Bill thing echoed strongly the very first episode of NuWho ("Rose") very nicely indeed. The entire exciting chase sequence later in the episode only lasted a few minutes, but was pretty effective, and I loved the very short "blink and you'll miss it" cameo of the Daleks vs the Movellans, giving us our first short glimpse of that famous war first mentioned way back in the Peter Davison era.
The short sequence with the Dalek blasting away (totally ineffectually) at the Heather-entity was quite chilling, with it just standing there ignoring the Dalek laser blasts as if they were nothing, and repeating "Exterminate!" every time the Dalek screeched it. It was a strong reminder that there are lifeforms out there far more powerful than even the Daleks. The Heather-entity assuming the Dalek's likeness makes me wonder what happened to the poor old Dalek. Did she destroy and absorb it, or did it crap itself and scarper? :) The scene where Bill touches the Heather-entity and it shows her all of time and space was also pretty well done. That was a tough one for Bill to turn down, but I reckon the dying and being absorbed thing kinda put her off a bit. :)
Anyway, a good start to Series 10. Roll on next week and the second episode, "Smile".
