The Woman Who Fell To Earth
Ryan Sinclair is nonplussed by the bicycle his grandmother, Grace, and her husband, Graham, have gotten for him; he suffers from a coordination disorder that makes riding it difficult, though he finds it easy – in a fit of anger – to throw it off a hill. As he’s retrieving it, Ryan sees a three-dimensional geometric shape form in the air; when he touches it, it disappears, replaced by a large blue pod. He calls the police, and is reunited with childhood friend Yasmin Khan, now a police officer in training, when she responds to his call.
Ryan, Grace and Graham are riding the train back into town when the train crashes into something, killing the driver. An undulating mass of electrical wires corners the passengers when a woman crashes through the ceiling of the train and immediately wards off the wires, as if that’s her first instinct. Unfortunately, while she immediately takes charge of the situation, she has no idea who she is, though she claims that she was a Scotsman mere minutes ago, confusing the already-terrified people in her vicinity. After this initial burst of activity, she collapses in Grace and Graham’s home, awakening to find that something has emerged from the pod seen by Ryan. A being called Tzim-Sha is hunting for a designated target on Earth, as part of a ritualistic hunt that determines the status of his race, the Stenza. What he doesn’t know is that he is now up against the Doctor – even if she’s not sure of who she is yet – who is pledged to protect Earth and its people.
written by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun AkinolaCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sharon D. Clarke (Grace O’Brien), Samuel Oatley (Tim Shaw), Jonny Dixon (Karl), Amit Shah (Rahul), Asha Kingsley (Sonia), Janine Mellor (Janey), Asif Khan (Ramesh Sunder), James Thackeray (Andy), Philip Abiodun (Dean), Stephen MacKenna (Dennis), Everal A. Walsh (Gabriel)
Notes: After 12 years of the Doctor’s adventures being scored by Murray Gold, this is the first change of music composer in the revived Doctor Who series; ironically, it’s also the first episode in Doctor Who’s 55-year history to completely omit an opening title sequence, so Segun Akinola’s new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music wouldn’t debut until the following episode, The Ghost Monument. Bradley Walsh had previously appeared as Odd Bob in the Russell T. Davies-era Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures (Day Of The Clown parts 1 and 2), as well as the 2001 comedy Hotel!, where he shared screen time with once and future Doctors Paul McGann and Peter Capaldi. The episode’s title is a reference to the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie. The teeth are a dead giveaway that Tim Shaw is no relation to Liz Shaw.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
Tosin Cole (
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: Vinette Robinson had made a prior appearance in Doctor Who, in the 2007 episode 
As unlikely a topic as Rosa Parks’ arrest might seem for a British science fiction series, the reality is that this historical event had ripples that reached England as well, in particular a boycott of bus service in Bristol, inspired by the boycott following Parks’ 1955 arrest, and arising from the bus company’s refusal to hire non-caucasian drivers or other employees. Unlike the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, the Bristol boycott organized by Paul Stephenson lasted only two months in 1963, and was resolved by the bus company’s hire of its first non-white bus conductor a mere three months before Doctor Who premiered. (This also partly explains Ryan and Yaz’ degree of familiarity with Parks’ role in American history.)
Notes: Actor Chris Noth is no stranger to American audiences, having been a regular on such series as Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Sex And The City, The Good Wife, Gone, and Tyrant. But alongside his mainstream successes, he’s also done some voice work, in Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (as Lex Luthor, no less) and the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s big-screen anime From Up On Poppy Hill. Shobna Gulati has had two long-running stints on UK soap Coronation Street as Sunita Alahan, as well as Doctors, Casualty, and River City. Tanya Fear has appeared in the series Spotless and the movie Kick-Ass 2. Guest roles on Coronation Street and Doctors also appear on Ravin J. Ganatra’s resume, along with the movie Entrapment, and a prior appearance in the Doctor Who universe (as a different character) in the Torchwood episode 
Notes: Brett Goldstein co-starred with David Hasselhoff in the surreal UK reality show Hoff The Record, and has appeared on Derek, Undercover, Drunk History UK, Drifters, and Uncle. Lois Chimimba is no stranger to hospital dramas, having appeared in Trust Me and Holby City, and the same can certainly be said of Suzanne Packer, who starred as Tess on Casualty. Ben Bailey-Smith has voiced characters on the 21st century revival Thunderbirds Are Go, while David Shields appeared in episodes of The Crown alongside former Doctor Who star Matt Smith. Ironically, given Graham’s Call The Midwife addiction (except for the squeamish bits), guest star Jack Shalloo had just appeared on that show’s 2018 Christmas special.
(Hakim), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya), Emma Fielding (voice of Kisar), Nathalie Cuzner (performance of Kisar), Isobel Middleton (voice of Almak), Barbara Fadden (performance of Almak)
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: Odds are good that the 
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: 
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
and before that, had to recover the planet Calufrax (
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: The Doctor attempts to call 
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: Sacha Dhawan has plenty of Doctor Who history, most notably starring as Waris Hussein in the 50th anniveresary docudrama 
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: The Master has resumed use of his signature weapon, the Tissue Compression Eliminator, which made its debut alongside the Master himself (Terror Of The Autons, 1971); it was last seen when another incarnation of the Master was trying to “improve” it (Planet Of Fire, 1984). The “knock four times” rhythm that drove a previous incarnation of the Master insane resurfaces here (featured heavily in 2007’s The Sound Of Drums and both parts of 2009’s The End Of Time). Gallifrey was forced into a pocket universe in 2013’s Day Of The Doctor for its own protection at the end of the last great Time War, though a later incarnation of the Doctor visited it in Hell Bent (2015); as it turns out, Gallifrey didn’t stand very long. The real Ada Lovelace went on to develop a correspondence with the real Charles Dickens (a fictionalized version of Dickens met the ninth Doctor in 2005’s The Unquiet Dead; it’s probably safe to assume that they never compared notes about their strange friend with the time-traveling blue box, since the Doctor wipes Ada’s memory of their shared adventure here).