With Series 12 now over, and a decent wait before the next episode, I thought I'd go back through and rewatch Series 11 and 12 and post my thoughts on Reddit. I enjoyed both series', but haven't gone back to the overwhelming majority of the episodes since they were released, so I imagine a lot of my thoughts will have changed, and I'm interested in the general change in consensus of the fandom now that some of these Series 11 episodes have had time to sink in, and be put in context with Series 12.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth is one of the few S11 episodes I've rewatched since it was released, and I've rewatched it a couple times - I really do find it to be one of the most enjoyable, easily watchable episodes in all of NuWho! It's so much fun, and I think it's paced really really perfectly. The episode doesn't ever become boring or flat, but at the same time nothing in it is rushed. I think the characters are all introduced well, we get a glimpse into all of the main cast here and, while they don't develop and progress as much as one would hope from the first episode, here they seem really interesting, and they've all got clear goals. Yaz is stuck in a job that isn't pushing her enough, and she just wants to be challenged. Ryan is slaving away his days not doing anything he enjoys, and struggling with his dyspraxia and his family, especially now that Grace has gone. And Graham is a man who had comfort in his life, who'd learnt to enjoy it, but now the woman who made that possible is gone. There's a clear reason why all of them will join the TARDIS team, in this episode anyway.

I also think Tzim-Sha is a really fun villain here. He's a very threatening presence, but is never the forefront focus of the episode. I think while his "death" is slightly underwhelming, and The Doctor's anger at Karl for pushing off a crane that he clearly teleported away from is...odd (although apparently this was due to a late change in the script). Also, Karl is a really fun little side-character, it's impressive how much characterisation he gets in an episode already dealing with quite a large team of people. And wow is Grace just wonderful. Sharon D. Clarke plays her so likeably, and you really do believe that she's an almost Doctor-ish presence in Graham's life, which I absolutely love. And her death, even now I know it's coming, still makes me sad.

The main event of the episode though - The Doctor. And I think she's done really well here. I think there's a lot of dialogue that makes her come off clearly as the Doctor, lots of lovely succinct ways of reminding the audience that this is still the character we know and love. I especially love the line "sorting out fair play across the universe", which I think really sums it up in a cool and cute way. Her big Doctor moment where she jumps across the crane is an awesome action moment too. I really love her in this story! And I really respect how little attention is drawn to the change in gender of the character.

Visually, I think this episode is impressive too. Jamie Childs uses a lot of wide shots that do make it look quite cinematic - they're definitely trying to sex up Sheffield a bit, but it makes it very dramatic as an opening episode, which I think is good. Tzim-Sha is also directed really threateningly and menacingly, I especially love how they shoot the death of Rahul, turning the camera away, and then we just see a tool drop to the ground. The effects are lovely too, especially the yellow triangles that show up at the very start of the episode, which Ryan touches to lead Tzim-Sha to Earth. Jodie's new costume and sonic screwdriver feel very fresh and new too, and fitting of the era. I've really come to love her stripey rainbow tops!

And finally, the music. I'm a big fan of film/TV score, and Segun Akinola's music for Doctor Who is something that I honestly love, and I think he does an amazing job of establishing the sound-world for the series going forward in this episode. It's definitely different from what Gold was doing, but it still works wonderfully. I think the argument that it's just ambient-nothingness is wrong, this episode itself is driven forward not just by interesting sound design, but by pulsing cellos and big drums. And when the music opens up to allow for a big theme, specifically in this episode The Doctor's theme, it's wonderful, and gives me chills. I love the 13th Doctor's theme, and it's put on amazing display here, orchestrated in three different and interesting ways. I especially love the stripped back vocal rendition we get on the crane, which gives a great humanness to the Doctor. Tzim-Sha's distorted little motif and his synth melody are really great too, very scary stuff.

Overall, this is an episode I really love, and is still one of my favourites of 13s era. I think it does an amazing job in 65 minutes of setting up the new series, not just the characters and the new location, but the directing style, the music, the costumes - everything! It does exactly what a first episode of a new show (and that's effectively what it is) should do, and it does it brilliantly, while also being fun throughout too. Strong 9/10 for me, really only let down by Tzim-Sha's "death", which I think is a little disappointing, especially considering we don't know at this point that he's coming back.