Doctor Who Season 13 Premiere

 

Created by: Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber, Donald Wilson

Written and Produced by: Chris Chibnall

Starring: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yaz), John Bishop (Dan Lewis)

These have been some of the most promising episodes since Matt Smith's exit. 

I just watched "Revolution of the Daleks" before watching this season premiere, and I feel like it set me up well. The return of such a familiar and friendly face as Jack Harkness as a regular in "Revolution" was incredibly pleasant and gave me the excitement, nostalgia, and connection to characters that I hadn't felt since Smith's era. Specifically, "Angels Take Manhattan," which was the exit of my most favorite companion, Amy Pond. I didn't feel connection to Graham or Ryan, despite spending two seasons with them, and only season 11's "Demons of Punjab" gave me some good connection to Yaz. So I was not upset to be left with only Yaz and 13 for this season, and I'm hopeful that season 13 will provide some connection with John as well. 

This premiere did not give it, but there's still a lot of hope. It worked on Yaz and the Doctor's friendship, which is also of prime importance since this will be their third season together. I truly hope I feel a strong bond between them by the end of it. 

"The Halloween Apocalypse" (this premiere) did deliver successfully in other ways, though. The first moments of the episode treated us to some very impressive visual effects, depicting a very alien planet with an ocean of acid and our heroes dangling via antigravity equipment precariously above it. Moments later they're soaring on the same equipment through this alien atmosphere. It made me happy because the series references wonderous alien environments a multitude of times throughout the seasons, the Doctor and their companion talking about all the amazing and stunning planets they visited off-screen between deadly encounters. It always makes me jealous of their imaginary escapades, enough so that I wish for an uneventful episode where we could just visit an alien planet and see its sights and culture! So I was very happy that they tried to reproduce such an environment with BBC's strong budget, and I feel that they were successful. I was able to suspend belief and actually imagine them there, flying over that deadly ocean. And it was a lot of fun. 

I'm also happy with the story they set up. It's intriguing and believable and frankly I'm happy they aren't recycling even more old aliens. I'm feeling pretty done with Daleks and Angels, not to say they haven't been used well. I'm hopeful for John too, though I would've been just as happy for the Doctor and Yaz to be on their own, but three isn't too difficult a number to manage, especially when the Doctor and Yaz already have strong enough audience familiarity. 

It'll be a short season, but I'm expecting to very much enjoy it and I'm also excited for the next regeneration!