The Pilot

This is the gateway to everything that ever was…or ever will be.

The Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

Two worlds collide when the Doctor meets Bill, and a chance encounter with a girl with a star in her eye leads to a terrifying chase across time and space.

Review

The Pilot acts a soft reboot to the show, introducing a new companion in the shape of Bill Potts. It certainly feels as though it is a fresh story, and a reintroduction to the Doctor that works for new viewers and old viewers alike.

Are you from space?

No, of course not. Nobody is from space. I’m from a planet like everybody else.

Bill Potts and the Twelfth Doctor

Steven Moffat has managed to pen a story that feels lovely and fresh. As much as I love the opening two-part story of Series 9, The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar are quite dense for new viewers, and lack the casual intrigue that a new companion or Doctor’s debut episode might bring. The Pilot certainly has that box ticked in introducing Bill Potts, and serves as a crash course introduction for both her and any new audience members to the Doctor Who universe. The story does this gradually, introducing first the Doctor, then the concept of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, then its abilities to travel in first space and then time. We also get introduced to the Daleks, the Doctor’s most iconic foes. As a nice nod to the returning viewers, we do get continuity nods, such as the brief glimpse we get of the Movellans fighting the Daleks, the various sonic screwdrivers and pictures of both Susan and River Song on the Doctor’s desk. It all just coheres really nicely, and comparing it again to The Magician’s Apprentice, it feels bizarre that you can have both that story and The Pilot as part of the same show.

The story is driven by Heather and her discovery and possession by a puddle of sentient alien oil. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. The sentient oil seems to give her the capability to absorb a vast amount of power including that of a Dalek’s gun stick. Heather is a good romantic prospect for Bill, from their first meeting, and even though they spend a short amount of time together, have good chemistry. Heather wants to get away, tired of being singled out for being different because of the star-shaped defect in her eye, something that she ultimately achieves. She, however, appreciates that this life is lonely and seeks Bill out as a passenger. Heather’s star-shaped eye contributes to one of the creepiest moments in the creepiest moment in the episode; the scene where Bill returns to her flat she shares with foster mother Moira, only to find her gone and the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. Everything about that sequence works so well thanks to the direction of Lawrence Gough, concluding with the shot of Heather’s eye in the plughole. Water is a powerful and creepy force in Doctor Who, and Heather is certainly no different to the Flood. Another creepy moment is when she emerges from the puddle on the far-off alien planet, mouth open to Bill, and screams. That alien planet, as a side point, looks absolutely gorgeous! There are horror tropes used with Heather, and they are all deployed really successfully.

I have been open with the fact that I was not necessarily looking forward to seeing Matt Lucas reprise his role as Nardole in this series. I am pleased to report that I was definitely incorrect about this. Whilst he does not feature in every episode of this series, he does go on to become an entertaining part of why it works so well. I’ve spoken previously about liking having three-person TARDIS teams as it allows the companions to have someone to talk to about just how weird and wonderful travelling with the Doctor is. Whilst Bill is a relative newcomer to the Doctor, spending several months as his pupil before even setting foot in the TARDIS, Nardole has more experience of him thanks to his time at St Luke’s University guarding the mysterious contents of the vault. Matt Lucas adds a lot to the scenes that he features in, especially Bill’s realisation about the nature of the TARDIS, and also the way that Lucas plays that whole ‘banter’ section in the vault with the Doctor and Bill. He does feel a bit stapled on in the battle between the Daleks and the Movellans though, presumably due to incorporating some of the footage from A Friend from the Future, the short teaser that introduced us to Bill.

Pearl Mackie really comes into the show like a breath of fresh air from the opening scene. I really love her theme written by Murray Gold – when the Series 10 soundtrack does eventually come out, that will be a track that I listen to over and over again. Bill is written to be inquisitive and ask a lot of questions, which could be rather irritating in the hands of a lesser actor, but Pearl Mackie is so charming and wonderful that she makes Bill a really compelling companion. She has excellent chemistry with Capaldi and Lucas, and by the end of the episode, feels right at home with the Doctor. The misjudged fat joke aside, Bill is a likeable character and a real asset to the show.

What changed your mind?

Time.

Time?

And relative dimension in space. It means… “What the hell.”

Bill Potts and the Twelfth Doctor

There is perhaps no other Doctor that suits the character of a mysterious and enigmatic university lecturer than Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. He is perfectly suited to commanding lecture theatres full of students, and it is no mystery as to why people who don’t study his lectures go to them regardless. I love the lecture, especially the bits where we see the snapshots of film demonstrating his point about the nature of time. The Twelfth Doctor goes back in time to give Bill the gift of photographs of her mother, which is just a sign of how far this incarnation has come. It’s hard to imagine the Doctor at the start of Series 8 doing something for Clara. This Doctor and Capaldi himself have come so far over these three years, and The Pilot is the perfect example of that point.

Verdict: The Pilot is a perfect breath of fresh air, managing to balance new viewers and existing fans at the same time. 9/10.

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Jennifer Hennessy (Moira), Stephanie Hyam (Heather) and Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks).

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Lawrence Gough

Producer: Peter Bennett

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 15 April 2017

Behind the Scenes

• A working title for the story was A Star in Her Eye.
• Bill was introduced in a short promo called A Friend from the Future, segments of which were used in the Dalek war zone.

Cast Notes

• Jennifer Hennessy previously played Valerie Brannigan in Gridlock.

Best Moment

I really enjoy the whole TARDIS discovery sequence, especially the Doctor and Nardole’s reaction when Bill finally works out that it’s not just a lift.

Best Quote

Imagine if time happened all at once. Every moment of your life laid out around you… like a city. Streets full of buildings made of days. The day you were born. The day you die. The day you fall in love. The day that love ends. A whole city built from triumph and heartbreak and boredom and laughter and cutting your toenails. It’s the best place you will ever be. Time is a structure relative to ourselves. Time is the space made by our lives. Where we stand together forever. Time and relative dimension in space. It means “life”.

The Twelfth Doctor

Previous Twelfth Doctor review: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

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Hear me talking about The Pilot on A Kettle and Some String here!