The challenge for any production team is to get new viewers interested in their show. The longer a series goes on for, the more backstory and continuity it develops. Every so often it’s good for a show to go back to basics, making things more accessible for new viewers and remind the older viewers what they liked about the series in the first place. Some franchises choose to ‘reboot’ their series, resetting the characters to how they were in their first appearance. Others may reintroduce the world through the eyes of a new character. The latter approach is used in The Pilot. Steven Moffat uses the introduction of Bill reintroduce the key aspects of the Doctor Who lore.
It’s been almost a year since Bill was introduced in A Friend from the Future. We saw that she was sassy and spoke her mind, but The Pilot gives us a sense of her background. She is shown to be working in the Canteen at St Luke’s University in Bristol, a menial job making us sympathetic to her. She is has a sense of curiosity enough to attend lectures of an eccentric Professor, known as the Doctor. We also discover that she has a love-hate relationship with her stepmother, Moira. Bill also has a crush on girls. This is already far more than we knew about Clara in her first appearance. We knew nothing of Clara’s family and it was unclear how she could be making a living as a nanny to the Maitlands. Bill’s more grounded existence is a welcome change.
The approach to straightforward storytelling is demonstrated in the pre-titles sequence with Nardole letting Bill into an office for a meeting with the Doctor. This first conversation establishes straight away that Bill is working at the University as a caterer at St Luke’s University and the fact that the Doctor is also working there as a tutor. The Doctor has noticed Bill at his lectures and decided to become her tutor. It is as if she is being interviewed for the role of a new companion. It is nice that Moffat cuts to the chase and gives us this first meeting. There is none of the jumping through time zones like The Impossible Astronaut or Asylum of the Daleks.
Where previous companion introductions occurred over the course of a day, the first act of The Pilot spans many months, as Bill regularly attends the Doctor’s tutor meetings. During this time the script establishes Bill’s family situation as well as developing her crush on Heather. Through Bill’s eyes we also discover a bit more about what the Doctor is doing at the University. Bill discovers that the Doctor and Nardole are hiding something in a vault in the campus basement. The price of all this character development is that the first act has quite a slow place. The mystery is gradually developing but there is no actual threat to our protagonists. In Rose there were enough attacks by Autons to keep the audience interested. Here we have to hope that audiences didn’t drift away before anything interesting happened.
It is only twenty minutes in when Bill faces an alien threat that poses a danger to her. Her friend, Heather is absorbed into the puddle of alien oil and comes back as a dripping wet zombie intent on pursuing Bill. This zombified Heather looks like one of the flood zombies from The Waters of Mars and repeats phrases back to people, like the monster in Midnight. It’s hardly the most original monster though Stephanie Hyam looks suitably creepy in the role.
Bill’s only hope is to take refuge with the Doctor, leading to her obligatory introduction to the Tardis. The new girl is a little slower than previous ones to clock on to the Tardis’ nature, thinking of it as a lift or a kitchen before reaching the ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ realisation. Some fans may be tired of these kinds of introductions but they are important for new audiences. It’s been four years since a companion introduction so it’s very welcome here.
The Doctor and Bill use the Tardis to lure Heather away from contemporary Earth, leading them into the nasty looking Dalek/Movellan war, tying the episode together with Bill’s first introduction in A Friend from the Future. It wasn’t particularly necessary to this story and it does feel as if the Daleks were shoehorned in to get their introduction out of the way. Still, it was nice to see the Movellans back after 47 years. Maybe one day soon those disco robots could get an adventure of their own. Get on it Chris Chibnall!
It is in the middle of this war that the Doctor is able to deduce the reason why Heather is pursuing Bill. The alien puddle was actually a spaceship and Heather has become its pilot. Heather wants to take Bill with her as a passenger. It’s very similar to the threat in The Lodger. Still, it means that Heather can act as a mirror to the Doctor. They are both pilots, offering Bill all of time and space. Heather wants to invite Bill regardless of the danger. The Doctor doesn’t want to endanger Bill but takes her anyway. Bill does resolve to let Heather go, a sad resolution, if a little straightforward.
Even after all that’s happened, the Doctor still does not want Bill to go with him on the account of a promise. Preferring to mind wipe her and continue to guard the vault and keep a promise. It was a great moment when Bill fought against the Doctor mind-wiping her, and a nice hint that the Doctor still cares about Clara. It seems that Steven Moffat really did not like the Donna mindwipe from Journey’s End as this is the second time he’s had a someone refute this. This time around, the Doctor spares Bill’s memory and concedes to let her travel in time and space with her.
Peter Capaldi is superb as the Doctor. There is a hint of the darker series eight persona when he tries to mind-wipe Bill, but the lighter touches of Series 9 are still in evidence, like his strumming a guitar and bringing Bill pictures of her deceased mother back from the past. Steven Moffat has a few digs at his endearing run. Seeing him back as the Doctor reminds me of why I don’t want him to go. He has been one of the best. Whoever his successor turns out to be, they’ll be no match for him.
Pearl Mackie is the perfect casting choice for the role of Bill and this episode allows her to show off a range of emotions from fear of danger, to laughter to anger. I really hope this will not be her only series.
With the focus on the Doctor and Bill, Nardole was relegated to a supporting role. He seems to have become the new K9, following the Doctor close behind and assisting with the technical issues. He does at least get one good character moment near the end when he tries to comfort Bill something the Doctor prefers not to do. Hopefully Matt Lucas will get a chance to expand on the character when Bill settles in.
Lawrence Gough’s direction of this episode was pretty good. It was hard to get an impression of his talents from, A Friend from the Future, since it was a cheaply made mini-episode, cobbled together in a week. Here, with more time, Lawrence has succeeded in making The Pilot look spectacular. The Dalek-Movellan war looks far more exciting, with flames and Movellans being thrown around. The dialogue from Friend from the Future was quite sensibly cut down to increase the tension. There is a lot of colour in this episode and the photography is superb.
The composer, Murray Gold, should be congratulated for coming up with another splendid companion theme, this time for Bill. Some older scores are used, but they help to punctuate the emotions in those scenes. Clara’s theme plays when the Doctor is remembering her and the Twelfth Doctor’s theme plays when he springs into action. It’s annoying that a Series Nine soundtrack has still not been released. I hope they correct this and release a Series Ten one.
This episode leaves viewers with one big question. What is inside the Doctor’s vault? Will it be an incarnation of the Doctor himself? Perhaps it will be the John Simm Master. Hopefully the answer will be a satisfying one. We’ve also got Emoji Robots, an Ice Lady, the return of Missy and the return of the Mondassian Cybermen to look forward to. It is also possible that Bill will meet Heather again. This episode is certainly a more tantalising opener than The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witches Familiar turned out to be. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole look alike a great and team and I can hardly wait to see their adventures ahead.
8/10
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