A new series, a new companion. As far as companions go most of them grow on you even if you don't like them at first. As for Bill (Pearl Mackie) well not your usual companion material and yes we've seen it all before. Gullible, in trouble, had fun, wanna stay! So nothing different there, a side from her being gay, the rest is just old. Which sin't really meant to be relevant at all. This one won't really grow on me, sorry if it sounds harsh but as I said, she's not someone new or original and we haven't seen before. Okay I'm very discerning when it comes to companions! Same with the plot/story! Stumbling onto the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) by attending, gate crashing his classes, which obviously have to be about time and space and TARDIS! He's up to something again on Earth with that vault and probably using his teaching gig as a cover and perhaps even to keep an eye on Earth as usual and silly humans. As well as wanting to get away from it all, so seems easier blending in doing something he loves: talking! Ha. Everyone saying that this episode was 'fresh' and it didn't seem that way to me, maybe I was in the minority, but it just didn't! Still have to see what this new reboot will be like though with new cast etc coming next time.
Obviously all the clues were there and was he really grooming Bill as a companion? Waiting for that moment Nardole (Matt Lucas) said waiting for her to realize it 's bigger on the inside than the outside, wish someone could say that about peoples' brains! Ha. SO maybe eating chips contributes to a higher power and purpose of not wanting to remain boring and stagnant in the same life. Or perhaps seeing the TARDIS interior as a posh kitchen with metal! Really? Anyway this week's big bad wolf was the puddle, a puddle remaining from a spaceship, the scorch marks and requiring a pilot and passengers, so she looked at the puddle and the reflection, so why didn't so-called puddle take Bill and not Heather (Stephanie Hyam) would've been more interesting.
As for chips, a foodie reference from the Doctor on the planet that is on the other side of the universe but love's ties and bonds surpass even the time and space of endless galaxies in finding each other. Okay a silly reference from me about time and space but someone's gotta be silly!
Doctor: "Hardly anything's evil. Most things are hungry. Hungry can look a lot like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Do you think your bacon sandwich loves you back?" Not bloomin' likely, but not everyone's into bacon butties. Sticking with the chips as a subtle harkback to Sherlock's newly acquired taste for chips a few series back!
Maybe we're too busy watching the 'penguin's arse" ha.
Doctor: "ergonomics."
But the toilet next to the macaroon vending machine!!
This series for me I think will be a little tedious cos a great companion always makes it better, but alas, no! The Daleks were a bit of a great addition, but poor Dalek, as said, was exterminated by Heather, the thing taken her over. She was like a water wraith or something and again not like something we haven't seen before. Maybe not in this show but obviously in others. Of course she would follow her around after making that promise and yet she broke it though when she vanished into the puddle, so a bit lame in saying she made her promise to stay there, even if it was the last thing she mentioned in her conscious/subconscious. Nardole: "That's the Doctor for you, never notices tears." Oh but he did and of course he used to, but noticing the tears will just make him seem weak and where did tears get him anyway? Losing River, Clara who isn't even a distant memory for him. At least with River he remembers!
As for the mind erase, again seen before with Donna, and yes even with the Doctor when he forgets Clara. Ahh Clara, was a moment there which made you think if he stopped from doing the same to Bill cos she asked if he'd like it done to him, but then he wouldn't really recall that. Cos it was done to him, but...as there was meant to be a photo of Clara on his desk but we got River and no Clara. As well as his granddaughter, Susan Foreman (Carol Anne Ford) someone he 'promised' to visit, so maybe he needs to fulfil that promise for himself too.
The people fighting the Daleks were the Movellans from the story, Destiny of the Daleks (1979).
As for Bill being a 'person of colour' as the press described her, well, she's not the first companion to be as such, remember Martha was already this and it's not a big deal either. People just like to make out that it is.
But really Heather appeared to be just cobbled together and 'the star in her eye' was perhaps just a talking point for Bill to notice her and immediately develop a crush on her, since the puddle didn't really seem to have any other agenda for being there, stranded, looking for a pilot or whatever. Perhaps also a bit of a sci-fi reference with the star cos Bill was into that too. Anyway am looking forward only to the Master(s) both of them and what more we have in store with the Doctor's storyline.
Some of the Doctor Who allusions in this ep:
The Doctor also has an abundance of sonic's now in that jar. Plus behind that is the raven, a not too subtle reference to Clara and the raven from 9.10 Face the Raven. There's also the busts of Shakespeare and Beethoven again from series 9 Before the Flood and the Bootstrap Paradox, using Beethoven to illustrate his point. To the Doctor playing his Fifth in this ep. Let's not forget Clara's little musical reference as Bill talks to him about wiping memories. The blackboard is from Class. Then there's Nardole's explanation of the small box within a larger box and then having to make it, reference which was used by the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) in Robot's of Death.
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