TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Doctor Who Series 10 Premiere!

And so it begins…the final season of Peter Capaldi as Doctor. Funnily enough though, “The Pilot” felt a lot more like a beginning than an ending. Which makes me curious about where things are going.

This, of course, leads us to the infinite amount of questions we have from the opening few minutes alone. Why is the Doctor teaching? What really made him pick Bill? What’s happened to him since we last saw him in “The Return of Doctor Mysterio”? Lots of questions and I have no idea what answers we will get.

I think one thing I wasn’t expect was how emotional “The Pilot” was. Because not only did we get a very interesting and in-depth look at Bill and her life, but the struggles that the Doctor is going through as well. That ending scene in particular showed just how much he is still hurting from the loss of Clara (those who recall the ending of the previous series knows just how deep that rabbit hole goes).

And yet, true to Stephen Moffat form, the story isn’t what you expect. This is as much a love story/tragedy than a Doctor Who episode, and in this rare case, that’s ok. Seeing Bill/Heather together, then torn apart, then brought back together via a “very smart oil ship”, only to be “taken apart” again was very compelling, and made us feel for Bill.

For Doctor Who as a series, they needed to make sure Bill didn’t resemble any of the past companions, and I think they did that. She’s an airhead at times, yet extremely poignant at others, which works well with Capaldi’s Doctor. The two work well together, and it’ll be interesting to see where the series goes from here.

I’m still not sold on Nardole as a companion, he’s basically there for comic relief, which is ok in theory…but they need to give him something more if this is going to work. Also, while “The Vault” is a compelling mystery, I hope there’s more to it than what’s being teased. And I really hope whatever is in there isn’t the end of Capaldi’s Doctor.

In the end though, “The Pilot” was a very welcome “welcome back” for the series that’s technically been gone since 2015. And I look forward to every episode until Capaldi takes his final bow.