History Recap / DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth

'''Series 11''': "'''The Woman Who Fell to Earth'''" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument The Ghost Monument]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK Arachnids in the UK]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum The Tsuranga Conundrum]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab Demons of the Punjab]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam Kerblam!]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders The Witchfinders]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway It Takes You Away]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos]]"]]-]]]

This is the first episode of Series 11, introducing Creator/JodieWhittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. It premiered on October 7, 2018. Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall and directed by Jamie Childs.

** The Doctor ''frequently'' (and, knowing that the Doctor likes poking the rat trap, ''deliberately'') gets Tzim-Sha's name mixed up and calls him "Tim Shaw". Did we really expect anything else?

** The Doctor ''frequently'' gets Tzim-Sha mixed up and falls him "Tim Shaw". Did we really expect anything else?

* MacGyvering: The Doctor combines Stenza technology with spoons and a welding torch to make her new sonic scredriver. A microwave oven is the central piece to her teleporter.

* BigOMG: Everone, staring in disbelief, utters a slow, "Oh, my God", as they watch the Doctor back up and then take a running leap toward Karl's crane.

[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Recap/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' '''Recap:'''\\

'''Series 11'''\\
"'''The Woman Who Fell to Earth'''" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument The Ghost Monument]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK Arachnids in the UK]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E5TheTsurangaConundrum The Tsuranga Conundrum]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab Demons of the Punjab]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam Kerblam!]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders The Witchfinders]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway It Takes You Away]]" | "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos]]"]]-]]]

We open on young Ryan Sinclair on a Website/YouTube vlog, where he says he'll tell us all about the most amazing woman he's ever known. It all begins with the fact that, at nineteen, he can't ride a bicycle due to his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_coordination_disorder dyspraxia]]. Scene change to his grandma, Grace, and her second husband, Graham, trying to teach him to ride. After falling, Ryan chucks the bicycle over the edge of a nearby cliff and into the woods below. And since Grace and Graham's train is leaving soon, it's up to Ryan to go retrieve the bike alone. Just as he finds it hanging in a tree out of reach, a pattern of light appears in the air nearby, with a [[SchmuckBait glowing button]] in the centre, which Ryan of course touches. The lights disappear, and a giant Hershey's Kiss appears on the ground nearby. Which Ryan also touches. It's burning cold. Out of options, Ryan calls the police. Probationary Officer Yaz Khan, an old schoolmate of Ryan's, shows up and is initially disdainful of his claim that the pod just appeared, ordering him to remove it before he convinces her he didn't put it there.

Meanwhile, a mechanical thing that looks like the UsefulNotes/FlyingSpaghettiMonster soon attacks a train, containing Graham, Grace and a third random guy named Karl. By sheer coincidence, it is also into that train that the newly-regenerated Thirteenth Doctor, [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime who has been falling from the sky for a little bit]], makes rather a rough landing... right on to of the MonsterOfTheWeek as Yaz and Ryan arrive in response to a cut-off call Ryan got from Grace about the stalled train. The Doctor zaps the thing with a loose electrical cable, but since the sonic screwdriver fell out of her pocket mid-fall, she's unable to stop the spaghetti monster from zapping all six of them and flying off. Only barely noticing she changed her gender in the past half an hour -- and liking it when it's pointed out -- she assumes command, even over the protest of policewoman Yaz. As Karl decides to leave for work, the Doctor and company return to the woods, only to find the pod gone.

The Doctor, after a brief collapse and rest, discovers they've all been implanted with DNA bombs which could kill them all remotely, then commandeers Ryan's phone to create a tracking device to locate the signal the bombs are connected to. The freezing Kiss is actually the travel pod of a tooth-stealing warlord-to-be named Tzim-Sha, who has come to Earth to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame Hunt the Most Dangerous Game]] and thereby earn the leadership of his people, the Stenza. Only, he has no intentions of leaving anything up to chance, cheating by bringing the sparking, electric Spaghetti Monster (actually a part-creature part-machine called a "Gathering Coil") to help him find his target. The pod disappeared from the woods because Rahul, the brother of a previous target of such a hunt, recognized similar atmospheric anomalies happening, realized the creatures who took his sister were coming back, and brought the pod to the warehouse that serves as the base for his search for her. He died trying to find out from Tzim-Sha where his sister was taken, but not before leaving a message that fills in the Doctor and company on much of what's happening when they arrive at his warehouse base.

Once again missing her sonic screwdriver, the Doctor uses bits from the travel pod and odds and ends from the warehouse (and Sheffield steel) to construct a new one. The Doctor uses a tip from a fellow bus-driver mate of Graham's to locate the Gathering Coil, learning from it the identity of the hunter's target, then encounter Tzim-Sha himself and learn of his cheating, not only with the Gathering Coil from which he uploads information on his target, but also a short-range teleport device. The target of his hunt is none other than Karl. Thanks to Yaz's taking down his info as a witness, they track him to his workplace, a construction site where he operates a very tall crane. Unfortunately, Tzim-Sha arrives before them, climbing the crane's tower, while using the Gathering Coil to block pursuit by the same route.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan climb a second crane and swing its arm out to ''almost'' meet the crane Karl is on. Graham and Grace work on the ground to stop the Gathering Coil from bringing down the cranes, while the Doctor makes a leap across the gap and rescues Karl. Turns out she'd removed the DNA bombs from herself and her friends, and piggybacked them into the upload Tzim-Sha had made from the Gathering Coil. When Tzim-Sha sets them off, they all five go off inside ''him''. The Doctor offers him an out with a key piece of the teleport recall, but Karl is not so forgiving and kicks him off of the crane. He teleports away mid-air. Unfortunately, Grace is knocked off the crane while disabling the Coil and falls, ''à la'' the Fourth Doctor. After a few words to Graham, she passes.

The new friends all attend Grace's funeral, where Ryan's dad, her son, is conspicuously absent. Afterwards, the Doctor heads to a charity shop to replace the Twelfth Doctor's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls notably damaged clothes]] at the insistence of Yaz, and chooses a rainbow shirt with a long coat and some braces. They all go back to the warehouse, where, with her new friends' help, the Doctor uses the rest of the travel pod, and even more eclectic junk, to adapt the Stenza teleporting device, hoping to get to her TARDIS...

Only for viewers to be treated to a thrilling {{cliffhanger}} as the teleporter lands, not only her, but also her new companions in the void of space, with no blue box in sight... ''sans'' spacesuits. Cue the OhCrap, then cue the new theme.[[note]]Unless you watched on BBC America, in which case you got a DW promo while the credits (if shown at all) were relegated to a tiny corner of the screen.[[/note]]

--> '''The Doctor:''' "Right, then, troops. No, not troops. Team. Gang. Fam? I'm distracting myself."
--> '''Grace:''' "You came crashing through that roof."
--> '''The Doctor:''' "I was thrown out of my TARDIS." ''(Horrified)'' "Oh! I've lost my TARDIS! It was exploding and then it dematerialized! Don't panic. Not the end of the world. Well, it could be the end of the world, but one thing at a time."
--> '''Graham:''' "Are we supposed to understand anything you're saying?"

--->'''Tzim-Sha:''' "Tzim-Sha! Soon to be leader of the Stenza warrior race, conquerors of the Nine Systems."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "When you say soon to be leader, what are you now — the office junior?"\\
'''Graham:''' "Eh? No, don't wind him up!"

-->'''Yaz:''' "You don't know your own name?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Of course I know it! I just can't ''remember'' it."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Swiss army sonic. Now with added Sheffield steel."

-->'''Tzim-Sha:''' "You're interfering in things you don't understand."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Yeah, well, we all need a hobby."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Poor Tim Shaw. The wannabe leader who has to cheat because he knows he's unworthy. See, that's why I know you won't detonate. Although, you could prove me wrong cos [[DoubleMeaning we're all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we've been and choose who we want to be next.]] Now's your chance."

-->'''Yaz:''' "Hold on there, madam, I need you to do as I say. This could be a potential cri–"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Why are you calling me "madam"?"\\
'''Yaz:''' "...because you're a woman?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Am I? Does it suit me?"\\
'''Yaz:''' "What?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Oh yeah... I remember! Sorry. Half an hour ago I was [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor a white-haired Scotsman]]."

-->'''Dennis:''' "What do you think you're-- ''ARRRRRGGHHH!''"

-->'''Tzim-Sha:''' "You're interfering in things you don't understand."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Yeah, well, [[ItsWhatIDo we all need a hobby]]."

* AbsurdPhobia: Karl is a tower crane operator who is afraid of heights. While this is a very common, it does make it almost impossible for him to do his job.

* AlienAbduction: Rahul believes this is what happened to his older sister when he was a child, and it's confirmed by Tim Shaw that she was the "trophy" of a previous hunt.
* AliensInCardiff: "We don't get aliens in Sheffield." Until ''now'', that is.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Introduced without contact with the Doctor, and thus the TARDIS' telepathic translation circuitry, Tim Shaw is nevertheless fluent in English. Presumably due to his species visiting Earth before.
* AmnesiacHero: Even more than Twelve, regeneration puts some weird gaps in Thirteen's memory. She doesn't know the name for a tongue, and is under the impression that she's ''looking'' for a doctor initially. She also doesn't realise that she is a woman until told so, nor does she remember her name until the climax.
* AndIMustScream: Tim Shaw describes the process used to preserve his [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting trophies]], which involves trapping them in a state somewhere between life and death.
* ArbitraryScepticism: Graham (briefly) insists that there's no such thing as aliens, earning an incredulous look from the Doctor. One wonders where he's been for the past few years.

--> '''The Doctor:''' Right, then, troops. No, not troops. Team. Gang. Fam? I'm distracting myself.
--> '''Grace:''' You came crashing through that roof.
--> '''The Doctor:''' I was thrown out of my TARDIS. (Horrified) Oh! I've lost my TARDIS! It was exploding and then it dematerialized! Don't panic. Not the end of the world. Well, it could be the end of the world, but one thing at a time.
--> '''Graham:''' Are we supposed to understand anything you're saying?

* BattleInTheRain: Downplayed as there's only light rain and heavy winds (shown by the spinning anemometer as Karl climbs onto the roof of his crane cabin), but it doesn't make climbing or jumping from the crane any easier.
* BattleTrophy: Tim Shaw collects a tooth from each being he kills as a trophy, and implants them into his face.
* BavarianFireDrill: Grace and Graham grab a couple of reflective vests and act like supervisors to get the rest of the construction crew (except Karl) off the worksite.

* BigOMG: The entire Fam, staring in disbelief, all utter a slow "Oh, my God" as they watch the Doctor back up and then take a running leap toward Karl's crane.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Somehow, the Doctor can figure out exactly when she's going to pass out by sticking her finger up her nose. Or, given how the time kept changing, not so exactly. ("This new nose is so unreliable!")

** One of Tim Shaw's victims is a drunk who sees this dark, imposing creature that doesn't look like he even came from this world, assumes he's some guy in a costume, and ridicules him while throwing food at him. [[TooDumbToLive Do we even need to tell you how this ends?]]

--->'''Tzim-Sha:''' Tzim-Sha! Soon to be leader of the Stenza warrior race, conquerors of the Nine Systems.\\
'''The Doctor:''' When you say soon to be leader, what are you now — the office junior?\\
'''Graham:''' Eh? No, don't wind him up!

** The Doctor gets a moving scene in which she says that she lost her family but that she [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen carries them with her]].
** The Doctor, at the end, converts Tim Shaw's pod into a teleportation device to send her to the location of the TARDIS, setting it to track down the errant time machine by the [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride unique energy]] the ship runs on.

** By the end, [[DoubleMeaningTitle it could also refer to Grace]].

** As Karl crawls along the crane arm, he passes a sign indicating a broken guardrail. Karl ends up kicking Tim Shaw through the simple chain being used as a replacement.

* ChekhovsGunman: Karl, the other passenger on the train when the data coil and the Doctor arrive, leaves shortly thereafter, freaked out about what happened. It turns out ''he'' is the reason the data coil was there, as he has been selected as the next target of the Stenza's hunt.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: Just after the Doctor activates the rig that's intended to teleport her to the TARDIS, it winds up sending her and her friends into the '''depths of space'''.

* ClipboardOfAuthority: The Doctor assigns Graham and Grace to clear bystanders from the construction site where Tim Shaw is hunting. They grab reflective vests and clipboards, pretending to be supervisors.

** The Doctor, in the midst of post-regenerative trauma, is so addled by the process that she doesn't remember her own name. [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie The more things change]]...

*** The Thirteenth Doctor, still clad in the Twelfth Doctor’s clothes, doesn't have access to either the TARDIS or sonic screwdriver when the adventure begins; much like how she had it as Eleven.
*** The Doctor had the fire engine lights and sirens on in that episode, and he was really happy about it. In this episode? She doesn’t get any luck this time around in Yaz's patrol car, causing her to sulk a bit.

** A BaitAndSwitch opening narration where we first think a companion is describing the Doctor, but it later on turns out they're talking about a heroic human close to them, was also done with Amy in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar A Good Man Goes to War]]".
** The teleportation device Thirteen bodges together out of Earth rubbish and the remnants of Tim Shaw's travel pod resembles the sorts of [=MacGyvered=] gadgets Three used to whip up from junk.
* CreepySouvenir: Tim Shaw takes a tooth from each of his victims as a trophy, which he then embeds in his face.
* CrowbarCombatant: Rahul grabs a crowbar to defend himself against Tim Shaw. It doesn't do him any good.

* DeadManWriting: Rahul leaves a video file prominently placed on his PC desktop in case the occupant of the pod kills him, which it does.

* DisneyVillainDeath: As Tim Shaw starts to dissolve, Karl kicks him off the crane. Subverted when he teleports away while in mid-air.

-->'''Yaz:''' You don't know your own name?\\
'''The Doctor:''' Of course I know it! I just can't ''remember'' it.

* DynamicEntry: The Doctor enters the plot by ''smashing through the train's ceiling'' right before the data coil attacks Graham, Grace and Karl.
* EagerRookie: Yaz is still just a probationary Police Constable, so her superiors don't give her anything more challenging than resolving parking disputes and dismiss her out-of-hand [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor when she wants to handle bigger things]].
* EnclosedExtraterrestrials: Downplayed. Tim Shaw mentions that his home planet is much colder than Earth and his armour presumably allows him to deal with Earth's climate, but he can expose his hands and face for short periods of time without suffering any ill effects.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Averted with Tim Shaw, but played straight with the ''other'' alien on Earth, the Doctor, who declares that leaving human beings in stasis to "rot" is "completely obscene".

** The bulk of the episode's action takes place over the course of a single night — with the exception of the prologue set a little earlier in the evening, and the coda set over the course of the next several days.
** Also, from the Doctor's perspective, everything from their last stand against the Cybermen on Floor 507 of the spaceship in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]", right up until the defeat of Tim Shaw and Grace's death in this episode, all occurs within the span of less than a day — possibly no more than several hours.
* FacialHorror: Tim Shaw has a collection of human teeth on his face, which he ''absorbs'' from the victims he's killed.
* FailedAttemptAtDrama: After an epic forging montage the Doctor proudly shows off her new sonic screwdriver, which appears to fuse out the moment she turns it on. It does work fine, however.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: Dennis, Karl's workmate, has just got off a video call with his granddaughter when he gets killed.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: The Doctor, while explaining how the teleporter she's made from the pod is designed to follow the TARDIS's energy signature, mentions that she hates Stenza technology, specifically pointing out there are some parts of it that don't make any sense. Is it any surprise that the teleporter doesn't work the way the Doctor intended it to?

** The first hint that the electrical creature and the pod in the woods are from the same source comes when the tracking device the Doctor programs Ryan's phone into, to search for the electrical creature, leads everyone to the garage where an alien warrior has emerged from the pod instead.
** Security guard Dennis being murdered by Tim Shaw after getting off a call with his granddaughter foreshadows Grace's death subduing the data coil.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Swiss army sonic. Now with added Sheffield steel.

* GoryDiscretionShot: We don't see Rahul's body after Tim Shaw killed him. Given that his jaw was cracked open because Tim took one of his teeth as a trophy, it was likely not pretty. The Doctor even apologizes to her human friends for them having to see it, and Grace goes to find something to cover it.
* GuileHero: See HoistByHisOwnPetard and MexicanStandoff. This Doctor is very compassionate, but she's no fool.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The most logical reason why Tim Shaw had the data coil plant bombs in Grace, Graham, Ryan, Yaz and the Doctor is probably to dispose of the witnesses to his presence (and cheating).

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Tim Shaw responds to the Doctor's ultimatum by activating the DNA bombs he implanted in the humans... not realising the Doctor removed them and tricked him into absorbing them into himself using the data coil. The same data coil he brought with him to cheat his way through the hunt. Ironically, had he played the hunt honestly, he probably would never have been caught.
* HopeSpot: Karl works up the nerve to jump to the Doctor, only for Tim Shaw to catch up and grab him mid-leap. The Doctor is forced to jump the distance herself, which is problematic since the crane she's on is positioned lower than Karl's and her legs aren't as long as they used to be.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: The Stenza ritual of leadership involves hunting and capturing a randomly designated human. The victims are then taken home and preserved in a state between life and death as trophies.

** When Yaz introduces herself to the Doctor as "PC Khan", the Doctor retorts that she asked for Yaz's name, not her title. This, from the person who only ever introduces themselves with nothing ''but'' a title...[[note]]In the Doctor's defence, apparently her name is unpronounceable to humans.[[/note]]

** The Doctor declines a visit to A&E, stating that she never goes to places that are "just initials." This coming from someone who lives in a T.A.R.D.I.S.

* InstantExpert:
** The Doctor seems to expect these humans to work out technology just as fast as she can, tossing Ryan and Yaz a bunch of keys and telling them to figure out how to operate the crane (so Ryan [[MundaneSolution Googles the answer]]).
** Subverted for the cliffhanger, when we discover that the Doctor doesn't always get alien tech right.

* ItsALongStory: The Doctor on how she just smashed though the train roof JustInTime for a BigDamnHeroes. She might have mentioned it was a long fall too.

-->'''Tim Shaw:''' You're interfering in things you don't understand.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Yeah, well, we all need a hobby.
* KillItWithIce: The Stenza's body temperature is so low that Tim Shaw can cause lethal freezer-burn to humans just by touching them.
* KickTheDog: When Rahul demands to know what happened to his sister, Tim Shaw cruelly replies that he will never know, before killing him.
* KirkSummation: The Doctor to Tim Shaw. As per usual, the VillainOfTheWeek rejects this.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Poor Tim Shaw. The wannabe leader who has to cheat because he knows he's unworthy. See, that's why I know you won't detonate. Although, you could prove me wrong cos [[DoubleMeaning we're all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we've been and choose who we want to be next.]] Now's your chance.
* LastSecondChance: At the climax, the Doctor offers Tim Shaw the option to end the hunt and go home peacefully. He refuses, just as she expected.

-->'''Yaz:''' Hold on there madam, I need you to do as I say. This could be a potential cri–\\
'''The Doctor:''' Why are you calling me "madam"?\\
'''Yaz:''' ... because you're a woman?\\
'''The Doctor:''' Am I? Does it suit me?\\
'''Yaz:''' ... what?\\
'''The Doctor:''' Oh yeah... I remember! Sorry. Half an hour ago I was [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor a white-haired Scotsman]].
* MacGyvering: The [[GadgeteerGenius Doctor]] combines Stenza technology with spoons and a welding torch to make her new Sonic Scredriver. A microwave oven is the central piece to her teleporter.
* MaliciousMisnaming: Downplayed: The Doctor mishears "Tzim-Sha" as "Tim Shaw", and makes ''no effort'' to correct that. He's even called that in the [[CreditsGag credits]].
* MexicanStandoff: During the climactic crane scene, the Doctor and Tim Shaw have leverage over each other; she's grabbed the recall unit that he needs to get home, while he controls the DNA bombs inside the Doctor and her friends. At least, that's what the Doctor lets him think...

* {{Nepotism}}: Implied to be the case for Karl, who mentions the construction company he works for is owned by his dad. He isn't entirely comfortable with the job he currently has (he's a tower crane operator with a fear of heights), and seems to have self-esteem issues which can't be helped by this.

** Tim Shaw's ritual of leadership is ''supposed'' to be this, but he cheats by using the smuggled data coil to track his prey.
* NoodleIncident: When the Doctor realises she needs new clothes, she says that it's been a long time since she's bought women's clothing. As the Doctor has never been female before now, you have to wonder: did he go shopping with Susan, River, etc. or is it something less conventional? The Doctor ''has'' crossdressed before, so it could be that!
* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: The Stenza's hunt is supposed to be without weapons or assistance. Of course, Tim Shaw decides to use a massive data coil to help him identify which "random human" is his target. When the Doctor confronts him, he uses a short-range teleporter to escape.

** The Doctor has one when she, for a brief moment, regains some of her memory and realises that she has no sonic and her TARDIS has ''just exploded'', several thousand feet in the air, leaving her stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere.

* ProducePelting: A drunk decides to throw his salad at the alien hunter Tim Shaw while telling him that YourCostumeNeedsWork. This ends badly for the drunk.
* PyrrhicVictory: The Doctor's intervention saves one life — Karl's — but Grace dies instead. Both of them accomplished their objective, but the latter died in the process. Not to mention those who Tim Shaw killed during his hunt for Karl, although the Doctor does save (almost) everyone he injected with DNA bombs and makes sure the rest of the site workers are sent to safety.
* QuirkyTown: Yaz asks her boss if anyone's reported anything out of the ordinary. He snarks that in Sheffield at night, ''everything'' is out of the ordinary.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The Doctor denounces Tim Shaw as a "big blue cheat" for breaking the rules of the hunt.

* {{Retool}}: Also like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour The Eleventh Hour]]", this is the start of another major retool for ''Doctor Who'': New logo, format, theme (composed by Segun Akinola), et al. In addition, Series 11 consists of nine 50 minute stand-alone episodes (not counting the hour-long premiere) airing on Sundays with no appearances from the show's established RoguesGallery.

* ShesBack: The Doctor is looking for a doctor. By the time she gets up on the crane, she's found the Doctor again. See page quote.

-->'''Dennis:''' What do you think you're-- ''ARRRRRGGHHH!''

* AStormIsComing: Lightning among stormclouds is shown as the data coil does its work.
* SurvivalMantra: Karl recites from his affirmation tape when nerving himself to jump from one crane to another. [[SubvertedTrope Unfortunately, it gives Tim Shaw enough time to catch up and grab him before he jumps.]]

** Tim Shaw has a short-range teleporter that he uses at one point.
** At the end, the Doctor rigs the remains of Tim Shaw's pod into a teleporter intended to send her, and only her, to the current location of the TARDIS. Instead, it sends her, Graham, Ryan and Yaz off into deep space.

** Shortly after that, the security guard says, "Not every grandad's this lucky." Moments later Tim Shaw kills him.

* WhatTheHellHero: The Doctor is not impressed when Karl knocks Tim Shaw from the top of the crane, telling him "You had no right to do that."

* WhyAmITicking: Tim Shaw implants DNA bombs in the Doctor and her new friends as a means of eliminating them as witnesses. During the final showdown with the Doctor, he activates them, only to discover that the Doctor had removed them earlier and tricked him into absorbing them into himself when he interacted with the data coil.

* WrongLineOfWork: Karl is a tower crane operator with a fear of heights. He shows signs of low self-esteem while working, and is implied to only have the job as a result of {{Nepotism}} from his father.

-->'''Tim Shaw:''' You're interfering in things you don't understand.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Yeah, well, [[ItsWhatIDo we all need a hobby]].
* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Invoked by the Doctor to get Yaz to work with her instead of reporting this to her superiors, who won't believe anything they say when they don't have physical evidence. Averted with Graham, who leaves out the fact that he's searching for aliens when asking his fellow bus drivers if they've seen anything unusual.
* YourCostumeNeedsWork: Tim Shaw meets a drunken man, who looks at his armour and mockingly tells him he's a bit early for Halloween. The drunk doesn't live long enough to tell any more jokes.

We open on young Ryan Sinclair on a Website/YouTube vlog, where he says he'll tell us all about the most amazing woman he's ever known. It all begins with the fact that, at nineteen, he can't ride a bicycle (though this is due to his having [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_coordination_disorder dyspraxia]], a neurological condition which causes — at ''best'' — poor coordination). Scene change to his grandma Grace and her second husband, Graham, trying to teach him to ride (over rough ground near a cliff). After falling, Ryan chucks the bicycle over the edge and into the woods below. And since Nan and Graham's train is leaving soon, it's up to Ryan to go retrieve the bike. Just as he finds it hanging in a tree out of reach, a pattern of light appears in the air nearby, with a [[SchmuckBait glowing button]] in the centre, which Ryan of course touches. The lights disappear, and a giant Hershey's Kiss appears on the ground nearby. Which Ryan also touches. It's burning cold. Ryan calls the police. Probationary Officer Yasmin Khan, an old schoolmate of Ryan's, shows up and is initially disdainful of his claim that the pod just appeared, ordering him to remove it before he convinces her he didn't put it there.

Meanwhile, a mechanical thing that looks like the UsefulNotes/FlyingSpaghettiMonster soon attacks a train, containing Graham, Grace and a third random guy. By sheer coincidence (or for dramatic purposes, because the TARDIS doesn't normally do coincidences), it is also into that train that the newly-regenerated Thirteenth Doctor, [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime who has been falling from the sky for a little bit]], makes rather a rough landing... right on to of the MonsterOfTheWeek — nice shot TARDIS. Gotta love [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion the first fifteen hours of a regeneration]]. Only barely noticing she changed her gender in the past half an hour -- and liking it when it's pointed out -- she assumes command even over the protest of policewoman Yaz, who has just arrived with Ryan in response to a cut-off call Ryan got from his Nan about the stalled train. The Doctor zaps the thing with a loose electrical cable, but since the sonic fell out of her pocket mid-fall, she's unable to stop the spaghetti monster from zapping all six of them and flying off. They return to the woods only to find the pod also gone.

The Doctor, after a brief collapse and rest, discovers they've all been implanted with DNA bombs which could kill them all remotely, then commandeers Ryan's phone to create a tracking device to locate the signal the bombs are connected to. The freezing Kiss is actually the travel pod of a tooth-stealing warlord-to-be named Tzim-Sha who has come to Earth to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame Hunt the Most Dangerous Game]] and thereby earn the leadership of his people, the Stenza. Only, he has no intentions of leaving anything up to chance, cheating by bringing the sparking, electric Spaghetti Monster (actually a part-creature part-machine called a "Gathering Coil") to help him find his target. The pod disappeared from the woods because Rahul, the brother of a previous target of such a hunt, recognized similar atmospheric anomalies happening, realized the creatures who took his sister [[InsistentTerminology Asha]] were coming back, and brought the pod to the warehouse that serves as the base for his search for Asha. He died trying to find out from Tzim-Sha where Asha was taken, but not before leaving a message that fills in the Doctor and company on much of what's happening.

Once again missing her sonic, the Doctor uses bits from the travel pod and odds and ends from the warehouse (and Sheffield steel) to construct a new sonic screwdriver. They use a tip from a fellow bus-driver mate of Graham to locate the Gathering Coil, learning from it the identity of the hunter's target, then encounter Tzim-Sha ("[[MaliciousMisnaming Tim Shaw]]") himself and learn of his cheating, not only with the Gathering Coil from which he uploads information on his target, but also a short-range teleport device. The target of his hunt is Karl, the other passenger on the stopped train. Thanks to Yaz's taking down his info as a witness, they track him to his workplace, a construction site where he operates a very tall crane. Unfortunately, Tim Shaw arrives before them, climbing the crane's tower while using the Gathering Coil to block pursuit by the same route.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan climb a second crane (especially dangerous for dyspraxic Ryan) and swing its arm out to ''almost'' meet the crane Karl is on. Graham and Grace work on the ground to stop the Gathering Coil from bringing down the cranes, while the Doctor makes a leap across the gap and rescues Karl. Turns out she'd removed the DNA bombs from herself and her friends, and piggybacked them into the upload Tim Shaw had made from the Gathering Coil. When Tim Shaw sets them off, they all five go off inside ''him''. The Doctor offers him an out with a key piece of the teleport recall, but Karl is not so forgiving and kicks him off of the crane. He teleports mid-air, dying from the DNA bombs. Unfortunately, Grace is knocked off the crane while disabling the Coil and falls, ''à la'' the Fourth Doctor. After a few words to Graham, she perishes.

The new friends all attend Grace's funeral, where Ryan's dad, her son, is conspicuously absent. Afterwards the Doctor heads to a charity shop to replace the Twelfth Doctor's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls notably damaged clothes]] at the insistence of Yaz, and chooses a rainbow shirt with a longcoat and some braces. They all go back to the warehouse, where with her new friends' help she uses the rest of the travel pod and even more eclectic junk to adapt the Stenza teleporting device, hoping to get to her TARDIS...

Only for viewers to be treated to a thrilling {{cliffhanger}} as the teleporter lands not only her but also her new companions in the void of space, with no blue box in sight... ''sans'' spacesuits. Cue the OhCrap, then cue the new theme.[[note]]Unless you watched on BBC America, in which case you got a DW promo while the credits (if shown at all) were relegated to a tiny corner of the screen.[[/note]]

->'''[[MaliciousMisnaming Tim Shaw]]:''' Who are you?\\
'''The Thirteenth Doctor:''' Yes! I'm glad you asked that again. Bit of adrenaline, dash of outrage, and a hint of panic, knitted my brain back together. I know ''exactly'' who I am. I'm the Doctor. Sorting out fair play throughout the Universe. Now please, get off this planet while you still have a choice.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here a guy throws a bike off a cliff, plus something that's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

Meanwhile, a mechanical thing that looks like the UsefulNotes/FlyingSpaghettiMonster soon attacks a train, containing Graham, Grace and a third random guy. By sheer coincidence (or for dramatic purposes, because the TARDIS doesn't normally do coincidences), it is also into that train that the newly-regenerated Thirteenth Doctor, [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime who has been falling from the sky for a little bit]], makes rather a rough landing... right on to of the MonsterOfTheWeek — nice shot TARDIS. Gotta love the first fifteen hours of a regeneration. Only barely noticing she changed her gender in the past half an hour -- and liking it when it's pointed out -- she assumes command even over the protest of policewoman Yaz, who has just arrived with Ryan in response to a cut-off call Ryan got from his Nan about the stalled train. The Doctor zaps the thing with a loose electrical cable, but since the sonic fell out of her pocket mid-fall, she's unable to stop the spaghetti monster from zapping all six of them and flying off. They return to the woods only to find the pod also gone.