(Don't expect these to be all that punctual, I will be taking my time as always)

3:30 Of course she knows how long they have been married but that was not Graham's point now was it. His point was he had been married to her for three years and Ryan STILL had not accepted him. I thought that was a great way to give out that information.

Personally I found the two monsters more compelling when I thought they were going to beat the shit out of each other.

When Tim Shaw first emerged from the pod, and we mostly just saw the armour was I the only one who thought "Is that the Doom Guy?"

The first thing I thought when I saw the face of the tooth monster was "please put the helm back on". He was way more intimidating with it on.

If this had been Davies or Moffatt, you know that the Doctor would have used 'left-over Regeneration energy' or something to resurrect the mum at the end of the episode. Having the death stick seems to be laying down a ground rule for this new run that there may not always be a fell-good happy ending.

I mean, I am happy that Chibnal was able to kill off a character, here's hoping for good, but now that I think about it, maybe it was a little bit too early for that, she should've been a companion for a few episodes, we could've got flashbacks with her, grown to like her, then it probably would've hit harder, but in the moment for me, it worked and I didn't really have a problem with it, but yeh could've been done a bit better

The Woman Who Fell to Earth: The Force Awakens of Dr. Who Big functional but unsurprising...thing

Loving the new visual style and music for the series , that more than anything has made it feel fresh to me.

That was some really neat animation at the end there Stuart, I love when you do shit like that.

Personally I’m happy this episode wasn’t some over the top or wacky stuff. It felt quite small and contained but was also focusing its attention on its characters and actually working to develop them. I found myself actually interested and caring about these people and wanted to see them more!

I’ve been waiting for this review all week, love your DW reviews. You actually give arguments for why you did or didn’t like things rather than someone in front of a camera blathering about how it just didn’t feel right without attempting to explain why. Keep up the good work.

'Why Do I keep Dying' would have been a great thing to put in the side bar! (the thumbnail could be any number of characters).

0:13 Series 12 has proved that hypothesis right.

I liked the episode lots. It's firm and well constructed and feels kind of new again. I liked it.

Oh haha I no titles for this one, clever boy.

I laughed way too hard at Chibnal and his pile of skulls

I think what made the episode work for me was its pacing: it has a slow and atmospheric build-up, not the frenetic 150 mph pace that most of NuWho seems to be addicted to. Also: excellent soundtrack!

I think a few bits of the dialogue from the companions is expository and forced like the example you gave and the dialogue Graham has about his cancer but I think it was overshadowed by the great dialogue in the eulogy, followed by the close up to ryan and seeing how he feels about everything. I thought that was great. I think Grace's death will mean a lot going forward. It worked for me.

If the series ended with Chibnall sitting atop a pile of skulls, I would like that twist.

Anyone else see the villain to be like the ice warriors

It wouldn't surprise me if this season saw a retread of the 9th Doctor episode "Father's Day", with Ryan wanting to go back and save Grace, ending in Graham convincing Ryan to mourn. They might not, but it was one of the first things I thought of after she died.

Considering how jaded most of us are all are of Moffat, I'm not too surprised how much I loved Jodie as the Doctor and the new companions. I felt like the story, while nothing special all things considered, did it's job well of introducing a new Doctor and new companions. Of course, we still have an entire big season ahead of us but overall I thought this was a very good first outing and I'm actually optimistic for the future episodes. Also I hope you get better over your whole melting problem.

This was one of the best season openers in the second shows history.

@00:15 *"he'll typically look at what's worked before and combine the right elements to make sure his works as broadly appealing and functionally sound as possible"* I wish that I could go back in time and say - be careful what you wish for or you'll end up with "The Timeless Child"

Never watched any of your videos... But really enjoyed this one! I do kind of agree with you about The Companions bit... I know that they have kept companions around for Regenerations, but I think they should try and do this MORE! Many episodes of Classic Who had Companions STAY after the Doctor regenerated... Sometimes for more than one... And we could do with more of that!

If I ever became showrunner, one of the main things I'd do is connect the show with the internet more. Much like how the books tied into the show, for the first series they referenced that at least. Like, maybe even having the Doctor herself have a KZfaq channel, and for her to upload stuff out of order.

As soon as I saw that Grace was Ryan's nan in that first scene, I knew she was going to die. There was no way she would ever let Ryan do dangerous stuff in space without her there to keep an eye on him.

Now I want to see a Doctor Who interpretation of the Tooth Fairy.

I'm just happy after 8 fucking years of Moffat dragging us through the dirt that we have anyone else... I would have been happy with literally anyone else, it's just a plus for me that I was a fan of him from Broadchurch and some of his previous episodes on Torchwood

Damn it I fell for every trick in the episode.

It was shit. Here are some notes. * The black guy touches a weird alien electric thing that looks and sounds dangerous. He then touches a big space fruit looking thing. Finally, he gets a police officer to ALSO touch the big space fruit looking thing. Touching scary things is something NO PERSON WOULD EVER DO. *The characters are constantly repeating their full names/nicknames. *The Doctor survives smashing through the roof of a train. It was kinda dumb when Tennant smashed through the roof and it's still dumb when Jodie does it. She also says "I was a white haired scotsman half an hour ago", meaning she must have been falling for something like 20 minutes. *Every single male character is presented in some negative light while all female characters are portrayed as either heroes, underdogs or even both. *The Doctor, after surviving said fall through the roof of a train WITHOUT A SCRATCH, proceeds to immediately beat up the alien tentacle ball like a "total badass". It's the immediate stink of a "mary sue". *The probation police officer girl follows literally no protocol and makes absolutely every bad decision possible. Two women are in an argument and one has clearly smashed a car window with a hammer and then admits to it. The police girl is just like "Pay for the window and stop being children." No reports, no notes, no paperwork, nothing. Just a sassy attitude. She touches the unidentified object bare handed and gets distracted by small talk. She goes along with everything and the only resistance to the lawbreaking is her unrelenting whinening. *The Doctor confronts the police girl when she says she has to report what's happened on the train and the Doctor says something like "And do what? Tell them what happened? No one will believe you!" Nevermind the fact UNIT exists. This is a stupid thing for the Doctor to say and is only written into the script because if the group got police or UNIT backup the story would be over instantly. *A few characters huff at the idea of aliens despite the alien titanic flying over london, the arachnid star thing, the fat flying into spaceships, Gallefray popping up next door and also THE WHOLE FUCKING PLANET BEING TELEPORTED THEN INVADED BY DALEKS. But aliens? Nah, mate. Don't exist. *When one of the characters tells The Doctor she should go to A&E The Doctor says she never goes anywhere that are just initials... THE FUCKING T.A.R.D.I.S. is just initials. *The Nurse checks the Doctors pulse and says "She has two seperate pulses!" which would be impossible to distinguish. We know what a Time Lords heartbeat sounds like thanks to the master so it would just sound like her pulse was a cycle of four beats, not two seperate pulses completely. A nitpick, really, but it's lazy. *The Doctor and the group get hit with micro DNA bombs but she doesn't tell anyone what they are until she's had a nap and they've all been activated. *"Is that another alien?" "Looks like it!" They say, when they see a humanoid sillouette in a dark alley which looks like a fucking human. *The alien reveals that he wants to kill some rando dude to get promoted in his military. Some random, unarmed dude who doesn't know he's being hunted. Last time, it was a little girl. This is how they get promotions. He also cheats. This is fucking stupid. *When the alien boi reveals himself, they use the exact same shot every time he speaks which is terribly framed with all the negative space being behind his head rather than in front of it, making it look silly and amatuer. *There's an old man who is obviously deathbait. He is introduced and IMMEDIATELY says "I love my granddaughter and being alive. Gee wizz, it's my first day on the job and I'm two days from retirement. So glad I wore my red shirt today. Oh no, I am the dead. Do you feel fucking sad yet, audience?" *After meeting the alien, seeing dead bodies, defeating the tentacle ball thingy and running about town... does the police girl decide to take pictures of these things and send them to the station requesting backup? NAAAAH! LET'S JUST FUCK ABOUT ON A CRANE! WHY NOT?! THIS IS FUCKING STUPID. *The alien baddie doesn't just teleport to the top of the crane. Or to the end of the crane. Or anywhere other than that one initial teleport. They might have said he only has one charge at some point but I really can't be fucked to watch it all back. *Spoiler alert, the black lady dies from falling for what looks like... 10 feet, maybe? The shitty cinematography sure doesn't clue you in on how high up she is. Despite cracking open the back of her head (which is almost certainly what happened to kill her), she gives one last dramatic speech before somehow turning her head all the way to face the opposite direction in order to do a dead. All in all... this was a shitty mess with no real direction. Plenty of things make no sense and don't add up... then we get to the acting. It's not great. Some people were alright but it just... wasn't really remarkable in any way. Jodie doesn't capture anything new or interesting as the character and comes across as a dithering asshole at the worse of times. Sadest part is, you wasted your time reading this comment with me pointing out the obvious. Goodnight.

I'll at least gives Chibnall props for killing off a character and not ressurecting them. But i still found it enjoyable overall

I'm glad ours wasn't the only household to notice the eerie simularity between the alien pod and a large bulb of garlic!

The alien is like a tooth fairy. It takes a tooth. Tim Tooth-fairy Shaw.

(Count Dooku voice) "I've been looking forward to this!"

I really liked it, although it's the civil rights episode that's going to be the make it or break it episode in terms of Chibnall's vision for the show. I'm liking his take on the show so far and am very optimistic for the series.

I just found this episode... boring. Normally when I’m watching Doctor Who I feel excited and drawn in to the story but this just made feel like I was watching a bunch of actors on screen. I mean, I watch this show for escapism- I want to be taken away from my own boring life but this episode just made me feel so... *yawn*.

Post-regeneration stories often focus more on introducing the characters (New Doctor And Companions) and keep the monsters/plot fairly straightforward. Personally I really enjoyed it. Liked the characters and tone. I liked that the stakes here were pretty much saving one guy and not the whole universe. Loved Jodie as the Doctor. Solid ep for what was intended as a soft-reboot.

yes Stuart I’m scared that S11 might go the way S10 will go

Prediction Corner: 'Grace,' is: 'The Master!'

You are literally the only doctor who reviewer that I can watch without cringing listening to their opinions on the doctor now being a woman! Thanks 😀 your focus is on the right things Oh and also i had the same thoughts as you in regards to the fake youtube videos

I enjoyed your review on this episode, although I don’t entirely agree with it I personally found this episode quite enjoyable. The visuals were amazing, and I think the companions were well developed. The ending is a bit of a tonal shift which is apparent, but to be honest, I kinda don’t really care. I thought the moment and the speech Graham gave felt very realistic. Her character was built up so much to make me feel upset over her death. And it linked back to the beginning when he was on KZfaq talking about a woman which I think provides a nice sense of continuity. I do have one nitpick. Now I am an American, so I don’t know how English architecture works, but why did the apartment Ryan filmed at look like a space station? It was kinda dark and grey and it looked like the exit was through a rhombus shaped doorway. I’ve never seen any house or apartment look like that. Oh wait, hold on.... THERES NO TITLE SEQUENCE OR TARDIS INTERIOR 0/10 WORSTEST EPISODE EVUUUHHHHHHHSHUAIFKSVKDKD!! Nah I liked the episode a lot. Can’t wait for next weeks one.

I've seen a lot of people saying Grace's death was an example of frideging because it's only purpose is to give Ryan and Graham a motive to travle with the doctor. I'm not 100% sure I agree but it definitely was poorly handled.

What no obvious parallel to this plot being the plot of any "Predator" movie? Yeah....

I think the nan's death kinda made sense for Ryan's & Graham's character arc in the rest of the series. Since she is no longer there as a connection between them, the two will have to figure out how to get along on their own terms and all. What bothered me was how the actual death scene was executed. It felt so cringy and unreal and reminded me of Russell's era in a negative way.

11:03 that would be a fantastic plot for a Doctor Who episode 😂

See, I think the death itself was a bit impactless, mostly due to the fact that you could see it coming because she wasn't in any of the marketing AND she died doing something that seemed wholey unnecessary, but I actually found the follow-through with the funeral and everyone's reaction to it quite effectively done.

It just doesn't work for me. It's like she's drawing off other older male actors trying to find a personality of her own. I found it boring.

I really want a series opener (first story of the new Doctor) to be an investigation like: Doctor regenerates and TARDIS ducked up by regeneration energy lends on alien planet and Doctor forgets everything (unlike Capaldi one it will last until the end of the episode) imagine Doctor arrives on Skaro, Mars or any other alien planets with no humans and they (aliens) seize TARDIS while Doctor tries to figure out who or what he/she is

I don't think Jodie's performance was that great, particularly the lines which were quite serious but she appeared to have been directed to deliver more whimsically. Most of the performances seemed a bit stilted to me though. Maybe it's the accents. Everything else was fine though.

The thing that angered me about Grace's death was that: A) it was yet another example of killing off an interesting woman in order to give men motivation for emotional growth (AKA "fridging"), and B) it seemed like it was only so Chibnall could pull a bait-and-switch: "You thought Ryan was talking about the Doctor, at the very beginning, didn't you? Ha, ha! I fooled you! His Nan was the *real* woman who fell to Earth!! Aren't I clever?" Shying away from killing characters when the story actually calls for it, or killing them and bringing them back because you've lost your nerve, is weak storytelling. On the other hand, rushing to kill characters when the story *does* *not* call for it, just for shock value (Grace did not need to die, since Tzim-Sha was already defeated), is cheap writing.

Would you please do me a massive solid and post a whole review in the future that uses the "hater monster" voice/persona? Thank you for a well-argued, amusing and incisive review. I'm a classic WHO fan who has totally lost faith in the current version of the show. It was Moffat's era wot dunnit to me. However, one thing that makes me happy that WHO still exists on telly is that it prompts your reviews which always make me laugh. This might be because I think I might be a jaded hater monster thing. Sorry. Anyway, thanks.

I'll be one to say that I was not looking forward to Series 11. Mainly because of the trailers, especially the Glass shattering trailer, which was outright insulting and made me incredibly pissed off. Episode 1 I expected to be incredibly shit or the most by-the-numbers post-regeneration story since Robot. That said, The Woman Who Fell to Earth was much better than I was expecting. Was it perfect? No. In fact, in terms of post-regeneration stories, Power of the Daleks, Spearhead from Space and The Eleventh Hour are still the best for me. Is it still good? Hell Yes. And any worries that I have for Series 11 is for the most part completely erased. I'll answer the main question and say that Whittaker was actually my least favourite part about the story. The acting was fine, although if Whittaker keeps that standard, she'll be my least favourite actor to play the Doctor next to Davison. But my biggest problem is that 13 didn't feel like an original Doctor. She kept feeling like she just had the personality of the 10th Doctor (even having the facial expressions and line delivery). Also, the moment when 13 scolds the guy for kicking off Tim-Shaw, despite the fact that she was killing him anyway really pissed me off. However, all the other elements really worked for me. First off, this is easily the best looking episode of Doctor Who. The CGI was on point without it being too overbearing or having much of a precense. The lighting made scenes incredibly atmospheric, and haunting in some places. And I think the new composer completely shits on Murray Gold's bombastic music (which got old after Series 5), allowing some tension while having a good sense of a coherent melody (and I love the new theme tune, the best in NewWho next to Series 1's and Series 5's). The characters also really worked for me. Unlike the 3 companions in Davison's era, I liked how the companions here were related in some form, and for the most part, each companion was fleshed out, although Yas still needs a few more stand out moments. Graham and Ryan were easily highlights of the episode. I was worried that Chinballs was going to make Graham a joke character but I'm glad that he didn't. Also, I still crack up when the Salad guy appears. EAT MUH SALAD, HALLOWEEN. Can I just mention that the story was surprisingly dark for NewWho? Having a villain that snaps and rips off people's jaws to plant a tooth in his skin was very Big Finish-esque. And, in my opinion, both the design with the helmet on and off worked well. I can imagine that kids hid behind the sofa when watching this, which is something that Doctor Who desperately needs, because the horror factor has become more and more rare nowadays. People say that the monster is a rip off of Predator, and I'm like... is that inherently a bad thing? A thing that I saw coming a mile off in this story was Grace's death. It's really because of the marketing really, there wasn't that much promotion for her. And frankly, much like Rose, it would have been really dickish for Graham to leave a family member behind, regardless of the Tardis being a time machine. But, as you said, the actual death was handled really well. It's not overly dramatic, nor is it too self-indulgent, unlike in the Moffat era. And I love the twist where at the beginning at the story, we're supposed to believe that Ryan is talking about the Doctor, but at the end, he's actually talking about Grace. Overall, I quite liked this story. There's still a few small issues, and I'm still warming up to Jodie, but I can in good faith, say that I'll be tuning in to the rest of Series 11 and I'd happily watch this story again.

*2:00** - ha, ace creeper...*

Been waiting for this

Jodie's Doctor feels too nice and hypercompetent to me. The other Doctors quickly showed some flaws and shortcomings fairly early on. I quite liked Ryan and Graham, they seemed much more believable to me, Yasmin on the other hand felt like a third wheel.

You left us on a cliffhanger!!! What happens next?

I thought it was good, not great, just good. I liked the sonic scene and just the doctor building stuff. I also like how minimal the threat of the episode was, I haven't seen anyone pick up on it yet, but the Doctor is saving just one person(okay yeah the warrior race will keep doing it to other people and yes the companions were also temporarily hostages) which is nice because the last few opening first stories of a new doctor have been invasion, earth being destroyed, city of London being used for spare parts etc. I liked how small the threat was and it further pinpointed that this was the doctor, fighting only for one person. The death I found satisfying, I think it was necessary for the show to do this to prove that people can die. The execution I'm not so sure of, the funeral scene to me felt like it had been added on, after grace fell i was expecting credits but the episode just continued, which was nice I guess to get some 'closure' on it but it felt strange. But to everyone saying she's totally dead, there is still 11 episodes left and she had a lot of promotion. I doubt chibbers will bring her back but ah, I still don't trust the show with deaths. Overall I give it a 7/10, not great but just nice, a bit like that fresh taste you get after spitting some mouthwash out.

I just noticed Grace's jumper looks like my dogs blanket.

Omg plot twist he's a hater and a Monster combined

I thought you weren't allowed to be sad at funerals with so many balloons. If it was my funeral I would have my family inhale the helium before they eulogize me.

Im still not 100 percent behind her performance. She had her moments but other felt cringy like the tongue bit ("oh every Doctor says a body part each time they regenerate") and specially the part where hes telling the bad alien about "everyone is capable of great change while remaining the same" which felt like Chibnall talking, not the Doctor: "ok we get it, shes a woman now..." Episode wasnt more than average and i feel is getting a bit overrated in some corners of fandom after a year plus waiting and all the unending stream of publicity. I cannot give it more than a 6. But yeah, didnt felt nearly as New as they are telling us

I had concerns for a Female Doctor but I rather liked this episode. Jodie Whitaker was utterly fantastic and all the companions are already full of a lot of depth and character.

It was SO boring. And just as nonsensical as it has been for the past while. Rubbish villain, characters I don't believe in and some really STUPID dialogue.

I realized she was going to die fifteen minutes into the episodes

Yep it was a very Generic Story - but they played it well. I'm amazed at how quickly I saw Jodie as the Doctor. 1 Episode in, and she is the Doctor for me. (Which is a pleasant surprise !)

It's a Post-Regeneration episode. With the exception of Spearhead from Space (& The Twin Dilemma on the other end of the scale), when have they ever been anything other than average?

I think in the finale Graham’s gonna be shot by some villain from the classics and the whole point of it is that Ryan’s gonna call him grandad

I think you should have mentioned that Bradley Walsh’s character spoiler warning has cancer and that’s how it’s obvious that he’s in the crosshairs

what i want to know is how the fuck is she able to make time lord tech out of scrap, totally not fucking possible and in the next episode they completely forgot that the tardis allows them to understand other alien language but they lost the tardis so that function wouldnt of worked yet they could still talk to aliens.

You say noble warrior but the fact that he was a cheater was kind of an interesting addition to his character they didnt need to add but made him just a bit more interesting to me. Some other reviewer said as much but cant remember who. I just like the things they did to make the characters less flat, like rather than finding the alien pod where they left it the show makes another character do so who has a personal investment in the whole thing, its nice.

She's over acting, rather than making the role her own she's trying to mesh 10 & 11 together

Remember Heaven Sent Stu! That wasn't that long ago!

I just liked it being fun again and not feeling weighed down by excessive back story

Whilst I agree with half of what you said, this was a fine and mature review. Loved it. Annnd subbed.

I seriously considered making a video review series for the new season.. but then I realized he who moans would say basically everything I thought of it, but probably better.. and then you did, well done you. Yes yes and yes to all said, felt the same. I really like Jodie so far, Chibnall is a step up from Moffat (but not a big one..) and uhh.. it was okay story wise? Kinda ehh. Knew that lady would die within minutes of seein her.. thought the lighting of the episode was too dark, couldn't see anything, and was hoping for just a little bit more music personally, or recognizable melodic theme for 13 is what I mean. Yeah.

*E A T M Y S A L A D , H A L L O W E E N*

I really liked this one. I think it’s better than Rose or Deep Breath as far Doctor introductions go. I’ll take a somewhat trite premise with good execution, and I feel this was executed quite well.

In the end, not making a big deal out of the doctors gender swap annoyed me more than I thought it would. What was the fucking point if it doesn't effect the story at all? Chibnal made it a prerequisite to taking the job that the doctor became a woman, but if he doesn't do anything with it, it's just a clickbate gimmick to prop up dull writing. People showed up for the novelty, but if this is the high water mark for the scripting, the numbers are going to drop wildly before the end of the season.

I think secret pidgeon is a reference to black pigeon speaks.

I felt the pacing was just way to fast for most of the episode. It was kind of 'Hey look at this! Now on to the next scene!'

Now I wanna see a companion die in every episode!

The villain is basically predator

You're the reason why my theraphy bills are so high..... still love you though!

Preferred this episode to episode 2

STUBAGFUL'S FIRST SEASON 11 REVIEW! YAAAAAAS!!!! Doctor Who is officially BACK! Along with the Living Flesh Supercomputer... Run... Because that is what you do... When it shows up... 😂😂😂😂 Keep on hating, Stuart... Because you wouldn't be a cynical fan if you didn't... 😊

Steven Moffat did reinvent the wheel with The Eleventh Hour and The Impossible Astronaut.

I personally think that the Doctor's gender shouldn't be glossed over. I'm not trying to act like it's a huge deal, but i feel like this should be a big deal to the Doctor. This is something new to him, this is something she has to now explore. Maybe at first she rejects the notion, but eventually she learns to accept it. Because it can add to the Doctor's character. Jodie's Doctor is so milktoast and boring, think about how much more interesting a Doctor discovering her new gender would be.

I have been enjoying your Doctor Who videos for a while since I found your Channel I would just like to know do you read any Doctor Who books are novels and maybe you can do a video or maybe let people know which are your favorite Doctor Who books or novels maybe a top 10 or whatever top 20 that you would like to do I've been a fan of Doctor Who for a while but I like to get into reading some books at my job as a security guard I have some down time just a suggestion I hope you and leave a message thank you

Your Doctor Who hatred turned you into Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I'll allow it.

you are the best dw reviewer

I found the villain one-note and dull, the dialogue dull, and Jodie good but drowning in terrible dialogue. But hey ho. I guess it’ll be ok.

Watching this in 2023. Ah its going to be a real shitshow soon 😊

If Moffat touched this episode, he would shove it in our faces that the doctor is a woman

I enjoyed everything other than 13 though she was alright in the last 10 minutes and her first 5.

The episode was FIIIIIIIINE. Although my inner fan still think it pales by comparison to episodes like Spearhead from Space, The Eleventh Hour, The Pilot and such. Jodie's Doctor honestly reminded me more of Eccleston than Tennant or Smith (then again early days so I'm fully expecting Jodie to become a parody of herself like Matt Smith did by Series 7B when he was fully ready to pack up and fuck off given the cesspit the production of that series was) It was a standard "Doctor meets companions who are [R E L A T A B L E H U M A N Z] and they run around Sheffield chasing a flying buzzy thing against Cyberpunk Jeepers Creepers" I had the same sort of initial reaction I had with this episode that I did with The Pilot in Series 10 but I think this episode is gonna end up aging about as badly as Rose did in Series 1 considering that it firmly wants to drive itself into that wedge to say "Don't worry, it's not like that [NOT UNIVERSALLY LOVED PETER CAPALDI SHOW] and Moffat's gone and LOOK! Its all fresh and NEW!" I'm sure it'll do fine getting todays kids into the series and fair enough if it works, but given what you've remarked about Chibnall I honestly fear that we're gonna be in for a series that's gonna end up being unremarkable if the individual episodes aren't strong enough. And unlike Russell who had the likes of Paul Cornell, Robert Shearman and a Steven Moffat in his prime to fall back on, if Fish and Chibbs fucks this up then by virtue of a lack of ambitious experimentation as was seen in Moffat's era I doubt its gonna fail because it was trying something new and different as much as it was trying to crack that RTD formula except make it acceptable for modern day audiences who'll always look at Doctor Who as that stupid sci fi kids show about rubbish monsters made out of cardboard. The salient point being that while I can see why the BBC would want more viewership from the general audience, I get the impression that if Chibnall succeeds he'll get lazy like Russell did by Series 4 or instead Doctor Who will take a greater hit to its reputation in the eyes of both the public for being a run of the mill sci fi series, and then to the hardcore "NuWho Sukks but now its even worse cuz its not #BigFinish" fans for trying to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't have given a fuck about the show and thus pleasing nobody. In a nutshell, Captain Chibbers is basically sailing this ship through Shitcreek and needs to use his tongue as a paddle. That's pretty much the situation right now.

Who the hell would say "it should have been me who died instead" at a funeral as part of a eulogy? Yes, people often have feelings like that after the death of a loved one but they don't make it part of a eulogy.

I prefer Chris's storytelling to Moffat's "timey wimey wtf is going on"

I find an over use of sentiment in science fiction can really water it down. NuWho has been plagued with this since the get go. McGann kind of warmed up a bit, sure, but the over the top sobby stuff should be used sparingly. Classic Who was rather dry on emotion in comparison, but when the emotion hit, it hit hard.