SPOILER WARNING: This article contains minor spoilers for the premiere episode of Doctor Who’s 11th season.


The Doctor has finally arrived.

On the final day of New York Comic Con, Doctor Who fans were able to watch “The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” the first episode of the new season, as it was simulcast across the globe. The excitement for the new season was palpable in the room, shadowed only by the crowd’s reaction to Jodie Whittaker’s debut as the titular character.

As the Doctor barreled through the roof of a train car, leapt from one towering crane to a neighboring one, and built — from scratch — her own brand new sonic screwdriver, the audience applauded and cheered so loudly that occasionally a line of dialogue was overrun by the sound. But the emotional response wasn’t just from the audience.

“I’m going to cry,” Whittaker said when asked what it was like to watch her first episode with a crowd of 5,000 people.

Showrunner Chris Chibnall felt the same way, saying that it was incredibly special to have experienced premiere in this fashion. “You’ve got an amazing new Doctor,” he told the fans.

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Aside from finally seeing the new Doctor on screen, the audience was also able to meet her new companions: Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), Yasmin “Yaz” Khan (Mandip Gill), and Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh), all of whom Whittaker wished were in New York with her to bring the show to audiences for the first time. She shared what it was like meeting two of them:

“The first time I met Tosin and Mandip was in their recall. Tosin had been away and was like, ‘Who’s this in my audition?’ He just thought they got some random, lucky actor to be the person to read opposite him in the scenes, just so the casting director could concentrate and not have to do the off lines. And afterwards he was like ‘Oh, okay.’ Mandip walked in and told some of her many hundred hilarious stories and I over laughed and the second she walked out, I went ‘that is my new best friend.’”

She noted that working with Brad (or “Showbiz,” as Tosin has taken to calling him) is a privilege, and she’s thrilled to have them all on board with her.

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“I think the thing that’s really apparent is that it’s not fake chemistry. We all really get on, and really love each other,” she added.

For Chibnall and executive producer Matt Strevens, having three companions from varying backgrounds was part of their hope for inclusiveness on the show. The companions are diverse in other ways as well: it was revealed that Ryan has dyspraxia, or Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), a condition that affects a person’s gross and fine motor skills. Ryan is shown struggling to ride a bike, and Chibnall noted that they worked with the Dyspraxia Foundation in the UK to make sure the condition was properly represented on screen.

“It was really important to us that those friends represent everyone out there who’s watching,” Strevens said.

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The companions aren’t the only new aspects of the show this season. Along with the new Doctor comes a new sonic screwdriver — created and welded together by the Doctor — and a new outfit. Whittaker spends most of the episode in the tatters of the clothes that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was wearing when he regenerated, before popping into a shop to find her new iconic outfit. The most important part of it?

“It’s got pockets!” Whittaker said to a cheering audience. “Doctors can’t not have a pocket!”

Whittaker also revealed that in the scene where the Doctor leaps from one crane to another, she wanted to do her own stunts. They filmed the scene on day two of the shoot, and Whittaker noted that it was “terrifying and exhilarating and everything it should be to work on Doctor Who.”

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When it came time for the audience Q&A, the common thread was the impact of having a female Doctor for the first time in the show’s history. The panel addressed the negative backlash that came with the announcement of a woman being cast as the Doctor. For all of them, it was easy to ignore the negativity because there were so many positive responses about the news.

“I think sometimes the angry voices can often seem the loudest, but they’re not the most representative,” Whittaker said. “It’s a bigger noise than it actually is.”

Strevens added that the numbers back up her statement. The day after the big reveal on national TV, he went over to the BBC offices, where he learned that the worldwide response on social media to the announcement was 83% positive.

When asked for any advice that the first female Doctor would give to women around the globe, Whittaker wanted people to know that, “We have a voice, and we are entitled to be listened to. And it’s scary sometimes and we sometimes have to unite to have the bravery to use it, but let’s use it.”

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The audience was also shown the trailer for the next episode, “The Ghost Monument,” and a sneak peek at the rest of the season, which Chibnall noted that no one had seen before yesterday. The peek revealed a plethora of guest stars that will be appearing over the course of the next nine episodes: Mark Addy, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Shane Zaza, Shobna Gulati, Shaun Dooley, Brett Goldstein, Josh Bowman, Siobhan Finneran, Lee Mack, Lois Chimimba, Susan Lynch, Hamza Jeetooa, Art Malick, Susanne Packer, Vinette Robinson (who Chibnall later revealed is going to be playing Rosa Parks in episode 3), Amita Suman, Ben Bailey Smith, Phyllis Logan, Alan Cumming and Chris Noth.

As the panel was wrapping up, it was announced that Mattel had been working on a surprise to announce at NYCC: a collectible Barbie version of the thirteenth Doctor. The doll, dressed in the Doctor’s iconic new outfit, went on sale at midnight at Hot Topic.


Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8 PM EST on BBC America in the U.S. and stars Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.