Series 10, Episode 1 | 1 part | First broadcast: 15 April 2017 | Writer: Steven Moffat | Director: Lawrence Gough
Cast
- Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor
- Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts
- Matt Lucas as Nardole
- Stephanie Hyam as Heather
- Jennifer Hennessy as Moira
- Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks
Summary
Living incognito for decades as a university lecturer, with Nardole guarding a mysterious vault beneath the campus, the Doctor takes a shine to Bill Potts, a sharp-witted canteen worker who has been sneaking into his lectures, and agrees to personally tutor her. Bill develops a fond attachment to a fellow student named Heather, who bears a strange star-shaped defect in her eye and asks Bill to investigate an odd, sentient puddle on campus; when Heather subsequently vanishes, she returns as a liquid doppelganger relentlessly pursuing Bill across time and space, having been transformed into the “pilot” of an alien ship. The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole flee via the TARDIS to Sydney Harbour and then far into the future, discovering the entity cannot be outrun, until Bill convinces the Heather-creature to release her from its promise and let her go. Moved by Bill’s curiosity and courage, the Doctor abandons his plan to wipe her memory of it all and instead invites her to join him properly as his new travelling companion.
Interesting Facts
- This is the first episode to feature Pearl Mackie as new companion Bill Potts, following Jenna Coleman’s departure at the end of Series 9, and was conceived as both a season premiere and a soft “reboot” for newcomers.
- The episode briefly revives the Daleks, in a sequence depicting their war with the Movellans first referenced in the Fourth Doctor serial “Destiny of the Daleks” (1979), marking the Daleks’ first major appearance since the Series 9 opener.
- A three-minute preview scene, originally shot as Pearl Mackie’s audition footage and released a year early as “Friend from the Future,” was ultimately incorporated into the finished episode.
- The episode was originally titled “A Star in Her Eye” before being changed to “The Pilot” shortly before broadcast, signalling the intended fresh start for the series.
- Stephanie Hyam’s character Heather, though seemingly written out here, returns at the very end of the series in the finale “The Doctor Falls,” bookending Bill’s entire arc.
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