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One of sci-fi’s many glass ceilings shattered with the arrival of Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor in The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Caught in the now-standard confusion that follows regeneration from one Doctor to another, Thirteen crash-landed through the roof of a darkened train and found herself right in the middle of an alien escapade. Sans TARDIS and wielding a handcrafted sonic screwdriver, it was time to halt a creature on the hunt.

This episode was a marked reminder of working-class Who. London, so often the site of full-scale alien invasions, was swapped for Sheffield, where Yorkshire-born Whittaker fit right in, despite having two hearts and an affinity for time travel (“Lots of countries have a north!” protested Christopher Eccleston’s suspiciously northern Time Lord in 2005). She was joined by a supporting cast (“Gang? Crew? Fam?”) which included nurse Grace (Sharon D. Clarke) and retired bus driver Graham (Bradley Walsh), plus their aspiring mechanic grandson Ryan (Tosin Cole), and trainee police officer Yazmin (Mandip Gill). Initially seeing Walsh’s casting as unnecessary, I was surprised by Graham’s usefulness to the story, but remain slightly unconvinced by Cole’s performance. Incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall took a risk opening on a dyspraxic nineteen-year-old who can’t yet ride a bike; here’s hoping that Cole can grow into the character.

This season is inevitably going to collect comparisons with previous years, so here are mine. The cinematography had distinctive clarity. The creepy soundscapes of Segun Akinola have yet to endear; they lack the iconic themes we’ve grown accustomed to from Murray Gold. While outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat delivered some memorable – even stunning – episodes, with over fifty years of Who canon to play with, his approach could feel mind-bendingly self-referential. Chibnall’s opening gambit stripped back the nods to Who adventures past; at times it felt more like a crime drama than a sci-fi extravaganza.

There is room for improvement. The episode needed to be funnier. There was a lot of extraneous dialogue and exposition (or maybe we’re just not used to seeing a woman get so much to say on screen?). One wonders if the plot could have been resolved on a lighter note. Burdened by these show-wide growing pains, Whittaker’s Doctor has only shown flashes of the tantalising character to come. What is clear, however, is that this series is brimming with all the ingredients needed for brilliance.