The Pilot (Doctor Who)
| 265 – "The Pilot" | |||||
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| Doctor Who episode | |||||
The Doctor and Bill aboard the Dalek ship.
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Others
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| Production | |||||
| Directed by | Lawrence Gough | ||||
| Written by | Steven Moffat | ||||
| Script editor | Nick Lambon | ||||
| Produced by | Peter Bennett | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | Steven Moffat Brian Minchin |
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| Incidental music composer | Murray Gold | ||||
| Series | Series 10 | ||||
| Length | 50 minutes | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 15 April 2017 | ||||
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer) | 92% |
| Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score) | 7.29 |
| The A.V. Club | B |
| Entertainment Weekly | A- |
| SFX Magazine |    |
| TV Fanatic | |
| IndieWire | B+ |
| IGN | 8.3 |
| New York Magazine | |
| Radio Times | |
| Daily Telegraph | |
"The Pilot" is the first episode of the tenth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Steven Moffat and was broadcast on 15 April 2017 on BBC One. "The Pilot" received mostly positive reviews, with praise on the introduction of Pearl Mackie, and how the episode served both as a soft reboot and as a season premiere.
It is the first episode to feature Pearl Mackie as the new companion Bill Potts, after the departure of Jenna Coleman at the end of the previous series. The episode also sees the brief return of the Daleks, their last major appearance being that of the previous series' premiere, "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar".
A three-minute sequence billed as an exclusive scene from a future episode was released on 23 April 2016, under the title "Friend from the Future". The sequence was originally written as an audition scene for casting the role of Bill, but the production team included some of the footage in the final edit of "The Pilot".
From a hidden corner of a corridor inside a spaceship, the Doctor attempts to answer Bill's questions about their enemies. Bill finds them amusing at first, but the Doctor persists and she realises they are in real danger.
The Doctor and Nardole are living under the guises of a university professor and his assistant. Bill Potts, who works at the university's canteen, is called to the Doctor's office, where he notes she attends all his lectures, and Bill eventually becomes the Doctor's student.
Months pass, and Bill develops a mutual attraction to a student named Heather, who has a defect that makes it look like there is a star in her eye. Heather asks her to inspect a mysterious puddle, asking her if she can see what's wrong with her reflection, but Bill does not notice anything except that her face seems wrong somehow. Bill turns around and Heather has left. Within the puddle, a voice proclaims that a search for a pilot has begun.
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Wikipedia