The Pilot: Bill

[mengu]

This is a post  analysing Bill's character in all my slightly interesting quotes in the episode. I would like to thank Chakoteya transcripts.

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(The episode opens with Bill wandering around an office looking at things, being curious and not particularly tentative in someone else's office.)
 

Beauty or chips. I like chips. So did she. So... that's okay. 

[Pearl Mackie voice] Yeah, Bill's gay, and.
(And we see her winking at probably-this-girl over chips later; she does not in fact seem to find beauty and chips incompatible. But she'd rather enjoy life. And flirt with cute girls.)
 

Yeah, it doesn't really, does it? I was hoping something would develop. 

rambling and not planning ahead

She doesn't want to admit that she goes to the Doctor's lectures, or why; I can't pin down why in my head but it happens.
 

BILL: Did you build it from a kit?

DOCTOR: No, it came like that. 

BILL: Then how did you get it in here? The door's too small and so are the windows.

Her little observant-ness-es are cool.

DOCTOR: Well, most people when don't understand something, they frown. You... smile. 

If I were a BBC trailer maker, that's the line I would've put in. She's curious and delights in the unknown. That's why we care.

DOCTOR: What are you doing at this university?

BILL: I always wanted to come here.

DOCTOR: Yeah, to serve chips?

BILL: So anyway, am I nearly done?

I don't think we're specifically told why should she didn't even apply to St Luke's university—I assume it's a lack of money, given her situation. She's got a kind of ambition, right there. As soon as the Doctor seems to look down at her, even for a moment, she shuts down. She's not expecting to be thought well of.

 

(The Cosmic Far Ultraviolet Background 97%, Quantum Statistics of Light 88%, Laser cooling of ions: atomic clocks and quantum jumps 92%)

(Apparently in UK marking standards these are ridiculously good marks.) Learning quantum astrophysics.
 

Men aren't where I keep my eye, actually. 

She's told her foster mum she's gay. It hasn't stuck.
 

DOCTOR: The door upstairs, how did you set the security?

NARDOLE: Friends only.

aw, they're friends already (several months later)
 

At least it's a defect that looks like a star. 

:)
Optimistic & more... true to herself than to convention. (Which sounds generic but, say, Clara started off very concerned with it. "Makes my eyes hurt" and "you're being weird" and all.)
 

Sorry, none of my business, but are you freaking out about something? 

She's not super great at talking to/comforting people but yeah, she tries.

BILL: I love this place, don't you? 

HEATHER: I hate it.

Bill Is Not Depressed, basically. There's more to be said about Heather, but I'm not the person to say it.
 

DOCTOR: It's a rug. Haven't got you anything.

BILL: It's okay, it was cheap.

She doesn't expect people to think about her back.

BILL: That's not true. You go places, I can tell. My mum always said, 'With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes.'

DOCTOR: Oh. She sounds nice.

BILL: She died when I was a baby.

DOCTOR: Oh. 

BILL: Yeah.

DOCTOR: If she died when you were a baby, when did she say that?

BILL: In my head. 

:( 
There's a mix of self-deception and self-awareness there I find interesting.
 

MOIRA: I thought you'd enjoy choosing something for yourself, as you're always passing judgements. I hope you didn't spend too much on this.
BILL: Nah. This should cover it. What's that? 

She doesn't expect people to think about her back... and here's why! Money could be a perfectly fine gift for some people, but Moira (foster mum) just can't be bothered knowing Bill well enough to get her a gift she'd actually like. The "passing judgements" bit is interesting for that; I can see where she gets that idea from, she's just wrong. "If you're from another planet, why would you name your box in English?" and "What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?" and things aren't judgements, they're sincere questions.
 

You said you needed a crane to lift your box. 

+1 little observations
 

BILL: Promise you won't go?

HEATHER: Promise. 
...
BILL: Okay. Yeah, no worries.

She really isn't surprised that Heather's broken her promise.

 

I see my face all the time. I've never liked it, it's all over the place. It's always doing expressions when I'm trying to be enigmatic. 

Trying to be enigmatic. But it's not in her. Not really.

 

DOCTOR: Oh, I get it. I see it. It was easy for your friend because of her eye.

BILL: What, because it gives her special powers?

She knows sci-fi, but sometimes those preconceptions make her miss what's actually going on.
 

DOCTOR: No! Because her face isn't symmetrical. Look! Look into the puddle. Your face looks wrong, because it looks right. What's the one thing you never see when you look at a reflection? Your face. You never see your face the right way round. Right. Look for a freckle or a funny tooth. Something that's not symmetrical.

BILL: My badge!

She's not like 100% observant, she doesn't see everything; there's hopefully an interesting pattern in what she does and doesn't that someone else will point out to me in the comments? :D

 

MOIRA: Why do you think I'm such an idiot?

BILL: Well, you're calling from his phone. 

pffft. See, she notices this.
 

I'll tell you what it isn't. It isn't a freak optical effect. 

She's sure enough of herself to insist on her own experiences as true.
 

A really posh kitchen, all metal. What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money? 

Heheh. I'm taking this as evidence that Bill has never in fact seen a 'really posh kitchen'.

 

BILL: Why, what's inside it?

DOCTOR: Something I don't want anyone being too curious about.

BILL: So you put it in the middle of a university? 

lolll
(There might have been a point when I went through grabbing quotes, but mostly this is just funny.)
 

DOCTOR: Either the creature came here specifically for what's in here, or it's just a coincidence.

BILL: It's just a coincidence.

DOCTOR: Well, we can't know that for sure.

BILL: Yeah, we can. It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?

yay logic
 

But what about my friend? What about Heather? Can you save her?

(She still cares about her)
 

An oil leak? So it's space engine oil?

A Smart Thing she said. (I like noting competence, and this episode has a very... reticent plot.)
 

Doesn't, doesn't look like the past. 

Preconceptions, again. Doctor Who doesn't work like the sci-fi she's used to. ('Cause it's not, entirely... and also that would be boring.)
 

BILL: Oh, my God. I understand.

NARDOLE: You what? 

BILL: The last thing she said to me. She promised she wouldn't leave without me.

:(
At least when it's this face, she can think of you as a person even when she's scared.
 

I saw it all for a moment. Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me. I was too scared.

She doesn't agree with the Doctor's assessment that it was just a trap. After letting go, she thinks the offer was genuine

 

BILL: Yeah, because I think you're going to wipe my memory. I'm not stupid, you know. That's the trouble with you. You don't think anyone's ever seen a movie. I know what a mind-wipe looks like! 

DOCTOR: I have no choice. I'm here for a reason,  I am in disguise. I have promises to keep. No one can know about me.

BILL: This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my life. The only exciting thing!

DOCTOR: I'm sorry.

BILL: Okay, let me remember just for a week. Just a week. Okay, well, just for tonight. Just one night. Come on, let me have some good dreams for once. Okay. Do what you've got to do. But imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you. 

Wow. Wow. Okay.
I love the way Pearl plays her anger; she often gestures as she speaks but it gets a lot less subtle.
This is "the only exciting thing" that's ever happened to her. She only has bad dreams.
It takes a certain kind of strength and a certain kind of weakness to say okay, do it.

 

(Outside, Bill checks that she can still remember Heather, and smiles.)

:D

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