NuWho Review: Series 1 Episode 11 “Boom Town”

By: Russell T. Davies

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

            Oh great, a sequel to the Aliens of London/WWIII disaster! Dear lord, wasn’t that two-parter enough of a torture for viewers? Did we really need to make it into a trilogy? Gah! Well, at least it’s not the whole family shoving their crassness down our throats this time (they've been relocated to The Sarah-Jane Adventures). Only Margaret Blaine, the least awful of the whole lot, is present a fact that (despite her Professor Umbridge impersonations) made me heave a deep sigh of relief even as I cringed as the Phantom of the Ineffectual Claw Raise came back for an unwanted haunting.


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- After the opening credits, we are treated to the sight of Mickey arriving in a train station and a shot that anyone familiar with Torchwood (or Cardiff) will recognize instantly as the Roald Dahl Plass. So, remember back during The Unquiet Dead when Gwyneth sacrificed herself to close the Rift and trap the Gelth? Well, apparently the scar left behind generates just the right kind of energy for the TARDIS to refuel so every so often The Doctor stops by Cardiff and parks his beloved box to let her fuel up for a few days.

- Can I just pause for a moment here to say that I still love the Doctor – Jack partnership? It more than makes up for the attitude Rose has adopted. What is with her? I feel bad for Mickey in this episode, I really do. Though, he should have gotten the point by now and moved on for good. She’s clearly just kind of stringing him on as a ‘safe guy’ to fall back on. I can’t believe she has the gall to be upset about Mickey finding a potential someone else when she feels no remorse about the other relationships she’s had over the course of her travels while he waited at home for her.

- The interaction between Mayor Blaine and Kathy the reporter is actually a great moment for the Slitheen. True they still look ridiculous rather than frightening and their claws still couldn’t grip the broad side of the barn but the lack of full-body shots and clever camera angles sort of disguises the terrible design. The conversation through the bathroom door is beautifully written and I wish we could have seen more of Kathy as I came to really like her even in the short amount of screen time she had.

- Oh, Jack. You and your bawdy stories! At least you got The Doctor smiling for real, so points to you on that front. Too bad it couldn’t last…

- The Doctor’s annoyance at Jack taking charge just reminds me why we should them on a mission together more often. Not only is their chemistry perfect, but Russell T. Davies writes amazing dialogue when he’s dealing with these two characters. Even though Mickey’s obvious running and falling is getting more than old by this part, it’s still a brilliant sequence just because the focus is not purely on him. Also a small, mean side of me takes perverse pleasure in the whole chase scene (particularly the part where they keep zapping Margaret back from wherever she teleported to).

That extrapolator looks like a giant LEGO piece...

- At last, at the enth hour, we get an inkling that ‘Bad Wolf’ might be more than just coincidence. Now, I have nothing against the use of this story arc...though I do wish it had been more of an actual arc or recurring theme rather than just a phrase that happens to crop up here and there. Also, if this was going to be the motif for the entire series it should have been formally addressed much sooner than this. Done this way, it just feels sort of tacked on and shoehorned in. Like they got this far and then decided they wanted an overarching story. I’m sorry to all Bad Wolf fans out there, but I really can’t take this seriously. 

- And, much to my shock, RTD managed to insert a very serious moral quandary into a story about Slitheen of all things. I rather think that he pulls it off by having Margaret stay in her skin. Annette Badland was always the best out of the Slitheen actors and here she is actually given something to work with. By the time we reached the scene where she brings Rose rudely back to earth by observing that they’re not just her police but her executioners, I found – to my utter shock – that I was actually enjoying this episode and the character of Margaret.

- That is, until Rose and Mickey got started. Why can’t he realize that she’s moved on? For Pete’s sake, earlier she walked right past him and linked arms with The Doctor, giggling and leaning against the alien in an overly warm manner. She’s just stringing Mickey along because he’s the safe guy she can always fall back on. Not even his speech about that very fact seems to faze her beyond indignation that he would say that about her. Where’s the empathy that she showed with Gwyneth? Why can’t we have more of that? Why is Rose so inconsistent and unbearable – yet manages to be so loved by the writers (i.e. RTD) that millions of fans are taken in. Rose’s attitude and Mickey’s wishy-washiness is what makes their segments of the episode so unbearable to watch. The only good thing about it is that at the end of the episode it seems that Mickey is finally starting to get it (even though he still hasn’t broken up with Rose).

- What I watch this episode for is the interactions between The Doctor, Margaret, and Jack. In particular I think that the dinner ‘date’ scene is a work of pure genius as Margaret tries using all sorts of tricks to kill The Doctor while he coolly thwarts all of her attempts. This is a scene that is beautifully carried by the flawless comedic timing and facial expressions of Eccleston and Badland.

- So when the Rift was tearing open, where was Captain Jack Harkness and the Torchwood Three Team? I’m pretty sure that Torchwood Three did exist at this point so I want to know how Jack convinced them not to do anything so he wouldn’t bump into his younger self. 

- And Rose is demoted to damsel in distress again. Davies, you can’t have a character be strong and kick-arse one episode (and claim that she’s really smart or the best) and then be a victim whenever you need to add a bit of tension. That doesn’t make your character multifaceted; it makes her a Mary-Sue.      

- Opening the heart of the TARDIS kinda came out of nowhere and, while I like the fact that Margaret was given a second chance like that, I feel like this ending was a a cop-out from the intense and complicated moral questions that were set up in the first half of the episode. Between the Rift being opened, and thereby making the deep and excellent conversation between Margaret and The Doctor nothing but lies and this rather wimpy resolution, I have to take points off off the story.

            So, yeah, this episode is more than a bit of a mixed bag. There are some excellent parts (such as Jack-Doctor banter and the date between The Doctor and Margaret) but there are also moments of confusion (and we’re not talking timey-wimey confusion, but lack of explanation confusion) not to mention the unbearable scenes between Rose and Mickey. Rose is absolutely right when she observes that he deserves better. There were numerous plotholes which are never filled in, despite RTD's desperate attempt to 'hide' them by having characters mention them, and the ending did not do justice to the complicated morals which had been introduced earlier in the episode. All in all, Boom Town is good for a bit of mindless fun or if you skip the resolution, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a must-see episode. I rate it as a 3/5.     

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?