Watching Doctor Who

Okay, it’s time for the Boom Town review. I think that this episode, more than any other, led to the creation of the Torchwood series. Mind you, that’s just my opinion. Another opinion that I have is: I want Rose’s scarf. Hmm…I seem to have a clothing fixation. Well, on to the spoilery stuff anyway.

Episode: Boom Town by Russell T. Davies
Rating (1 to 5): 3
Baddie: Margaret Blaine (a.k.a Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen)
Rose is Trapped: by Blon’s claw around her throat.
The Doctor is Trapped: into having Dinner with Margaret Slitheen.
The Doctor Enjoys: Steak and Chips.
The Doctor Dislikes: Blon (and Rose going off with Mickey to judge by his face while he’s watching them on the viewscreen).
Doctor-y Strangeness: The Doctor knows a bit too much about a mass murderer’s psyche.
Scary Stuff: The Rift opening, and Blon holding Rose by the neck.
Does someone local help out? Mickey is sort of local. He helps to catch Margaret.
Bad Wolf? Blaidd Drwg, the name of the nuclear project, is Welsh for “Bad Wolf.” This is the first episode where someone (The Doctor and Rose in this case) notices that the words are following them around.
What we learn: This takes place six months (Earth time) after episodes 1.4 & 1.5. The Doctor has a cell phone. The Doctor knows a bit too much about how a killer thinks. The TARDIS is alive, and even The Doctor isn’t quite sure of the extent of her abilities.
The Doctor’s Death Wish: He has dinner with a known killer.
The Doctor Apologizes To: No one. Rose apologizes to Mickey, though.
My Favorite Bits:“Into Time and Space!” “What are you Captain of? The Innuendo Squad?” Present arms - cell phones. The Doctor has a cell phone. “-She’s climbing out the window, isn’t she? -Yes, she is.” Jack jumping over the tea trolley. “God help me, I’ve gone native.” The Doctor and Jack admiring the extrapolator.

Observations and musings:

Rose goes off with Mickey, and it seems that she spends the whole time talking about her travels. It seems that she brought him to town with some spurious need to bring her passport. I guess that she wanted to see him, but he’s sort of seeing someone else, and when it comes down to it she will always chose The Doctor over him. I think that she knows that she should let him go, but…he keeps trying so hard to get her attention. I like this episode for its showing of how the TARDIS crew interacts. You sort o get the feeling that Boom Town doesn’t happen directly after The Doctor Dances.

At the beginning of this episode The Doctor is happy for once. He’s just hanging out with his friends and taking an opportunity to do some TARDIS repairs. Normal, non-running-for-your-life things. I would guess that this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often. Then, of course, things get a bit…stressful. There have been several mentions throughout the series of The Doctor as the Lonely God, or, as in this episode, that the TARDIS is the technology of the Gods. I love The Doctor’s response to this one: “Don’t worship me, I’d make a very bad God. You wouldn’t get a day off, for starters.” Throughout the series, The Doctor seems to need to antagonize Mickey whenever possible. I wonder if it is because he really does think that Mickey is annoying, or rather for more territorial reasons. On the subject of Margaret…does she have any idea with whom she is dealing? I think that if she knew some of the things that The Doctor has done, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so quick to trifle with him.

This episode takes place on Earth, six months after the events of Aliens of London/World War III, and it makes me wonder how long it has been for The Doctor and Rose. “And it would have worked…” Anyone else think of Scooby Doo when Margaret said that? Question: Do we really want to know why Jack has those handcuff-type things, or where they came from? I really enjoy the camaraderie of the TARDIS crew in this episode, and especially Captain Jack. All sorts of things that happened in this episode seem to have led directly to the creation of the Torchwood series. I wonder if the Rift hadn’t been completely healed by Gwyneth… Oh well, musings for another time, I suppose. See you next week for “Bad Wolf.”

Boom Town, Torchwood, Russell T. Davies, Aliens of London, World War III, Doctor Who, 9th Doctor

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