Dan Owen reviews

Episode 11: "Boom Town"

Director:

Joe Ahearne (Strange, Ultraviolet, This Life)

Screenplay:

Russell T. Davies (Casanova, The Second Coming, Bob & Rose, Queer As Folk)

Cast:

The Doctor: Christopher Eccleston
Rose Tyler: Billie Piper
Captain Jack Harkness: John Barrowman
Mickey Smith: Noel Clarke
Annette Badland: Margaret Blaine
William Thomas: Mr Cleaver
Cathy Salt: Mali Harries
Idris Hopper: Aled Pedrick
Slitheen: Alan Ruscoe

Synopsis: A plan to build a nuclear power station in Cardiff City disguises an alien plot to rip the world apart...

Doctor Who races to the end of its first series with another story from producer-writer Russell T. Davies, whose output so far has been well-meaning yet ultimately hollow experiences. Boom Town is thankfully a step towards redemption - but just a small step, mind.

Episode 11 finds The Doctor, Rose and new TARDIS companion Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman, now in trendy slacks) arriving in Cardiff City, to recharge the TARDIS using the time-rift sealed in the finale of "The Unquiet Dead". Once there, the trio soon discover an old enemy, one of the Slitheen supposedly killed in Davies' own "World War Three", has emerged as Mayor of Cardiff with a dastardly plot to escape the planet.

It's commendably for Davies to begin pulling together plot-threads from the series - primarily a more overt realisation from The Doctor about the "Bad Wolf" phrase that has been woven into almost every episode so far - although it's dismissed in a jocular manner. "Boom Town" also continues the pleasing way various characters become temporary companions - now Captain Jack makes an interesting foil for The Doctor; a fellow time-traveller who is decidedly more useful around the TARDIS than the perpetually grinning Rose.

"Boom Town" is primarily a character study, and all the better for it. Davies' episodes have come in for much criticism over the series, yet here he reminds us why his standing in British writing is so high: he can write good characters. Ultimately, his knowledge of science-fiction isn't quite as fine-tuned as fellow Who writers, so again some elements of the story seem alternatively hackneyed, slapdash, or just plain stupid (an egg?).

However, despite the potentially terrible idea of resurrecting the Slitheen again, the human-skinned Margaret Blaine (brilliantly played by Annette Badland) actually creates a nice facet to Doctor Who criminally underused in previous years - the fact The Doctor rarely has to face the repercussions of his actions. Margaret, a foe The Doctor thought defeated, provides many scenes of tantalizing moral arguments - particularly when it's made clear her capture by The Doctor will ultimately lead to a painful death sentence...

Elsewhere, the interminably bad Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) makes an unwelcome return. Quite why Rose ever fancied this whinging idiot is beyond almost everyone (particularly The Doctor, it once seemed), but Mickey's scenes with Rose where they both come to realize their relationship is doomed with The Doctor coming between them, is quite moving and another minor redemptive stroke for Noel Clarke's acting coach...

John Barrowman, looking relieved to be out of his '40s pulp-serial action-man leathers, impresses as a more knowledgeable lackey for The Doctor, and while "Boom Town" doesn't require his presence, it's just nice to see continuity from last week's episode.

Again, as with all of Russell T. Davies stories, the actual plot outside of the character-driven scenes, is a bit of a mess. There's a nugget of a good idea hidden within a wholly improbably plot about the TARDIS recharging, a doomsday nuclear power station, an invisible time-rift, and a frankly silly finale where the TARDIS itself becomes the hero (which, incidentally, is yet another example of a Who resolution creating itself in the last five minutes...)

However, it's obvious throughout that the point of this episode is to serve the characters - and this is where Davies' finally shows his real writing talent. A scene between The Doctor and Margaret in a restaurant is a wonderful mix of potent dialogue and amusing physical comedy. Davies' even limits the obligatory "Slitheen fart routine" to a just an early skit, thank God.

The effects are generally good, particularly during an apocalyptic moment in Cardiff, while the Slitheen creature is always good value in a barmy sort of way (half rubber man in suit, half CGI hybrid.) Frustratingly, despite solid direction by Joe Ahearne, the decision to reuse excruciatingly bad incidental music returns at key moments to ruin all sense of tension and pace. Is it in Davies' contract that these annoying riffs have to be employed during every episode he writes?

Whatever the faults of "Boom Town" it's generally a mediocre episode with some great character moments, a few moments of wit, some good special-effects, dependable acting and a pleasing melting pot of strands from previous episodes. Possibly the best effort from Davies so far, in fact, but that's not really saying much...

Next week: The good news is: the Daleks are back! The bad news is: so is a robot Anne Robinson and a futuristic Big Brother game-show... sigh... must be a Russell T. Davies week...

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Review copyright © Dan Owen, 2005.