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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Martin Belam

Doctor Who: Boom – season one episode three recap

Ncuti Gatwa in a tight spot with a landmine during Boom.
Ncuti Gatwa in a tight spot with a landmine during Boom. Photograph: James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

After two episodes, where Doctor Who seemed determined to greet any potential new Disney viewers with everything that could be fun, camp and ridiculous about the show, this was a darker turn from the pen of former showrunner Steven Moffat.

The conceit that the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) could not move for nearly the whole episode, and instead had to rely on Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) to get him out of a fix, dialled up the tension and gave both actors a chance to deepen their characterisations. Ruby is clearly prepared to take risks, and this Doctor is more vulnerable and emotional than some previous incarnations. You could imagine Peter Capaldi trying to sarcasm his way out of being stuck on a landmine, rather than being forced to sing a haunting soldier’s lament to calm the nerves.

The recurring motif of this season reared its head again, with Splice (Caoilinn Springall), Ruby and the Doctor all having the status of orphans by the end. Episodes that rely on a child actor can stand or fall on that performance, and for a relative newcomer Springall played well in the ensemble.

The will they/won’t they romance between Mundy (Varada Sethu) and Canterbury (Bhav Joshi) kept the plot moving along, and it’s not the first time Moffat has given us an army of military clerics. He used them here to allow the Doctor to make a point about the blind faith we put in technology, and the peculiar moments when we suddenly decide we need proof rather than belief.

The resolution, that a father’s love for his child will overcome all obstacles – including murderous AI algorithms – was handled more deftly than the similar theme with James Corden as the vehicle in 2011’s Closing Time. It was notable that the Doctor appealed to John (Joe Anderson), citing his own experience as a dad. This Doctor, this season, keeps mentioning his long-lost relatives.

Sum it up in one sentence?

The Doctor stands still for 40 minutes while trying to avoid blowing up a planet.

Life aboard the Tardis

Ruby has had an earthbound contemporary adventure, an earthbound historical adventure, and a trip to a space station, but this was the first time we’d seen her step on to an alien planet. It nearly killed her. And we saw a Doctor in a rush to whisk her around the universe, telling her that human lifespans suck, and that two minutes is enough to take in a spectacular view. In truth, with only eight episodes in a season these days, it does feel like we are rather hurtling towards the finale already.

Fear factor

Despite being tense, this was no Moffat frightfest along the lines of The Empty Child or Blink or Silence in the Library. The fear chiefly came out of Moffat’s extrapolation of current trends to conjure a vision of the future where AI decides whether your life is economically viable or not – and can choose to mimic you for your loved ones after it has killed you.

Mysteries and questions

There was a substantial role for Susan Twist as the interface of the ambulance. She has now appeared as five seemingly different characters across the last six episodes. Is this leading somewhere, or are the production team just having fun with us? And hang on, sorry, what, Varada Sethu was Mundy? Next season’s companion Varada Sethu? There’s always a twist in the end …

Deeper into the vortex

  • “Harry, I’m standing on a landmine”. Within minutes of landing on Skaro in 1975’s Genesis of the Daleks, Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor had to be rescued from a landmine by Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter).

  • Moffat also wrote the scenes in 2015’s The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar where Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor encountered a young Davros stuck in a field of “hand mines”.

  • Boom isn’t quite the shortest ever Doctor Who episode title. The Chris Chibnall-penned 42 takes that honour.

  • The Doctor has known the Skye Boat Song for a long time. Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor played it on his recorder during 1968 adventure The Web of Fear.

  • The Doctor calms himself by reciting a rhyme that finishes “Don’t you know there’s more to life than the moon and the president’s wife”. In The Magician’s Apprentice, Missy told Clara that the Doctor once “stole the moon and the president’s wife”. In Hell Bent, Peter Capaldi’s Doctor corrected that tale, telling Clara “It was the president’s daughter. I didn’t steal the moon, I lost it.”

  • At the end of Boom, the Doctor promises he will visit Splice and Mundy for fish fingers and custard, one of the dishes a post-regeneration Matt Smith demanded from young Amy in The Eleventh Hour. The 2016 Doctor Who Cookbook had a recipe.

Next time: 73 Yards

Welsh folk horror! And there is a pub! And probably Susan Twist again, bless her! Woooooooh!

Season 1

Episodes 1 & 2: Space Babies / The Devil's Chord

Episode 3: Boom

Episode 4: 73 Yards

Episode 5: Dot and Bubble

Episode 6: Rogue

Episode 7: The Legend of Ruby Sunday

Episode 8: Empire of Death

Christmas special: Joy to the World

60th anniversary specials

Special 1: The Star Beast
Special 2: Wild Blue Yonder
Special 3: The Giggle
Christmas special: The Church on Ruby Road

Flux / Series 13

Chapter one: The Halloween Apocalypse
Chapter two: War of the Sontarans
Chapter three: Once, Upon Time
Chapter four: Village of the Angels
Chapter five: Survivors of the Flux
Chapter six: The Vanquishers
New Year's Special: Eve of the Daleks
Spring special: Legend of the Sea Devils
BBC centenary special: The Power of the Doctor


Series 12

Episode 1: Spyfall part one
Episode 2: Spyfall part two
Episode 3: Orphan 55
Episode 4: Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
Episode 5: Fugitive of the Judoon
Episode 6: Praxeus
Episode 7: Can You Hear Me?
Episode 8: The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Episode 9: Ascension of the Cybermen
Episode 10: The Timeless Children
New Year's special: Revolution of the Daleks

Series 11

Episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Episode 2: The Ghost Monument
Episode 3: Rosa
Episode 4: Arachnids in the UK
Episode 5: The Tsuangra Condundrum
Episode 6: Demons of the Punjab
Episode 7: Kerblam!
Episode 8: The Witchfinders
Episode 9: It Takes You Away
Episode 10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
New Year's special: Resolution

Series 10

Episode 1: The Pilot
Episode 2: Smile
Episode 3: Thin Ice
Episode 4: Knock Knock
Episode 5: Oxygen
Episode 6: Extremis
Episode 7: The Pyramid at the End of the World
Episode 8: The Lie of the Land
Episode 9: Empress of Mars
Episode 10: The Eaters of Light
Episode 11: World Enough and Time
Episode 12: The Doctor Falls
2017 Christmas special: Twice Upon A Time

Series 9

Episode 1: The Magician's Apprentice
Episode 2: The Witch's Familiar
Episode 3: Under The Lake
Episode 4: Before The Flood
Episode 5: The Girl Who Died
Episode 6: The Woman Who Lived
Episode 7: The Zygon Invasion
Episode 8: The Zygon Inversion
Episode 9: Sleep No More
Episode 10: Face The Raven
Episode 11: Heaven Sent
Episode 12: Hell Bent
2015 Christmas special: The Husbands of River Song
2016 Christmas special: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

Series 8

Episode 1: Deep Breath
Episode 2: Into The Dalek
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 7: Kill The Moon
Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Episode 9: Flatline
Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night
Episode 11: Dark Water
Episode 12: Death In Heaven
2014 Christmas special: Last Christmas

Series 7

Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks
Episode 2: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy
Episode 4: The Power of Three
Episode 5: The Angels Take Manhatten
2012 Christmas special: The Snowmen
Episode 6: The Bells of Saint John
Episode 7: The Rings of Akhaten
Episode 8: Cold War
Episode 9: Hide
Episode 10: Journey to the Centre of the Tardis
Episode 11: The Crimson Horror
Episode 12: Nightmare in Silver
Episode 13: The Name of the Doctor
50th Anniversary special: The Day of the Doctor
2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor

Series 6

Episode 1: The Impossible Astronaut
Episode 2: Day of the Moon
Episode 3: The Curse of the Black Spot
Episode 4: The Doctor's Wife
Episode 5: The Rebel Flesh
Episode 6: The Almost People
Episode 7: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode 8: Let's Kill Hitler
Episode 9: Night Terrors
Episode 10: The Girl Who Waited
Episode 11: The God Complex
Episode 12: Closing Time
Episode 13: The Wedding of River Song
2011 Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

Series 5

Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour
Episode 2: The Beast Below
Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks
Episode 4: The Time of Angels
Episode 5: Flesh and Stone
Episode 6: The Vampires of Venice
Episode 7: Amy's Choice
Episode 8: The Hungry Earth
Episode 9: Cold Blood
Episode 10: Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 11: The Lodger
Episode 12: The Pandorica Opens
Episode 13: The Big Bang
2010 Christmas special: A Christmas Carol

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