Boom Town
- Episode aired May 19, 2006
- TV-PG
- 45m
Stopping off in present-day Cardiff to recharge the TARDIS, The Doctor, Rose and Jack meet up with Mickey and encounter an old foe in the midst of hatching a scheme that could destroy the en... Read allStopping off in present-day Cardiff to recharge the TARDIS, The Doctor, Rose and Jack meet up with Mickey and encounter an old foe in the midst of hatching a scheme that could destroy the entire planet.Stopping off in present-day Cardiff to recharge the TARDIS, The Doctor, Rose and Jack meet up with Mickey and encounter an old foe in the midst of hatching a scheme that could destroy the entire planet.
- Director
- Writers
- Russell T. Davies(showrunner)
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPaul Abbott was originally set to write an episode entitled "Pompeii". The story would have Rose feeling jealous of The Doctor's friendship with Jack. When they land in Pompeii in 79 AD, Jack discovers that Rose's life has been manipulated by the Doctor in an experiment to create the perfect companion. Abbot's commitment to Shameless (2004) and other projects led to him dropping out of the episode.
- Goofs(at 14:50 ) When Captain Jack leaps over the tea trolley in the hallway, the springboard he uses is clearly visible on the floor.
- Quotes
Captain Jack Harkness: Aww, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?
The Doctor: Buy me a drink first.
Captain Jack Harkness: You're such hard work.
The Doctor: But worth it.
[He grins in an extremely self-satisfied way]
- ConnectionsFeatured in Doctor Who Confidential: Unsung Heroes and Violent Death (2005)
- SoundtracksDoctor Who Theme
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Here one of the Slitheen is Mayor in Cardiff overseeing the building of a nuclear power plant with hidden plans. She turns out to have survived the earlier apparent destruction of the Slitheen due a rather overly convenient plot point of her secretly having the one and only teleport device of the Slitheen which she had not apparently found any previous use for in that prior story.
In fact the main problem with this episode is the number of convenient plot points which pop up such as: The Doctor taking the unusual action of recharging the TARDIS just when 'Margaret' of the Slitheen is bringing a plan to fruition.
Margaret managing to become Mayor without having her picture taken.
Her picture finally getting taken and printed in a sensational front page when The Doctor happens to be in town.
That newspaper seemingly being printed and released later the same day as the picture was taken (a funny link back to a plot hole from the 1st Doctor's The War Machines).
The shaking of the ship happening to cause a panel to fall open (which has to be wrenched very forcefully open a couple of episodes later) and reveal the heart of the TARDIS right at the key moment in front of Margaret (which is a either bizarre coincidence or deliberate action by the TARDIS in which case why did it not do that to The Master or another foe while they were in the TARDIS?).
Plus the Slitheen teleport device.
This type of plot or logic issue is very rare in the Russell T Davies era, it became far more common under Moffatt (and Chibnall). Of course Moffatt had many strengths and wrote some great episodes but I simply observe that he was happy to make a plot exciting without worrying if it was illogical or overly convenient. This is a rare example of plot aspects of this type under RTD and I personally prefer stories to follow internal logic more and avoid too much coincidence.
On the plus side there are some good elements to this which lift the episode back up despite these plot issues: RTD's era was almost always fun (as was Moffatt's era) and this is fun in quite a few scenes.
RTD also always had great, believable character interaction and in this episode there is a lovely scene of the Doctor having fun with his friends which was a great touch and there is a very good aspect of showing how Rose going off in the TARDIS affects Mickey and he is shown to have had enough.
The dialogue between Margaret and the Doctor is very interesting with her challenging his moral code. This again brings me to discuss Steven Moffatt who as Showrunner seemed to like to suggest the Doctor's darkness quite strongly, pretty much suggesting sometimes he was a ruthless bringer of death and destruction. I found that a bit of a confused and contradictory exaggeration. RTD manages to question the hard decisions and judgements the Doctor makes and have him question himself but essentially his good intentions, heroic character and decency are clearly intact. I like that.
Sadly although the negative aspects are counteracted to some extent by the positives there are too many plot issues for me and it leaves it alongside The Long Game as my two least favourite stories of Series 1.
Overall a fun, interesting episode that isn't bad but isn't up to usual high Doctor Who standard imo.
My rating: 6.5/10.
- A_Kind_Of_CineMagic
- Dec 6, 2018
Details
- Runtime45 minutes
- Color