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| The Doctor has to remain very still after stepping on a land mine. |
1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson. Produced by: Vicki Delow.
THE PLOT:
The Doctor brings Ruby to her first alien planet. Unfortunately, the planet in question is Kastarion 3, which is in the midst of a devastating war between the Anglican Marines and an unseen enemy. The Doctor arrives just in time to hear the dying scream of marine John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson). He runs out to help - and steps on a land mine.
This is a smart mine. Not only can the Doctor not move without triggering it, he also needs to control his emotional responses. His attempts at forced calm are disrupted first by the arrival of the dead man's young daughter, Splice (Caoilinn Springhall) and then by another Anglican soldier, Mundy (Varada Sethu). Mundy brings him more bad news: The mine has a failsafe. Even if the Doctor is able to avoid setting it off, it will self-detonate after a certain period of time. Time that is rapidly running out.
"Thoughts and prayers!"
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: This episode absolutely depends on Ncuti Gatwa for its success, and he delivers a great performance. The Doctor spends the bulk of the episode frozen in place, leaving Gatwa to act with his voice, facial expressions, and eyes, and this allows him to finally show how good he can be. The Doctor is clearly scared - even more when he realizes the full stakes involved - but he maintains control. Every time the mine advances toward blowing, we see his struggle to keep his adrenaline and heart rate from triggering it. Most importantly, even though he's frozen in place for most of the episode, he's still the most powerful figure on screen.
Ruby: Early on, the Doctor sends her to search for a counterweight to allow him to safely lower one foot that's suspended in midair. When she returns, he tries to get her to throw the object to him from a safe distance. She refuses, knowing that he'll have a much better chance if she hands it to him, and she flatly ignores his pleas to stay back. Millie Gibson matches Gatwa, putting strong emotion into her voice as she attempts to act as his hands during this crisis. When the fog clears, she also catches her first glimpse of an alien sky, which allows a brief moment of wonder to interrupt the terror.
THOUGHTS:
YES!
After three episodes of being mostly cardboard characters, the 15th Doctor and Ruby finally, finally! feel like real people. Credit to Gatwa and Gibson who, given meaty material at last, deliver very good performances.
I'm going to give even more credit to writer Steven Moffat for crafting that material. Moffat's scripts have consistently ranked among my favorites since Doctor Who's 2005 return. Boom's premise is simple - the Doctor stuck on a landmine - but Moffat uses the situation to focus tightly on the two regulars. Despite liking the actors, I have been badly struggling with a lack of connection to this Doctor/companion team. Moffat's script gives me that missing connection within the first few minutes.
The teaser establishes the nature of both threats in a sequence following the doomed John and the equally doomed younger soldier trying to get him back to safety. We spend just enough time with John to get to like him... though anyone who has ever seen any form of war story knows that he's done for as soon as he calls up his young daughter, Splice. Then the younger soldier steps on a land mine, showing what will happen to the Doctor if he moves or reacts, and the first threat is established. Then the second threat - the one that truly represents the villain of the piece - is shown when John is killed by a more unexpected source.
From that moment, the tension just keeps rising. The Doctor follows John's scream and steps on a land mine. Just as his situation is temporarily stabilized, Splice shows up to learn about her father's death at the worst possible time. Then Mundy arrives, gun drawn, ready to shoot the Doctor if he doesn't get himself blown up first. And then... Well, suffice it to say that complications keep coming, and the stakes keep rising to encompass more lives than just the two regulars.
Moffat fills out bits of world-building from his own era. The Anglican soldiers were established in Series Five's The Time of Angels, and we learn more about them here. The episode also touches on themes similar to Series Ten's Oxygen, in which the real monster was an extreme form of capitalism. Cold capitalism is again the villain here, with the entire scenario caused by a privatized weapons industry and its business model: "The algorithm maintains a fighting force at just above the acceptable number of casualties... War is business, and business is booming."
I could argue that the resolution is reached a little too easily. Even that largely works, though, with the Doctor succeeding through a combination of cleverness and a direct and honest emotional appeal. If pressed, I think the ending is the weakest part of the episode, but it doesn't undercut the tension building up to it.
OVERALL:
Boom is the first great episode of showrunner Russell T. Davies' second tenure. It's tense and personal, while still finding room for future world/universe-building. It's unabashedly political, as Moffat's era tended to be, but its themes serve and arise from the story rather than distracting from it.
Most importantly, it makes the new Doctor and companion finally feel like fully formed people. I've been struggling to connect with the 15th Doctor and Ruby; this episode fixed that almost immediately without seeming to even try very hard to do it. Fingers crossed that the remaining episodes are able to sustain it!
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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