Mmmmm, Susan Ivanova.
Anyway, Boom Town. I wasn’t expecting much from this based on the trailers but it turned out better than I expected. Not brilliant but certainly not terrible.
It was a collection of “greatest” hits from the series so far – Slitheen from AoL/WW3; the rift from tUD; incidental music from Rose; Mickey; reversing the teleport from tEoftW; some of which deserved a repeat performance more than others. It was also more than that.
It was a look at the Doctor’s morality and whilst Russell T Davies is clearly against the death penalty (see his interview on Doctor Who Confidential) the episode was no where so clear cut, Margaret’s arguments didn’t really hold water when held against the lengths she was prepared to go to save herself, and the Doctor’s attitude was a mixture of factors – part “leave local customs alone”, part “Everything has it’s time and everything dies” and part traumatised post-Gallifrey Doctor.
The moral debate would have been more interesting if a human had taken a larger part. Maybe we could have been spared some of the Rose/Mickey (non-)relationship and instead had them involved in the discussion between the Doctor and Margaret.
In the end the debate was rendered meaningless by a deus ex machina resolution. I liked the heart of the TARDIS and I wonder if it’s foreshadowing something, possibly connected to regeneration?
7/10
And the Doctor notices the Bad Wolf at last. Just in time for this week’s episode that looks like it could be very, very good and very, very bad at the same time.
IMDB is listing Norman Lovett (the original Holly from Red Dwarf) as Davros in the season finale. But anyone can update IMDB with any old information (it’s not quite a Wiki but it’s nearly as bad) so we’ll have to see. I doubt that such a genre favoutite actor could play such a genre favourite part without it leaking out before now, and I think he’d make a bloody awful Davros. But you never know.