Sarah -
It’s the first two-parter of the new series! I remember being very happy to get a two-parter so early on, because it felt like Proper Doctor Who. RTD checks off another box on the fandom wishlist.
Harry -
Our first Nu-Who cliffhanger. Bring it on!
Sarah -
I have the impression that "Aliens of London/World War Three" was, and perhaps remains, one of the most controversial stories of Series 1.
Harry -
Let me reply with a very Ecclestonesque: "Yup!"
Sarah -
The Slitheen seem to be among the most disliked aliens in Doctor Who history, with their flatulence issues topping the list of things fans hate.
Harry -
"Yup!"
Sarah -
I’m not that bothered about them, to be honest.
Harry -
Watching it again now, I remember how the well-crafted buildup to the reveal kept getting the air let out of it (oh dear, now me) by aliens who couldn't stop giggling and farting all over 10 Downing Street.
Sarah -
I can’t help but love the return of aliens in big rubber suits and I love the body horror aspect of the story. The ideas of aliens stealing human bodies and wearing them like a suit is wonderfully creepy.
Harry -
The unzipping of the suits - complete with eerie lighting - was effectively creepy, but they overdid it. Every five minutes the Slitheen were squeezing in and out of disguise. It almost seemed like (gasp!) filler.
Sarah -
I believe this may have been one of the episodes that ran short and had to be padded out a bit, so you may be right. There are some definitely performance issues for me -- both from the Slitheen, who are way too panto, and from the series regulars. This was the second story to be filmed, which helps explain why the Doctor and Rose’s relationship and performances feel so less developed than the past two stories.
Still, the key issue of the story for me is the domestic situation, which feels revolutionary after the past twenty-six seasons of Doctor Who. For most of its history, companions dropped in and out of the TARDIS with little regard for what they left behind. We had a few glimpses along the way, most notably Ace’s story in "Survival", but nothing close to what is about to happen to Rose.
Rose and the Doctor return to London after their exciting trips to the future and past, with the assumption that they’ve only been gone for twelve hours. Rose bounds up the stairs to Jackie’s flat, only to discover she’s been gone for a year. My heart breaks for Jackie everytime I see this story, imagining the horror and pain she’s lived with while Rose was traipsing across the universe with the Doctor. Honestly, you can’t blame her for slapping the Doctor after all that.
Harry -
The Doctor miscalibrated the TARDIS' landing again. He's turned Rose into a missing person, Jackie is distraught, and Mickey is under suspicion of murder.
Sarah -
Poor Mickey! You can’t blame him for hating the Doctor.
Harry -
For all his cocky bravado, the Doctor can still inflict terrible damage to his friend with the single errant turn of a dial. There are several quiet moments in this story where he realizes this. It's a kind of callback to the Hartnell era, where travelling with human companions causes the Doctor to focus less on what he has left behind and more on what he has before him, and he becomes more thoughtful because of it.
Sarah -
It’s like he has to learn it all over again after the trauma of the Time War. But the major difference between the First and Ninth Doctor’s era is the consistent sexual subtext. The First Doctor may have had a bit of a crush on Barbara Wright, but everyone assumes the Doctor and Rose are a couple -- Jackie, Mickey, and even the police officer interviewing them after Rose’s return. When he asks, “When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?” They both respond with a strong, “NO!” but RTD planted the seed to have us to think that might not be the case forever.
Honestly, if the Doctor was her boyfriend and I was Rose’s friend, I would be planning an intervention to get her out of that controlling relationship! Fortunately, as a non-shipper, old-school fan who understands the rules of being a companion (No hanky panky in the TARDIS!), I never read Series 1 as a love story and was a little surprised how many new viewers did. It was so clever of RTD to walk that line.
Harry -
I have a couple of friends up here who were into the new series for the first few years partially because they viewed it as sci fi with romance. After Billy Piper and David Tennant left the show, their interest waned. Credit to RTD for making Doctor Who accessible to a variety of different, non-traditional viewers. Some stuck around, others didn't, and that's okay.
However I also align with the No Hanky Panky Faction.
Sarah -
Mr. Smith has two young co-workers who have just started watching Doctor Who and didn’t understand why the Doctor and Rose never got together after having that relationship teased out for two seasons. Apparently, they were both waiting for the hot sex scene to happen. Can you imagine? The internet would have exploded! (I also have to add that when one of them said she was on season four, my non-Whovian husband asked, “Which season four? Classic or New Who?” He knows the way to my heart.)
Harry -
After the emotional reunion with her mum, Rose and the Doctor go outside for some air, only to witness an alien spaceship crash landing into the Thames. RTD whips us from family drama to sci fi action in a split second.
Sarah -
The crash turns the day around for the Doctor -- “I can’t believe I’m here to see this. This is fantastic!”
Harry -
The crash sequence was for me another fist-pumping "Doctor Who enters the 21st century" moment. The ship's wing slicing into the clock tower of Westminster and clanging Big Ben is an iconic moment of this season.
Rose -
Love, love, love it! We already know what the lasting image of this story will be.
Harry -
We immediately cut to realistic news channel coverage of the crash, the discovery of an alien body, and its hasty transfer to Albion Hospital. I loved this sequence too, especially as the Doctor tried to follow it on telly in a room full of humans who very quickly lost interest and lapsed into chatter.
Sarah -
I adore the scene of all the neighbors crammed into the Tylers' living room. Earthlings always let the Doctor down when it comes to invasions!
Harry -
Things are being taken far more seriously at 10 Downing Street. In the absence of the prime minister and his cabinet, the acting head of government is Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Monitoring of Sugar Standards in Exported Confectionary. I just had to write out his full credentials! Even the TV reporter could barely stifle a yawn at his arrival.
Sarah -
I found myself wondering how many ministers they had to go through to get to that poor schmuck.
Harry -
This story really did swing hard between serious drama and panto farce. No sooner has Mr. Green gathered with Margaret Blaine of MI-5 and a transport liaison in the cabinet room, than they erupt in overdone guffawing.
Sarah -
The Slitheen have landed! It may be over the top, but I love that their reaction to succeeding is to laugh hysterically. It’s really a brilliant plan to take over the government. I mean, if you’re an alien and all.
Harry -
Amid all the scenes of confused urgency, there stands Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, still hoping for her 3:15 appointment.
Sarah -
Harriet Jones! Don’t you just love Harriet Jones? So well-intentioned and sincere. She really just wants to make the world -- and country hospitals -- a better place. We’re going to travel quite the road with Harriet Jones, and it’s lovely to see her again in these early days. Penelope Wilton is absolutely perfect.
Harry -
The world would be a very different place if all elected representatives were as determined and dedicated as Harriet. She's always looking out for the big picture, but keeping an eye on the small details too.
Sarah -
Frustrated by the inattentive humans, the Doctor heads to the hospital in the TARDIS in search of the alien recovered from the ship. And look who is on duty -- Toshiko Sato of Torchwood.
Harry -
That's two future Torchwood actors in two stories. It's as if RTD planned it.
Sarah -
Apparently there was some retconning in a Torchwood episode where it’s revealed that Owen was supposed to have done the autopsy, but called off with a hangover. Tosh tells the doctor that the alien everyone thought was dead is very much alive and at large in the hospital. The Doctor tries to talk to the pig-like alien, who is killed by a soldier. The alien turns out to be, in fact, a pig, dressed up in a space suit -- a decoy to help the Slitheen slip into their planned bodies.
Harry -
Despite their comic ineptitude at times, the Slitheen did put a lot of work into their plot.
Sarah -
Popping back to get Rose, he discovers Mickey gloating over his departure, and Jackie having none of Rose leaving with the Doctor again. Jackie barges into the TARDIS and leaves immediately to call a tip line and report the Doctor.
The Doctor explains to Rose that the spaceship crash was staged and tells her UNIT is on the case. UNIT! How excited were you at the return of UNIT?
Harry -
It was great to see UNIT reintroduced so soon in the new series. And this was proper UNIT: the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. (Presumably, the UN's lawyers gave the BBC a call not long after this story was broadcast.) The only thing missing was the Brigadier.
Sarah -
Stupid UN, ruining everything! I might not have survived an appearance from the Brig. Is it possible to die from sheer joy?
Anyway, when Rose and the Doctor leave the TARDIS, it’s surrounded by police and helicopters and the Doctor and Rose are taken to Number 10.
Harry -
...right into the trap set by the Slitheen. This whole pageant has been orchestrated to induce mass panic around the world, so that alien experts would rally to Number 10 to deal with the extraordinary situation of first contact. It turns out, the Slitheen were gathering them for a massacre in order to further their plot.
Sarah -
These Slitheen are really much more clever than you might think, aren’t they?
Harry -
Our first new series cliffhanger! The Doctor finds himself trapped in the briefing room with the other experts, face to face with an unmasked Slitheen, while another one triggers an electrocution device attached to everyone's ID badges. It was as classic as it gets, and the maniacal laughter from Mr. Green gives it some extra zing.
I really liked the fact that we got a genuine cliffhanger, and I've always been a fan of two-parters in the new series for that reason. In this age of binge watching entire seasons in one sitting, making us wait a whole week for the resolution must be maddening for some.
Sarah -
Two-parters always feel like Proper Doctor Who. I love that we got so many in Series 9.
"World War Three" picks up where "Aliens of London" left off. The Doctor attaches his ID badge to a Slitheen, who is electrocuted along with UNIT members and other experts in the room. Fortunately for Jackie, it also takes out the Slitheen in a police officer’s skin who is about to kill her and Mickey. Not surprisingly, the Doctor is accused of having killed everyone in the briefing room and a wacky chase around Number 10 ensues.
Harry -
The second part of this story did feel like an extended chase at times, complete with wide shots of the goodies and baddies racing in and out of rooms.
Sarah -
Which, when you think about it, is yet another sign of Proper Doctor Who!
Harry -
As Doctor Who villains are wont to do, they eventually pause to reveal their full plot. Slitheen is actually their family name, and they intend to use the UK's nuclear arsenal to turn the planet into a burnt cinder, then sell off radioactive pieces of the planet for profit.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has narrowed down the family's origin to the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. He's also given Mickey a field promotion to hacker extraordinaire, and called up a missile strike on Downing Street to wipe out the Slitheen. That was a pretty extreme solution. The decision to proceed gives the Doctor pause. "I could save the world but lose you," he tells Rose and spikes the romantic angle of the show right through the roof. He, Rose and Harriet then hunker down for the missile strike, which demolishes Number 10 and the Slitheen with it.
Emerging from the rubble, the Doctor and Rose dust themselves off while Harriet strides forward to meet the press and calm the populace.
Sarah -
Go, Harriet, Go!
Harry -
Having helped with the missile strike, Mickey is now seen in a different light by the Doctor and invited to join the TARDIS team. He doesn't give it much thought before declining. As he and Jackie watch, the TARDIS fades from view with the Doctor and Rose in it. They are off on more adventures, with family and friends left behind to wait.
Sarah -
I appreciate that the Doctor helps Mickey out when Rose asks him to come along, insisting that he won’t have Mickey come with them. That little nod they share is endearing.
Continuity note: we have our most visible Bad Wolf reference when it’s painted on the side of the TARDIS. I love the moment when the Doctor makes the kid who apparently painted it clean it off and sends him on his way.
Well, our first Nu-Who two-parter. Shall we press on? I think we might run into some old friends.
Harry -
Some of the oldest.
Best Line:
DOCTOR: "Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"
MICKEY: "Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter."
Favourite Moment: the cliffhanger.
Lasting Image: Big Ben getting dinged.
7/10
Sarah -
Best Line: “Nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never been slapped by someone’s mother.”
Favorite Moment: Harriet emerging from the safe room and getting right to work.
Lasting Image: Definitely Big Ben being clipped by the spaceship.
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #161: Dalek...
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