Sarah -
Dear Big Finish, when you eventually convince Christopher Eccleston to record audios, please make it your first priority to fill in the stories between "The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town". I’m sure Billie and John will sign on, eager to recreate this TARDIS team. I know this era has been covered in New Series Adventures and comics, but I want to HEAR more from this crowded TARDIS.
Harry -
I treasure the few (very few) BBC New Series Adventures novels featuring this fabulous TARDIS trio, gone too soon.
Sarah -
So, on to "Boom Town", which, as we know, was a replacement story when the original script fell through. RTD decided to center the story on Annette Badland’s character from "Aliens of London/World War III", having enjoyed her previous performance. She’s even more spectacular in this story and brings amazing energy to a story that is really about the Doctor's role and the impact he has on his companions.
Harry -
Behind-the-scenes scrambling has always been a part of Doctor Who. Here, RTD filled the episode gap with a quiet, brilliant character study. It's a nice catch-your-breath pause before the two-part season finale.
Sarah -
We begin with a scientist expressing his concerns to the Lord Mayor of Cardiff about a nuclear power plant being built in the center of the city. It seems like an odd place to put a power plant, until we discover the Lord Mayor is none other than Margaret Blaine, otherwise known as Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen. I suspect things aren't going to go well for our scientist.
Harry -
It was a bit hard to swallow that Blon was able to establish herself as lord mayor within six months. But at the unveiling of the power plant model, when local reporter Cathy Salt rhymes off the suspiciously high number of deaths related to the project, it becomes evident that Blon has been very busy. That scientist was just the latest irritating impediment she swept aside with a swing of her Slitheen talons.
Sarah -
The Slitheen are nothing if not efficient.
Harry -
Badland steals the show in this episode, displaying incredible range from cold fury whenever Blon is challenged, to quiet sensitivity in the ladies' room scene when Cathy (her next intended victim) reveals that she is three months' pregnant, to mocking rage at her eventual captor. Plus all that tortuous running in heels -- somebody give the lady a BAFTA!
Sarah -
It really is Badland’s story. Before rewatching this story, my primary memory of it was her performance.
Look, it’s Mickey! He’s just arrived in Cardiff to deliver Rose’s passport and knocks on the TARDIS door to find himself face to face with Jack Harkness -- and a pissing match ensues. Cue the snappy dialogue, but Mickey’s having none of it: “My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?”
They are a bit much, aren’t they?
Harry -
So much bickering among the lads. Mickey had the best zinger:
MICKEY: That old lady's staring.
JACK: Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box.
MICKEY: What are you captain of, the innuendo squad?
The TARDIS is there to recharge for a day, using pent-up energy below the Cardiff rift.
Sarah -
With a shout out to Gwyneth!
Harry -
With 24 hours to kill, the gang go for lunch and have a merry time of it. Until the Doctor spots a newspaper and discovers that Blon Slitheen is now Margaret Blaine, lord mayor.
Team TARDIS, to City Hall!
Sarah -
Rose in her Fourth Doctor cosplay. It know it’s not a proper Fourth Doctor scarf, but the color blocking has always felt like an homage to me.
Harry -
It's a nice scarf.
Sarah -
Meanwhile, Team TARDIS calls out the Lord Mayor on the Blaidd Drwg power station, which sounds a bit familiar:
DOCTOR: Blaidd Drwg.
ROSE: What's it mean?
DOCTOR: Bad Wolf.
ROSE: But I've heard that before. Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times.
DOCTOR: Everywhere we go. Two words following us. Bad Wolf.
ROSE: How can they be following us?
DOCTOR: Nah, just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind. Things to do.
Harry -
For any viewers who really hadn't noticed it by that point.
Sarah -
The things to do include taking Margaret back to Raxacoricofallapatorius to stand trial for her crimes. Turns out the Slitheen have already been tried and found guilty and Margaret will be put to death as soon as she returns.
Harry -
Quite the grisly description of their death penalty procedure, assuming Margaret wasn't lying. For a moment, she got everyone feeling squeamish about sending her to her death. None of them could even look her in the eye.
Sarah -
Despite Margaret’s heavy guilt trip, the Doctor decides it’s not his problem and promises to talk Margaret back home as soon as the TARDIS recharges.
Margaret makes a final request to dine at her favorite restaurant and the Doctor, having some time to kill, agrees, which brings us to the centerpiece of the story. Margaret can’t escape, thanks to Jack’s handcuffs...
Harry -
"Dinner and bondage, works for me."
Sarah -
...but that doesn’t stop her from trying to kill the Doctor, who thwarts her at every turn. When that doesn’t work, she leans heavy on the guilt, calling the Doctor out as a fellow killer.
MARGARET: Only a killer would know that. Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy go lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many people's lives, you might as well be a god. And you're right, Doctor. You're absolutely right. Sometimes you let one go. Let me go.
Eccleston’s eyes show us that she’s hit a nerve. Margaret talks a good game, but it’s all a distraction until she spring her real trap.
Harry -
I liked the extreme close ups during this exchange, shutting everything else out of view. Finally some quality use of extreme close ups in Doctor Who.
Sarah -
It’s a master class in acting.
Harry -
Meanwhile, Mickey and Rose have a row. He informs her that he's been going out with Trisha Delaney in Rose's absence. Initially nonplussed, Rose rounds on him in astonishment but it's hard to tell if she's astonished that it's Trisha Delaney, or that he's been seeing someone else. Mickey lets it all out:
"You left me! We were nice, we were happy. And then what? You give me a kiss and you run off with him, and you make me feel like nothing, Rose. I was nothing. I can't even go out with a stupid girl from a shop because you pick up the phone and I comes running. I mean, is that what I am, Rose, standby? Am I just supposed to sit here for the rest of my life, waiting for you? Because I will."
Sarah -
Poor Mickey. It’s heartbreaking when he walks away from Rose at the end, but, as Rose says, he really does deserve better.
Harry -
Before they can resolve things, thunder booms in the sky. The rift is opening. The Doctor hears it too and everyone heads back to the TARDIS. There, Jack has been adapting some technology that Margaret was going to use to escape the planet. The tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator enables one to literally surf away into space by standing on it and riding a cosmic-event explosion shielded within a bubble, as Margaret intended to do. Jack was wiring it up to charge the TARDIS quicker, but as a backup for Margaret's plans, it was programmed to feed off an alien energy source instead. Margaret demands the extrapolator and is about to ride it to freedom on the wave of the Earth's destruction, when the heart of the TARDIS suddenly opens.
Sarah -
Margaret looks into the heart of the TARDIS and regresses to an egg.
Harry -
She had just enough time to thank the Doctor, before she won a second chance at life. I was glad she didn't meet a deathly fate in the end.
Sarah -
That solves everyone’s problems and guilt. Time to head back to Raxacoricofallapatorius, pop Maggs into the hatchery, and then toddle off for more fancy-free adventures across the universe. Or is it? I have a bad feeling about this.
Harry -
How could this fun bunch ever get into trouble? Got to be more laffs ahead, surely.
Sarah -
Best Line: Margaret, as they leave the restaurant: “Some date this turned out to be.”
Favorite Moment: The restaurant scene
Lasting Image: The Doctor and Margaret face to face over dinner
6/10
Harry -
Best Line: the Doctor rips through Margaret's crocodile tears: "You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips."
Favourite moment: Margaret repeatedly running away, being spun around, and running away again
Lasting Image: the extreme close ups
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #166: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways...
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