Episode Discussion | Doctor Who | 1x03 "Boom"
Episode Discussion | Doctor Who | 1x03 "Boom"
Logline
Caught in the middle of a devastating war on Kastarion 3, the Doctor is trapped when he steps on a landmine. Can he save himself and Ruby, plus the entire planet... without moving?
Written by: Steven Moffat
Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson
I thought I was going to like it a lot, and it surpassed my expectations.
It's a Moffat episode, through and through - I didn't expect him to bring back the Anglican Marines, but I guess that's a favourite idea of his. On top of that, we have pointed critiques of the military-industrial complex, algorithmic decision-making, and capitalism as a whole. All as subtle as a sledgehammer, just the way I like it.
This one was a really great showcase for Ncuti, allowing him to go places he hasn't had to in the previous episodes.
Susan Twist has appeared in every episode since "Wild Blue Yonder," but this is the first time the Doctor has come face-to-face with her, so it's good to see some movement on that front.
What was the deal with the Doctor losing his keys at the end? Could it have something to do with the fact that Varada Sethu has already been announced as a companion for season two?
I feel quite dumb, I hadn't even realised Susan was the same person. I noticed familiarity, but i didn't put it together.
With that, the snow, and everything around Ruby I'm really not sure where its all going.
I think what works really well about the Anglican marines is it's a perfect stand in to allow the writer to criticise the concept of English exceptionalism (acting in God's name makes everything all right, going to war whether we're needed or not, colonisation because we know best, etc) , but adding a bit of fantasy abstraction so they're not being too literal about it.
Yeah...Susan Twist played Isaac Newton's maid in "Wild Blue Yonder," the woman requesting a song at the bar in "The Church on Ruby Road," one of the recorded station crew members in "Space Babies," the tea server in "The Devil's Chord," and now the ambulance.
There's no obvious connection between any of these, and in two of them, she didn't interact with the Doctor or Ruby in any way. It's curious.
That was a fantastic episode. It spares no punches on the military industrial complex, healthcare, acting purely on belief, and ai, all of which are incredibly timely topics. It's an episode rooted in concept science fiction and yet this one felt realistic which only adds to the horror.
I would contest that it would be so easy to take over an entire organisations AI, but then again even here and now it seems any company that taints itself with ai tends to put good practice to the wayside,so maybe it's not quite deus ex.
Not loving the gory bits though, doctor basically kissed a mutilated dead body at the end there...
Not loving the gory bits though, doctor basically kissed a mutilated dead body at the end there…
Yeah, those things were pretty gross. I couldn't stop wondering what they felt like...
It's still not as bad as we've had in the past (looking at you, love and monsters) at least they're not suffering endlessly.