Doctor Who Is NEW! Boom!

 And we are back with another installment of Doctor Who Is NEW! where I post about new episodes of Doctor Who.

Since Russell T Davies returned to Doctor Who and the series made it's move to Disney+, this week's post is about the first episode of this new series not written by RTD. 

Welcome back to a guy who knows his way around a Doctor Who story, Steven Moffat.  

Say what you will about the Moff and I know he has his detractors but me, I like the guy and I usually like what he writes. 

Can the Moff still deliver in this new era of Doctor Who? 

We'll find out after the break.

There will be spoilers as we take a look at "Boom!" by Steven Moffat.   

 

In a wasteland battlefield on Kastarian 3, the TARDIS has materialized and the Doctor hears a cry for help. He races out to help but winds up stepping a land mine. 

Well, almost...?

The Doctor has one foot on the mine which as activated it but by balancing himself on that one foot, the mine is not sensing his full weight and hasn't fully activated.

Well, the Doctor can't stand on one foot forever and anyway, the mine is on a timer. After awhile, even if the Doctor remains motionless, it will detonate anyway.  

Bad problem made worse: the mine itself contains no explosive but has the nasty ability of turning the poor sap who activates it into a bomb.

Bad enough for a mere human but image the bang that mine could make out of a 2000+ year old Time Lord. 

The mine is brought to you by those fine weapon building folks at Villengard.   (First referenced in Moffat's "The Doctor Dances" back in 2005.) Villengard's devices follow a warfare algorithm to limit the number of bodies in the battle zone at one time, while also dragging wars on profitably and indefinitely.  

Beware the Ambulances. If their algorithm determines it will cost more to cure you than kill you, they will kill you.  The Ambulances will kindly download your memories into an interactive A.I. and send "thoughts and prayers" to your next of kin.  

This will be important when Ruby gets killed and the Ambulance is flummoxed on who to send "thoughts and prayers" to. 

Oh don't worry. Ruby recovers from her case of death.  

(And that mysterious snow appears again.)    

By the way what's going on with this war anyway?  

An army of Anglicans clerics have been fighting a war for six months against an enemy that’s never seen or heard.

The Doctor works it out:  there’s no enemy on the planet at all — it’s barren. Villengard's algorithm is sending soldiers out to die with the traps they themselves bought and probably placed. 

The only way to make all the Villengard tech (including the mine the Doctor is standing on) to stop killing everyone is for the Anglicans to surrender.

Which is an uphill battle in itself as the Anglicans have faith their war is justified and Villengard is making a tidy profit on a war with technically only one side.  

Long story made short: love and reason triumph over mindless faith and cruel capitalism, Ruby is cured of death and the Doctor finally gets to step off the mine without getting blowed up real good.

OK, I feel like I'm giving this story short shrift.  There are a lot of moving parts here with an endearing supporting cast and an examination of complex themes about faith, parenthood, war, capitalism and even life & death.   

Other than a bit of a rushed "love conquers all" ending, I think "Boom!" is a veritable Steven Moffat classic. He ratchets up the tension considerably by taking away what the Doctor usually does, running about as he talks a mile a minute and thinking even faster. Forced to stay rooted in one spot, the Doctor is forced to save himself, Ruby and the whole dang planet with only his words and the sheer force of his personality.  

The forced limitation on the Doctor's ability to move brings us a bravura performance by Ncuti Gatwa.  He also gets to sing.  In order to steady himself when he first encounters the mine, the Doctor sings "The Skye Boat Song" which we recognize as the theme from Outlander.   

Guest star alert: Susan Twist is in this episode as the holographic face of the insidious Ambulances.  So far, Susan Twist as been in every episode as a different character.  

And Varada Sethu plays the character of Mundy.   It has been announced that Vardada will be joining the TARDIS crew as a companion next season.  Does her appearance in this episode mean anything?  

It's been 7 years since his last script for Doctor Who but I think with "Boom!", Steven Moffat has shown he can still deliver a solid and entertaining episode.