Hello, TARDIS fam! I’m absolutely delighted to be your trusty Doctor Who recapper this season. I’ve been a Whovian since I was a teenager (yes, I had a Tumblr; yes, it was pure cringey joy). If that girl could see me now, writing about Who professionally! Without any more personal ado, let’s get started with Doctor Who 14×03, “Boom.”
(A quick note: Disney is labeling this season “Season 1,” but it’s actually the 14th season since the reboot began. To avoid confusion with older episodes, we’re going with Season 14. Allons-y.)
Steven Moffat Returns, And It’s Exactly What You Expect
Doctor Who 14×03 marks the return of former showrunner Steven Moffat to the Whoniverse. “Boom” includes many of the hallmarks longtime viewers have come to expect from Moffat’s pen: a young girl who gets caught in the Doctor’s orbit, a villain that takes something normal and makes it terrifying, a simple plot device elevated by twists, and at least a couple of callbacks to previous eras.
Moffat has always seemed intrigued by the darker side of Who, and Doctor Who 14×03 “Boom” highlights that. The first two episodes of the season leaned into the gleefully chaotic, campy, and quirky side of Doctor Who, but this episode turns up the drama — and the symbolism.
Like many of Moffat’s episodes, the conceit for “Boom” is pretty simple. At the start of the episode, the Doctor steps on a high-tech land mine on an alien planet. This renders him unable to move for the entire episode. Instead, it’s up to Ruby to play the role of hero, and she’s definitely up for the task. It’s an intriguing way to let us see different sides of these characters. The Doctor is more emotional than he’s had a chance to be since Ncuti Gatwa‘s takeover, tearing up multiple times as the horrors of the situation unfold. Millie Gibson, meanwhile, gets to show off Ruby’s bold side, as she confidently takes the lead (and takes some scary risks).
War Is Hell
Doctor Who has never been shy about being an anti-war show. The entire revival era is built around the idea of a genocidal war so devastating that its shadow can never be truly escaped. In this grand tradition, Doctor Who 14×03 “Boom” is a blazing and unforgiving critique of the military-industrial complex and of war profiteering — something that Who couldn’t haven’t known would wind up being so painfully timely when the episode was filmed.
On a foggy planet, the locals fight an endless war against their unseen enemies, the Kastarions. A soldier and widowed father, John Francis Vater, tries to make it back to camp after an injury. When he and his comrade spot an ambulance, we quickly learn the scary rules of the game. These “ambulances” are AI-powered monsters, not symbols of help arriving. When one spots John, it determines that the four-week recovery from his eye injury is algorithmically unacceptable, then kills him as it offers a “thoughts and prayers” condolence message. It then compresses him into a cylinder (ewwwww), which Ruby later unwittingly picks up to try to help the Doctor escape the mine.
Anyone familiar with Who expects a twist, and Moffat delivers a predictable-but-powerful doozy by the end of Doctor Who 14×03. The war is against… nothing. Villengard, the corporation providing the ambulances and war tech, is behind it all. Playing on fear and faith, the algorithm kills or saves people at exactly the rate needed to keep the “war” just at the acceptable casualty level — just enough so that people will keep the war going and keep buying Villengard products. It’s not subtle at all in its call-out of the forces that profit from keeping wars grinding on despite — or even because of — the human costs.
Fathers, Daughters, and Families
Most of Doctor Who 14×03 “Boom” enters around John’s daughter, Splice, trying to find out what happened to her father. She’s accompanied by Mundy, an ordained Anglican soldier, and they soon find the Doctor and Ruby. Mundy informs the Doctor that, even if he escapes the mine, he’ll still blow up thanks to a DNA-linked feature — something the Doctor reveals will cause a huge explosion, due to his alien DNA. To distract a nearby ambulance from the Doctor, Mundy tells Ruby to shoot her “a little bit.” Unfortunately for Ruby, Mundy’s fellow soldier Casto shows up, sees the scene, and shoots Ruby.
The latter half of the plot largely plays out with a familiar Who theme: families. The AI-powered reconstruction or echo of John draws Splice to the Doctor and Ruby. In turn, the Doctor calls on John’s echo to help them defeat Villengard. “Dad to dad, you never let them down, right? Ever. To the end, right?” And ouch, this is the second week in a row where the Doctor reminds us that he lost a family of his own. It’s enough to get AI-John to jump into the Villengard algorithm and override it, saving the Doctor and Ruby both.
The mystery of Ruby’s family is threaded through Doctor Who 14×03, too. I appreciate that they’re not going with a Clara Oswald “Impossible Girl” scenario this time. Ruby has a life, a family who loves her, and a big personality… and a very strange mystery in her past. This time, the Villengard algorithm identifies her as over 3,000 years old but glitches out trying to find her next of kin. And, as before, when she’s injured, it starts snowing. I love this mystery, and more, I love that it doesn’t overpower the stories of the week.
TARDIS Log
- This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of the Villengard Corporation in the Whoniverse. Most notably, they’re the company behind Captain Jack Harkness’s futuristic “sonic blaster.”
- Speaking of the “Impossible Girl,” it seems fitting that Moffat is behind an episode that surprise-introduces a new cast member earlier than announced. Varada Sethu plays Mundy, but she also is slated to join the cast as a new companion next season. What’s going on??
- Welcome back, fish fingers and custard!
- The face of the Villengard algorithm is the same older woman who appears in all the episodes so far. The credits identify the actress as Susan Twist, but who is she on Doctor Who, really? Is she a villain or an ally? A version of the Master? The mysterious “One Who Waits”?
- Moffat is best known for his “scary” episodes, like the introduction of the Weeping Angels. Here, the horror comes from painful revelations rather than jumpscares.
- Don’t think we’ve forgotten Mrs. Flood, Ruby’s nosy neighbor. The strange old woman knew what a TARDIS was, but we haven’t seen her since.
- Fun fact! The “Skye Boat Song” that the Doctor sings is also the theme song to Outlander! It also has appeared twice in Doctor Who before: once in a Second Doctor episode, and once in a Thirteenth Doctor episode.
- The episode revolves around a father’s love for his child. So, naturally, his last name is “Vater.” Subtlety, thy name has never been Moffat.
- The poem that the Doctor recites includes a line, “Young man don’t you know there’s more to life/Than the moon and president’s wife?” That reference popped up more than once in the Twelfth Doctor era. Fun Easter egg, or secret message?
- “A sad little man once told me: What survives of us is love.” The last line of Doctor Who 14×03 “Boom” might as well be the show’s motto. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Okay, we’re both crying.
What did you think of Doctor Who 14×03 “Boom”? Leave us a comment below!
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