Warning: this article contains spoilers for Doctor Who: Boom.
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. I sat staring at the screen, watching the landmine’s little lights edging ever closer to their end, denoting the detonation of landmine which the Doctor was standing on.
Whereas I did enjoy the previous episode, The Devil’s Chord, Boom blasted things to a whole new level. Tension. Conflict. Bravery. Even heartbreak. The episode had much to enjoy.
High stakes tension
One soldier reduced to atoms after stepping on a landmine. His comrade killed by an AI ambulance deeming his blindness unaccepted for the battlefield. No room for medical care or mercy. The Doctor departs the Tardis in the middle of the scorched battlefield to hear his scream and runs to find him. And on the way he steps on that fateful landmine.
The fact that there were only a tiny number of green lights to go before they all turned red and the landmine detonated was thrilling. The fact that every time the situation worsened made more of those lights switch on kept me on the edge of my seat. The fact that the Doctor had to hold a compressed dead body to counter his own wait was so gracefully grim. How he had to keep his emotions in such strict check to save his life was excellent.
But what really shocked me was when his companion Ruby was shot by an Anglican marine who mistook her for a hostile. Seeing the laser bolts hit her body, seeing her fall, hit the ground and roll before coming to a halt at the bottom of an incline caught me off guard. As someone who keeps up to date with casting news, I know she survives the series’ events and yet despite this, I still questioned if she’d live or die. My mind was swept away in the shock moment.
The faith twist
The episode, written by former showrunner Steven Moffat, was full of callbacks. Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat worked well together and I’m glad to see this episode reflected that. And I loved the callbacks. The Villengard Corporation that was supplying the tactical gear and weapons was first name dropped in Steven Moffat two-part story from 2005: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. There was also the Doctor referencing fish fingers and custard, something the Eleventh Doctor enjoyed during Moffat’s time as showrunner. And of course, the Anglican marines as well.
The concept of religious soldiers is nothing new in Doctor Who. Steven Moffat first introduced this during his run in the two-part story: The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. Here, we saw militarised clerics help the Doctor, his companion Amy Pond and River Song defeat an army of Weeping Angels. We then had the concept return as the Church of the Papal Mainframe which formed much of the story arc during Matt Smith’s time as the Eleventh Doctor.
I didn’t expect their return but at the same time it’s not surprising Moffat wants to re-use one of his concepts. The war was being fought by Anglican marines on the planet Kastarion 3 as they fight against an enemy they have yet to see. They speculate they’re in the fog or in the mud but as the war drags on, they keep their faith in what they’re doing. Which is their ultimate downfall as the Doctor reveals that there is no enemy. Kastarion 3 is uninhabited and the Anglican marines have declared war on an empty planet. The real enemy is the Villengard Corporation; killing soldiers to keep casualty levels high so the marines would keep the faith, keep fighting and keep buying weapons. A surprising twist that took on both faith and capitalism.
What mysteries lurk in war?
As much as I enjoyed the empty planet twist, I was sad that the mysterious Kastarions never came to be. The idea of a deadly enemy that no one has actually seen yet and is theorised by many to be in the mud or fog is tantalising but also calls back to another war.
In the 2015 two-part story: The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, we see the Dalek home world of Skaro devastated by the Kaled/Thal war. In this, we see Davros as a child, running through the battlefield before being found by a soldier. But just before the soldier can rescue him, he is grabbed by a hand mine and pulled beneath the ground.
The aforementioned hand mines then emerged from the ground in search of new victims. In the grey, bleak battlefield, hands with eyes rose up from the dirt and looked around, waiting for Davros to move so they could get him. Were they intelligent and malevolent? Were they animalistic? Were they biological weapons only? I couldn’t quite decipher this and the mystery of them left me wanting more.
Boom was an amazing Doctor Who episode that took the tension and excitement to a whole new level and harked back to Russell’s first stint as showrunner which many have dubbed as “the golden age” of Doctor Who. So, I say to this, to Russell T Davies and to the BBC: I want more!
