’Doctor Who’ 1×04 review: “Boom” is an explosive high for the Fifteenth Doctor

I don’t know how many more times I can say Doctor Who is playing the hits. But that’s what the new season continues to do. “Boom” sees former showrunner Steven Moffat return to his roots by writing a one-off episode for a Russell T. Davies run season. Moffat’s episodes from then are his absolute best. So, it’s really no surprise that “Boom” is probably the best episode of the season yet. It’s also so self-indulgent in regards to Moffat’s own work that it’s getting more difficult to see what identity Ncuti Gatwa is carving out for his incarnation of the Doctor.

“Boom” is the best episode of the new Doctor Who season yet

Credit where due: “Boom” is the kind of Doctor Who that got Moffat the showrunner chair in the first place. The episode is incredibly economical with its storytelling, doesn’t require multiple set changes, and extracts maximum tension. The guy is just really good at writing bottle episodes. Sticking The Doctor on a landmine while everyone else works around him is clever use of limitation. “Boom” doesn’t have the same horror elements of classics like “Blink” or “The Empty Child.” Instead, the stakes are through facing down mortality itself. 

Gatwa and Millie Gibson get to show the flip side of their chemistry compared to before. The Doctor and Ruby have spent the season having fun, even with a character like The Maestro staring them down. For “Boom,” there’s no quirkiness or lighthearted nature. Gatwa is proving he’s not just cool this week. He’s needing to constantly restrain himself lest he set off the mine at his feet. Gibson matches this energy well and reveals more about Ruby’s actual character at the same time. Early on she defies The Doctor’s instruction when trying to help him balance, reading through his concern for her over himself. She’s right in doing so, and she knows it. When Ruby isn’t a mystery box with legs, she’s a fantastic companion. 

References to references

However, “Boom” is also weirdly self-fellating. Moffat has always been referential in his Doctor Who work, especially to himself. In “Boom,” though, you’d be hard pressed to find something that isn’t a reference to something else he created. The Army of the Papal Mainframe makes a return, there’s yet another way to sort of backup a person as they die, and the primary focus of the episode is Villengard. First referenced in “The Empty Child,” Villengard is a weapons manufacturer that at some point The Doctor eliminated. The company has shown up a few times after that point as coy winks until now. 

Now, Vilengard has something of a personality, one that is at least a clear critique of the military industrial complex. Say whatever you want about Moffat, his anti-war stances have been pretty clear and hard to disagree with. That said, it’s funny that he’s found the last thing he’s introduced that didn’t get an over explanation; not for lack of trying in “Twice Upon a Time.” It’s also the one thing his critics pretty unanimously point to as his good world building. He’s definitely seen that Hbomberguy video. 

Time traveling scripts

The references aren’t the only noticeable callback. The Fifteenth Doctor has more than a few “clever” lines in the dialogue that are different to other episodes to date. They’re much more reminiscent of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor — they carry an air of superiority to them, the same kind of candor Moffat’s Sherlock had. The Doctor talking about the others around him not “figuring it out” while he’s on a literal ticking time bomb could be ripped out of “Boom” and put into basically any Eleventh Doctor episode and you won’t know the difference. 

None of this referential nature is new to Doctor Who, of course. However, other examples of this often come from new writers and actors who are bringing their own affections for the series to their work. To bring back a showrunner, just to have him play his own hits in a season that’s done almost nothing but that is frankly embarrassing. Matt Smith playing a kind of wacky Doctor because his Doctor was Tom Baker is just not the same thing as making Ncuti Gatwa say the Eleventh Doctor’s lines. 

Steven Moffat’s strengths are here too

Yet, “Boom” works in spite of that embarrassment. Not only is the chemistry between our Doctor and companion still electric, it’s proving to be flexible enough for the tone shifts of Doctor Who. The episode is tense and poignant with its message, even if it ends a bit more saccharine than expected. It’s the kind of hope in the face of bleakness that the series does well, particularly in the best episodes of the Moffat era, and it worked on me at least. There’s plenty to criticize about the kind of Doctor Who Steven Moffat does, but he is pretty good at the human element and tugging at the heartstrings. 

“Boom” even maintains the themes of music and adoption that have carried through all season without pushing against the primary story. I wish there was more of it, because these seem to be more unique to Ncuti Gatwa’s take on The Doctor, but I can’t even be too mad about the references. Why shouldn’t Eleven and Twelve fans get a bone after we’ve all had an extra year or so of Ten?

Writer nepotism aside, “Boom” is the best episode of the Fifteenth Doctor run yet. Sure, it’s still sort of playing the same songs fans are familiar with, but it’s at least a different melody this time around. It’s clear that new season still has some kinks to work out as it heads into new territory. It is also very clear at this point that Ncuti Gatwa will absolutely be up to the task. 

Doctor Who “Season 1” is available on Disney+.

Featured images via BBC/Disney