Doctor Who series 1 Boom Town review

Here's what you need to know; The Doctor, Rose and Jack land in Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS, only to find an old enemy has made itself at home, and has dire plans that threaten the existence of Earth. Now stuck with said old enemy, The Doctor and the team must make a very difficult decision.

Boom Town is in many ways a follow up to Aliens of London and World War Three, mainly in that it wraps up the story of the Slitheen family, one of which survived the missile attack at the end of World War Three, and has taken up residence in Cardiff and formulated a plan to escape the planet, before of course her plan was interrupted by the Doctor. This episode has a lot going on, and I have some pretty mixed feelings on it. The first part of the episode is the team hunting down Margaret and stopping her escape plan, this stuff is funny, and the scene where she tries to teleport away always cracks me up, but thrown in there is a really good scene with Margaret and a Journalist, I don't know how I could feel pity for a giant gross green alien that tried to destroy the planet, but I did in this scene, I think it was well done. This episode can really be broken up into 3 parts, the first is funny and has a really good scene in it, but the second is by far the best part of this episode, I really liked the character of Margaret in this episode, she stands out as a villain who has ultimately lost everything she loved and has nowhere to go, and this weirdly sympathetic side makes for some brilliant back and forth with her and Doctor, as she alludes to how similar they are. There's another drama going on with Rose and Mickey, and while the Doctor and Margaret is much more interesting, Mickey is understandably in a tough place emotionally, and the drama with him and Rose, while not very fun to watch for obvious reasons, still has a sense of gravity to it that can't be ignored while you watch. Unfortunately I think this episode kind of falls apart toward the end, the big twist and Margaret's deception is not remotely shocking or surprising, and the big climax with the rift is completely lacking  in interest after such a good character story, and the end of Margaret's story was a bit too happy in my opinion, a bit too neat, though Rose and Mickey's drama is left hanging, something I like, as it puts both the characters in a very interesting place, it's a shame that the Margaret and Doctor story ends as cleanly as it does, especially after a somewhat uninteresting big finale that the episode really didn't need.

Boom Town is a very good character episode, with 2 big dramas that are both interesting, and it's a brilliant and very sympathetic and human look at the character of Margaret. The episode's big ending is a bit of a disappointment, and Margaret's story ultimately ends on a disappointing note, maybe I wouldn't have said this 10 years ago, but with this episode less could have been more, regardless, this is still a very, very good episode.