Netflix Instant Queue Diaries: Dr. Who

“Doctor Who” Season 1, Episode 11: Boom Town

It’s 2005 and after its long hiatus returns to television. Doctor Who best known as The Doctor comes back as the last of his kind – the only one to survive the time war between his species the Time Lords and the Daleks. Throughout the reboot we find The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) more to the likes of Tom Baker’s (fourth doctor) incarnation, a tempered respect for humans to survive while simultaneously insulting them in times of stress.

During this first season The Doctor and his companion Rose (Billie Piper) and later Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowmen) encounter numerous alien species. Most episodes while not grim have a sense of danger, action and urgency. Rarely does it begin in a light-hearted manner. However, The Doctor is not always brooding.

In the episode called “Boom Town” The Doctor, Jack and Rose arrive in present day Cardiff, London to refuel the Tardis (a time machine with an outside appearance of a 1960s police box, but inside its enormous and sentient). The episode begins with snappy dialogue and laughter; it’s supposed to be a time where these time travelers can decompress. However, it’s not to be as they meet up with a member of the Slitheen an alien from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. Still the episode is filled with hilarity as Rose’s boyfriend who The Doctor refers to as “Mickey the Idiot” joins the crew in bringing down Margaret and her diabolical plan to destroy the world all to “get a lift.”

One of the things that make this episode one of the funniest is the composition of the Slitheen. The decompresser worn around the neck shrinks their bodies so that they are able to fit into the human skin of the people they kill. The funny part is the gas-exchange between the skin they wear and their compressed bodies. Farting while not the highest form of humor works well as an ongoing gag throughout the episode.

Then there’s the plan that the gang uncovers where after Captain Jack gives a long-winded, though highly excitable scientific explanation as to Margaret’s plan, we see his bubble burst when Mickey calls it a “surfboard.” Here Jack must correct him by calling it a “pan-dimensional surfboard.”

A love of science, time travel, and hard to pronounce names of planets are keys that are given a light-handed touch in this episode. In latter seasons we see these characters save The Doctor in a myriad of ways. But this is where it all begins, before Captain Jack becomes immortal and Rose ends up in a parallel universe. Here was a sliver in time where The Doctor and his companions indulged in some hi-jinks without any loss of life or detrimental consequences.