Boom Town (TV story): Difference between revisions

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|director = [[Joe Ahearne]]
|director = [[Joe Ahearne]]
|producer = [[Phil Collinson]]
|producer = [[Phil Collinson]]
|confidential=[[Unsung Heroes and Violent Death]]
|broadcast date = [[4th June]] [[2005]]
|broadcast date = [[4th June]] [[2005]]
|format = 1x45 minute episode
|format = 1x45 minute episode
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|previous story = [[The Doctor Dances]]
|previous story = [[The Doctor Dances]]
|next story = [[Bad Wolf (TV story)|Bad Wolf]]
|next story = [[Bad Wolf (TV story)|Bad Wolf]]
}}{{TV stub}}
}}'''''Boom Town''''' was the eleventh episode of [[Series 1 (Doctor Who)|Series 1]] of ''Doctor Who''. It was an important narrative "crossroads" for a number of threads running through [[Russell T Davies]]' ''Doctor Who''. 
'''Boom Town''' was the eleventh adventure of [[Series 1 (Doctor Who)|Series 1]] of ''Doctor Who''. It features the reappearance of [[Margaret Blaine]], a [[Slitheen family|Slitheen]], who previously appeared in [[Aliens of London]].
 
It featured the reappearance of [[Margaret Blaine]], a [[Slitheen family|Slitheen]], who previously appeared in ''[[Aliens of London]]''.  It also included significant development of the relationship between [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] and [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]].  The episode was the first to be set in modern [[Cardiff]], and established that the [[Cardiff Space-Time Rift]], implied in ''[[The Unquiet Dead]]'', was still present in the [[21st century]] and releasing enough energy to fuel [[the TARDIS]].  It thus laid critical narrative groundwork for the early ''[[Torchwood]]'' series.  It also introduced the [[tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator|extrapolator]] and established the energy present at the [[heart of the TARDIS]] — both crucial elements of the series 1 finalé.
 
Against the wider history of ''Doctor Who'', it was the first episode since ''[[Terminus (TV story)|Terminus]]'' to ''effectively'' feature three [[companion]]s.  
== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
[[Ninth Doctor|The Doctor]], [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] and [[Jack Harkness|Jack]] travel to modern-day [[Cardiff]] and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]]. There, they discover that a recent enemy is very much alive, and is willing to rip apart the [[planet]] to ensure her freedom.
[[Ninth Doctor|The Doctor]], [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] and [[Jack Harkness|Jack]] travel to modern-day [[Cardiff]] and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]]. There, they discover that a recent enemy is very much alive, and is willing to rip apart the [[planet]] to ensure her freedom.

Revision as of 02:18, 2 January 2011

Boom Town was the eleventh episode of Series 1 of Doctor Who. It was an important narrative "crossroads" for a number of threads running through Russell T Davies' Doctor Who.

It featured the reappearance of Margaret Blaine, a Slitheen, who previously appeared in Aliens of London. It also included significant development of the relationship between Rose and Mickey. The episode was the first to be set in modern Cardiff, and established that the Cardiff Space-Time Rift, implied in The Unquiet Dead, was still present in the 21st century and releasing enough energy to fuel the TARDIS. It thus laid critical narrative groundwork for the early Torchwood series. It also introduced the extrapolator and established the energy present at the heart of the TARDIS — both crucial elements of the series 1 finalé.

Against the wider history of Doctor Who, it was the first episode since Terminus to effectively feature three companions.

Synopsis

The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey. There, they discover that a recent enemy is very much alive, and is willing to rip apart the planet to ensure her freedom.

Plot

The Doctor has landed his TARDIS over the Cardiff rift located in the Roald Dahl Plass, using slow radiation leakage to recharge the TARDIS. As the process will take a whole day, he, Rose, and Jack are joined by Mickey and take the opportunity to explore the area. While they enjoy a meal at a restaurant, the Doctor notices to his dismay the front page of the Western Mail, with the headline "New Mayor, New Cardiff" and a picture of Margaret Blaine - the human form of a Slitheen whom they previously encountered. Since their meeting, Blaine has become the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, and initiated the construction of a nuclear power plant. However, several people had found significant flaws with the design that could lead to a nuclear meltdown, and had approached her about these issues, but they have since disappeared, Blaine having killed them herself. During a recent press conference, a young reporter approached Blaine about these deaths and the information they had left behind. Blaine thinks she should have a word in private; a loud rumble in her belly gives her a excuse to go to the toilet and she takes the reporter with her. Disgusted as she hears Margaret on the toilet, she notes they got there just in time. Blaine plans to kill her, but had a change of heart as the reporter talks about her family and unborn child, realising that she herself no longer has one.

Realising that they must stop Blaine, the Doctor's group converges on City Hall and eventually capture Blaine after chasing her through repeated uses of a teleporter. She tells the group that the teleporter is how she escaped the destruction of the rest of her family, and that she hopes that, as planned, the meltdown of the plant would open the Rift and destroy the planet, herself using a hidden tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator — a pan-dimensional surfboard — to escape the explosion. The Doctor notices that the name of the plant, Blaidd Drwg, is Welsh for "Bad Wolf", a phrase that he has observed before in his adventures with Rose. The Doctor tells Blaine he will take her back to her home planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius, but Blaine notes that the Slitheen family are convicted criminals there and she will be executed, which the Doctor insists is not his problem.

Jack recognises that the extrapolator can be used to halve the time to refuel the TARDIS, and stays there to install it. Rose and Mickey go out for a drink to discuss their relationship; Mickey admits to seeing someone else since Rose is not there for him, which angers Rose. At the request of Blaine, the Doctor joins her for one last meal at her favourite restaurant, equipped with bracelets that will electrocute Blaine if she gets more than ten feet away from the Doctor. Blaine attempts to kill the Doctor through various means, but the Doctor is able to casually block the attempts. Blaine then attempts to gain the Doctor's sympathy, explaining how she will be executed and if he could take her to a different planet instead. However, before the Doctor can agree, a large earthquake shakes the area.

The group reassembles in the TARDIS, where a bright column of light is shooting up overhead. Jack tells the Doctor that it is the power from the Rift, brought upon by the extrapolator. The Doctor realizes that this was Blaine's plan all along - the extrapolator would have been found by someone of advanced technology to recognize the Slitheen, and would have activated it, causing it to lock onto the nearest alien power source (the TARDIS in this case), as to tear open the Rift and eventually the Earth, while she would have still ridden the device to escape the destruction. Blaine takes Rose hostage, choking her, and demands the extrapolator, or Rose will die. She betrays them, continuing to choke Rose, but before she can use the extrapolator, the heart of the TARDIS opens and shines in her face; the light overtakes her, and shortly her skin suit falls empty to the console floor. The Doctor and Jack manage to close the TARDIS console and reseal the Rift once more. When they investigate the suit, they find a Slitheen egg; the Doctor surmises as the TARDIS is telepathic, it may have sensed that Blaine wanted a second chance and gave that to her. As the Doctor, Rose, and Jack prepare to travel to Raxacoricofallapatorius to deliver the egg, Rose realizes that Mickey has left; the Doctor offers to wait for him, but Rose lets him go, allowing him to also have a second chance.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Story notes

Ratings

  • 7.7 million viewers.

Myths

  • When the Doctor and his associates march into Cardiff City Hall to capture Margaret, the Doctor is the only one not wearing a scarf. This could be a subtle in-joke reference to the Fourth Doctor.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Continuity

  • "Tribophysics" was first mentioned offhandedly by Sarah Jane Smith in DW: Pyramids of Mars. What Sarah meant, or what she actually said, is a matter of minor debate in fandom (some have suggested "tribiophysics" or "tribal physics"). Tribophysics may or may not have anything to do with the real science of tribology (also sometimes known as tribophysics), which deals with friction.
  • During his dinner with Margaret Blaine, the Doctor eats steak — evidently, he has given up his vegetarianism, which the Sixth Doctor began to practice at the end of DW: The Two Doctors.
  • The temporal rift becomes a major plot and story focus for much of Torchwood.
  • It would later be established in TW: Fragments that Torchwood Three had been in existence since at least 1899 in Cardiff, with Jack involved in the organisation since 1899 and in charge from the end of 1999. This means that the Doctor's arrival near the rift, his party's reunion with Mickey, and the subsequent Slitheen adventure -- all involving Captain Jack -- takes place very close to the older Captain Jack and his Torchwood team. A possible reference to this occurs in Utopia when Jack mentions having to wait until a version of the Doctor that coincided with him arrived; encountering the Doctor and his younger self at this point would have been unacceptable. In addition, a third, older Jack, cryogenically frozen, is also nearby, unknown to both younger Jacks. (TW: Exit Wounds) The later episode Utopia would reveal that the Doctor somehow became aware of (or perhaps always knew) of Jack gaining immortality and this is why he left him behind following the defeat of the Daleks in The Parting of the Ways.
  • A newspaper clipping regarding Blaine's election was pinned up in the Torchwood Three "information office" entrance and was still there during the events of TW: Reset several years later.

Timeline

Home video releases

Series 1 Volume 4 DVD Cover

See also

to be added

External links

Template:Series 1

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