Boom Town (TV story)

Boom Town
Doctor:	[[doctor::Ninth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Rose Tyler Jack Harkness
Main enemy:	Margaret Blaine
Main setting:	Cardiff, September 2006
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T. Davies
Director:	Joe Ahearne
Producer:	Phil Collinson
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	4th June 2005
Format:	1 45-minute episode
Production code:	170

The Ninth 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.

Cast & Characters

Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston

Rose Tyler - Billie Piper

Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman

Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke

Mr Cleaver - William Thomas

Margaret Blaine - Annette Badland

Cathy - Mali Harries

Idris Hopper - Aled Pedrick

Slitheen - Alan Ruscoe

Continuity

• This story is set six months after the events of "Aliens of London" and "World War Three."

• The temporal rift first appeared in "The Unquiet Dead," a brief synopsis of which is related by Rose to Mickey.

• When explaining the TARDIS's police box shape and the chameleon circuit to Mickey, Rose uses the term "cloaking device," a Star Trek reference also used by the Eighth Doctor when explaining this same phenomenon to Grace in the 1996 television movie.

• This is the first indication we have that Rose and the Doctor have noticed the "Bad Wolf" references which have been appearing on their travels. Margaret's admission that the power station's name, Blaidd Dwrg, Welsh for "Bad Wolf," "just came to her" is also a hint that someone has been manipulating events in these travels.

• 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, who is considered the definitive Doctor by many fans.

• "Tribophysics" was first mentioned off-handedly by Sarah Jane Smith in "Pyramids of Mars" to describe Osirian technology. 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 "The Two Doctors."

• This is not the first time a story is resolved by de-aging the Doctor's antagonist, as happens to Margaret Blaine when the TARDIS regresses her back into an egg. A similar occurence happens to Pangol of the Argolin in "The Leisure Hive" when the Fourth Doctor sabotages the Tachyon Recreation Generator.

Influences

• The scene in which the Doctor and his companions march into Cardiff Town Hall to capture Margaret has been likened to similar scenes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Russell T. Davies has acknowledged Buffy as a major influence on his vision of the current series.

• The means by which Margaret plans to use the tribophysical waveform macrokinetic extrapolator as a pan-dimensional surfboard to escape Earth is highly reminiscent of the board used by the Silver Surfer, a character appearing in publications by Marvel Comics, whose UK division publishes Doctor Who Monthly.

Story Arcs

• Bad Wolf

More Info

• Story Synopsis

• Story Transcript

• Story Novelization

• DVD Release

• Video Release

External Links

Television

Previous story: The Doctor Dances

Next story: Bad Wolf