This is part 1 of 2 - the story is concluded and resolved in World War Three.

It's not a bad ep, not a great ep. Just good, with an awful lot done to appeal to kids. Haven't heard this much farting in an episode since Farscape. I liked the special effects - smashing a spaceship through Big Ben was a masterstroke. And the pig alien was well done. The Slitheen design is interesting, in that such a monster has big, beautiful eyes.

Storywise, I liked the concept of going back and revisiting the family, and exploring the basic question, what if a companion was away for a long time - would anyone notice? Maybe an important point in this age of paranoia. Also novel was the Doctor as a outsider, just watching, though this was foreshadowed a little in Rose with the pictures. Having him watch TV was a nice quick device to crank the story forward to the action, instead of tedious character-led exposition. Harriet Jones was well done as the eager backbencher. Interesting parallels there - the outsiders who are thrust into action to save the day.

Like a lot of Russell T. Davies' scripts, there are some good ideas in here, but the whole isn't the sum of the parts.

What I liked was the consequences of Rose travelling in time and how that affected Jackie and Mickey, seeing the ship crash into Big Ben and the first cliffhanger of the series. But I found the overall pacing off...and I've noticed this happens with all the stories that were directed by Keith Boak. It's not one specific thing, but his stories lack a flow to them....he seems to make some rather poor choices in terms of direction, editing and the overall flow to the story.

This episode features the line that was mentioned in the Quotes Thread.

Jackie: What, did you go online and pretend you were a doctor?
Doctor: I am a doctor.
Jackie: Prove it. Stitch this mate. (and slaps the hell out of him).

After 'End of the World' and 'Unquiet Dead', I was a little disappointed in this arc. After the two time travel episodes, I was not thrilled at returning to modern-day Earth, even for an alien invasion.

Plus, (general S1 spoiler):I hadn't realized that Rose's mother and Mickey would be recurring characters, and while Mum is cool, I never did grow to like Mickey much. And seeing them again so soon diminished the 'adventures in exotic times and locales' aspect I'd been enjoying after the previous two episodes.

I guess I'm also picky about my aliens, when it comes to that.

I liked the family theme, and the character work on Rose, Jackie, and Mickey. But the main plot of aliens invading the earth felt too cheesy. And don't get me started on the farting

Yes, the flatulent aliens did seem to annoy a lot of the fandom.

I suspect that some kids liked them though.

Yeah, I would've removed a fart or two. Its my expert opinion as fartologist.

I like the episode but the second part leaves me cold. Also, I think its a bad idea to have the monsters that arent that "credible" in broad daylight.

Farting did get a bit...dare I say, on the nose.
I loved how they got all the alien experts together in the one room before executing their plan.
I didn't mind at this stage that they returned to modern day earth but by end of season I was getting tired of it too.
Revisiting family was awesome idea. Ok yes Mickey not my favourite person but I don't expect he was meant to be - or why would Rose leave him so easily?
I liked non-credible aliens. That's Doctor Who for you.

Well, the alien flatulance was amusing the first time..but by the time we got to the 17th refernece of it, the joke had worn a bit thin.

Of course, I could say the same thing about Mickey--he was OK the first time we saw but by the 17th time he crops up, the character is wearing thing.

I can't believe..he's going to be a companion in the next series.

I wonder if it would have been better if they belched.

Varying their gaseous emissions would've been good, yes.

Ugh, farting aliens? *sigh* Call me a snob, if you must, but I cannot stand that kind of humor. It's so lame and childish.



[Kyle's Mother] What what WHAT?!? [/Kyle's Mother] Please tell me this hasn't been confirmed. I hate him.

Well, I'm off to the spoiler thread.

This one is among my least favourite of the series. While Doctor Who does do the silly very well sometimes, this just felt like trying way, way too hard.

But there are still elements of it that I love - Harriet Jones, Doctor trying to watch TV with Rose's family, Rose seeing the consequences of going with the Doctor, Jackie's slap, the Doctor's little wave outside of 10 Downing Street and UNIT showing up. Yay for classic Who references.

They just come wrapped in things I fast forward when I watch nowadays.

There's a few things wrong with this script, a lot due to the direction as much as the writing I feel (several of the Downing Street scenes, nothing to do with the farting, just felt 'CBBC' to me in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on -- something about the way they spoke and moved.)

But I think it has the best teaser scene in the series, maybe in any series. Actually, this season has some gangbuster teasers, but this one still stands out to me. It's funny, it's surprising, it's heartbreaking, and it feels real.

The Slitheen's necks aren't very articulate. In many scenes when they move, the heads seem to bounce a little, and they don't turn left or right very much. Overall they look good, but there are little places where one can see the cheats. I guess it was a matter of diminishing returns - how much should one invest in a minor alien species?

On a smaller note, did the Alien Emergency hotline number work?

Keith Boak's direction took out a lot of the "oomph" the episode could've had for me.
The bit where the alien ship crashlands is sooooooo slow.
The Cliffhanger suffers enormously too, even though I fault the writing a bit, you have three separate scenes where the same thing happens, but its very drawn out. Annette Bandland--and the very little we see of the Slitheen outfit we see in "Boomtown" is so much better than in this two-parter that I put a lot of the blame on the direction.

Man after reading your comments, I can see why my friend's refer to this episode as the "farting episode". I've been to known to enjoy some fart humor, so maybe I'll get it out of it watching scifi this week.

I enjoyed the two-parter, even with all the farting. I just hope the idea of it doesn't put people off watching. It's a shame when I've seen on some forums that people have posted that viewers should give the next couple of episodes a miss. There's so many good things in it.

And at least there's a technical reason for the farting.

well i'd like to think that watching the episodes on scifi might help there chances of putting more new episodes on.

If nothing else, there's the Doctor threatening to kill everyone with sherry!

But, yeah, I've watched Farscape for so long, the farting doesn't even register anymore.

To be honest, I'm just not that impressed with Russell T Davies' writing on this show, and an episode like this one and its second part are perfect examples. I actually enjoyed all the episodes written by someone else, but with Davies it just gets too cutesy and "look how briliant I am" for me. I understand he is supposed to be highly regarded for his other shows in Britain and I respect the work he's done to bring the show back.

I guess it's just a matter of my own personal preferences, but I prefer my Doctor Who to be as true to real life as possible when a story is set in the present. In other words, Big Ben being destroyed by a flying saucer when we know it doesn't happen in the "real world" is just too much for me. Its nitpicking and fan wank, but I prefer the old UNIT routine of blaming everything on terrorists and accidents,etc. as cover stories.

Although, it was transmitted on April 16th 2005 and set on March 7th 2006 so I'd say that's what gave them the feeling of freedom to do stuff that 'hasn't really happened'.

Farting aliens aside, I loved this ep. I really, really could have done without the farting, though.

I like how the mood can change in this show so quickly, and yet not seem like the change is forced or weird. I went from laughing when Jackie slapped the Doctor (his reaction was great!) to feeling really bad for Jackie just seconds later when Rose was crying and still couldn't tell Jackie where she's been.

When the space ship showed up just as Rose was saying she was the only person on planet Earth who knows aliens exist, I was relieved. I'm really glad the Ironic Segue Fairy is still alive and well and getting lots of work.

Harriet Jones is so very Shaun's Mum early in this ep. She's great.

I was really touched by the doctor's kindness toward and outrage on behalf of the pig. So often, people are all "Oh, it's just an animal." But the Doctor profoundly respects all life, and I truly love that about him.

I also love the Doctor's bitchiness toward Mickey. He has no patience for Mickey's uselessness (and I'm with him on that score). I think it's also because he's jealous of Mickey's relationship with Rose, which gives me a bit of shipper glee.

I agree with whoever said last week that the dialogue between the Doctor and Rose seems so natural that it feels almost ad libbed. Their chemistry is fantastic.


Okay, which awesome character moment was cut this week in order to to subject us to more commercials?

I dunno, I liked it, even with all the farting aliens. My first reaction to that scene with the three aliens in the cabinet room was, "So, we're being taken over by fat aliens?" But I liked how the Doctor managed to take control of situations. And that pig was both odd and well done.

Holy cow, now that is how you do a cliffhanger. Great to see one after three self-contained episodes in a row.

The destruction of Big Ben had a real 9/11 feel, though I doubt it played quite as strongly in Britain. Any Brits want to weigh in on this?

Tonight's deleted bit lasts about 30 seconds.

Originally, after the ship crashes into the Thames, we go back to the Doctor and Rose on the roof. Rose says, "oh, that's just not fair," and then the Doctor laughs and takes her hand and they run off. We then cut to street level and for about 15-20 seconds we see people stuck in the traffic jam and some soldiers blocking off the road. The Doctor and Rose then arrive in the middle of it, and the scene goes on from there untouched.

Next week they shouldn't have to delete anything as that episode runs under the length that SciFi seems to like.

Only bit I noticed was between the alien crash landing and the Doctor and Rose on the street.

In the original broadcast, after the ship crashes in the Thames, Rose and the Doctor get up off the floor of the roof. You can see the smoldering remains of Big Ben in the skyline.

Rose says: That's just not fair. (joke follow up to the ironic seque)

The Doctor bursts into laughter, grabs her hand and off they go to chase the new adventure.

I thought this episode really sucked to be quite honest.

The farting annoyed me to no end, I was a Farscape fan but I can't seem to recall them ever doing something this stupid.

The Cliffhanger was structured horribly and very abrupt. It almost seemed like an afterthought. That may have more to do with American vs British styles of making TV but it bugged me.

The aliens themselves were cool, hated the pig but I think that was the point. The Aliens looked quite badass though with big creepy eyes that looked almost sad.

I liked the opening and the concept behind the takeover was kinda cool in that it makes sense. Diversion, get all people able to foil the plan together and eliminate them. Though it did have kind of a Mars Attacks! quality to it. I loved that movie so I don't mind that so much. I also liked the character moments to start even if it did seem too soon. I did find it hard to be sympathetic to Mom and Mickey considering for us as with Rose its only been a few days. That is whats wrong with coming back here too soon IMO. I also loved the Doctor's reaction with the pig. Even when this show panders to the lowest common denominator (ie farting) they still managed to inject some good commentary on the reaction nature of humanity. Do you have any doubt that its likely something like that would happen if a similar situation happened in reality? I sadly don't.

I really wish they had stayed away from Earth for awhile, I wanna see new planets/locales etc. Particularly in such a wild show as this. I think if End of the World was indicative of just how cool this show could be, this episode was indicative of the weakest parts of the show. I expect the next episode will be better (with the aliens unmasked, hopefully no stupid farting).

I think the Big Ben distruction hits harder post 911. I don't think I would have felt it as much if that hadn't happened.

I hated the farting aliens but I found I didn't hate them as much as I thought I was going to. I'm guessing they didn't take over the Prime Minister because he was relatively thin and they couldn't fit inside but I kind of didn't appreciate the association of fat people/evil/pigs/and farting, if you know what I mean. I thought it was a bit of a slam on fat people.

What did the alien who switched into the military guy's body say about missing his (assumed in the guize of the guy he HAD been in) wife, mistress and WHAT???

I will have to will myself to accept whatever they come up with for next week to save the Dr, the other experts and especially Rose's mum. This cliffhanger reminded me of those old serials where if they stayed true to the way they left off there was NO chance in HELL they hero would survive. They invariably changed the cliffhanger a little to allow for a daring escape. Realistically MAYBE the Doctor would have something up his sleeve that could immobilize the aliens allowing that group to escape but for the love of God how could a soft, British mum, without Krazy ninja skills survive and attack from that thing?

I guess the aliens belong to the Evil Villain Union that insists its members show thier true colors (in this case thier true forms) and then gloat before attempting to kill thier prey. They should have read the If I was an Evil Overlord list, stayed in disguise, and shot everybody before saying a word. Would have worked like a charm.


Really liked the bipedal pig. I'd so buy one and dress it in a little suit if it could be housebroken. Of course if I could teach it to play the fiddle it would be icing on the cake.

ETA I also liked Harriet Jones...I'm a sucker for the nice, ernest, person trying to help people and finance hospitals without being stuck up about being in politics. I have this wierd feeling they'll make her rescue kittens to show she's REALLY nice but I can't help liking her. What is the corresponding job in US politics to MP of whatever the heck she's MP of?

A farmer. As he said, he had been busy! :D

So are we to assume he had sex with the wife the mistress and the farmer or that he killed them?

Basically a British MP (Member of Parliament) is the equivalent to a member of the US Congress. She's MP for Flydale North (the equivalent to a Congressional district, although it's a fictional contituency)



The former is heavily implied...

I think thats probably true and I think it would have had more impact for me had I not just watched V for Vendetta about an hour prior. Bad timing I guess but after the disturbing/exhilirating (don't ask me to explain the duality of that feeling because I can't) destruction of Parliment in V (I hope that isn't a spoiler, but I wouldn't think so considering every single commercial for the film shows it). I wasn't able to work up much of a reaction. Though naturally I am sure that holds much more importance on an emotional level for you all across the pond than it does for us Americans.

DW does silly best when silly is balanced with the sinister. That necessary balance was off for much of this episode, until the final scenes, when the aliens began unzipping their foreheads. That was fun.

Young Farmer. Brits can correct me on this, but I believe the Young Farmers is some sort of young professionals organization, mostly men though some women. So it is a sort of bisexual in-joke. At least that was the consensus on OG last year.



MP is Member of Parlaiment. The corresponding US job is Representative... aka Member of Congress/Congressman. She's a junior politician though, hence her "faithful backbencher" explanation. Sits in the back at Parlaiment, is not a senior position on any committees, just an eager young politician from a tiny constituency: Flydale North.

And no Flydale North does not exist in reality.

IIRC, most of the old DW episodes ended with this type of cliffhanger. I was surprised when I realized that this season the episodes would be mostly self-contained.

I’ve got to hope that this one is the low point of the season – I didn’t care for it. I’ll usually go along with the silly. I like the silly but from the poignant and well done teaser we go to gas-passing bits. I think much of my disappointment came from the fact that I liked the teaser. I could see where it was going the minute the Doctor told Rose how long she’d been gone (this is two out of three time jumps that missed the mark by a mile – she’d lucky he didn’t set her down in 2014) but I would have loved to see that idea explored some more. Do they try to go back in time and fix this? What responsibility do you have to the people you love and leave behind? And there was some good stuff there. Could have been great stuff, though. Instead, well – you know –farting aliens.

This week,along with part 2,are the low point of the season... Fromepi 6 and on,DW goes straight to to the top...The rest of the season is very good... I was almost embarassed for these to epi's to air..They are the bottom of the barrel

I was actually all right with the farting aliens bit, except for the utter grossitude of the "reveal" in the Cabinet room when Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North!) watched from the closet.

As it happens, I just saw most of "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" and the Cabinet scene suffered by comparison with the "Battleshit" scene in that movie.

Everything else, I loved. UNIT! Where the hell is Brigadier-General Lethbridge-Stewart?!? He must be pushing up the daisies by now.

I like Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North), she's plucky and a very likeable character. Which probably means she's doomed, right? No, I don't want to know.

This one started out so promisingly. Lots of great chemistry between Rose & the Doctor, the both of them dealing with the harsh consequences of Rose just gallivanting off with him for a year and/or a day, the way cool shot of the spaceship crashing into Big Ben (as well as the clock tower that surrounds it), the irony of the Doctor reduced to watching one of the most momentous moments in human history on the Telly with the rest of us overdeveloped chimps, the fish-out-of-water vibe of the Doctor watching it in a domestic setting with all of Jackie's friends & family (I guess) hanging around (does she have the only TV in the projects / estate / whatever?). This was really shaping up to be fun episode.

Then, the chunky guy at 10 Downing street farted. Oh, so this is *that* one. I'd seen numerous passing references in the recaps & previous episode threads to the notorious "farting aliens', and they did not sound like particularly fond recollections. Well, now I can see why. I'm sorry, but everything about the whole main "farting aliens" part of this episode, even in those rare moments when the aliens weren't actually farting, was just a steaming pile of crap. Thank God there was plenty more stuff between Rose & the Doctor, because that's about the only thing that made this episode bearable. Even the Doctor, when he was on his own, seemed kinda off; his normally contagious enthusiasm was amped up *way* too high, so that he at times seemed positively manic or even borderline psychotic.

And the (a-hem) long awaited return of Mickey certainly didn't help matters. From what I understand it appears that we have little choice but to learn to like him, but for this episode whenever he was on the screen I found myself hoping that Rose would take him aside and have a real heart-to-heart with him, get to really know & understand him, and maybe even learn a little something about his hopes & dreams, so that I could rest easy knowing that he'd be dead before the hour was up.

But no, the show just got worse as it went along. Topped off at the end when the aliens all simultaneously revealed their true forms, starting with special I.Q. draining blue rays shooting out of their foreheads so that everyone, Doctor included, just stands there transfixed for about five minutes while they slooooooooowly wiggle their way out of their flesh unitards. I'd think that Jackie, if no one else, would have taken this opportunity to grab a baseball bat and do an Al Capone* on their crappy CGI asses.

And oh, look, it's a two parter! What an excellent choice of story to keep us coming back for more! You know, judging by the fact that no one in the last two pages from across the pond said anything to suggest that this story gets much better next week, I suspect I'm most likely going to end up giving next week a pass.

other random thoughts:

-So, what's the deal with British TV reporters standing ridiculously close to the camera during their remote pieces so that their pasty white slightly-out-of-focus heads fill the whole screen? Is that the way they really do it over there, or was that just another unique stylistic choice for this ep?

-One of the farting aliens impersonating a Cabinet Minister (or whatever) looked vaguely like Dame Judi Dench, so I decided that in this show's Universe, James Bond's M had been taken over by aliens. it helped to make the non-Doctor, farting alien parts of the episode a bit more interesting.

Well..., tolerable.

Well..., not really, I guess. But I had to try something. I guess it might at least make the next James Bond movie seem more interesting.

-So last week, the Doctor set the TARDIS for Naples, 1860 & got Cardiff, 1869. This week, he sets it for "12 hours later" and gets "one year later". From various mentions I've come across in this forum, I get the impression that this sort of thing was not uncommon in the old shows as well. I don't want upset any longtime Who fans, but it's starting to look like the TARDIS is actually a pretty crappy time machine. It wasn't by any chance made by Chrysler in the 1970's, was it? Because it's reliability issues sort of remind me of the 15 year old clunker of a car I had in college.

-OTOH, He sets the controls for Naples, 1860 & it plunks him down in Cardiff, 1869, where he *just happens* to stumble right into a body snatching zombie alien ring *just in time* to prevent them from taking over the world (...or, actually, help them to do it). Then, he sets the controls for 12 hours later & the TARDIS plucks him down one year later, where he *just happens* to stumble onto another alien plot at the moment it springs into action to take over the world. Was this also a common pattern on the old shows? If so, and I don't want to get all Quantum Leap here, but has there been any speculation that perhaps there are "other forces" at work? Like perhaps maybe it's the TARDIS itself that decides to take the Doctor not precisely where he tells it to go, but rather somewhere else in the general vicinity where he's most needed?

*Al Capone - As in, the infamous scene in Brian DePalma's Untouchables movie where he gives his little pep talk about teamwork. Yeah, I know, the reference is older than my college car, but I'm just real tired of saying "go medieval on his ass" (which really isn't a whole lot fresher anyway) and it's all I could come up with.

ETA a quick aside to smugly show that I'm hip to the fact that Big Ben is *not* the clock tower but the bell

ETA II: Is there any way we could get TWoP to recap that upcoming uber-cheesy SciFi Channel "SS DoomTrooper" movie? The title alone has got to be the all time Second Greatest TV Movie title ever (the champion is and will always be "Mother May I Sleep With Danger?") I'd suggest that Jacob be forced to do it as penance for failing to appreciate the great Douglas Adams, but I suppose having to recap this episode is punishment enough)

I think you're right about that. I'm not sure it's ever explicitly stated, but I thought that's the idea, not that the TARDIS is old & junky! Although it certainly has its quirks.

Yeah, I'll watch my tape of this (from last year) once more, because it's Doctor Who, and there's a little character development. But I'll mostly be watching it to tide me over as I wait eagerly for episode #6.

Aw, the TARDIS is 700 years old! Give the ol' girl a break! She's still far more reliable than my Jeep Wagoneer. That damn thing was a mere 20, and parts fell off of it or shook loose every time I started it up. I swear, if I had gone on a cross country trip, I'd have had nothing left but the steering wheel and an axel by the time I arrived. Thank goodness I now have a Subaru....

But getting back on topic: I too have wondered if the TARDIS doesn't play a part in getting the Doctor into all of those wild adventures. I think that would be an interesting angle to explore....

Well, I personally think that WW3 is better than AoL. Lots more tension, a load of funny lines, and a heck of a lot less flatulence.

But then, both of these episodes pale in comparison to Episode 6 and most of what comes after it...

In the old series, the TARIS was commonly referred to as a broken down old type 40 and it was 'stuck' in the shape of a police box, whereas a shiny new TARDIS would take you where you wanted to go and materialize as something that would actually camouflage it. So yes, it was a pretty crappy time machine.

In fact, I was kind of expecting that when the Doctor took off in the middle of this episode he wouldn’t be able to make it back for Rose even though he intended to.

I guess the unreliability of the TARDIS helps eliminate the question of “why doesn’t he just go back a year and fix the problem before it starts?”

I took it to be an adhoc welcome home party for the 19 year old girl (I guess she would now be considered 20 by her family and birthcertificate) who had a Missing Person's Poster plastered all over the estate for a year. I REALLY loved that touch. I mean if YOU were a missing girl and showed up when everybody thought you were in several trash bags along the highway wouldn't people flock to see YOU?

Anybody clear on the line of succesion as far as why would the MP that takes care of sugar refinery or whatever goes about the MP of Nowhere's Ville? Is it because she's a lesbian? (Law and Order joke nothing to do with the actual character)

ETA Am I correct in thinking that previously there has never been a spare key to the Tardis? None of the companions I have ever seen got one.

I agree with those above who said the season gets much, much better after this point. I didn't like this one or the next very much, but I kept watching and things improve exponentially from episode 6 onward.

According to information I found on another board, Tegan may have had a spare TARDIS key. And there was a spare key hidden on the outside of the box in the TV movie...

There was another, tiny cut just before that - at the end of the scene where Jackie is tearfully asking Rose why she won't tell her where she's been, there's a few more seconds of Rose looking into Jackie's eyes, crying but unable/unwilling to answer.

Most of the cuts, I don't notice. But the cut you mention is the first one that's *really* bugged me, because I thought it was such a beautiful little character moment. It's such an unexpected thing for her to say, it's perfectly in character while also being very funny, her delivery is fantastic, and then the Doctor grins and she does too and they run off looking incredibly enthused and excited and full of life... it's my favorite scene in the episode, along with "What did you do that for? It was SCARED!" (Which, to go off on a tangent for a moment, was apparently the very first scene Christopher Eccleston filmed... episodes 1, 4 and 5 were all part of the same production block and were filmed all jumbled together.)

30 seconds of the Doctor hitting the TARDIS console with a hammer, they keep. The entire overlong, drawn-out triple-cliffhanger survives unscathed. But 10 lovely character seconds, cut. Sci-Fi's editors suck.

Yeah, darkguardian, I'd agree. I got tired of this one. Rose being utterly gorgeous and stunning can only sustain me for so long; after a while, I really want them to get on with it.

I will always treasure the TARDIS being beaten on by a rubber mallet, but it doesn't make up for plot or character.

I loved it, but I'm starting to think I'm an easy date.

The shot of the alien spacecraft crashing into Big Ben? Awesome.

The Doctor getting slapped, hard? Hee.

Dead NotTonyBlair in the closet? OMG, they killed Tony Blair, you bastards!

I even liked the alien reveal at the end...

Yeah, I'm easy to please I guess.

I also loved how the Doctor, who's so absofrickin'lutely brilliant, figured out it was a trap too late. Not because he couldn't figure it out before then, but because he's so ADD that he hadn't bothered to complete the trail of logic before that moment.

Unrelated to the epi, but relevant to Doctor Who: I found out today that one of my brother's girlfriends broke up with him over Doctor Who. She always wanted to go out on Saturday nights and my brother insisted on staying home to watch the Doctor on PBS.