Warning: Contains Spoilers!

From the moment that Doctor Who was revived in 2005, Steven Moffat has been a part of that process. Ask anyone whose first experience of the series was Christopher Eccleston to relay their lasting memories of that series and they’ll almost certainly quote the gas-masked child plaintively asking, “Are you my mummy?” from Moffat’s The Empty Child. Later, in Blink, he introduced the world to The Weeping Angels, a creation that effortlessly swept aside the Slitheen and the Judoon to become the iconic ‘monster’ of the new series. It was inevitable that he would become showrunner after Russell T. Davies’ departure in 2010 and it was equally inevitable that Moffat would return to the fold when Russell T. Davies was brought back to rescue Doctor Who from oblivion on the occasion of its 60^th Anniversary.

By all accounts, Boom is a story that Moffat has had on the back burner since his time as the showrunner, but lacked the resources to produce on a BBC-only budget. Now, with Disney+ money coursing through its veins, Boom can finally come to fruition with the Fifteenth Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa and his companion Ruby played by Millie Gibson. Although, in fairness, it’s hard to see what was deemed too expensive to produce about this episode in Moffat’s run on the show. Sure, the alien planet is achieved with expensive LED Screen technology that didn’t exist at the time, but they could have just filmed it in a quarry and the army base could have been achieved with porta-cabins. As for the ambulance robots, that’s not something that was massively beyond the BBC budget either.

Still, never mind; Boom has been produced now and that’s the important thing. And it’s a good ‘un! If viewers of Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord thought that this didn’t feel like the Doctor Who that they had enjoyed since 2005, it slots straight back into its groove with Boom. This is a story that could have comfortably sat in any season of Doctor Who for the past 19 years and not looked out of place; an insular story certainly, but a one that plays to all of the series’ strengths, with strong characterisation, gripping tension and crackshot dialogue. It’s also VERY Moffat, containing all of his signature tropes: Religion-based soldiers – check! Companion returning from the dead – check! Quotable villain catchphrase – check! If Russell T. was plating to his strengths with the three 60^th Anniversary shows, Moffat is certainly doing the same with Boom.

Seemingly riffing on a beat from Genesis of the Daleks, in which the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker steps on a landmine in the war-torn trenches of Skaro, Boom starts with the Fifteenth Doctor stepping on a mine when he and Ruby arrive on a similarly ravaged world. But this is no ordinary technology; this is a smart-mine that will not only detonate if the Doctor shifts his weight, but also if it detects too much fear or aggression from him. So the Doctor is left there standing on one foot, desperately trying to keep calm while Ruby looks for help. The Doctor needs to adjust his weight, so she hands him a canister she finds – which turns out to be all that remains of a wounded soldier who has been compressed into basically a tube of meat. To make things worse, one of the late soldier’s colleagues Mundy Flynn (Verada Sethu) turns up and demands the return of the cylinder from the Doctor, which will cause the mine to detonate.

Now, strange thing here; Verada Sethu was announced as coming in as a new companion in Gatwa’s second season, but little is being revealed about her character. Is the new companion going to be Mundy Flynn returning to the show, or is this simply a Freema Agyeman scenario where an actress was ‘noticed’ in a guest role and given a completely separate companion role? I guess we’ll have to wait and see, because after an initial flurry of publicity, the production office seems to have become acutely aware that they’re filming so far ahead and revealing too much about season two when season one hasn’t even finished. And to that fans who bemoan Ruby’s possible departure in season two, please bear in mind that if she leaves after 3 episodes (as hinted), she’ll have done 12 episodes  and in the modern series, each episode is a complete story – which means she’ll have done more stories than (or equal to): Susan, Vicki, Steven, Sara Kingdom, Ben, Polly, Victoria, Zoe, Liz Shaw, Harry Sullivan, Romana 1, Romana 2, Adric, Turlough, Peri, Mel, Ace, Grace and Dan.

Anyway, back to the story. Turns out there are the medical ‘Ambulance Robots’ patrolling the battlefield (with the face of mysterious regular Susan Twist), who are only too happy to euthanize anyone that they deem to be unfit to fight and compress their tissue – hence the canister thing. A young girl turns up, who is looking for her wounded father and, you guessed it, he’s the meat sausage. But there’s no such thing as ‘dead’ in a Moffatt story, so he’s able to appear to her as an AI hologram. In an attempt to distract the Ambulance Robot away from the Doctor, Ruby is accidentally shot and runs the risk of being cannisterized too… look, it all gets very tense and it’s quite a dark story, but there is a satisfyingly upbeat ending.

I don’t want to come over as one of those people who criticises the style of the first two episodes, but I’d have to say that I really preferred this. The more serious approach allows Ncuti Gatwa to really shine, demonstrating that he’s so strong as a serious actor; it almost feels like a waste when he’s mugging and being silly. Millie Gibson is also given a lot more to get her teeth into and really rises to the occasion, a trend which will only increase in the next episode (watch this space).  Verada Sethus shows great promise for the coming season… whoever she’s playing and young Caoilin Springall is a cut above most child actors. I used to sometimes criticise the small casts during the Jodie Whittaker era, but this is a story that really works with its minimal cast and gives them all a chance to shine.

But this is also a story with depths. Some of the usual suspects have criticised Moffatt’s return to the concept of an ‘Anglican’ army, thinking that he’s directly mocking the Church of England, but I’ve always seen this as allegorical and they really represent the combined forces of any militant religion, including some that may or may not be engaging in combat at this very moment. I’m guessing he only uses ‘Anglican’ because, as a religion, they’re more moderate and less likely to issue a death warrant if they take offense. He’s less restrained about giving the weapons manufacturing industry a well-deserved kicking. It’s completely true – and has been throughout history – that those who supply and manufacture weapons are wont to provoke and prolong wars in order to keep the money rolling in. Boom delivers the message with, I’d say, medium subtlety – it’s hardly sub-textual, but it’s not rammed in your face either.

Boom is an excellent addition to ‘Series 1’, demonstrating that, when it comes to Doctor Who, Steven Moffatt hasn’t lost any of his old mojo. I don’t think there’s much chance of him taking a second crack of the whip as showrunner the way that RTD has, but I sincerely hope that he returns to write more standalone episodes. Doctor Who in the 21^st century has always been at its best when it demonstrates variety and bringing in strong writers who know the series has always been the best way to insure that it never gets stale. This episode also introduces a much-needed sense of uncertainty for any viewers tuning into Doctor Who for the first time ever on Disney+… “We thought the Doctor and Ruby were all ‘let’s have fun’, but now… we’re not so sure.”

‘Doctor Who – Boom’ is available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ in the USA and other territories.