Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 4 - Aliens of London
Following
a quick recap on what happened in the opening episode, the Tardis appears on
Rose's council estate, 12 hours after she originally left. She goes home to say
hi to her Mum, and is a little shocked to learn that The Doctor got the date
wrong again, and really it's been 12 months. I hope he's going to pay for Jackie's
broken mug, as she drops it in shock when Rose appears, too late for The Doctor
to warn her.
After the credits, Jackie rants at Rose and slaps The Doctor, while a policeman sits quietly to one side wishing he was back at the station. Calming down a little, Jackie questions Rose again for answers as to where she's been, but Rose only tells her 'travelling'. Well, she isn't lying.
Later, on the roof of their block of flats, Rose and The Doctor laugh about him getting slapped and how Jackie is never going to come travelling with them, and he confesses that he is 900 years old. Rose laments being unable to tell anyone about aliens as no-one else knows they exist, when an alien spacecraft flies overhead, crashing into Big Ben and then The Thames. You were saying, Rose? Naturally, then run off to investigate, and The Doctor is very excited to see humanity's first contact with aliens, telling Rose that this is the reason he travels through time, to see history. Also, the army are there within about 15 seconds, so if we ever have a real alien invasion I'm afraid my expectations have been raised.
Returning to the flat to watch it all on TV, despite Jackie and friends talking over it all, they learn that an alien body has been found. We follow a General into the hospital where it has been taken, and Tosh from Torchwood is the pathologist, covering for Owen who has a hangover (so we later learn in an episode of Torchwood). The General tells her experts are being flown in, and to hide the body for now. She questions whether it's true about what everyone is saying about the Prime Minister, which a news report in the next scene suggests is that he is missing. At No.10, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North is hanging around (something she will do far more of in the near future) waiting for a meeting, but is rebuffed as Joseph Green MP is declared Acting Prime Minister, who likes to fart in public. Green is met by Magaret Blaine of Mi5 and Oliver Charles, Transport Liaison, where Blaine reports she personally escorted the Prime Minister to his car, which appears to have vanished. The three of them retreat to the Prime Minsiter's cabinet room, to fart some more and look over the emergency protocols in place for an alien invasion. They also like to laugh evilly along with farting, which can mean only one thing - they think farting is funny! And also, they're aliens.
Back at the flat, Rose questions The Doctor when he goes for a wander. He gets excited again thinking about first contact, but she makes him promise he won't disappear before he goes. Unknown to The Doctor however, Mickey has spotted him but arrives too late to stop the Tardis leaving, crashing head first into a wall in spectacular fashion. There's a bit more of The Doctor's patented 'smack-the-Tardis-until-it-works-properly' technique, and then we're back with Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North trying to charm Kurt from Teachers into letting her see Green, but when she tries a direct approach he tells her to stop being hysterical and to bugger off. She doesn't bugger off however, and heads into the cabinet room, where she discovers the emergency protocols. There's clearly something strange about them however, as the music darkens and she looks shocked.
Tosh hears a lot of banging down in the morgue, and The Doctor manages to materialise next to a room full of soldiers, who take him captive. When Tosh screams however, he uses his magic powers of shouting at them to get them to abandon the plan to hold him captive and instead obey his every mood, running to find her. After he sends them to search the rest of the hospital for the alien, it turns out that it never actually left the room they are in, but unfortunately one guard panics at the sight of a small pig on two legs running at it grunting and shoots it dead (God knows what he'd have done with Animal Farm). The Doctor berates him, pointing out that the alien was just scared, and shooting a scared person might have been a little bit over the top.
Back in the cabinet room, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North hides as Green and the General argue. Green, Blaine and Charles tire of the conversation, farting in his general (hi-oh!) direction, revealing themselves to be aliens by unzipping their foreheads and stepping out of the human skin they've been wearing. The General screams as Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North looks on, so presumably they've eaten him.
As The Doctor and Tosh look over the body, he explains that it isn't an alien at all, but a regular pig which has been modified and placed in an alien ship. Tosh babbles on a little bit, not noticing that The Doctor has left to save the planet.
Back at the flat, Mickey arrives to see Rose, and we learn he was taken in for questioning five times, suffering a lot of accusations and abuse from the locals. On the cusp of telling Jackie the truth, Rose flees when she learns The Doctor has disappeared, but just as they argue about whether he is Rose's boyfriend, the Tardis re-appears. Looks like Jackie will be finding out after all. Mickey gets all up in The Doctor's face as Jackie does the usual fleeing job, ringing an alien helpline to report that she has seen an alien. This flags up a warning, which Kurt from Teachers notices. Back in the Tardis, The Doctor does some maintenance, as Rose tries to make up with Mickey. He forgives her when she chews on her lip, and then The Doctor discovers that the ship came from Earth in the first place.
Back in the cabinet, Charles wears the General's skin instead of his previous disguise, although they keep farting just as much. Kurt from Teachers rushes to tell them that The Doctor has been found, and that he is the ultimate expert who needs locating. In the Tardis, The Doctor spots UNIT on the a TV report. Mickey says that he's been researching The Doctor over the last year, and has found loads of dirt on him, but none of this matters when the army grab them all outside the Tardis. Mickey somehow escapes behind some bins, despite running away in full view of an entire army squadron, but as it turns out they were just being escorted to Downing Street, he probably chose the wrong option. The Doctor reminisces about the old days and drinking Lloyd George under the table, and Jackie talks to a rather farty policeman. Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North mingles at the politicians meeting which The Doctor is cleared to attend, but as Rose isn't and Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North wants information, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North decides to stay outside with her.
The Doctor tells everyone that the ship was a diversion to stop a crash in the North Sea from being investigated too carefully. The Prime Minister then falls out of a cupboard in front of Rose, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North and Kurt from Teachers, and he looks a bit dead. The Doctor declares that the crash is a trap, designed to get the senior members of cabinet together. Blaine confronts Rose, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North and Kurt from Teachers, and the policeman goes all unzippy on Jackie. Green reveals himself as an alien to the room by farting (always a dead giveaway). as the General unzips to reveal the alien underneath. Blaine does the same, and everyone all looks a bit shocked to meet The Slitheen. The whole of the cabinet room are immobilised by an alien device, kind of like an alien taser, and we leave the episode on a cliffhanger as the aliens laugh manically.
Luckily for the room, the farting should stop now though.
I can remember thinking at the time, and I'm feeling it again, that this was when I really started to like Doctor Who. It's got an alien crash landing, aliens posing as humans, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, and a terrific cliffhanger. If there's one thing you'll hear Doctor Who fans say about Russell T Davies, it's that he knows how to write a brilliant cliffhanger. Not always satisfactorally resolve them, but he sure as hell can do the build up.
One of the great things about the show is the amount of classic British television actors that you recognise, and they're in abundance here, from David Verrey as MP Green, to Navin Chowdhry as Indra Ganesh (Kurt from Teachers) - no, I couldn't tell you every show they've been in, but they're familiar faces and it's great to have so many on board.
The
acting is top notch again - the Slitheen in human form are all deliciously
evil, and there's some top acting between Billie Piper, Camille Coduri and Noel
Clarke as Rose, Jackie and Mickey come to terms with her returning after a
year. There's more fine acting from Eccleston too, when he berates the guard
for shooting dead the pig - even the simple words 'it was scared!' are laced
with sadness, anger, confusion, particularly when we learn soon after that it
was just an ordinary pig. Maybe I'm hyper-emotional at the moment - I've been
reading Emma Donaghue's Room, which you'll understand why if you've
read it - but this almost had me sobbing at the thought of what that pig would
have gone through.
There's
more classic Mickey, with the following exchange:
Rose:
So...twelve months... have you been seeing anyone else?
Mickey:
No.
Rose:
(Smiling) Ok...
Mickey:
Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you.
Rose:
Right...
It's
delivered so wonderfully deadpan by Noel Clarke, and although the development
of Rose and The Doctor's relationship was better for being just the two of them
in the first few episodes, it's great to now how Mickey and Jackie taking a
more active role. The bickering betwen The Doctor, Rose, Mickey and Jackie, no
matter which combination, was always something I enjoyed first time round, and
I'm loving it again. In many ways, I think this is one of the reasons why I
find Rose to be my favourite companion - the relationships she had with others
was such a strong point of the show, and maybe this is why Martha never gets as
high accolades - although we see the rest of Martha's family, they aren't
memorable like Jackie and Mickey, and the writer's seem to rectify this with
Donna and Wilf, and Donna's mum to a lesser extent.
My
only real gripe is that, although I like the odd fart joke, it still makes it
seem a bit too childish, particularly Eccleston's 'Do you mind not farting?'
line, which doesn't work for me at all. Yes, again I accept it's a children's
show, particularly so in Series 1, but that doesn't make me like it any more.
How
It Fits Into The Show As A Whole
Certainly
by the Christmas episode of Series 2, aliens will definitely have become known
to Earth, but as of this episode it's unclear as to whether or not the pig
crash landing and the Slitheen invasion will count as First Contact.
Bad
Wolf Sightings
A
horrible little child spray paints Bad Wolf onto the side of the Tardis. Yes,
it's all part of Rose's plan in the final episode to spread the Bad Wolf meme
through the universe and ultimately this will help save it, but it's still
criminal damage. I hope they catch him, and show no leniency.
Overall
The
strongest episode so far, it's full of excitement and intrigue, with some
excellent development in the relationships between characters, and it ends on a
cracking cliffhanger.
9/10
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