S01E04 Doctor Who - Third World War (2005)

Sex :
Violence :

Director Keith Boak Reviewer :
Writers Russell T Davies
Starring Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton
Genre Invasion
Tagline The Trip Of A Lifetime!
Country

Review

"aaaahhh, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?" - Slitheen

Continuing on from last week, the Slitheen are in control of the government, military, and police, things are looking dicey for the Doctor and Rose, and UNIT members are getting shocked at developments . The Slitheen plan for doing away with local "alien experts" comes unstuck as the Doctor is of course not human and hence able to withstand the elaborate trap the aliens have set.

A pretty naff chase sequence ensues which leads to the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet Jones locking themselves into a fortified section of number 10. We then discover that the Slitheen want the launch codes for Britain's arsenal of nuclear weapons, with the intent being to initiate a full scale nuclear war, leaving the planet a radioactive wasteland. The Slitheen will then sell off chunks of the planet to desperado cruise and freight companies to use as fuel. We also found out that "Slitheen" is the alien family name rather than the species name, just mentioning in case it comes up in a pub quiz sometime. Can the Doctor and Rose think their way out of this one or are we all doomed? - another quirky episode ensues. Ready to try and launch a missile via the internet?

Was it just me or did anyone else pick up on a slight hint that the producers of Doctor Who might be just dipping their toes into the waters of political commentary? I'm talking of course about the Slitheen, in the guise of the British Government, pleading with the U.N. to release the nuclear codes due to the fictional alien invasion force having weapons of mass destruction ready to use in twenty minutes. Okay a few things here, the clear reference is toward the Bush/Blair/Howard junta's concerted lies about Saddam and WMDs to their respective voters, the clear and present danger of only a few minutes from order to release of weapons, and how the hell would a British Government have the least bit of knowledge of the deployment time of alien WMDs? Okay, one of those is a plot hole, the rest is pretty good evidence that even a staid organisation like the Beeb was prepared in 2005 to fire a few shoots across the bow of the then-reigning right wing nutters, and yes I include Blair as an honorary member of the military/industrial club here. I applaud everyone involved in the episode for their ability to throw a hand grenade in the midst of what is end of day a sci-fi fantasy outing.

I still think the creature design of the Slitheen leaves a lot to be desired, and the use of CGI during the chase sequences was more laugh inducing than adding to the chill factor. There's just something wrong with the whole design that shoots both Aliens of London and World War Three in their respective feet before they can break into a jog. The Slitheen design is too big, too clumsy, and quite frankly too comical to effectively work. Hopefully the entire concept will get jettisoned and not come back to haunt us during further episodes or seasons. Okay that's the last I'll say about it and I'll let the whole Slitheen issue rest from here on in.

Russell T Davies has the ability to take a mundane episode and add just that little bit of something to get it rocking!

Something I haven't mentioned during the course of season one's episode guide thus far is just how good the extras working on the show are. Even minor actors, who at most get a couple of minutes of screen time in a single episode, are putting in the hard yards to add that touch of believability to each episode. Well done the casting agency involved and of course the various directors used.

I was actually pretty impressed by Russell T Davies' writing ability in World War Three. When the full disclosure of the Slitheen's master plan was laid on the table I wasn't in the least bit laughing or even smirking; in the confines of the script and episode it all works wonderfully well. You could readily believe these aliens were intent on turning planet Earth into radioactive sludge and then selling it off bit by bit. This explanation didn't come out of left field and it didn't have that hint of plot device that inhibits poorly constructed scripts. Equally, the resolution had that tone of believability that only master craftsmen (and craftswomen) can bring to their work. Davies is definitely one of the strengths of season one and hopefully stays on board the franchise for quite some time to come.

A nice touch toward the end of the episode is Mickey's disbelief that the newspapers are claiming the crash-landed alien space craft is a hoax. Is this going to be a concerted effort by the British Government to deny all knowledge, and is the truth going to be out there? Another slight plot hole of course was the acting Prime Minister asking for nuclear release codes because of the "alien invasion fleet overhead"; would that be able to be spun as a hoax in the real world I wonder? Maybe if it was the beginning of April they could try to get away with an April Fools Joke line or something.

Director Keith Boak was competent behind the camera, though of course hampered by the CGI - duh, wasn't going to mention that again. There's nothing really noteworthy going down in Boak's work but he gets the best he can out of his cast and uses the various sets well. Remembering this is all small screen stuff that's about the best we can expect, though maybe a tad of left field inventiveness would have been appreciated, thus far the season hasn't really seen a Director grab an episode by the collar and bring it to heel.

Once again Christopher Eccleston (The Doctor) was excellent, Billie Piper (Rose) left me wondering what exactly she did to get the part, and newcomer Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones) was excellent as the country MP who still clings to the right and proper way of doing things.

A bit of homework for any Brits reading, does the U.N. really hold the nuclear release codes for Britain's nuclear arsenal or was that simply a plot device in this episode?

World War Three didn't exactly enthral me but it got the job done and kept me watching from the opening scene to the closing credits. To a certain degree if you are dialling into Doctor Who you have to be prepared to deal with some schlock - hey, the franchise is infamous for it - but considering the variety of villains the Doctor has dealt with in the past, the Producers could have been a bit more discerning considering they are trying to reboot a franchise. I would give this two parter a passing grade but without any honourable mentions.

Friends and neighbours, drop your linen and start your grinning, the promos for the next episode are promising to deliver Doctor Who fan wet dreams next time up. You sitting comfortably? - we're talking the return of the Daleks in episode six! Season one just got a whole lot better; you might have picked up I'm a tad excited over here. Anywise lets leave that till the next episode review.

Like the recommendation on the first half of this story, I can only push the virtues of World War Three to regular Whoverse devotees. Sometime viewers won't be overly impressed end of day as this isn't the strongest Doctor Who episode ever produced. It won't melt your T.V. down to radioactive sludge but it might make you aware of the fast forward button.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...

Well at least the quality of the script didn't drop any further.