Steven Moffat rode in to save the day, after a couple of decidably weak episodes from Russell T. Davis. While Moffat plays down the sexual politics that Davis is seemingly obsessed with to the determinate of the show, he has his own drums to beat. Unfortunately, our knight in rusted armour can’t help himself and launches the expected attack on capitalism. I was surprised we didn’t have this bug bear earlier in the series, but hey Davis and Moffat have to tear down the patriarchy, you know the system that gave them their positions and ability to feel superior over the rest of us. Sure as hell Moffat has forgotten what the essence of Doctor Who is. And just to answer Jinkx Monsoon’s statement that the show doesn’t need the traditional audience as it is being pitched to a “modern audience”, the overnight score of 2.04 would indicate your “modern audience” isn’t interested in the snake oil you are trying to con them with. 

The TARDIS lands on a battleground where the Anglican Army are fighting the as yet unseen Kastarions. The Doctor hears a scream, which is from John Francis Vater – he is central to the episode - as the audience already knows, and charges to the rescue. Naturally, since this incarnation of the Doctor is a bumbling idiot, he steps on a landmine and forced to be stationary for the rest of the episode, much to the audience’s relief I might add. Vater becomes a victim of a battlefield ambulance, which seems to have been programmed to dispense with anyone who has a serious trauma. Hey I watch some medical shows alright. So while the Doctor is being a complete twat, stating the bleeding obvious that the audience worked out five minutes into the episode, Ruby and the support cast are doing the requirements to resolve the situation the Doctor is. Actually Vater rocks it as a holographic virus or something, don’t blame me I don’t write this shite, and things work out pretty much as we expected.

Rather than being on the edge of my seat as the landmine ticked towards mutual destruction, I was yawning and wondering how long the episode would run. It’s that bad, as we run down the list of Doctor Who tropes, none of which involve the Doctor being anything like a force of nature that resolves the situation. Apparently the Doctor cries now, which is because you know, the Doctor is now a snowflake that needs a safe space. Ruby actually turns out to be much more manly than the Doctor, taking decisive action to stop the ambulance, which is not surprising as Gatwa is hardly going to be able to pull off man of action.

At least we get some series’ plot arcs happening, and the re-introduction of characters previously introduced in the franchise during superior episodes. The Anglican Army doesn’t come out of left field thankfully; normally I would do research and point out the episodes they had previously appeared in, but you know, the writing here isn’t good enough to justify spending any more time than necessary getting through things. While Ruby is knocked out, after being shot by a soldier, apparently we are now in Star Trek as all guns are on stun or something, it starts to snow because that was happening when she dumped off at the church as a baby. Rocking to the beat, no never was I and I really don’t care to be honest.

Just an aside here Bros, either the show doesn’t have a budget high enough to employ a decent amount of supporting actors or Russell T. Davis is pulling a series story arc. Susan Twist has appeared in every episode thus far as a UNIT Communications Officer, a Tea Lady, and in this episode an Ambulance .. guess that is a stretch for the actress. So who thinks Ms Twist is going to come to prominence as the series winds down to fewer viewers than it began with. New drinking game folks, spot Susan Twist in an episode, drink a bottle of bourbon, actually just drink a bottle of booze to get through the episode.

Back to Boom, which pretty much sums up the franchise blowing up, getit … okay I’m as subtle as Rusty Davis. Guess we are in budgetary hell here; the whole episode is filmed in one location with obvious green screen effects going down. Hopefully the money is being saved towards the final few episodes, we’re we may get the Daleks or the Cybermen, or something at least interesting rather than the dirge we are currently being served up.

Surprisingly this is the episode where the supporting cast is clearly better at their jobs than Gatwa or Gibson can ever hope to be. I particularly liked the turns of Caoilinn Springall (Splice) and Varada Sethu (Mundy Flynn) who raised the episode above the swamp of ineptitude our leads are dropping it into episode by episode.

I’m pretty much finished with this episode, but will finish it with filler, something the current writers are well versed in. The take aways from Boom are not good; poor writing, two leads that can’t act, and a general groaning to the lumbering anti-capitalist themes being exposed by overly paid and pampered journeyman show runners. Maybe spend a day in the real world, it might just help with your perspective of what the average person is concerned about, and no that has nothing to do with pronouns.

Surprisingly a lot of apologists are claiming Boom is somehow a return to form!?! Folks you need to honestly give yourself a stiff upper cut, if you think this is a return to form then you are either outright lying, or the delusion has completely engulfed you. Not surprisingly the viewing audience, as opposed to the corporate shills are turning off in droves, time to smell the coffee or face complete erosion of belief in your ability to actually review an episode from a level, non-partisan stance. But keep up the pandering to a multi-billion-dollar corporation, they currently need all the support they can get, regardless of how cringe that support may actually be.

Another episode down and only five more to go, yes add slough to the sins being committed, as Davis et al can’t even knock out a decent amount of episodes this series. Overall the themes were boring, they were covered ad infinitum during the Jodie Whittaker era, so nothing new here. I’m rather shocked at the hypocrisy on display, an anti-capitalist message from overly paid tools being pandered to by an increasingly out of touch billion-dollar corporation. Clearly no recommendation, we are now skimming the bottom of the barrel as the franchise has seemingly run out of original ideas. Fingers crossed someone pulls the pin on the franchise, it is the last hope of true Who fans, else this series is just going to get worse by the episode. Later days folks, off to watch The Expanse, a far superior Sci-Fi show judging by the first couple of episodes. Oh and by the way stepping on a landmine is by now a pretty well worn trope, there was even that whole movie about it, clearly Doctor Who isn't above stealing ideas from other, better, outings.