Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat made his return to the series this week with his first episode since 2017, “Boom.” Known for writing some of the show’s most highly rated episodes, such as “Blink,” “The Girl in the Fireplace,” and “The Eleventh Hour,” does the acclaimed writer still bring the magic touch? Find out in my spoiler-filled recap of “Boom.”
The episode begins on the surface of Kastarion 3, where two soldiers are seen making their way through a treacherous landscape. One of these soldiers, John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson), is seen talking to his daughter Splice (Caoilinn Springall) through a communications device built into his cheek. The soldiers are discussing why they never see the Kastarions – the creatures they are supposedly battling against in this endless war.
John asks his daughter to find someone named Mundy to put him to bed. We meet Mundy, and many Doctor Who fans will be intrigued when they find out she’s played by Verada Sethu, recently announced to be a new companion joining the Doctor and Ruby in the next season. Her character here seems very much of this story, so I for one am extremely intrigued to see what her future role in the show is.
Cutting back to the two soldiers, things start to get dangerous as one of them steps on a futuristic landmine and is immediately disintegrated. Perhaps worse for John, who has been nearly blinded by his service, he is discovered by a medical machine that seeks to “heal him.” Turns out healing also equals disintegration, as the machine determines his near blindness to be a fatal issue. John screams, and the camera immediately pans over to the TARDIS, which is parked nearby. The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) hears John’s screams and comes running, heroically and without thought looking to save whoever might be in trouble. Unfortunately, this leads the Doctor himself to step on a landmine, before the title sequence begins.
Following the title sequence, Ruby (Millie Gibson) steps out of the TARDIS wondering where the Doctor is, only to hear him singing off in the distance. She thinks this strange and goes to investigate, and discovers the Doctor is standing on a landmine, with one foot raised back. The sensors confirm that there is a live target standing on it, and one wrong move, even increasing his adrenaline or blood pressure can set the device off and “boom!”
The Doctor immediately gets Ruby to assist with his precarious situation, asking her to describe exactly what he’s standing on. Ruby asks why the landmine has lights on it, to which the Doctor simply responds with the word “capitalism.” In modern warfare, flashy lights work well in a showroom – “death by salesman.” Desiring to stabilize his position a little, the Doctor sends Ruby to look for something heavy so he can counterbalance his weight. Turns out the thing she finds is the remains of John, neatly packaged and compressed into a cylinder. The Doctor wants Ruby to simply toss the item to him, but she refuses, putting her own life at risk to help him reposition himself. Fortunately, it works!
The Doctor says thank you to John Francis Vater, which activates a projection from the cylinder, which ends up being an A.I.-like representation of the deceased soldier. Upon hearing the voice of her father, Splice, who had been tracking him, calls out “daddy.” This leads to a precarious situation where she runs towards the Doctor and Ruby, unaware of the landmine, as Ruby desperately tries to keep her back. Things get even more precarious when Mundy shows up, with her weapon trained at the Doctor. In an attempt to get her not to shoot him, the Doctor explains that due to his Time Lord biology, him exploding would cause half of the planet to blow up.
Mundy shoots the Doctor slightly in the arm, causing one of the hospital robots to be activated and attach itself to the Doctor. In order to distract the robot, Mundy asks Ruby to shoot her in the arm to avoid the Doctor blowing up. This is foiled when fellow soldier Canterbury James Olliphant (Bhav Joshi) notices the gun trained on Mundy and shoots Ruby, causing her to seemingly fall to her death. The anguish you hear and see visible from the Doctor is palpable, especially as he knows he can’t move nor do anything.
The ambulance would be able to revive Ruby, but as it is programmed to serve the Anglicans (those who are fighting this war), it won’t work on non-believers. The Doctor explains that there is in fact no real war, but rather an algorithm with an acceptable casualty rate – capitalism at its finest, as if they are injured at just the right amount, it will keep them buying the products and fighting this endless, pointless war. There are no Kastarions, just an algorithm, and the Anglicans seemingly don’t notice because of their faith.
After confessing his love of Mundy to her, James is tragically killed in an emotional, if sort of unneeded scene. The Doctor is able to get the A.I. John to infiltrate the ambulance’s software, but a firewall initially blocks him, as the Doctor and gang are now surrounded by a team of ambulance robots. The algorithm will do anything it can to protect itself, but the humanity of John is still breaking through, and he’s able to put a virus through to stop the robots. The Doctor is finally able to step off the landmine as Ruby is revived by one of the now helpful robots.
After celebrating their victory, the Doctor, Ruby, Mundy and Splice are seen looking at the beautiful landscape of the planet from in front of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Ruby bid them farewell, although we know it won’t be the last we see of actor Verada Sethu. But whether she’ll be playing the same character or not is to be determined. Although Splice’s dad may be dead, he lives on through this A.I. version, who also appears and turns around to wave to the Doctor and Ruby before they depart.
“Boom” has the chance to go down as one of Steven Moffat’s all-time greatest scripts – and that’s saying a lot for a man who’s written nearly 50 scripts for the show! The clever conceit of the Doctor having to save the world without moving is executed brilliantly, with many hairraising twists that truly kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Ncuti Gatwa, who has been brilliant in the role so far, really gets to shine as the Doctor here. He gives an acting tour de force by providing all the drama and humor the Doctor is known for while standing completely still. “Boom” is definitely going to be a tough act to follow. But that’s a story for next week, where the Doctor and Ruby land in Wales, and a strange woman begins to follow Ruby in “73 Yards.”