Aliens of London

A first two part story of the newly resurrected show begins with the episode Aliens of London and concludes with World War Three.

The first part features an alien spacecraft crashing into Big Ben in a very well done effects scene. It turns out alien race the Slitheen have a dastardly plot which involves them gaining access to the Prime Minister and senior officials and inhabiting their bodies. The Doctor goes to Downing Street with Rose where UNIT and world scientists are gathering in the Slitheen's trap. He then has to battle the Slitheen to stop their plan. Backbench MP Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) helps them out. Wilton is a great actress and is fabulous in her role as Harriet Jones who went on to appear in later stories with the 10th Doctor. There are lots of other positives too and this is a fun adventure overall but there are flaws which detract from its quality.

There is a cheesiness to some of this production and some silly humour involving Slitheen making farting sounds as they struggle to remain hidden inside smaller human bodies. Those aspects do not make it bad in my opinion and indeed I am sure that a new generation of fans found it amusing but from my point of view as an older fan I couldn't help thinking that if this had been a darker story with Slitheen as a fully menacing and scary alien it could have been a better story. I personally wished the farting aspect wasn't used and that the humour had been restricted to the witty aspects with banter between Rose and the Doctor and Harriet Jones. I feel maybe pressures were felt to not be too dark and scary and maybe trying to make it kid friendly. In fact, many kids love to be scared and to have some dark edge to their entertainment. It is people judging what is 'good for kids' who have pressured Doctor Who makers to soften the content throughout the show's history. In this case they definitely softened the story for a family audience but Russell T Daves is clever enough not to take that too far and he still provides plenty of scary scenes as Slitheen reveal themselves and chase and kill people. So overall whilst this isn't a favourite of mine it is good fun for all the family.

My rating for both episodes: 7/10.

In another bizarre episode exploring a good premise when a UFO spaceship crash at Big Ben's Tower landing in the Thames river provoking a panic in the city, but drop with a several farts loose by aliens whose take over the Preme Minister's house, going to a laughable and distasteful episode instead to drive into a serious UFO crash in London, some weird situation for all over, worst to be continued in next episode!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6

I hate this alien mystery storyline, it's definitely the worst so far and maybe the worst of the series' episodes centered in London. But this has to be some of the best character development episodes for Rose and her mom, Mickey, and even the Doctor. Her mom is doing such great acting and really solidifying her bond with Rose which hasn't been all that clear. And we get to see Mickey show off his hacker skills which shows a whole new side to him aside from boyfriend. And the whole Bad Wolf foreshadowing is good too. The easter eggs are being planted, and hopefully by the time I get there the story will pay off.

Finally the first real indication in any Doctor Who that a companion's disappearance can have an impact on people's lives, their friends and families. Camille Coduri was genius casting as Rose's mum, her upset at Rose's unexplained year long absence is great, she was such an endearing character. Mickey is also much better in this one, he's seemingly been under suspicion for murdering Rose due to her absence. There are some real goodies in this one, the Bad Wolf theme is now ringing alarm bells as it's quite prevalent. We hear the Doctor call Micky 'Ricky,' Jackie's sideboard looks like it's full of tonics of some sort, both themes are picked up later on. We get the first new series appearance of UNIT and a first appearance of Toshiko. We get the usual BBC NEWS 24 updates (what happened to those, I used to love a news update.) Aliens of London is big and fun, from the Spaceships falling through London destroying Big Ben, the Slitheen themselves and the glorious performance of Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones. It is hard not to watch this without a smile on your face, it's not iconic but it's fun. I understand the farting cabinet will irritate some of the die hard fans, but humour can be great when it's combined with a dark element, had this been a darker more sinister episode it would have worked a lot better, as it stood, it was a bit too light. Finally we get a Doctor Who cliffhanger and it's a good one, with multiple characters in danger, the Next week clip gave too much away though.

I went over this episode already but it seems it has deleted for some reason? This episode felt quite immersive in comparison to the others, along with its second continued episode counterpart. It had more substance in the sense of the characters and their emotions, responses, etc, than any other of the episodes, it felt more real. I liked the concept of the aliens, while cheesy in nature, done in a goofy yet interesting way, in the best way. This episode felt long in a good way, it felt almost film like rather then a show, like it had lots of substance in its story line etc. I am a little sad my old review deleted as I had lots of thoughts upon this episode, but this is the jist of what I wrote.