Farting aliens! Bloody farting aliens!! This new series of Doctor Who is still trying to find its feet and is so doing is still trying to establish the right tone. And they mess up a little here.
The aliens in this story, the Raxacoricofalapatorians or as I shall be referring to them from now on, the Slitheen (Slitheen being their family name) aren't exactly a fantastic creation. Massive green creatures who kill people, skin them and then climb inside the skin as a disguise. However due to their giant stature it is first necessary to shrink themselves down a little causing a gas exchange, hence the constant farting.
Now the idea of aliens skinning people and wearing their bodies is horrific! But instead of it being played that way we get comedy farting and hidden zips on foreheads for when they need to disrobe from their disguise.
The Doctor has taken Rose back home to see her mum, believing he has dropped her off just 12 hours after she originally departed with him. Unfortunately, proving that the TARDIS is still as unreliable as ever, Rose has actually been returned 12 months after she first left! Therefore this has caused a great deal of worry for her mother who has believed she has gone missing and possibly been murdered! I like how the new series shows the wider repercussions of companions leaving home behind to travel with the Doctor and just what kind of impact that can have on their friends and family.
The Doctor is pretty unsympathetic towards the plight of Jackie ( Rose's mother). He seems to find families just a pain and something that gets in the way of him having fun. There are several occasions when he gets frustrated with both Jackie and Micky (Rose's poor boyfriend who she left behind for a year and who has been questioned several times by the police about her mysterious disappearance).
This is the first of the two part stories that would be fairly common in the new series and that means we get the first proper cliffhanger of the new show! Cliffhangers were one of the main features if the classic series with each story being played out over several episodes. The problem here though is that a feature of the new series is to show a "next time" trailer at the end of every episode so that kind of defeats the purpose of the cliffhanger!
The story itself is pretty good. The Slitheen have faked a potential alien invasion in order to put a earth on red alert and to spread terror and suspicion. Meanwhile they have assumed the identity of various me members of the British government and are working on convincing the United Nations to release the access codes that will allow them to launch a nuclear strike on the mythical mothership in orbit which they claim has "massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed in 45 seconds". A bit of satire there for you. Once they have access to the nukes they intend to nuke the planet instead, turning the Earth into a massive radioactive lump of rock that they can sell chunks of to other aliens to power their ships. Clear?? Well it wouldn't be Doctor Who without a convoluted alien plot.
Meanwhile the Doctor and Rose are trapped inside 10 Downing Street with a woman called Harriet Jones, a lowly back bencher who hilariously insists on constant flashing her ID badge and identifying herself "Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."
Jackie finds out the truth about the Doctor in this two parter and by the end of it she is begging Rose not to leave. Unfortunately the lure of more adventures is to much and Rose leaves her Mum and Micky behind once again. You really find yourself feeling sorry for the people like them who are left behind to worry about where Rose could possibly be. Maybe Rose is being selfish but given the opportunity to travel anywhere in space and time then is that something that you could really turn down?
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