Aliens of London & World War Three by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak

 

“Aliens of London” and “World War Three” star Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones, Annette Badland as Margaret Blaine, Rupert Vansittart as General Asquith, David Verrey as Joseph Green, and Eliizabeth Fost, Paul Kasey, and Alan Ruscoe as the Slitheen.  They were written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: Keith Boak with Elwen Rowlands as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  They were originally broadcast on Saturdays from 16 to 23 April 2005 on BBC One.

 

“Aliens of London” and “World War Three” sit in a very important spot for the revived series of Doctor Who for two reasons.  First and foremost, they are the episodes by design where companion Rose Tyler is brought back home for the first time, meaning that there must be a reckoning of some sort with the fact that she has been travelling through time and space.  This is something the classic series only did very occasionally, and rarely with consistency.  The first two companions, Ian and Barbara, were displaced by two years when the audience last sees them on television and it would not be until 1976’s The Hand of Fear where companion Sarah Jane Smith’s exit would get (a barely existent) minor follow up in 1983’s The Five Doctors.  In the interim several companions would either be outcasts in the case of Leela, Nyssa, and Adric, or a Time Lord.  Tegan Jovanka had a mid-travel exit in Time-Flight which at least saw her partially reintegrate into normal life when returning to Earth.  Only Ace in 1989’s Survival would have time spent exploring the fact she disappeared from Earth for a number of years at this point which Davies clearly took partial inspiration from for Rose’s return.  Second, this is the first two-part serial the revival would have, Davies believing that these types of episodes can serve as a tentpole event for audiences to tune in for larger stories as well as genuinely loving the longer stories of the original series.  This first two-parter in the pitch document established that despite being a two episode serial, each episode would have an individual episode title, being originally “Aliens of London” and “10 Downing Street,” with a plot synopsis quite similar to what occurred on screen, with the second episode changing titles to “World War Three” only two short months before the revival premiered in late March 2005.

 

This is a two-part episode that I have always had some difficulties with due to how much of the two episodes genuinely work while certain elements have always been near breaking issues by injecting sophomoric comedy to proceedings which outside of the “comedy” scenes are a genuinely tense political alien invasion thriller.  “Aliens of London” opens brilliantly, the Doctor landing the TARDIS on the Powell Estate on what he believes to be the day after the events of “Rose”.  Because he cannot steer the TARDIS, it is not the 12-hour gap between their time on Earth, but 12 months.  This places the revived series from this point forward one year ahead of the airdates.  In this gap, Rose has been reported as missing with Mickey Smith being the prime suspect, ostracizing him for an entire year.  Rose appearing brings out a tearful and heart wrenching performance throughout this episode from Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, initially done through dropping a pitcher.  Jackie has been put through hell and so much of the episode is dedicated to how Rose has destroyed Jackie mentally and emotionally.  There is a moment near the end of the episode, once an alien spaceship has crashed into Big Ben and the Thames, that Jackie calls the Doctor into the authorities, tears in her eyes.

 

The alien invasion also allows Davies to flex ideas on what a mid-2000s United Kingdom and the world at large would react to such a public alien invasion.  Yes, UNIT is called in bringing the organization into the modern series though without any references to characters as not to alienate the new audience, but for the general public this is treated as the first time an alien incursion has happened.  There are several cutaways to local and international news including excellent appearances from Jack Tarlton and Lachele Carl (Carl as Trinity Wells will make several appearances in the first four series of the revival) adding the on the ground element.  While Rose is left at home with a TARDIS key of her own, the Doctor investigates the body found in the spaceship and Eccleston shines throughout this sequence.  There is this jovial quality as the Doctor is so curious, quickly shifting to authority as the doctor Sato examining the body, played by Naoko Mori, finds the creature alive and UNIT soldiers just follow his orders, and finally rage as the alien is shot dead by a soldier.  Eccleston also shines through his third of the cliffhanger where the group of aliens who have infiltrated the British government gather all alien experts into one room and electrocutes them.

 

The aliens themselves are perhaps the big problem.  Throughout the crash landing plot, the UK’s government is in chaos: the prime minister is missing with MP Joseph Green, played by David Verrey, in the position of acting prime minister.  Advising Green are Margaret Blaine, Oliver Charles, and General Asquith, played by Annette Badland, Eric Potts, and Rupert Vansittart respectively, and a backbench MP, Penelope Wilton’s Harriet Jones, is just attempting to help out wherever she can.  It is revealed that Green, Blaine, and Charles are aliens themselves, compressing themselves into skin suits and their reveal should be a scene of great horror as Asquith is killed and Charles takes his place while Harriet Jones watches from the closet.  The issue here is that this genuinely serious scene and much of this genuinely serious episode is just stuffed with really bad fart jokes.  Now, a good fart joke can work really well, just look at Blazing Saddles, but “Aliens of London” has them coming and director Keith Boak frames them as just hilarious and over the top with no regard for the tone of the scene it should have been in.  This death scene and the cliffhanger of “Aliens of London”, which is a great three part cliffhanger where Mickey Smith, played by Noel Clarke, and Jackie in her flat and Rose and Harriet at 10 Downing Street are both menaced by these aliens, called the Slitheen, while the Doctor is shocked.  5/10.

 

“World War Three” luckily is a script that has much less of the fart jokes, which is great since for much of it the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet Jones are trapped in the Cabinet Room while the Slitheen have taken complete control of the UK government.  Penelope Wilton was genuinely a great presence in “Aliens of London” and in “World War Three” she is mainly used just to bounce ideas off while not compromising her intelligence.  Her fate in the episode is also revealed to be responsible for rebuilding the UK government as Prime Minister.  “World War Three” is also the episode where the Slitheen are allowed to be far more menacing with the fart jokes toned down.  Annette Badland shines, being kept in her human guise of Margaret Blaine throughout much of the episode which is a blessing.  Badland as a performer has this intensity and gives this truly alien performance in these quick speaking scenes to the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet.  There is a very early chase scene where for the first time in the revival, the computer generated imagery causes quite an issue.  There is this disconnect between how the Slitheen costumes are portrayed with the team at the Mill, making them these fast hunters while the actors can only go so fast in the physical costumes.  Cutting the CGI sequences genuinely would have helped improve the episode as the immersion breaks in a way that is unique to the revival, due to CGI effects also suffering from the fact that it is not something the physical actors can truly react to, especially under a poor director.

 

It almost feels as if Boak as a director was unsure of what direction “World War Three” should really be taking.  “World War Three” as an episode has far more explicit political commentary at its core.  The Slitheen are revealed to be a family of aliens who have come to Earth to destroy it and sell the ruins for money.  Already this is a minor commentary on companies that already destroy the environment, but more pointing from Russell T. Davies are the direct parallels to the lies told by the United States (and the United Kingdom) in the wake of 9/11 to push the world into the Iraq War.  Massive weapons of destruction is a phrase used in the episode to describe the “alien threat” hovering over the world that only the UK government, led by the Slitheen, can detect.  Davies is biting in his commentary, something that he never loses touch with throughout his time as showrunner, even if an episode like “Aliens of London” falls flat in several aspects.

 

“World War Three” is one of the few episodes that as a back half of a two-part story for the revival improves on the first half.  The script itself is much more difficult for Boak to play for comedy, the fart jokes being much less prominent, though humor is there that doesn’t work, jabs at the Slitheen being gathered has aged quite badly especially.  There is an emotional heart, and much of that has its roots in “Aliens of London” with the Doctor wishing to promise Jackie that Rose would be safe.  It becomes apparent that once deducing what can kill the Slitheen, they are from Raxacoricofallapatorius and can be dispatched with acetic acid, though the climax involves commandeering a missile from the United Nations (Mickey being the one to hack into the military) to bomb 10 Downing Street.  Billie Piper as Rose is luckily proactive in the story, she’s makes it known that she is fine with the Doctor destroying the three of them, although it is Harriet Jones who gives the final order as an elected representative.  Mickey Smith throughout both episodes, but “World War Three” in particular has a minor arc about proving himself worthy, almost to himself.  He is the one who is able to save Jackie at the cliffhanger resolution, he is the one to defend her while she mixes as much vinegar containing foods together, and he is the one to earn the respect of the Doctor in the end, being asked to travel in the TARDIS.  Note this as you are watching, especially the last point as this is an element that Davies will quickly forget after the first series is over, later episodes denigrating Mickey further as a character while this clearly establishes a respect between him and the Doctor.  6/10.

 

Overall, “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” as the first actual serial of the revived Doctor Who is one that had a lot of potential to match “Rose”, and perhaps even surpass it.  However, there are directorial issues throughout especially the first episode, giving the actors choices to make that cause this inconsistent tone.  The second half fairs quite a bit better, but it does take just a little too long to get to the climax, following scenes added to both episodes due to the scripts underrunning.  Still, it does succeed on moving our characters forward and the scenes that shine, really shine as among some of the best scenes in this first series, from emotional character moments to the very subtle moments.  “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” may not be bad, but the whole is sadly not the sum of its parts, this first serial of the revival coming to be just above average.  5.5/10.