The Cutprice Guignol

If I am one thing in this lifetime, I am a Steven Moffat hater.

And I say that with a cheerful insincerity, because I actually like a lot of the work Moffat has done across his career as a TV writer. It’s been long enough since his obliteratively bad run on Doctor Who that I’m willing to admit that, when he’s not being swallowed whole by his own bad habits as a writer, I think he creates pretty good, pulpy, entertaining genre fiction. His first forays into Doctor Who are genuinely some of my favourites of the modern show’s run, proof of how brilliant he can be when he’s working within the parameters of someone else’s show – when he’s not let loose to shit out an endless stream of unfettered Moffatisms as he often is in his own shows (ahem, Dracula and Sherlock), I actually think he can be downright brilliant.

Which brings me to Boom, the third episode of this new season of Doctor Who, written by none other than enemy of the blog Steven Moffat. After the opening two-farter of Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord, I think it’s fair to say that Boom had a pretty easy act to follow – which is a real help, because this episode is certainly littered with some of Steven Moffat’s most-used narrative cliches, but we’ll get to that.

Because this is, broadly, a really solid episode. Following the Doctor and Ruby as they’re dropped into the middle of a warzone, facing a race against time after the Doctor begins to detonation countdown of a landmine, it’s got an in-built forward momentum and tension to it that whittles down the focus to a simple, compelling throughline. This is by far Ncuti Gatwa’s best episode, a genuinely brilliant performance that feels more settled than his first couple of outings. The script gives him plenty to do, from wit to anger to grief, and I just love the raw emotion Gatwa brings to everything he does here, even more impressive when you consider the fact that he can barely use his body to emote for the best part of this story. It’s a big step up for Millie Gibson, too, who gets to inject a little more personality into the character with an active and even defiant role in the story.

What really made Boom stand out to me, though, is the backdrop against which this story plays out – a holy war, conducted by soldier clerics and driven by a cynical business plan. Now, this is what I was talking about a couple of reviews ago with regards to the show committing to its political statements – this particular story has a commentary on the futility of war, the blind faith of religion, and how those two things intersect in a capitalist society to create the perfect conditions against which to play out a lucrative, fatal battle.

The casual grotesquerie of the dead soldiers preserved as AI clones to comfort surviving family members after their gruesome smelting at the hands of the would-be helper ambulances is grim, man, and I appreciate it when the show goes to these places instead of just chucking in a line or two that sounds progressive enough and calling it a day. The commentary isn’t subtle but it is effective, an unequivocal statement about “holy” war and how capitalism and profit has moved in to fill the void of religion that feels like a natural extension of the central story.

Of course, this is a Steven Moffat episode, which means that we’re not getting away without being pinned down and subjected to a string of his favourite narrative clichés – the seemingly well-meaning robots and AI going rogue, the recurring use of a specific phrase, and, most irritatingly for me, the doomed romance subplot. There’s this weird, quite blunt-ended romance plot between two of the cleric soldiers that’s clearly meant to be heart-tugging tragedy, as they finally admit their feelings for each other moments before one of them gets compressed into death tube or whatever, and it truly feels as though it’s just there to fill out the runtime rather than give us anything interesting in terms of character or storyline. There are so many ways to fill out characters without just chucking them in the direction of a romance plot, and I really can’t figure out what the romantic element to this relationship adds to the plot. For an episode that feels so otherwise focused, it’s a bit of blubber that doesn’t belong.

And, to be honest, this is very much an episode that feels like it could have been lifted wholesale out of Steven Moffat’s original run on the show in Matt Smith’s era. I feel like you could just put Clara and Smith’s Doctor in this story instead and it would feel pretty much exactly the same – which is not a dunk on any of the actors here, but rather on the fact that Steven Moffat has such a distinct style that you can smell it coming off every quip. It wouldn’t be an issue if he hadn’t run the show for so long, but, because he did, it doesn’t feel like an episode specific to Ncuti Gatwa’s era – especially when it’s so nascent and hasn’t really had a brilliant, defining episode yet. His writing style is all inevitably all over his era as a showrunner, and, as a result, this episode feels more like a throwback than the intended reboot of the show.

All in all, Boom is by far the best episode of the season so far, even if it’s a pretty familiar one thanks to Steven Moffat’s long history with the show. I’m interested in what looks like a more horror-centric episode next week, but I’m still waiting for this era to really settle – what did you think of this episode, and of the first three of the new season so far? Let me know in the comments below!

If you liked this article and want to see more stuff like it, please check out the rest of my Doctor Who reviews! I’d also love it if you would check out my horrible short story collection, and, if you’d like to support my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

(header image via Telegraph)