DOCTOR WHO: BOOM review.

You know a Doctor Who story’s going to be good when you’re sucked in from the opening moments and don’t breathe a sigh of relief until the end. So it was with Ncuti Gatwa’s fifth episode, ‘Boom’.

It was the first Doctor Who Disney story written by another former showrunner, Steven Moffat (interestingly, he was also credited as executive producer, so he’s overseeing his own episodes). The man’s track record can’t be disputed: ‘The Empty Child’, ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’, ‘Silence in the Library’, and the peerless ‘Blink’ and ‘Heaven Sent’, among other stand-out episodes.

Yes, Steven invented one of modern Doctor Who’s most iconic villains, the Weeping Angels, but what isn’t said often enough is what a brilliant world builder he is. In a few scenes and a few lines of dialogue in ‘Boom’, he conjured up a whole culture wreathed in gloomy, sepia light: “Anglican ordained marine[s]”, mines that “migrate”, robot ambulances that kill soldiers they decide are beyond recovery, and “vacuum drones hoovering up the [battle] smoke”, immediately established a convincingly ravaged alien world. I like to think this talent is one Steven learned from the classic series’ writer Robert Holmes, who was the absolute master of world building (see, for example, ‘Carnival of Monsters’ (1973) and ‘The Deadly Assassin (1976).

Positioned as episode three, after the froth of ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord’, ‘Boom’ was well placed, and well-paced, to darken the lives of Ruby and the Doctor. It did this through another of Steven’s concepts that he may have borrowed from childhood. Just like the Weeping Angels reflect the game Grandma’s Footsteps – participants freezing into immobility when the nominated ‘curator’ looks round – ‘Boom’ found the Doctor seeing how long he could stand still, another favourite playground game. The fact that he had to because it was literally a matter of life and death – he was standing on a land mine (above) – made the scenario tense and dramatic and ideal to play out in real time.

After the riotous visual madness and large cast of ‘The Devil’s Chord’, the drama here focused in on seven characters in two locations, and was all the better for that intimacy. Like some of Steven’s other scripts, it could have been played out under the aegis of the early Doctors from Hartnell to McCoy, as the emphasis was on dialogue, the backbone of Doctor Who 1963-1989. With such well crafted lines as “Life is cheap, patients are expensive… War is business, and business is booming”, Ncuti relished the chance to show a more flinty side to his Doctor.

Particularly striking was his venomous comment to marine Mundy Flynn (Varada Sethu): “Faith – the magic word that keeps you never having to think for yourself!” As the soldiers were a religious order (complete with priests’ dog collars), this unequivocally suggests that the Doctor rejects organised religion (as well as capitalism – “death by salesman”). This has been hinted at in other stories, such as ‘The Brain of Morbius’ (1976) and ‘The Face of Evil’ (1977), to name two of my favourites, but never stated so explicitly as in ‘Boom’. Religion has, of course, caused more wars in history than anything else – and continues to do so – so with the marines portrayed as a religious order, Moffat was making a pretty stark, critical statement.

Perhaps that was why he had the Doctor back-pedal slightly about faith at the end: “Just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean I don’t need it.” By then, he was safe and his jolly demeanor was back in place, so the implication is that this Doctor’s statements when he’s in mortal danger are what he really thinks. I’d really like to see this aspect of the character developed.

Ruby (above) really went through the emotional wringer too this week: discovering a dead body compressed into a tube, going against the Doctor’s orders, then being shot and killed (and brought back to life – a well-worn Steven Moffat trope). Cleverly, this played into the story arc about her mysterious origins: according to a robot ambulance – a nightmare version of the NHS in a metal body – she has no next of kin but is apparently “3,082 years” old… The ‘mysterious companion’ schtick has been done comprehensively before with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) so, intriguing as it is, it doesn’t feel very fresh.

Speaking of companions, new TARDIS actor Varada Sethu made a surprise appearance ahead of her new regular role. Again, this has been done before (Clara Oswald, the “impossible girl”), but the promising thing is that Varada’s performance was very natural and engaging. She’s definitely an asset to come.

Good as ‘Boom’ was, Steven again went for “parent power” in solving the problem, something he’d previously done in ‘The Doctor Dances’ and which also took place under his executive producer-ship – ‘Night Terrors’ and ‘Closing Time’ (both 2011). Still, the climax was logical and well done, as, to protect his daughter Splice (Caoilinn Springall), the AI of the dead soldier John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson), became self-aware and shut down the war’s military hardware. A very appropriate ending for a family show.

Elegantly made, with some original twists and turns, it feels like ‘Boom’ is the real beginning of Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure.