1.4-5: Aliens of London/World War Three
Synopsis: The Doctor brings Rose back to her estate, safe and sound, only to find that he's missed by one year. A spaceship crashes spectacularly into the Thames, drawing all sorts of attention from the world media. At 10 Downing, an MP named Harriet Jones has pluckily thrown herself into the fray and discovers that the Prime Minister is dead, and the portliest of government officials have been replaced by aliens who are wearing their skin as suits. The government becomes alerted to the Doctor's presence (thanks to Jackie Tyler) and he is brought in, with Rose, as an alien expert. At the last moment, he realises that the experts are being gathered for elimination. The aliens reveal themselves as the green, bulbous Slitheen, and all of the experts are killed except for the Doctor.
After a chase through 10 Downing, the Doctor, Rose and Harriet Jones become trapped inside the cabinet room. From there, they contact Rose's boyfriend Mickey, who hacks into the UNIT database, and they trace a signal beaming into space back to the Slitheen. It is an advertisement, auctioning off parts of the Earth, which will be in fuel-worthy, radioactive ruins after the Slitheen provoke a nuclear war. The Doctor tells Mickey how to launch a missile at 10 Downing, which saves the world by killing the Slitheen. The three inside the cabinet room hole up in a reinforced cupboard and survive the blast, and Harriet Jones goes on television to announce the Earth is safe, and goes on, as the Doctor says, to become Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Golden Comic Moment: She is in shock from seeing her "missing" daughter again after a whole year, and she blames the man in leather for taking her away and possibly doing something horrible to her. "Stitch this, mate!" Jackie Tyler cries out, in response to the Doctor's claim that he is a Doctor, and just before slapping the Time Lord silly. It is the first of two such injuries that the Doctor will sustain from the mother of a companion.
Golden Fangirl Moment: The Doctor has been prickly about Mickey from the start, specifically telling Rose when they first fly off together that Mickey is "not invited." But when the Doctor tells Mickey over the phone to douse the Slitheen with vinegar and Jackie begins announcing loudly all the things she finds in his kitchen containing vinegar, the Doctor has his funniest anti-Mickey moment yet. He asks Rose, "And you kiss this man?" There is not any indication here that he'd like her to kiss him instead, but in hindsight, how can we not assume that's where the question leads?
Cringeworthy Moment: When the Slitheen children are all standing about farting, giggling and causing the General to bristle, it's not funny, it's just stupid. And it goes on for way too long. Okay, so the writers have used excess gas as a result of calcium decay as a device - can we move on now?
Golden Moment: Jackie and Mickey are being threatened by one of the Slitheen. Across town, the Doctor, Rose and Harriet are listening to it happen via speakerphone. In order to save them, the Doctor knows that they need to work out which planet the Slitheen family hail from. Based on their shape, he says, "that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance," but with the help of Rose and Harriet, he slims the field further. The two women throw out suggestions, characteristics, intelligences they've picked up from dealing with the creatures, and each time, the Doctor calls out the phrase, "Narrows it down!" to signal that he is metacogitating and running through the possibilities in that great big brain of his. This is Golden because it is the Doctor being manic and brilliant, fast-thinking, fast-talking and a little bit insane. It's everything we've come to expect from Doctor Who in the 21st century, and it's just about the first time we get to see it!
Why I Beg to Differ: DWM chose the moment when the police officer unzips his forehead in Jackie Tyler's flat. I wholeheartedly disagree with this assertion solely on the grounds that it happens so damn often after that! First of all, in that particular moment, there are three separate scenes happening simultaneously in which the Slitheen are revealing themselves, and it's so drawn-out that you wonder if part one actually ran a few seconds short in the first draft. And then they do it again in the lift, in Mickey's flat, in the PM's office, et cetera et cetera, and each time it is treated with the same reverence. By the end, the viewer is tempted to say, "Okay, we get it."
After a chase through 10 Downing, the Doctor, Rose and Harriet Jones become trapped inside the cabinet room. From there, they contact Rose's boyfriend Mickey, who hacks into the UNIT database, and they trace a signal beaming into space back to the Slitheen. It is an advertisement, auctioning off parts of the Earth, which will be in fuel-worthy, radioactive ruins after the Slitheen provoke a nuclear war. The Doctor tells Mickey how to launch a missile at 10 Downing, which saves the world by killing the Slitheen. The three inside the cabinet room hole up in a reinforced cupboard and survive the blast, and Harriet Jones goes on television to announce the Earth is safe, and goes on, as the Doctor says, to become Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Golden Comic Moment: She is in shock from seeing her "missing" daughter again after a whole year, and she blames the man in leather for taking her away and possibly doing something horrible to her. "Stitch this, mate!" Jackie Tyler cries out, in response to the Doctor's claim that he is a Doctor, and just before slapping the Time Lord silly. It is the first of two such injuries that the Doctor will sustain from the mother of a companion.
Golden Fangirl Moment: The Doctor has been prickly about Mickey from the start, specifically telling Rose when they first fly off together that Mickey is "not invited." But when the Doctor tells Mickey over the phone to douse the Slitheen with vinegar and Jackie begins announcing loudly all the things she finds in his kitchen containing vinegar, the Doctor has his funniest anti-Mickey moment yet. He asks Rose, "And you kiss this man?" There is not any indication here that he'd like her to kiss him instead, but in hindsight, how can we not assume that's where the question leads?
Cringeworthy Moment: When the Slitheen children are all standing about farting, giggling and causing the General to bristle, it's not funny, it's just stupid. And it goes on for way too long. Okay, so the writers have used excess gas as a result of calcium decay as a device - can we move on now?
Golden Moment: Jackie and Mickey are being threatened by one of the Slitheen. Across town, the Doctor, Rose and Harriet are listening to it happen via speakerphone. In order to save them, the Doctor knows that they need to work out which planet the Slitheen family hail from. Based on their shape, he says, "that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance," but with the help of Rose and Harriet, he slims the field further. The two women throw out suggestions, characteristics, intelligences they've picked up from dealing with the creatures, and each time, the Doctor calls out the phrase, "Narrows it down!" to signal that he is metacogitating and running through the possibilities in that great big brain of his. This is Golden because it is the Doctor being manic and brilliant, fast-thinking, fast-talking and a little bit insane. It's everything we've come to expect from Doctor Who in the 21st century, and it's just about the first time we get to see it!
Why I Beg to Differ: DWM chose the moment when the police officer unzips his forehead in Jackie Tyler's flat. I wholeheartedly disagree with this assertion solely on the grounds that it happens so damn often after that! First of all, in that particular moment, there are three separate scenes happening simultaneously in which the Slitheen are revealing themselves, and it's so drawn-out that you wonder if part one actually ran a few seconds short in the first draft. And then they do it again in the lift, in Mickey's flat, in the PM's office, et cetera et cetera, and each time it is treated with the same reverence. By the end, the viewer is tempted to say, "Okay, we get it."