Synopsis
The Doctor and Rose return to London twelve hours after Rose originally left. However, they soon discover that it’s actually been twelve months, during which time Rose has been reported missing.
After a confrontation with Jackie, Rose and the Doctor are outside talking. Their conversation is interrupted when a spaceship flies overhead. It continues on into central London, taking out Big Ben before landing in the Thames.
MP Joseph Green arrives at 10 Downing Street where he is informed be Junior Secretary Indra Ganesh that with the Prime Minister missing and all the other cabinet members outside London, Green is the acting Prime Minister. The only other MP around is Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North who had had an appointment with the Prime Minister before the spaceship arrived.
Green is taken to the cabinet room where he is met by Margaret Blaine of MI5 and transport liaison Oliver Charles. Indra hands Green the emergency protocols and leaves them alone. Once alone, the three burst into laughter.
After hearing via TV that an alien body has been taken to a nearby hospital, the Doctor tells Rose that he’s going off for a walk. As he heads for the TARDIS, he is spotted by Mickey, who watches the Doctor enter it and the TARDIS disappear.
When Green and his companions leave the cabinet room, Harriet Jones makes an attempt to raise the issue she was going to raise with the Prime Minister. Green rebuffs her and heads off. Once he’s gone, Harriet sneaks into the cabinet room where she notices the emergency protocols and begins reading them.
The Doctor arrives at the hospital just in time for the alien, which was thought dead, to wake up and start running around. It is eventually killed by a soldier, and an examination by the Doctor reveals that it’s actually a pig, albeit one which has been altered by some technology.
Back at the cabinet room, military chief General Asquith confronts Green about his lack of action. When he threatens to relieve Green of his Prime Minstership, Green and his two companions unzip their foreheads. This is watched my Harriet, who is hiding in a cupboard.
Mickey arrives at Rose’s flat, and she learns that he had been considered a suspect in her disappearance. He tells her that the Doctor has left, and Rose leaves to investigate.
She finds that the TARDIS has disappeared, but while she is waiting there, it returns. Mickey and Jackie, who have followed Rose, also see the TARDIS reappear.
While Rose and Mickey go inside the TARDIS, Jackie runs back to the flat. Seeing an alien hotline number on TV, she phones it, saying that she’s seen the Doctor and the TARDIS.
The being that was in Oliver Charles’ body has now taken over General Asquith, and when he leaves the cabinet room, Indra tells him that they’ve received a Code Nine, which is an alert to the presence of the Doctor. As a result of Jackie’s call, the Doctor and Rose are located and are escorted to Downing Street, where they meet up with other alien experts.
Rose isn’t permitted to join the experts, but Harriet arrives and takes her away. She takes Rose to the cabinet room, where the two of them find the real Prime Minister’s body in a cupboard. The two of them are found by Indra and Margaret Blaine.
In the experts’ meeting, the Doctor explains that the spaceship crash was actually staged. He suddenly realises that it’s a trap – the world’s top alien experts have all been brought together in one room.
The Doctor is interrupted, and Asquith unzips his forehead to reveal his true form and announces that they’re actually aliens known as the Slitheen. Green takes out a device and uses it to electrocute all the gathered experts through their ID cards. Elsewhere, the policeman sent to question Jackie about the Doctor reveals that he is a Slitheen as is Margaret, who kills Indra and then turns to face Rose and Harriet.
Comments
I have to say that I didn’t like the fart jokes (even if I have included a line related to them in the quotes below). While I guess there is a place for them, I don’t feel that Doctor Who is that place. The show contains sufficient humour without resorting to cheap gimmicks like that.
Fortunately they weren’t taken too far, and didn’t detract from what was an interesting episode. Interesting in that it dealt with the consequences of the Doctor’s actions.
Apparently, in the old Doctor Who we never got to see what happened after a companion decided to off with the Doctor. But one feature of the new Doctor Who is that it has a number of stories set in the present day. This was part of a plan to try and enable the audience to relate to the stories, as was all of them being set on Earth or in Earth orbit.
I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of what happens after the story ends. Do they all live happily ever after, or does something else happen?
In this case, something else happened to Jackie and Mickey. Jackie began a search for Rose, and Mickey was the prime suspect in Rose’s disappearance.
One issue regarding Rose’s absence that isn’t touched on is the fact that the Doctor’s timing was off. Instead of returning twelve hours after Rose left, it was actually twelve months.
This is the second episode in a row that they’ve wound up in the wrong time, but both times they’ve had to deal with trouble. Could it be that they’re not there by chance, and that something was actually pulling them off course?
It’s revealed in a later episode (and was probably revealed in the past) that the TARDIS is actually alive. So could it be responsible? It would certainly explain why the Doctor ends up having to handle so many situations if he’s being deliberately broad there.
There’s also another possibility related to this season, which I can’t go into details right now, just that it’s related to the Bad Wolf. Speaking of which, there was the obvious graffiti on the TARDIS, and the choice of pig as the alien body is certainly not a coincidence.
There also was apparently a sign that said “Bad Wolf is coming”, but I missed it. I guess next time I should read my “cheat sheet” before watching the episode…
Quotes
The Doctor: 900 years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother.
Rose: Your face.
The Doctor: It hurt!
Rose: You're so gay!
Rose: When you say 900 years...
The Doctor: That's my age.
Rose: You're nine hundred years old.
The Doctor: Yeah.
Rose: My mum was right - that is one hell of an age gap.
Rose: Did you know this was going to happen?
The Doctor: Nope!
Rose: Do you recognize the ship?
The Doctor: Nope!
Rose: Do you know why it crashed?
The Doctor: Nope!
Rose: Oh, I'm so glad I've got you.
Harriet Jones: I did have an appointment at 3:15.
Indra Ganesh: Yes. And a spaceship crashed in the middle of London. I think the schedule might have changed.
Mickey: I bet you don't even remember my name!
The Doctor: Ricky.
Mickey: It's Mickey.
The Doctor: No, it's Ricky.
Mickey: I think I know my own name.
The Doctor: You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?
Rose: This is a bit posh. If I knew it was gonna be like this - being arrested - I'd have done it years ago.
Doctor: Like it said on the news - they're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?
Rose: Patrick Moore?
The Doctor: Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?