First Contact

Now that actual Doctor Who airing has calmed down, I have some time to take another look at some older episodes. There certainly isn't any other Time-Lord related activity going on this weekend, right?

Plot Summary

So Rose and the Doctor have done a bit of time travel - once into the future and once into the past. Now, it's time to go home and visit the folks.

No place like home.

The Doctor says that they've only been gone 12 hours, according to "real time", until he sees a missing poster and realizes that he accidentally read the "months" dial instead of the "hours" one.

Fortunately the domestic drama regarding a missing Rose is cut short by Big Ben being... well... cut short.

Aliens have made first contact! Specifically, aliens from Pigtopia.

Actually, that pig is just a fake alien, faked by real alien technology. The real bad guys are the acting Prime Minister, and some of his cronies.

Power gives me bad gas too.

Who are actually big cuddly green things called "Slitheen".

Awwwwww

But then they kill the Doctor, and so ends the four-episode run of Doctor Who.

That's actually what a Time Lord skeleton looks like.

Review

Pacing

Let's start with the opening scene, shall we? The Doctor and Rose return to the Powell Estates, ready for a nice quick visit home, accompanied by calm background music, but it quickly switches to horror-movie-style tension as we realize something's not quite right. The moment when Jackie first sees Rose sends a shiver down my spine every time I watch it.

On the other hand, only minutes after the new prime minister is introduced, he's revealed to be the Big Bad Guy, and in his second scene, he and his fellow Big Aliens show their blue glowing-ness. 

"This power was granted to me by an act of Parliament."

Those two examples well-characterize Aliens of London in terms of pacing; it came off as a whole bunch of beautifully choreographed scenes that fit together into a moderately clunky whole.

Of course, every rule has its exceptions; the final scene was exception to both. The scene where each of the Slitheen unwrapped themselves in front of the main cast dragged on for such a long time that I actually started getting bored.

This footage is banned on the Slitheen planet as NSFW.

For such a build-up, the "shocking" reveal that the aliens were... well... aliens, was kind of a let-down.

That said, from an overall narrative perspective, the Doctor's epiphany moments before, when he realizes that the crash-landing was a lure to gather and kill all of the alien experts, was a beautifully effective way of tying this episode together.

Family Values

I kept thinking that this episode was called "Aliens in London", rather than "Aliens of London". A tiny mistake, to be sure, but the actual name carries a ton of extra significance.

Here's a quiz: What is the first alien spacecraft shown in Aliens of London?
Here's a hint: This isn't it.

That's right - it's the TARDIS.

Didn't your mother ever teach you not to graffiti alien spaceships?

While some of the aliens within London might be the Prime Minister of Farts, Aliens of London's unique focus is as much on the Doctor and his alien-ness as on PM Green. And think about it: Green may be cackling up a storm of giggles and methane over his coup, but the Doctor accidentally abducted Rose and doesn't seem to understand why Jackie is so upset about it.

"What was that for? I brought her home, didn't I?"

At this point, I have to hand it to Camille Coduri. Her portrayal of Jackie Tyler and the emotional rollercoaster through which Rose has sent her is spot on: shock at Rose's sudden arrival, anger at the Doctor's seeming insincerity, sense of abandonment when Rose continues to choose the Doctor over her, and the confusion and fear that drives her to call the alien hotline. Similarly, Noel Clarke deserves some kudos as well for his performance as Rose's spurned lover.

"Am I that forgettable a character that I can not appear until 16 minutes into the episode and not see Rose until 26 minutes in, and nobody even notices?"

Poor Mickey. It's especially sad because the Doctor is such a jerk to him, and Rose doesn't even care.

"Are you SURE you're capable of self-awareness?"

However, I can't entirely extend those kudos to the writers, because of one glaring question.

She may not have a case against the Doctor in court, because Rose wouldn't testify against him. But why in the world would Jackie allow the man who, for all she knows, kidnapped and "used" her daughter for a year, to sit in her living room watching TV while she serves tea?

Planning

I love it when the main character lays out a detailed plan, like "Hey, Mickey, we want to keep a low profile, so you can drive us to the Thames to have a look at that spaceship", and then it all goes to pieces.

"Don't mind me. I'm just an innocent Doctor."

It adds a nice element of realism in an otherwise fantastical show.

Cliffhangers

A literary technique using tension and uncertainty at the end of an episode in order to entice viewers into watching the next one. You would think that the higher the stakes of a cliffhanger, the more exciting it will be, but when the stakes are too high, that actually makes it less exciting, not more.

"Oh no! I left the tea on too long!!!"

Take this ending. Every single named character is now in life-threatening danger. This is meant to be so tense that you can't help but hold your breath, wondering what will happen to them, but this lends itself much more to "oh, that's cool - how are they going to get out of this?"

Think about it - if the danger for these characters actually pulls through - that's it. Doctor Who is over because every single character has been wiped out at once.

What if, instead of trying to kill all the main cast, the Slitheen had separately taken Jackie, Rose, Harriet Jones, and the Doctor prisoner. Then the cliffhanger would be more subtle, but more profound - "these aliens are trying to do something dastardly, but we don't know what and our Good Guys are powerless to stop them."

"If only the Bad Guys were flies. I'm prepared for flies."

To me, the real cliffhanger is that we have these aliens who've taken over the British government, and we have no idea why, or what horrible thing they're trying to do. And that, by itself, is a pretty good cliffhanger.

Overall

A good first-half of a story. The narrative was well-paced, and Aliens of London had a lot to throw at us. Jackie's and Mickey's reactions to Rose's sudden reappearence were beautifully portrayed, and they both acted in ways that really developed their characters. I thought the reveal that the Prime Minister was the Big Bad Guy was way too early, but beyond that, the gradual reveals of the faked alien-pig, the glowing blue brains of the politicians, and the nature of their trap came together to make an interesting narrative - one that I'm looking forward to seeing continued.

Overall, I enjoyed it. But probably not as much as this guy did:

NEXT EPISODE: WORLD WAR THREE

The main cast survived! Hooray, no more tension!

The Doctor's upper lip didn't make it.