At the moment I am ready the novel Illegal Aliens which was
written by Mike Tucker & Robert Perry which oddly enough was going to form
part of the 1990 series had that been made. That story takes place in November
1940 which is just before the events of todays episode. I liked watching todays
episode thinking that the seventh Doctor had been walking around the streets of
the same city just a short time before. This is the second two parter story and
in my opinion the strongest of the three that occur during this series. The
story was written by future showrunner Steven Moffat (at a time when people
liked him). The Rose problem is still on show in today’s episode. Not only is
she wearing a Union Jack top but is obsessed with the Doctor using some ‘alien
tech’ and wanting to do a bit of Spock stuff which makes me wonder if she
wishes she were in Star Trek.
There are some lovely visuals in this episode. The first is
when Rose is hanging from a barrage balloon just as planes are about to come
towards her when bombs are falling towards the ground. The effect of Doctor
Constantine’s transformation towards the end of the episode is a fantasticly
gruesome one and one that I thought at the time would get the show into trouble
but it still looks fantastic.
John Barrowman’s first scene is an odd one. He is basically perving
over Billie Piper’s bottom (which most would say isn’t a bad thing). But it’s
not the greatest of starts for the future Face of Boe. He spends his first episode
pretty much flirting with Rose which just gets in the way of the story. If it weren’t
for this flirting then I wouldn’t have found him so annoying.
If there is one thing that Moffat can do really well then
its spooky drama. The idea of a small boy with a gas mask just saying “Are You
My Mommy?” is something that could only have come from the mind of Moffat. The
scene where Nancy and the Doctor are inside the house and the boy in the gas
mask is outside. It’s a very enjoyable scene and shows how you can have a great
moment in the show without CGI or any special effects.
Something else he has done well in this episode is the
creation of Nancy and the young kids that she ‘mothers’. Despite the horrible
settings they found themselves in there is something nice about the family that
she seems to find herself being the mother of. Her story is very sad but I
think that Florence Hoath works well with Christopher Eccleston. The whole
Doctor/Nancy relationship works much better than the Doctor/Rose relationship
has been recently. At the moment I wish that Rose would be left in 1941 and
Nancy would go travelling with the Doctor. The idea of someone from the Second
World War travelling in time and space is a great one. Nancy lost her brother
during one of the airraids and he died.
Richard Wilson guest stars in these two episodes and whilst
he is more known to me (and most people) for playing Victor Meldrew in the BBC
sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000). He is great in the scene he is in
before he gets a new gas mask as a face.
Steven Moffat has written a cracking set up episode. Despite
the relationship between Rose and Captain Jack, I have found what he has
written to be entertaining and its still easy to see why he would go on to be
the showrunner in 2010. James Hawes deserves a lot of praise for making the
whole episode look like it was actually filmed in 1941. The pacing is constant
and I never found myself being bored (only when Rose and Jack were on screen).
The omens are good for the next episode.
I’ve just read something about an interview that Christopher
Eccleston did to promote some ITV drama (spits on the floor). In it he says
that he would have done the comedy differently which to me is an odd thing to
say because I actually think watching it this time that his comedy is actually
pitched just right. 
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