Lull Before The Oncoming Storm
Doctor Who Retrospective #4 of 10 “Aliens of London”/ “World War Three”
If I were to write a potted history of the re-launched series of Doctor Who, which in a way, I am, I think I would take a moment to consider the impact of the first two-part story “Aliens of London” and “World War Three”. I have to confess that this is one of my least favourite stories of the whole re-invented series. The reasons are not for any one significant reason, rather it is a series of little peculiarities that irritates me. However, let’s start with the positive stuff. The initial concept of arriving back on the Powell Estate after her two trips forward and back in time, Rose thinks she is back a mere twelve hours after she left, but in a lovely twist we find it is, in fact, twelve months. This later serves as an excellent vehicle for allowing Mickey and Jackie into the Rose’s secret. Also, the main story of an alien family’s nefarious plans to invoke a nuclear war is pretty well described and the 90 minute format gives story plenty of time to develop at a more pleasing pace than the previous runarounds.
We soon start coming up against the obstacles to my enjoyment. First up we meet the Slitheen in their latex, prosthetic get-up for which one can describe the production values as “ambitious”… I thought that they were lumbering, clumsy and far from menacing although, admittedly, pretty memorable for the kids (and I love my 5-inch action figure 
). However, switch to the CGI shot of them running through the corridors of power and suddenly they become the deadly hunters that the script suggests. One can argue the case for or against either method but it was the fact they used both that grated with me. On to the cliffhanger (the first for 16 years) and it’s really good. Three main characters all in jeapordy with no obvious escape, classic stuff. Who’s great idea was it, therefore, to show a “Next Time” trailer about 10 seconds later that included all three of them escaping? Another thing that really irritated was the wierd, blue light that accompanied the unzipping, not sure what it was about this but it annoyed the bejeezus out of me.
Oh, and the farting.
Having said all that I quite enjoyed some parts of the script and I began to start appreciating the performance of Christopher Eccleston. Despite the fun and high velocity of David Tennant’s later performance, I still wish that we could have had a few more performances from Nine. Everything from the wit of the “Narrows it down!” speech , to the stoicism of his reply to Margeret Blaine’s taunts “You? Trapped in your box?”, “Yes. Me” and the heartfelt “I could save the world but lose you”. Also in evidence we saw a little bit of politics being played out and I don’t just mean the cameo from Andrew Marr. The story that the Slitheen invented was that an alien threat had massive weapons of destruction that could be deployed in just 45 seconds. Do you see what they did there? Do you?
Some of the other characters also had good outings: Mickey was a bit of a revelation after the somewhat drippy portrayal we saw in Rose, and Harriot Jones (MP for Flydale North, and on the road to greater things) was a delight thanks to Penelope Wilton’s performance. Let us also not forget, for the Torchwood fans around here and I know that there must be some, that this story saw the first appearence of Toshiko Sato. However, one particular fact pertinently sums up my feelings towards this story, and that is that my absolute favourite bit was the “Next Time” trailer after the second episode… “Exterminate”
