Having been slightly less then impressed with Rose, yet captivated by episodes 2 and 3, I had come to believe some aspects of the new series are fantastic, some of the best examples of Who ever to grace our screens, yet other aspects have been nothing short of abysmal. To me, Boomtown is a microcosm of the series, some brilliant moments mixed with the non-brilliant.

Here we have an episode in which not a great deal occurs. In surmation, the Doctor and his companions arrive in Cardiff, set about having a good time, discover one of those tiresome Slitheen people is not quite dead and is trying to blow up the aformentioned Welsh capital. Said Time Lord and companions then capture monster, threaten to take it home, discover home means execution, have a moral debate and then the TARDIS decides to make life easier and save everyone from having to make a moral choice.

Yet this is not to say that there is no excitement - we see some very funny banter between the new TARDIS crew, some extremely amusing scenes in the capture - Margaret Blaine [sic] climbing out of the window whilst still Mayor of Cardiff is for me the funniest moment of the series thus far - whilst the restuarant scenes are extremely intense. Also, while many Who fans have been unimpressed with the more domestic aspects of the series, I was genuinely impressed with RTD's exploration of the effects of Rose's travelling upon Mickey, in a superbly acted scene.

However, much of this episode left me cold. Firstly the set up itself seemed to me a little 'fanish', going back and revisiting plot devices that have already served their function. Although I can see the intention behind this, to show an already vanquished enemy pleading with the Dr. for mercy, I found it difficult to feel sorry for the Slitheen. This being has recently attempted genocide, has killed countless innocents and is once again intent upon reaping destruction of an entire planet. This being has already been given a chance by the Dr. to walk away, but instead laughed at the suggestion. In my mind, Blon was going to everything she deserved. Alternatively, the Dr. could surely have found an alternative punishment, handed the Slitheen over to other authorities, exiled it on an unihabited planet, yet here we are told there is only a black and white choice. Yet we do not even see the Dr. make this choice, the TARDIS does it for him.

What is more this episode follows another trend that has presided over Dr. Who in all its forms for a decade - the examination of death, the costs of the Dr.'s lifestyle. This is all very interesting, but yet again the Dr. is accused of wrong doing, of causing death, yet this is somewhat blind to the fact that the Dr. usually prevents death. Few of the people who die in the course of his adventures, die by his hands, there is often mercy for his enemies, the universe is made better by the Dr. I felt the restaurant scenes while intense missed the point - the Dr. is facing accusations from a murderous criminal whose sole motivation is profit. In contrast, for example, to the Big Finish Unbound adventure, 'Symapthy for the Devil', where the Master does a similar thing, there is the context that the Master believes in his own twisted head he is making the universe better; he accuses the Dr. of hypocracy, only helping the "right" people, failing to stop greater suffering, his evocative mention of Chairman Mao's admiration for the Dr. Boom Town misses all this. The Dr. is accused of being a murderer, by a murderer. The Dr. simply is not a murderer.

This along with the unsatisfactory ending, left me unsatisfied by this week's offering. I felt the plotting was simply not strong enough, the aspects of the story had not been properly thought through. I would have much rather seen the Dr. discover another Time Lord had survived (as earlier rumours suggested) and find out a little more about the Time War, than have watched this.

In my opinion, this episode is also an example of RTD taking on too much. Eight episodes is a vast number and the quality gap between some of the RTD episodes and those of the other writers has been very noticeable. This, I do not believe, is a symptom of RTD not being as good a writer as his hired help, I believe its a symptom of him not having the time to work on each episode properly. His skills as a writer are indeed awesome when it comes to writing dialouge and character, but his plots are often sloppy, his over reliance on magic gadgets worrying. It seems the sonic screwdriver can do anything, without explanation. I am coming to worry that RTD has underestimated the signifance of plot in action-adventure, which is what Who is. Dramas, such as those that have made him a televisual beomouth, don't need the tight plotting, but the sci-fi action adventure genre does - people will buy into virtually anything provided the fantasy coheres to itself, so long as it has its own laws that it obeys - Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, all these fantasy worlds make sense within themselves. If Dr. Who does not, then the slick execution that has captivated audiences can only keep them engrossed for so long. The generally negative reaction of many fans of the new series to this episode is surely the evidence that poor plotting will not go down well with the dedicated viewer. While many people are tuning in now for the novelty, if the series is to go on, it needs to keep a big core of viewers.

Although this perhaps seems like a doom and gloom monologue as to how Who is doomed, please do not take it as such. The excellence is there, I merely worry that RTD will not learn from his mistakes and may make them again with increasing regularity. The rating and audience approval were no doubt high again, but I doubt an entire season of Boom Town's would capitvate many people. I can only hope RTD will tighten up his plotting when Series 2 comes around, as expectations will be higher and it will be harder to get away with mistakes such as this episode.

Doctor Who has always been a show of variable quality, you would often get years of brilliance followed by a whole eras of mediocre quality, usually a dry spell was broken by a change of Doctor or production team, however whatever season you were watching usually gave you a pretty good idea as to what the rest of that series would be like.

This new version of Doctor Who however is another thing entirely. I honestly believe we have had the best and worst of Doctor Who all in the space of one season.

The new Who has had great characterisation, extremely poor characterisation, terrible incidental music, great incidental music, brilliant stories, mediocre stories and downright awful stories, a great companion, a boring Doctor, I could go on. The truth is for every time I have been close to despairing, along has come a story that has restored my faith, only to be found a few weeks later feeling like writing off this revival of my favourite show as a failure.

On the basis of Boom Town and its trail for the following week, I must admit I am perilously close to the latter. Once again another script by Mr Russell T Davies has pushed Doctor Who to an all time low for the second time this season, and surprise surprise both stories happened to feature a flatulent green blob.

It is customary to start reviews by listing the good points and leaving the niggles to the end, so here we go.

Some pretty Cardiff location work, some impressive effects courtesy of the Mill, a fairly decent Murray Gold score, we got to see some more of the excellent Tardis interior and of course Billie Piper was as great as ever. That I’m afraid is the closest I can come to finding anything positive to say about this unmitigated mess of a story.

It might have helped if there was a story to speak of, what started off as another Slitheen destroy the world premise, quickly split up into a series of disjointed segments that seemed to be trying to do something profound but ended up failing miserably.

The Doctor taking an alien for a last meal prior to returning them home to await potential execution is a sound premise. Unfortunately whereas a villain such as the Master, Sharaz Jek or even Sil could have made this whole scenario work, the knowledge that the alien concerned is a flatulent green teletubby played by a reject from Fit Club, rather diluted any dramatic impact this scene could have had, you might as well have stuck the Candyman in.

I honestly hoped we had seen the last of the Slitheen after the awful Aliens of London story, but unfortunately the Doctor Who production team obviously thought otherwise. While admittedly they have great marketing potential as stuffed toys, inflatable punch bags etc, they still make an abysmal Doctor Who monster. At least failed monsters of the past Nimon, Myrka etc went wrong by accident rather than design, the Slitheen seem deliberately designed as a cute comedy creation, the sort of thing a skit on Doctor Who would come up with as a joke. Sitting in on a Saturday night watching a green baby faced monster, sat on a toilet looking looking forlorn, made me wonder if anyone who had ever called being into this stuff sad, actually had a point.

It is not a secret that Russell T Davies is a Buffy fan and in this episode his attempts to turn the Tardis crew into the equivalent of the Scooby gang were painfully apparent. All that fast talking buddy buddy stuff was painful to watch. I will give it a few more episodes, but I don’t quite get the whole Captain Jack character, at the moment he seems little more than a bland American cipher and I cant really see what the point of him being there at all is.

Christopher Eccleston although trying his damnest, was still as dull to watch as he has been for most of this season. I honestly would never have thought eighteen months ago that the dream team of Davies and one of Britains most respected actors would respectively turn out this middle of the road, flat and at times embarrassing effort.

Unfortunately much of the poor material he has had to work with, has highlighted Eccleston’s weaknesses as an actor, he is a great working class actor and can even posh it up convincingly on occasion. But Doctor Who has left him hopelessly out of his depth, he simply cannot get a handle on how to play this sort of material and I’d be surprised if his reputation is left untarnished by his stint as the Doctor.

I too had high hopes for Davies scripts, of all the fan writers who were announced as working on the new series, he was the one I had most faith in. Unfortunately Davies take on the whole ethos of Doctor Who seems to be skewered, the man is obviously of the belief that the series should be written down to Childrens BBC level and have all the artistic integrity of something like the Thunderbirds movie. This is personally how I see Russell T Davies take on Doctor Who, 10 years from now it will be as disposable as Batman Forever or Robocop the series is today. When he does employ some of his skills as a dramatist the results can be extraordinary, but there is so much chaff surrounding the wheat that the message is lost.

Apart from not liking the tone, his scripts are badly constructed. Everyone had a go at the end of the Paul Mcgann movie, but this week we saw it repeated as the Tardis mysteriously reversed time once again. Too many of his scripts have relied on these convenient quick anticlimatic fixes and if that is not a mark of bad writing I don’t know what is. The man obviously has a love for Doctor Who, but something has gone badly wrong, rather than being the new Robert Holmes as I had hoped, he seems to be more of a twenty first century equivalent of Pip & Jane Baker. And for me the day he leaves the mantle of executive producer on Who to someone a bit more respectful of the series as a whole cant come too soon.

So two more episodes to go and is there really any hope left, the Doctor in the big brother house, robots looking like gigantic legoman, is this really what Doctor Who is about. Forty two years ago William Hartnell starred in a magical fantasy series, that enthralled children and adults alike. In 2005 Doctor Who returned as a low brow Saturday night light entertainment show. Come back Graham Williams, John Nathan Turner, Philip Segal, anyone, all is forgiven.

I'm a long time reader, first time writer as Paul Clarke's reviews voice my opinions admirably every week.However Boom Town has forced me to come out and reveal to you just how this episode was written:

One day Russell T Davies woke up. He got dressed, cleaned his teeth and got his early morning coffee, but something was niggling in the back of his mind. It kept telling him he had forgotten something, but what was it? Suddenly he blew the coffee out of his mouth. Of course! He had forgotten to write episode 11 of Dr Who. What was he going to do? He sat down at his computer. He had a three o'clock deadline and had to complete a forty-five minute episode.

He thought about the basics. - It would be set on Earth. That was an easy decision, as all episodes would be set on earth due to the fact the TARDIS was just a time travel machine (Wait a minute, isn't it a space travelling machine as well? -Huan) and seeing as the series was being filmed in Cardiff it would be easy to set the episode there and after all the Doctor likes Cardiff, he's a secret Welsh man.

Russell then put his imagination to work and decided to set the episode in two years time (cos that's what Doctor Whos all about isn't it kids - Huan). Now the aliens. Again for easiness he thought, let's bring back the funny (think he's forgotten the inverted commas there - Huan) Slitheen cos after all they were his favourites, a great marketing opportunity and the costumes were already made.

Now the plot - As he had already established in earlier episodes, he wasn't good at putting together a full 45 minute episode, he normally chose to think of a good 15 minutes and then just fill in the gaps. So for this episode he looked around his office and saw that the paper had a news story about nuclear power. That was good, a nuclear power plant. Yes, right, let's build one in the middle of Cardiff because like in two years time the Government of Britain won't mind a nuclear power plant being built in the middle of the city and neither will its residents. Those people of Cardiff are up for a laugh and obviously wont be concerned about the chance of having mutant children. We'll make the Slitheen the Mayor because Mayor's have all the power to make all the decisions in Wales dont they?

Right now what about the characters. The deadlines apporaching - 2.30pm already, right well, it's more important to make the episode a full 45 minutes long rather than give the characters any consistency so: let's pretend Mickey still hasn't got over Rose leaving him, even though he appeared to in the last episode when they were together. Then let's make them have a fight and at the end have him really bitter that Rose prefers travelling in time (not space remember) to boring old him. He can then go stomping off so that maybe next series I can have him come back as a baddy or something. Also may as well make Rose look upset, even though she has been through three other men since leaving Mickey. (obviously he's forgotten her brief relationship with the suicidal Dalek - Huan)

Right what about the other two minor characters Jack and the Doctor? Okay well Jack can stay in the ship most of the time fixing the TARDIS, that's him out of the way, and the Doctor can capture the Slitheen and then they can have a moralistic debate about life and death again, oh and explore some of Cardiff's finest eateries. Yeah that's good.

By now it was three o clock and he quickly finished off the script with an awful alien surf board idea, the TARDIS saving the day, added a few bad special effects and sounds and raced over to Cardiff for the shoot.

In my opinion (and some other people's based on the 'grin and bear it' remarks) Mr Davies' episodes are not up to scratch, with the other writers far out shining him. Trouble is he writes over half of them and to me that's a worry. Let's hope he's listened and learned. He has a second chance with a new Doctor. Please take it.

That was a nice surprise. From the preview after The Doctor Dances, this looked, to be blunt, a load of tripe. But, to come after the masterpiece that was The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances story is a hard job anyways.

The whole character piece of the Doctor was something new that has really only been looked at in the books. RTD does give real depth to his characters. This was echoed in the Rose-Mickey storyline too. We're seeing real consequences for both their actions. Consequences of the Doctor's actions was dealt with in a fleeting way in 'The Face of Evil' but this is a whole episode devoted to it. The meal between him and the Doctor was great stuff.

Captain Jack didn't have much to do in this episode, but having the three of them in the TARDIS and then seeing them at the restaurant enjoying themselves really made me feel like they'd be fun to travel with in TIME AND SPACE! But then thats why we watch isn't it? Because we all wish we were part of the TARDIS crew isn't it?

If have a few quams it would be that the whole Nuclear power station thing was tied up far too quickly - it never built up to any kind of threat. Using the rift from episode three and other 'tie-in' matters made this episode feel very patchy overall. Great scenes and good humour but patchy.

Let's hope the Daleks notch this series up again.

The rumours indicated a Slitheen presence. The previous week teaser made it crystal clear. A big spoiler there in all kinds of ways! Compared to the rest of the season (a high comparison to be sure) the Slitheen are one of the least successful aspects. There motivation is fine, rather well thought out actually, but their lumbering bouncy image, and gastric emissions were a little too embarrassing for my tastes.

But anyway, back they come В– actually back one of them comes В– in the form of Margaret Blaine (Annette Badland). The Radio Times announced it was one of the funniest episodes thus far В– so I was hoping for a sleeper hit of the year. It would also be nice to see Cardiff, which I think is a magnificent place.

I enjoyed Boom Town В– it seemed more reflective than the majority of episodes В– and we learnВ’t quite a bit more about this new Doctor and his Companion Rose. ItВ’s ironic that when the Doctor gains a new companion, it is the existing TARDIS team, and 2 recurring guest stars, that get the meat of the story. Boom Town has a story in there, something about a rift in Cardiff, and the Slitheen channelling badness through it to destroy the world В– but it is mostly a character piece of 5. I think I will go through those characters one at a time in order of importance in the episode.

Captain Jack has just joined the crew. HeВ’s looking particularly confident too in his tight T-shirt and Jeans В– the innuendoes flew pretty steadily too. I hope they donВ’t overdo this aspect of his character В– itВ’s just staying within the line for childrens TV, but only just! But I am sure Jack is more than this В– and he does help the Doctor with some technical stuff later on. He's a playful fellow, and that's nice to see.

On to the first of the recurring guest stars В– Mickey. I always preferred Jackie, but I can see the need to talk about Rose and Mickeys relationship. You feel rather sorry for Mickey, but heВ’s hardly been written affectionately throughout the series. Him and Rose talk about stuff, but itВ’s the argument that stands out. Rose has treated him badly, but the Doctor is so much more interesting В– thereВ’s no comparison.

Rose herself doesnВ’t really have her finest hour in Boom Town. She enjoys the running around with the Doctor, Jack and Mickey В– but then is forced to confront her callous treatement of Mickey. Then she leaves him when the problems start. I really like Rose, but this aspect of her character did her no favours, even though most would have run away with the Doctor.

Annette Badlands portrayal of Margaret almost stole the episode. Russell T was right, on the basis of her performance here, she did deserve more screen time. Hers was a sympathetic portrayal of an alien race. I didnВ’t quite buy her reformation, but she was doubting her whole way of life by the end. There wasnВ’t that much of the Slitheen itself, in the flesh, either В– which I was grateful for. Annette Badland produced a wonderful performance. And I find myself quite liking the Slitheen now!

The main character, as it should be, was the Doctor. I thought he was brilliant from the start of the season, but now heВ’s well and truly took his place alongside the great Doctors of the Past. They all have a place in DW History, and Eccleston (in spite of doing only 1 season) totally deserves his place on the mantle. In Boom Town he was excellent again. I loved his acceptance of the challenge that Margaret flung at him - the last meal scene. ItВ’s also nice to see him fiddling around the TARDIS control room. We spent longer there in this story than any В– and that was wonderful.

ThereВ’s also another character here, one that Russell T was keen to push forward В– Cardiff. I spent a wonderful week there once in early 2000 В– it looks even better now. Boom Town has persuaded me that a weekend visit is definitely in order.

Hardly likely to be top of the Season Poll, but good strong character based writing all the same. What Russell T has done this season has been extraordinary. HeВ’s the one on the pulse of these wonderful characters В– heВ’s the main creator В– and Boom Town shows again how wonderful this new season of Doctor Who really is. 8/10

So... here we go again... an episode that demonstrates the good, the bad and the ugly of Who 2005.

The case put by Russell T Davies (RTD from now on... although there is a strong tendency to call him RTDTour...);

"the doctor meets an old enemy...."

Ah.. yes...the Slitheen... really old enemy... haven't seen them for... oh at least six weeks... and what were they in...oh yes the travesty that was Aliens of London... did they deserve an encore? No.

And before all you RTD worshippers howl with derision... there was some merit in the portrayal here... of the lone survivor and the moral/ethical dilemma posed by the conflict with the Doctor... but doesn't that sound remarkably like 'Dalek'? - and boy was that done soooo much more effectively. And if like me you watched Confidential... you have to admit that this "character piece" (RTD's description not mine)... was built to lead up to the dinner scene... (mmm done so much better in 'Heat' RTD...) ended up being little more than an apertif to the Season finale main course...

"Oh MICKEY you're so fine....NOT?"

There has been FAR TOO MUCH exposition in regards to the characterisation of Mickey/Rose... the point of 'disrupted relationship... time travelling has it's consequences on those that are left behind... blah blah blah..." Haven't we got this already? Personally I DO NOT CARE what happens to Mickey. Exterminate him... drop him in a vat of acid... He is the most overused pointless 'accessory' character since... well Adric... and at least he died in a good episode... What next... Mickey turns gay and falls for Captain Jack? Bored already!

Oh and that's something that this episode did give me.. moments of boredom. I never thought I'd say that but I was bored by some of the proceedings... (anytime Mickey was on screen for starters)... and I sat waiting for some good bits... and anticipating the trailer for next week... now that is a new Who experience for me... so congratulations RTD you've added a new dimension to Who that as a 37 year old fan I hadn't experienced before. (And yes I do except some of the later Graeme Harper produced Baker stories were bland... and Nathan Turner did meander off into the ridiculous ditto 'The Happiness Patrol....' but I can honestly say that I was NEVER bored).

So that's some of the bad and the ugly... but wait... there was a jewel... there was a moment where I held my breath and thought there could be hope...

"BAD WOLF"

The translation moment... when Eccleston's Doctor mused on 'where the name for the project came from'... he has been paying attention... a reward for all of us who have been tuned to it's significance and then.. grin and gone. Pity. There was a real sense of foreboding built up in that brief moment... if only that could be made to permeate a full episode.

So there you have it... a poor effort. No real sense of threat... more Rose/Mickey squabbling... Captain Jack (a potentially interesting character) reduced to TARDIS engineer, with as much to do as Nyssa in Kinda, the Doctor pontificating about 'what to do with Margaret... an unwanted Slitheen sequel... a painting by numbers reference to the time rift... ludicrous time 'surf boards'... and an ending that just smacked of... we really didn't know what to do with Margaret... "She's an egg.... " An egg that shouldn't be allowed to hatch another crazy plot like this one... oh and it was in Cardiff... no Millenium stadium though....

I'm still deciding whether this is the lowpoint of the season or not... but I'm so heavily torn between Aliens of London (which did have a cool spaceship crash in it's favour).... World War Three (which I'm struggling to find a redeeming feature in)... and this that I think it might be easier to declare all three a Slitheen tragedy and be done with it... oh and did I mention fart gags... bet the 6 year olds loved that... ????

Another RTD duffer... Mr Gatiss, Shearman & Moffat... keep submitting your stories... and please can one of you write the Cyberman story for Season Two.....

And now for real trepidation and dread... the final two... reality TV pastiche... and then the Daleks... Bad Wolf next... the reveal at last... and of course it'll be RTD all over again. Please please no more RTDtour... if you want to harken back to "the mystery of the good old days..." then next week it is time to deliver!

"When I say run....RUN!"