"And honey...I know how I look."

Hello! I’m Steven Moffat and I’m back to write yet another episode of Doctor Who.

The reason I came back is, I thought, “What if you put the Doctor in incredible danger, in the middle of a battlefield, and you removed from him one thing that he always does, one thing that he always relies on?"

Steven Moffat, BBC interview

Donna Noble : He saves worlds, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures and runs a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved.

Doctor Who, The Doctor's Daughter

In a noteworthy return to Doctor Who as a writer, ex-show runner Steven Moffat gives us Boom:  an eloquent, well-written script, tight, emotional, loaded with clever exposition, and full of tension. It's a bit of a relief, really, after having a couple of less than inspired episodes to start the season off.  

As per his comments on the story, he wanted to take away the Doctor's ability to flee from danger - in other words, no running - as part of a situation where the danger was both immediate and terminal. The resulting man-on-a-land-mine storyline succeeds on every level.

The story takes place during a war - or does it? The Anglican Army, previously seen in A Good Man Goes to War, has established a beachhead on the planet Kastarion, but the Kastarions have proven to be an elusive foe. The Anglicans are supported by the Villengard arms corporation, which takes an oddly economical approach to combat: soldiers deemed not worth saving are euthanized by robotic AI ambulances rather than treated (in order to maintain predicted casualty rates), and instead of using explosives in its landmines, the Villengard version creates a chain reaction that uses the victim's DNA to create the detonation.  

As the Doctor and Ruby arrive on Kastarion, they hear the screams of a soldier being euthanized.  As they run to investigate, the Doctor steps on a mine: he manages to not trigger the explosion, but can't move without setting off the chain reaction.  The balance of the episode revolves around the trapped and immobile Doctor finding a way to disable the mine and save a wounded Ruby from being terminated. 

It's interesting to see Moffat working with the new Doctor's style as a performer.  For example, the Doctor delivers the following speech:

"I am a Timelord. I am a higher dimension life form, I am a complex space-time event. I am a much bigger bang than you bargained for. I am a lot more explosive than I look, and honey...I know how I look. Put a quantum chain reaction through me and I will shatter this silly little battlefield of yours into dust. All of it. In a heartbeat. Into dust."

It's hard to imagine any of the previous Doctors commenting on how explosive they look* - especially with the endearment of "honey" as a prefix.  But for Gatwa, it perfectly matches the persona he's using for the character, while combining it with a very Doctor-like warning about potentially destroying the arena.

Varada Sethu, who makes an appearance as Anglican Army soldier Mundy Flynn, is reported to be joining the show as a companion. Given that the episode features another cameo by Susan Twist, it's hard to say whether Sethu's appearance is just what it appears to be, a guest spot by an actor, or another piece of this season's big picture puzzle.  It could easily go either way - after all, Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan coincidentally appeared together in The Fires of Pompeii in Season 4 before making the eventual jump to Doctor and Companion.  Time will tell, as they say...

- Sid

* Okay, maybe David Tennant...

Although Mondays and Fridays get all the press.

"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I've just been reminded by a fellow fan that Thursday was the day that the Vogon Constructor Fleet destroyed the Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 

- Sid

And Now, For Your Viewing Pleasure, The Gay Black Scottish-Rwandan Libran Doctor.

Yes, the new Doctor is gay.  And Black.  And Scottish (again).  And Rwandan, which is new.  And a Libra. He may or may not be left handed, the Internet was not informative in this area.

And, honestly?

So what.

Good grief, Jodie Whittaker was apparently an actual woman - an actual woman - when she became the 13th Doctor, and she met another incarnation of herself who was an actual Black woman (with really great taste in vests) and guess what, the universe didn't come to an end.  (Well, thanks to Chris Chibnall it sort of did, but you know what I mean.)

If I were being charitable, I would say that the people who have expressed their outrage regarding the new Doctor's gayness/Blackness/Scottishness/etc.*(and the old Doctor's woman-ness, for that matter) just have too much time on their hands, but I suspect that the problem goes deeper than that.

But let's try to look at this rationally, as from within the Whoniverse - if you're a enough of a fan of the show to complain about it in the first place, you should be able to work within the framework of the Doctor's zeitgeist. 

Remember in Hellbent, when the 12th Doctor shoots the General?  Following their regeneration, the General has gone from being an older bald white man to a short-haired young black woman, who first comment is "Back to normal, am I?  The only time I've been a man, that last body. Dear lord, how do you cope with all that ego?"  This suggests that gender and race are known to be fluid through regeneration, although there may be some kind of bias, as demonstrated by the long run of white male Doctors (and female Generals, apparently). 

If we accept this to be the standard for regeneration, and recognize that Time Lord society may have a commitment ritual not unlike marriage (as per the 10th Doctor commented on being rubbish at his own wedding) then at any given moment, a Time Lord must be prepared to have their life partner come home as a completely different gender and colour after being hit by a bus or some mass transit equivalent on the streets of the Citadel. 

What happens then?  I suppose there's a possibility that Gallifrey has legislated a policy of instantaneous post-generation divorce - that, following their rebirth, it's a clean slate in all ways.  (Drastic way to clean up your crippling credit card debt, but possibly worth it.)  

More logically, I suspect that the Time Lord in question kisses their reborn partner on the cheek, joins them in cursing bus drivers in general, and asks them what they want for dinner.

Because, if your entire species is genetically coded to become a new person on a regular basis, then you'd accept that a new face is only that, a new face, like wearing a different suit or dress, and ultimately makes no difference in who the person is. And as such, your love for them would be constant regardless of sex, colour, or Scottishness - although that last one might be a bit puzzling to the average Gallifreyan spouse.

I haven't watched any of the new season that's just started streaming on Disney+ (although I hope to get a start this weekend) but the impression that I get from trailers is that the new Doctor and Ruby Sunday are having fun, that's there's singing and dancing and a jukebox on the TARDIS.  

And, honestly?

That's great. Fun is great. 

The Doctor has been through so much, it's been a grim time for the (sort of) last Time Lord, let's open things up, let's wear some period costumes and show Ruby dinosaurs and the Beatles and go behind the scenes at Bridgerton, let's have some fun while we save the universe - it's about time.

- Sid

* I suspect that they're okay with the Scottish/Libra etc. part, which is at least someplace to start on the road to tolerance.