- After meeting Charles Dickens (and Ghosts on Christmas) the Doctor and Rose return to London in the 21st Century. What neither of them realize is that the Doctor entered the time wrong into the Tardis (he will do this a lot during the series) and delivers Rose back home 12 months after the first episode. This means that Rose has been missing for 12 months in our world and Jacquie has had the police out looking for her. She is hopping mad when Rose returns home without a decent explaination ("I was traveling" doesn't cut it since her passport is still in her room). Jacquie even slugs the doctor. He says that in 900 years he hasn't been slapped by someone's mom (I don't see how that's possible, but never mind).
While Rose is trying to decide what to do next, an Alien space ship crash lands into Big Ben and Parliament. The Doctor is thrilled at their timing, but can't get any closer to the disaster because of the throng of people. Rose suggests that they watch the even on the TV news.
So somehow they got Jacquie to let them back into her living room without killing them. Apparently no one knows who is in the flying saucer or what exactly is going on. A body has been found in the wreckage and that it is definitely alien. The doctor seems very interested in the situation, but doesn't seem to know exactly what is going on. So the body is eventually taken to Albian Hospital and that a general has arrived at the hospital and patients have been evacuated.
In the next scene we are with the general in the hospital. He looks at the "body" and is shocked. The coroner affirms that the body is real and not a hoax.
We then find out that the Prime Minister has gone missing. At 10 Downing Street, a minor official enters the building and gets little notice from the press. We meet Harriet Jones who has an appointment with the Prime Minister but is turned away.
Now we meet the Slitheen. I have a love-hate relationship with the Slitheen. Yes, there's the fact that they are murderous aliens who want to take over the planet. That's hard to like. But there's another thing. They are very badly developed characters. They are terrible. They are worse than anything on even the worst episode of Star Trek's original series (The Horta is a better developed character. BTW, I like Star Trek. I was commenting on special effects and occasional corniness). These are giant green aliens who hide in the bodies of their dead victims and fart like teenage boys trying to gross each other out. They are terrible and immature. I do not believe that they would be organized enough to coordinate the take over of Britain that they have done in this show. That said, I like this episode because its fun. I don't know why because my feelings toward the Slitheen have not changed. More about this later.
The Doctor is excited. Rose asks him if he is going to interfere with the crash landing (they have't met the Green Fart Monsters yet. They're still referring to the body that is being hidden in the hospital and the ship that hit Big Ben which is totally different). He says he's not going to interfere because that looked like a real crash. He says that he hopes this is the moment when people really meet other creatures from other planets and "Grows Up.'
Rose is afraid that The Doctor will fly away and disappear so he gives her a Tardis Key before he walks away.
Meanwhile Mickey sees The Doctor walking down the street.
The Doctor goes back into his Tardis and flies off just ask Mickey hits the wall trying to catch him. Its very funny, but jumping into the air trying to attack the Tardis is really the bravest and manliest thing we've seen Mickey do so far in the series.
Harriet Jones really wants to meet with the Prime Minister. She knows that something huge has happened, but as she says regular life still goes on. The Acting Prime Minister (one of the Slitheen) snaps at her when she tries to give him her paper.
She sneaks into the Cabinet Room to put her paper into one of the Red Boxes, but finds the procedures for continuing government if the Prime Minister disappears (oops).
So far in this episode the scenes are jumping around a lot. It all comes together very quickly and starts to make sense, but even as I'm watching it now (and I know what is going on) I feel like I'm getting whip lash.
Here is a quick recap:
- We know there has been a crash landing of an alien ship.
- The Prime Minister is Missing
- Under-Officials (not the deputy Prime Minister either, but way down the ladder) have stepped up as acting Prime Minister and assistants.
- Jacquie Tyler is really angry at the Doctor and is ready to kill him at any given moment. He may have a black eye forming right now.
Its hard to gather up all of this information from watching the episode because the scenes move very quickly and can seem hard to follow. This doesn't go on for very long though which really saves then episode.
The alien from the ship that crashed wakes up in the morgue and starts to run around. The doctor "sneaks" into the building in his Tardis (that machine is much too loud to sneak, so I don't believe he could do that, sorry...that machine has the subtlety of a rhinoceros). He interrupts a meeting of armed military men, but he pretends to be an officer himself and orders the men to follow him down the hall and then surround the building and create a lock down.
Unfortunately someone shoots the poor alien and kills it. The doctor chastises them because he says the alien wasn't a threat, it was just scared.
The general that we saw near the beginning of the episode goes to see the acting prime minister to relieve him of command because he doesn't believe he's doing a good job. So, they kill the general and one of the Slitheen puts on his body as a suit. Harriet Jones is watching this whole thing from inside the cabinet room's closet.
Then doctor tells the coroner that the Pig isn't really an alien. Its a pig whose brain has been augmented. He coroner comments that its still amazing that it seems that aliens are faking aliens and sticking them into flying saucers and making them crash (she has a point).
Back to the Tyler home. Friends point out that Jacquie needs to apologize to Mickey because she accused him of killing Rose or something. Mickey tells Jacquie that he knew that Rose was gone with the Doctor but didn't know how to tell her. (And lets face it. Would Jacquie have believed Mickey if he said that? Frankly I wouldn't want to be around Jacquie if she was angry. She slapped the Doctor. What would she have done to little Mickey?). Then Mickey tells Rose that he saw The Doctor disappear in his Tardis. Rose said she didn't believe that he would leave her and points out that he had given her the Tardis key. The Tardis appears right near them. Rose tries to get them too leave, but they won't.
The Doctor tells them that it wasn't a real alien. Jacquie runs off to hide in her room since she is so overwhelmed. She calls a number on television to tell the government that she had seen a real alien.
Of course the British Government is fully aware of The Doctor and when Jacque puts in the alert an alarm goes off.
Back to the Tardis (whiplash again). Rose apologizes to Mickey and tells him that for her she had only been gone for a few days. Mickey accepts her apology and says that he hadn't seen anyone else -- but that's mainly because people think he murdered her. He tries to kiss her but she turns away.
Back to the Doctor. He proves that the Pig's space ship had been made to do a sling shot around the earth so that it would seem to crash land onto the Earth. Someone is trying to make this rouse look very real.
And now we're back to Number 10. The Slitheen are discussing their evil plans and Harriet Jones is listening. The private secretary runs to the acting prime minister, delighted that they had found The Doctor through Jacquie's phone call.
Back to the Tardis. They're watching TV and UNIT has been brought in (no wonder they're looking for the Doctor). Rose and the Doctor get escorted to 10 Downing Street. Rose is thrilled. The Slitheen one to Jacquie's apartment and ask the police to leave.
Back to 10 Downing. Harriet Jones walks into the room with other MP's. The Doctor is there, but they tell Rose that she can't go in because she doesn't have clearance. Harriet doesn't have clearance either, so she catches up with Rose. She asks Rose if The Doctor is an expert on Aliens and starts crying.
In the room with The Doctor he points out that the Government had found something about aliens and then the Pig Ship shows up... a diversion?
Harriet, Rose, and the secretary find the body of the Prime Minister.
The Doctor points out that they are in a trap.
The female Slitheen comes in and finds the group with he body of the Prime Minister.
Jacquie is alone in her house with the General Slitheen who comes out of her suit and says that he is there to eliminate trouble.
The female Slitheen admits to the group that she had something to do with the death of the Prime Minister.
The Doctor tells the other Alien experts that he believes they're in a trap because they know about Aliens. The Slitheen takes off his costume. So do the other two where they are.
This is one of those truly bizarre moments that make me remember why I hate the Slitheen. You don't love to hate them. They aren't funny. They're just stupid.
The Slitheen with the government workers starts growling and so do the other two.
There are apparently Two Slitheen in with the Doctor even though Heretofore we have only seen 3 of them.
One of the Slitheen kills the secretary and the ones in with The Doctor start to electrocute the alien experts while laughing maniacally. Jacquie is trapped in her kitchen with another one.
A lot happens in this episode very quickly in a relatively short period of time. I've seen this one five or six times before and I am just figuring out some new details that I've never caught before. The Slitheen though are just as stupid.
Where are the Prime Minister's body guards? Isn't there a deputy Prime Minister? We're not meeting any other major members of the cabinet. They have apparently gone missing and no one is saying anything about it. Yes that might be too detailed for a kid's show and if I am being totally wrong here (it's possible. I am blonde and I am American) then please tell me.
UNIT has been brought in on this case too. UNIT is supposedly an entity connected with the United Nations. Why aren't there more UN officials involved here. Why would a handful of ACTING officials of lower rank in the British Government be allowed to run amuck and no one from other countries or the UN really says anything about it?
I know this is a kids show, but usually Doctor Who is a little better at explaining away these details.
I can't say much. I'm American so many of our sci-fi movies are very centered on the United States and have the United States speak for everyone else. That's probably not what would really happen either. Still this is kind of hard to follow because the Slitheen and their surrounding plot are written very badly.
This Episode is the first half of a two parter, but I am going to rate it on its own.
Because this is a two part episode, so much information didn't have to be packed in so tightly. The writers should have been able to spread out information and events so that they are easier to catch and to follow because they had two episodes in which to do it. That's double the usual time. I'll be honest, my head hurts after watching this because I am trying to catch every little detail because every little detail is essential to understanding what is going on. If one detail goes missing, you get completely confused while watching the episode.
I'm giving this episode 2 stars out of 5. It is fun to watch, but like I said, I've seen this Episode many times before and I'm literally just now able to catch all the little important details. This is probably because I'm analyzing it for this blog, but that's how confusing it can be.
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