New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 3 (Boom)

Let's get it out of the way immediately: There can be no measure of "objectivity" when it comes to this first impression. This is the return of Steven Moffat to the show after 6 1/2 years, and that is absolutely monumental to my sense of self and my internal landscape. Moffat's run was peak Doctor Who for me, particularly during the Peter Capaldi years. Not only that, but it was both reading and writing critique and analysis of it that I honed myself into the me you're reading right now. Suffice to say, I would not be who I was without the words and thoughts of Steven Moffat on this time travel show. The significance of this to me cannot be understated, and it bolds and underlines anything I have to say about Boom before a single word gets typed. With all that being said, Boom is (pun unintended) an absolute banger of an episode, and I don't want to wait any longer so let me launch right into it.

It strikes all the great hits and concepts that Moffat honed so well in his tenure on the show. The power dynamic between Doctor and companion. Musings on faith and belief. The nature of war and capitalism. Transhumanism, life after death, and tying all that into the technological. Hell, he even makes the premise of the episode just a giant riff on that one scene from the start of Genesis Of The Daleks, and Moffat is exactly the kind of gigantic Classic Who DORK that he would have that in mind while giddily doing this. It's a flawless set list of the type of shit you would expect from Steven Moffat, for better or worse. For me, it's better obviously, but I've seen the worse around online in the wake of the episode. It varies, of course. You have your nuanced takes like finding the episode good but wincing a little at how it handles religion, for instance. On the extreme end of the spectrum you've got people saying shit like "Oh, the Doctor's acting is really good, but THE WRITING IS A JUMBLED MESS THAT DOESN'T COHERE". They used to say that about the Capaldi era too. Even the Moffat critique is a nostalgic throwback, God. 

There's still a certain freshness, a contemporary sort of righteous indignation that Moffat has going here. Last weekend I kept talking about how we were re-introducing the concepts of Doctor Who for all the Gen Alpha kids and new Disney+ watchers. Part of this show felt like the same sort of principle, except it's Moffat introducing his views on the evils of the modern world through his sci-fi lens in a way that would resonate with the folks across the pond. Yes, Moffat's Doctor Who was extremely anti-war and anti-capitalist, that's why I love it so much. The specific flavor here, of a war engineered by an algorithm for profit and an uncaring health care system of ambulances that kill you in order to keep the casualties up for the forever war, feels extremely targeted to resonate with an American audience. I'm Canadian so I've got the free healthcare and all, and I think that's how it works in the UK too, but war and healthcare being for-profit industries intertwined to destroy lives for the sake of not making the money sad just feels very American, and the condemnation of it is powerful here.

What destroys this algorithm in the end is not just AI, not just a rock mirroring the thought patterns of a dead man. Some essence of the man himself remains beyond the death of his body. As the show says in the end, he's not gone, he's just dead. It's peak Moffat transhumanism, but it also speaks something to the innate faith of his Space Anglicans. Some of the criticism online of this episode is of Vater's daughter's naiveite over her dad being dead and an AI hologram of him being the only thing left. I buy it because of that line at the end of the episode about him not being gone. This is just her faith and belief system at play, her acceptance of death as being just a temporary separation. Admittedly this reading doesn't work quite so well when you take Mundy's reaction to Canto dying, but if I wanted to put in the effort I could pave over that "plot hole". 

I don't have too much else to say. It's Moffat doing his Moffat thing, and I love that shit. It feels just fresh enough that it's not just the greatest hits, too, although they are there: the initial scene where Ruby refuses to throw the Doctor the capsule and insists on handing it to him? You could slot Capaldi and Coleman in there without having to change a line. Absolutely spectacular, a highlight of the new Doctor Who for me, and my God am I stoked to have three bangers in a row like this. I hope Moffat comes back every once in a while, like once a series or something. After 6 1/2 years he still has great things to say, and I look forward to seeing what's next from him.

What's next for this show, meanwhile? Something spooky? It Follows with Ruby Sunday? Time will tell, as it does.