Is it offensive to say this one is a bottle-episode? Directed by Julie Anne Robinson, Robinson returns following “Space Babies;” She’s also known as the director of episodes 1 and 6 of a small show called Bridgerton, I’m sure it is a lovely little show. It also seems Russell found another new hire to write an episode, this time some young man named Steven Moffat. I’ve read up on the young lad, I hear he wrote a show called Press Gang, and later a small show called Coupling. I’m sure if he writes a couple more episodes he could show-run Doctor Who one day.

The episode “Boom” itself is fairly contained and neatly packaged for quick retrieval from a battlefield. Set on the planet Kastarion 3, which already had nothing on it, Anglican Bishops move diagonally across an empty battlefield trying to avoid the landmines placed by corporations and ambulances looking to save the bottom line. I’ll reserve my comments about the American healthcare system. It is almost as if Russell and Steven watched Cody Rhodes pull out the Golden Shovel, simultaneously shouting “Lean in!”

It is difficult to talk about “Boom” without giving the game away fairly quickly that Russell and Steven are back on their “Are you sure about the god thing?” BS. Well, I say it is their “BS,” but I quite like the episode. In fact, I think it is my favorite of the series (yes Russell, SERIES!) so far. Not because it suspends my belief that Ruby or The Doctor are in serious danger or anything of that sort for that matter, but simply because it is another big swing episode.

Once we get into it properly, there are maybe two or three cutaways from Ncuti who’s walked onto an invisible landmine after hearing a scream; separated from Ruby and leaving her to find out where he is. Everything is focused on this one little ditch, the ditch in a battlefield where an advanced corporate landmine is placed, and the danger is never what the Anglican Marines are fighting but what’s killing them. “Boom” is an episode that wants to be as much of a criticism of capitalism as it is of the Church and the protection of faith against questions.

The trouble is, despite that want, something in the writing could argue otherwise. Be it script editing from Scott Handcock again, editing by Tim Hodges (who isn’t erratic this time), or maybe even some minor re-writes from Russell as showrunner. “Boom” actually is the first episode since his return not to be written by Russell himself, and we don’t return to a non-Russell episode until the 6th, “Rogue.” I don’t want to say it feels cut up and edited to the point it is unrecognizable as a piece of entertainment, it certainly seems like it has been drafted more times than anything Chibnall wrote.

What stands out to me is that it is trying to strike politically at the idea of war in the name of the Church, the economics of war, and the profiteering off of the countless dead who didn’t need to die. All the lines are there to bite at the idea this war (of which we see only the Anglican Marines) is a waste of time. They’ve turned over soil, they’ve destroyed a beautiful world, they’ve fired their shots, and for what? Personally, I took the cues to suggest the whole thing was another sick and twisted showroom of Villengard villainy.

I was wrong, it is a bit more of a “let’s play with everyone” resolution. This is where I think my issues with the episode stem from: I’m trying not to spoil the episode directly, though it is difficult to talk about when there are a handful of cutaways from Ncuti’s ditch and it is all plot and dialog. In another slower-paced exploration of the character, we’re laying it on thick that Ncuti is perfect for the role of The Doctor. Not only is he having to stand terribly still on a landmine, but having to restrict his facial movements too.

Yet somehow he’s bringing the emotion of a mountain frowning at you for daring to defy him. It is a lot of close-up shots of Ncuti’s face this time, and a lot of strong performances back to back, though I can’t say all the acting throughout the episode is perfect. This might be due to my personal thoughts on religion in sci-fi, but Verada Sethu’s Mundy Flynn is a bit stiffly acted, and there isn’t much being done to make her comfortable in the role. Unless over-enunciating in a cast of regional accents and feeling like she’s reading words directly off a page is the intended experience.

It could also be the fact that it is often exposition she’s being given, and we know what Moffat is like with women in stories. I love him to bits, I think he’s written some of the best Doctor Who overall, but he has several flaws. Writing women and straightforward plots are his weakest spots. Well, “Boom” is the most straightforward plot we’ve had since “Heaven Sent,” maybe even “Smile?” With a total of seven actors in any one scene, there is nothing too big, nothing too grandiose, but at the same time, the danger is always there.

It is reasonably quickly established that the landmine is going to go up whether Ncuti moves or not, so the question then becomes how big the explosion is. It is a mine that doesn’t blow itself up, it interjects self-immolation, so it depends on some metaphysical aspect of being that decides the size of the explosion. This Time Lord (or not, thanks Chibnall) spent a million years in “Heaven Sent” trying to break free from prison, and spent 20 years with River Song in the Singing Towers of Darillium. Use his life force to blow him up and he’s wiping out a planet.

This is a beautifully simple concept: The Doctor stands on a landmine, he can’t run away from the problem, he needs to get off of this, oh and there is a ticking clock. Chibnall always did the ticking clock thing to impose the idea of danger. The ticking clock here though is the secondary information making it “that’s another thing to contend with.” It isn’t the whole idea, it is part of it. That’s where I think “Boom” works, it is slowly building up that danger, slowly dripping in the information at the perfect time to give us something new to worry about.

However, I do have my gripes and it is another production one. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to go on another rant about major/minor 7th intervals in music again, at least not now. That said it is noted in “The Devil’s Chord” that Ruby has been traveling with The Doctor for 6-7 months. It was a throwaway line that some seemed to be confused by given the back-to-back nature of it. Nonetheless, here we’re told that this is Ruby’s first time on an alien world and looking up to the sky. In several months of adventures, they’ve not once landed on an alien world?

The production explanation is that I believe somewhere the production code for “Boom” puts it before “The Devil’s Chord” and in that, someone hasn’t done their job. I want to say it is Scott Handcock, given he’s the story editor on both episodes (and I believe the whole series) though Russell similarly has an overview of the series. If you’re not a pedant like me, then yeah, you won’t see it as an issue, though it is there and it is rather glaring when you do notice it.

Selfishly I’m really happy seeing how Scottish Ncuti is making the character while also being so distinct. He isn’t a shortbread tin of a character, but he has given that background a showcase without (for lack of a better term) fetishizing it like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander or pretending it is a mysterious fantasy to solve like Brigadoon. Of course, Outlander is first on my mind for its (as I’ve called it) fetishizing due to Ncuti singing “The Skye Boat Song,” the show’s opening theme.

I don’t know how many ways I can say I enjoyed “Boom” without directly spoiling later portions of the episode. I enjoy it for its ability to be so contained and exciting despite its limitations. Not through a desire to see it, but I had inadvertently found The Independent’s headline on the episode calling it “a damp squib.” This is from the online (previously tabloid) paper owned by a Russian national and son of a former KGB agent. The article itself was written by someone who takes flash over substance to heart, a true joyless partygoer.

There are gripes to be had and the odd line here or there to grumble about, but Moffat’s “Boom” is another bottle episode that works quite well. Even if the dead are the ones being bottled and used to balance the danger the Doctor is in. If you find character and decent writing to be dull, then yeah you’ll find “Boom” to be a “damp squib,” but if you’re a fan of something a bit more complex than a blank piece of paper you’ll probably enjoy it. Not just because of the nostalgia of Russell and Steven but the cast which embraced the writing.

Ultimately, Ncuti Gatwa is once again proving why he’s The Doctor in a tale criticizing religion, war, and capitalism, all while maintaining who The Doctor truly is. It is a fantastic episode of Doctor Who that doesn’t rely on big explosive action scenes to set about change in its plot, simply just the words and subtle actions of an old man and his young companion prancing across a battlefield. A battlefield scattered with bottles of the dead that will eventually become a beach.

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Doctor Who "Boom"

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Ncuti is a powerhouse of an actor.
• Tiptoeing through the landmines in a fun critique of religion, war, and capitalism.

Cons

• The resolution could be more direct than blunted.
• I'm not a fan of Verada Sethu's stiffness.
• Script editing not catching the line about Ruby's first alien planet.