So here we are with my pick for the Fifteenth Doctor’s best episode, it truly is like being back in the 2000s as yet again we have Steven Moffat pulling off the series-best with his first episode since 2017. Seriously, imagine a fan falling into a coma in 2008 and waking up in 2024, to them, Russell’s still the showrunner, David Tennant only left the prior year, and Steven Moffat is still writing the best episode per series! Honestly this episode made me realise just how much I’ve missed Moffat, not even the Moffat who left in 2017, I mean the Moffat of the 2000s who was writing without the constraints of being the showrunner. In old school Moffat form, he takes a simple question about the Doctor and writes a story around it, that being the Doctor’s habit of running all the time, but what if you take that ability away from him. Upon landing on a planet in the midst of a battle, the Doctor hears a cry for help from outside and runs out. But within moments of exiting the TARDIS he freezes, realising to his horror that he’s standing on a landmine. This landmine in particular can explode with varying levels of force depending on who it’s blowing up, and in typical Moffat glorifying the Doctor fashion, blowing up a Time Lord will mean destroying the planet itself.

It’s an unnecessary way of raising the stakes, I mean the Doctor’s on a landmine and powerless to help anyone including Ruby. Blowing up the planet just feels like overkill. But with that aside, this is one of the show’s best episodes in years, without the added nonsense of being the showrunner, Moffat gets to tap into his strengths as a writer in creating a simple but effective premise that echoes Classic Who (that being the landmine scene from Genesis of the Daleks). It weirdly feels like a story that would slot in perfectly in the Moffat era both for better and worse. The Doctor is written oddly out of character for how he’s been portrayed in the rest of this era, he’s more aggressive, gives speeches and has this intense vibe to him, it honestly feels like this story was written more for Capaldi, and yet it's one of Ncuti's best performances as the Doctor. It all seemed to work and really made me nostalgic for the Moffat era. What Boom really succeeds at is creating an episode using limited resources available, most of the episode takes place on this one spot in a quarry-like environment with little to no cutaways, just a small handful of actors, a couple dressed-up props and just the actors carrying the story with their performances. This honestly felt like one of the most Classic Who episodes Modern Who has ever done and I love it to bits for it.

It’s a shame that Moffat went on to write yet another Christmas Special that sadly fell into his poor category and with the show now in limbo it seems we’ll never get a proper great final episode for one of the show’s most beloved (and hated) writers to go out on. But regardless it has been a welcome return for Moffat and between this, 73 Yards, Wild Blue Yonder, Lux and The Well, it does warm my heart knowing that even when the show is going through its most unpopular period, it can still surprise us with a great episode from time to time.