Watched this as part of the Doctor Who Day watch-along, and it was better than I remembered. It's a lightning-quick script, but has great performances, as well as being a stinging sci-fi satire against capitalism, warfare, and religion. Ncuti Gatwa is pushed hard being stuck in one place all episode, and his explosion of joy when Villengard is defeated is beautiful. I think this will be one we remember when we look back on his time as the Doctor.

Wow.
I really must say I had high hopes for BOOM, a big Fan of Moffats Who, even if he had some weaker outings, at the very least some core ideas were always interesting. And so far I wasn’t too big on this Season, don’t get me wrong, as much as I enjoy Ncutis energy. Space babies was a decent opener with some bad jokes, while Devil’s chord while having a lot of great elements didn’t do it for me because there were a bit too many issues for me and I can, and do love campy Who.
But I won’t lie, I hoped Boom was a more serious outing and well it was and OMG I really liked it. As many pointed out, this felt like the most Moffat Episode ever.

For starters, it was a brave move to shoot Ruby, while obviously we knew she wouldn’t die, it worked very well for that Episode. And Ncuti. Oh Ncuti, I already enjoyed his energy from almost all the other Episodes he appeared, but this Performance was soooo stellar.
The Whole Idea of this Story and how it penned out was excellent.

I loved the idea of having the Doctor on this landmine, his speech to that one soldier was so good, the Child Actress was pretty solid. Although I am a bit surprised how she didn’t get a moment to mourn for her Farther, of course he saved them, but that was a bit odd, even addressed by Ruby, but not a major Issue I had. That one love subplot was pretty solid too, and I pretty enjoyed 15 singing a Song to calm themselves down, as well as his rambling was pretty entertaining.

Yes I know this Era (or at least that Season) promised to go more into the unnatural and that’s all good and fine, but I won’t lie I hope 15 gets plenty of Sci-Fi leaning Stories like that.

Overall I am a Fan of it.

Love the Doctor standing there, crying and begging, trying to make everyone survive. After two joyous episodes, Moffat brings back a typical Who-story.

Woo! Steven Moffat proving once again that he's a fantastic Doctor Who writer! I absolutely loved that this is a bottle episode in the open air. The tension grows and grows via events around the Doctor, causing him to decrease the amount of time left on the landmine. TV Who acknowledging that Time Lords are higher-dimensional beings is also a treat, and it's nice to see the Anglican Marines again.

Seriously, I love this episode... Aside from the flaws. Yes, this is another review on something I like in which I'll spend most of it talking about what prevented me from giving it a higher rating.

Firstly, the casting department screwed up. Splice is played and written as if she is a younger character than the child we see on screen, which is quite jarring. Someone half her age would have done perfectly.

There's also the commentary on religion and belief. Now, I have my beliefs, and I understand that not everyone has those same beliefs, or any. What I don't like is positions which are against religion. Atheism is fine, anti-theism is not. But I would have found it easier to understand, especially as the episode is in the context of a war, if Moffat and the Doctor's opinion on religion if the episode had stuck to it. If you're gonna do a 'religion bad' episode, don't end it with 'Well, religion is bad, but you need it'. Who is this episode for? Most of the world's religions do not say that other people need to follow the religion, and of those that do, most who follow those religions don't recognise this part of them, at least in my experience. And I know nobody who both believes that religion is bad and that people should still be religious.

The first time I saw this it flew by, sometimes on a rewatch episodes are not as good as you remember...

The Doctor and Ruby arrive on a war torn planet, hearing cries the Doctor runs to help, and find himself standing on a landmine. I will admit the Steven Moffat, who wote this story is a writer that I've always enjoyed and rarely does stuff that I don't. In fact I can't think of anything off hand and this is ticks all the boxes.

With the Doctor spending almost the entire time stuck in one place you would think that it would get a little boring but it manages to stay entertaining. Every few minutes another event ramps up the tension.A little girl looking for he Dad, Soliders, getting shot, each complication drawing the detonation the the mine ever closer.

Long time fans will remember the Anglican Marines from a few years ago, so its nice touch to make use of them here.

As with Moffat's previous work there are a one or two little twists heer and there.

So the Doctor cries tears, not for the first time this Doctor's run and I'm finding it a little overdone already.

After a not so great start to the series this is really rather good.