Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

"BOOM: THE LANDMINE THAT KEEPS ON GIVING"

For his first Doctor Who script since leaving the showrunner chair in 2017, Steven Moffat crafts Boom—a tightly wound, high-stakes thriller inspired by a brief moment in Genesis of the Daleks. That moment? The Doctor stepping on a landmine and needing his companions’ help to get free. Moffat, ever the genius at extrapolating small ideas into full-blown episodes (Blink, The Girl Who Waited), takes that single scene and stretches it into an entire story.

The result? 45 minutes of pure, unrelenting tension. The Doctor, stuck on a lethal mine for most of the runtime, must keep perfectly still while chaos unfolds around him. Meanwhile, Ruby and the guest characters try to navigate an escalating crisis on a war-ravaged world where the very technology meant to help—AI-controlled Ambulances—has malfunctioned into something terrifying.

It’s an episode that blends suspense, satire, and classic Doctor Who morality. And it proves, once again, that Moffat knows exactly how to write for the Doctor.

A BATTLEFIELD OF BROKEN MACHINES AND BROKEN FAITH

The setting—Kastarion 3—is a war-torn wasteland, an ongoing battleground fuelled by endless conflict. Moffat establishes the stakes quickly and effectively. The mines don’t just explode—they disintegrate their victims. The Anglican Marines (first introduced in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone) are trapped in a war they don’t even realise is a sham. And Villengard—last visited in Twice Upon a Time—is back as a corporation profiting from perpetual warfare, ensuring just the “right” amount of casualties to keep business booming.

The war is a lie. The soldiers are pawns. The system is rigged. And, in true Moffat fashion, the solution to it all isn’t brute force or technology—it’s a moment of raw human connection.

The Ambulances are particularly chilling. They technically do what they’re programmed to—save lives—but their parameters have become so twisted that they see no difference between healing someone and reducing them to “usable” organic material. Susan Twist’s unsettling presence as the face of the Ambulance only adds to the creep factor, reminiscent of The Idiot’s Lantern’s Wire.

And then there’s Mundy Flynn, played by Varada Sethu—who’s about to join the show as new companion Belinda in Season 2. She’s great here as a tough, no-nonsense soldier slowly realising the war she’s been fighting is a farce. Her romance with Carson is underdeveloped but pays off in a gut-punch moment as he’s taken by the Ambulances. And, of course, there’s the delightfully cheesy moment where the Doctor suggests she marry Ruby, making her Mundy Sunday.

A DOCTOR ON EDGE, A RUBY LEFT IN THE DARK

This episode is a fantastic showcase for Ncuti Gatwa. The Doctor is clearly terrified, trying to hold himself together as he balances his usual wit and bravado with the sheer horror of knowing that one wrong move could kill him instantly. He jokes, sings, tells stories, and desperately tries to stay in control—because the moment he panics, he’s dead. Some may find his emotional reactions excessive, but let’s be real—who wouldn’t be terrified in that situation?

Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday also gets plenty of strong moments, particularly in her dynamic with the Doctor. She follows his instructions, feeding him information while staying alert to his every move. But the episode also continues her personal mystery—when the Ambulance scans her for next of kin, it comes up blank. A small but significant hint that Ruby’s past holds something unnatural.

It’s a shame she’s sidelined for the final third, but her early moments—particularly admiring her first alien world—help balance the story’s tension with small bursts of wonder.

A SATIRICAL EDGE, A MOFFAT-ESQUE SOLUTION

Moffat takes the opportunity to skewer both capitalism and blind faith. Villengard’s weapons empire is a clear critique of the military-industrial complex, where war is designed not to be won but to be profitable. Meanwhile, the Anglican Marines’ devotion to a cause they don’t understand is a sharp commentary on faith without questioning. The reveal that they’ve been fighting themselves all along is the final, brutal punchline.

And then there’s the solution—one that could only come from Moffat. The key to survival? Fatherly love. Yes, it’s a well-worn trope in his writing, but it’s undeniably effective. John Francis Vater (yes, his name literally means “father” in German, because Moffat is that on-the-nose) and his daughter Splice provide the emotional core that ultimately resolves the crisis.

The child actor playing Splice is a bit hit-or-miss, but the emotional weight of the climax still lands. And if you’re willing to accept that love can literally defuse a planet-killing war machine, it’s quite a satisfying resolution.

VISUALS AND ATMOSPHERE – BIGGER ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Visually, Boom is stunning. The war-torn world of Kastarion 3 is brought to life using a smaller-scale version of the Volume, the same projection technology used in The Mandalorian. The mix of practical foregrounds and CGI backgrounds creates an immersive, grimy battlefield that feels leagues ahead of the old quarry-set wars of Classic Who.

It’s a far cry from the foggy, soundstage battlefields of Genesis of the Daleks—and while the latter remains iconic, Boom demonstrates just how far Doctor Who’s production values have come.

📝VERDICT: 9/10

Boom is a masterclass in tension, proving that sometimes the simplest premises make for the best episodes. Moffat crafts a story that’s claustrophobic, intense, and thematically rich, balancing war satire, AI horror, and personal drama with expert precision.

Ncuti Gatwa delivers one of his best performances yet, Millie Gibson continues to impress as Ruby, and the supporting cast—particularly Varada Sethu—adds weight to the unfolding disaster. While the “love conquers all” resolution is classic Moffat (for better or worse), it’s hard to deny that it works in the moment.

With sharp writing, stunning visuals, and a nail-biting central premise, Boom is Doctor Who at its best.

Season 1 (Series 14); Episode 3 --- "Boom" by Steven Moffat

I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for this one. Steven Moffat writing under RTD, up to this point, has been a four out of four streak of writing the series' fan favourite episode: The Empty Child is a haunting masterpiece, The Girl in the Fireplace is a beautifully sombre idea box, Blink is, well, it's Blink and Silence in the Library is the distillation of RTD era iconography. With a stellar premise under its belt, an in your face anti-war message and some great worldbuilding, I was prepared for this to be the best of the season and the best of RTD 2 so far. Unfortunately, I'd definitely call it the worst of the Stephen Moffat-RTD episodes, though I don't want to downplay what is still the best of Season One's first three episodes. And the good news is, Moffat's back to traumatising children, though this time not by showing what goes bump in the night but instead by giving ten year olds a 45 minute long heart attack.

Arriving onto a desolate battlefield, the Doctor finds himself stuck on a landmine with a clock ticking towards its explosion. With a planet at stake, the Doctor has to save a world without moving a muscle.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Firstly, this episode is the return to formula I wanted. And when I say formula, I don't mean in a generic sense, I mean in a sense of returning to the original tone and intent of the show. So far, this is the first episode that actually feels like RTD coming back to Who and reviving his era, and it was written by another show runner, which is incredibly ironic. The style, the setting, the direction, the characters all felt straight out of a 2008 episode, something I have been looking for in these stories since the season began. Another massive draw in is Ncuti, who is just f**king phenomenal in this one. He sells his performance so unbelievably well and ended up being my main reason for investment; the 15th Doctor is finally getting some decent characterisation. Moffat being Moffat, he's also injected a great anti-war message into Boom, whilst simultaneously taking digs at Christianity, which is always fun. The message isn't exactly subtle but trying to make an anti-war message subtle is like trying to make an episode of Doctor Who make sense, it's pretty much impossible. The faceless weapon manufacturer feels like this big, imposing force that shadows the whole episode and is frankly more intimidating than Maestro ever was. And, of course, there's that 45 minute heart attack I mentioned. This episode is tense, it keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of its runtime and earns it, especially in the first half with just the Doctor and Ruby. It's easily my favourite episode of Season One tonally but it does beg the question once again who this show is being made for anymore because it feels like a completely different demographic than the last two.

However, the episode is, unfortunately, far from perfect. My main gripe here is that it feels rushed. The fast pace certainly helps with tension but it doesn't help with cohesion. None of the side characters feel developed, there are a number of great moments that are conceptually rich but I am prevented from feeling anything because the characters haven't gotten anything about them I want to know more about or feel interested in, this episode unfortunately continuing this season's problem of not letting there be any quiet, contemplative moments that let the characters grow on you, which is why there's been no original, interesting side casts so far, all three of these episodes have characters that are undeveloped or non-existent. Something else that's rushed is the ending, which causes all that tension to very anti-climatically shuffle to a stop. The power of love saves the day, and unlike The Doctor Dances, it doesn't come with decent enough character work to justify it. It makes the insurmountable threat of Villengard feel incredibly small and every character just seemingly forgets that their loved ones are dead. And speaking of not reacting to death, outside of setting up the climax, why is Splice here? Beyond the wooden child acting, she is just not presented like a ten year old, all her lines are written in an incredibly matter of fact manner and she never really reacts to her father dying horribly because she's, uhh, Christian, I guess.

Boom is not the masterpiece I hoped it would be and feels like it really did need a couple of moments to develop itself more - an air of early draft lingers around it - but it was a welcome return to form and definitely the best out of the first three episodes of Season One.

8/10

Pros:

+ Tonally, feels like we're back in RTD 1 era Who and I couldn't be happier about that

+ Ruby and especially the Doctor are fantastic in this episode

+ Ncuti puts on the performance of a life time (I have never seen anybody more scared)

+ Terrifically written anti-war message

+ Ranging from its synopsis to concept, there are a ton of great ideas in this episode

+ Villengard, at least until the ending, is horrifyingly topical villain that truly feels detestable even without a face to put to the name

Cons:

- Feels incredibly rushed, almost like an early draft

- You don't have enough time to get attached to any of the side cast

- The ending was heavily anti-climactic and felt like it didn't match up with the rest of the episode's bleakness

- The kid's involvement in the episode felt minimal and only really existed to set up a climax that failed anyway

- Ruby has a weirdly small role here and is really just a surrogate so that the Doctor has somebody to say "war is bad!" to and then when besides her shows up, she's taken out of action for the rest of the runtime

A somewhat middling reaction from me. I didn’t really feel this one as much as other Moffat scripts. What should have been suspenseful and tense episode kind of wound up being sort of noisy and crowded affair for me. Really not a fan of the kid character here. Ruby and the Doctor remain outstanding for me, but otherwise, this ranks just above Space Babies in my books.

Wow! This episode was such a return to form after the last two. It managed to consistently maintain a high level of tension that kept me engaged and actually made me scared (even though I know that the Doctor and Ruby will survive) at a few points throughout. I can't wait for the inevitable future Black Archive on this episode and its myriad themes (which other people will be able to analyse much better than me).

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.