Boomtown S01E11

 1. Summed up in one sentence

The one in which the villain everyone forgets about comes back again, which I certainly completely forgot about.

2. The Doctor

He is forced in this episode to come to terms with his destructive nature as he and his team of companions come across one of the green, oversized baby, farting aliens that was the only one who survived the conclusion of "World War Three." She's once again trying to destroy earth so she can use the explosion to escape earth and go somewhere nice, I presume. 

The Doctor and his team considers themselves well within their right to capture her and take her back to her home planet where she will suffer the death penalty for her crimes. Unfortunately for the Doctor and company, it will take time for the TARDIS to reboot before they can send her to her punishment, which gives her plenty of time to attempt to manipulate them. 

Most of her efforts are focused on the Doctor since he's in charge. She's able to manipulate him enough to take her on a nice date, her last meal so to speak, before they head off with her. It's this setting in which she at first tries to kill the Doctor with some poison and other means, which he deflects quite easily.

Once she sees that the Doctor is too clever for these attacks, the switches tactics and proceeds to manipulate him with her discussions of philosophy and morality and whatnot. It's fun to see moments when the Doctor seems to have met his match intellectually. And so proceeds an intriguing battle of wits between them.

3. The Companions

Even though the main plot is hefty, the side story with the companions is just as important, especially with Rose and Mickey. Rose seems to miss Mickey for some reason and asks him to meet them in Cardiff to bring her her passport. She admits later in the episode it was merely a ruse so she could see Mickey again. 

She proceeds to try to impress him with all her travels with the Doctor (not a great move, Rose). It fails to impress Mickey to say the least, and he slips in a hurtful comment of wanting to date someone else, and acquaintance of theirs. Rose then loses her desire to charm Mickey and goes on the offensive. How dare Mickey show interest for someone else whilst Rose traipses off with the Doctor (whom she clearly has feelings for), and flirts with any young man she comes into contact with during their travels. 

Though the dislike for Rose as a companion from the fans of the show is rare, I can understand how some would take issue with her in the course of this season, particularly how she treats the men in her life.

Not great.

Kind of awful. She's like the absolute worst girlfriend ever. 

But the upside to all this is that she finally realizes her behavior is hurtful and looks truly remorseful when Mickey FINALLY lays into her about how she makes him feel like he's nothing.

I like how after she runs off away from him when the action gets going, again, and she finally remembers he exists and tries to find him, Mickey is standing a ways off, watching her look for him. After some time of watching her, he walks away. 

Good for him. Good for him for finally realizing just because Rose is awesome and hot, she doesn't have a right to treat him like this, and he deserves more than just pinning for her when he has clearly left her mind. I mean, he has a few more "Rose, why don't you love me as much as the Doctor??!" moments, but we will continue to see Mickey step into his manhood more and more in the future.

And Rose will gain the courage to accept her feelings for the Doctor and stop dragging around other men on behalf for her own insecurities. 

She's still technically a teenager for heavens sake. She'll get there.

4. The Villain

Though I had a hard time forgetting the pubescent comedy this woman alien radiated the last time we saw her in "World War Three," she is able to make the transition from the farting jokes to the heavy questions of morality that is required in this episode. This actor is a saint for coming off from the previous silliness to tackle the serious acting, all the while still finding times to inject humor. 

5. The Score

7/10

I enjoy this episode, despite having to be reminded of the farting aliens two parter . . . There's intriguing discussions on if a hero is still a hero for knowingly sending a villain to their death and all the ramifications that entails, as well as Rose getting her comeuppance in regards to her love life. 

As much as a Rose-ophile as I am, she very much needed that wake up call.

6. The Very Whoiest Moment

This would be the part where the alien lady gets the closest she gets to manipulating the Doctor into letting her go. She argues with him that she is changing for the better because she had to opportunity to kill someone, but she decided not to. The Doctor isn't sympathetic to this argument:

DOCTOR: You let one of them go, that's nothing new. Every now and then a little victim's spared because she smiled, because he's got freckles, because they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in awhile, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind.

MARGARET: Only a killer would know that. Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy go lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back, playing with so many lives, you might as well be a god. And you're right, Doctor. You're absolutely right. Sometimes you let one go. Let me go.

Damn. The alien lady really hits the nail on the head. And this truth she identifies in him only becomes more apparent as the show goes on.

And damn, we only have two more left of this season.

Here we go!