We are now just a few shorts days away from what could be the final series of Doctor Who as there really hasn't been any news on a third series and won't be any until after this current series has finished airing. However with the new series debuting in a few short days I thought that it was about time that I take a look at the episode that features the actor playing the new companion and so then join me as i review the episode that actually joins the list of a lot of episodes that feature future Doctor and companions this time playing different roles with the episode in question being called simply just "Boom" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when The Doctor accidentally steps on a land mine and is unable to get off he has to try and prevent a war from continuing. Now then interms if what I personally thought / felt that the actual plots that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as it was the kind of plot that this episodes writer Steven Moffat would have done when he was show runner for the how with this episodes plot really being the best plot of the first Ncuti Gatwa series of Doctor Who as it's plot that not only has The Doctor actually acting like that The Doctor but it's also one that manages to be very tense and yet at the same time also quite heartwarming and emotional as well and that's something that you really don't get to see in alot of modern Doctor Who plots as alot of them are alot more focused on scale then they are character where this episodes plot is more focused on the characters and what it is that makes them tick then it is in having a huge scale story as the plot of this episodes only takes place in one main location and even then it has The Doctor unable to do anything and because of that this episodes plot does seem fresh as well as there really hasn't been a plot quite like this one in the shows history with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor , Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and Andor and Jurassic World Dominion star Varada Sethu as Mundy Flynn. Also starring in this episode is Joe Anderson as John Francis Vater , Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy as Carson , In the Lost Lands star Caoilinn Springall as Splice Alison Vater , Bhav Joshi as Canterbury James Olliphant and Susan Twist as The Ambulance.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With all of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances which is something that is really shocking as alot of this episodes actors are either very little known or completely unknown actors and yet here they are turning in some really good performances for this one little episode of the show with nearly all of them knocking it out of the park performance wise which is something that does go to show that episodes director and producer Julie Anne Robinson not only knows hoe to get a good performance out of her actors but also because of the fact that she shot the episode in long takes thus meaning that the episodes actors could better get to grips with what otherwise might have been seen as being a really bonkers episode of the show with her frequently doing seven minuet takes which might not seem like much but it basically means that they were filming several pages of the episode a day and they were doing it all in order alot of the time as well which is something that does help the actors to give a much better performance then what they might have dine as well with the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Goodbye Kansas and Real SFX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as even tho this series or this era of the show is using basically the same method of doing CGI that The Mandalorian is using only on a much more smaller screen the episodes effects do still look really good and while you can't really see where that sweet Disney money went in this episode it is clear the the people who were doing the effects put in alot of care and attention into making sure that the effects where as good as they could possibly and heck this is even the first episode where we get to see the outside and the inside of the TARDIS done practically thanks to fact that they are usually virtual production for this era of the show and while yes granted some of this episodes don't look that good this episode does have alot more good effects in it that it does bad effects as thanks to there being alot of stuff done practically you really can't tell what was done for real and what was done in a computer alot of the time and that is something that just isn't the case with alot of effects heavy movies and shows like Doctor Who as alot of them do have really bad looking effects but here in this episodes thanks to the mixture of live action and CGI it is something that does make the episode have alot more better looking effects that it does have bad looking effects.
This episode does continue the Steven Moffat trend of trying to make everyday things seem alot more scary then what they actually are. With this episode he tries to make Ambulances scary which to be fair given the only real reason anybody would actually ride in one is a pretty good idea as you only really need to ride in one when your in a scary medical situation but at the same time tho he really doesn't go all the way with it as he then has the main villain of this episode be this evil faceless corporation who make and see weapons which is a great idea and would have been a really great idea if we got to see someone who worked for them in this episode but we don't as all we see is this one Ambulance unit and so the main villain for this episode should have been this one unit as you could have gone all that by making it the main villain of the episode just by having the fact that it truly does believe that it's doing the right thing but just boiling it down to the fact that it's just doing what it's programmed to do does somehow make it less scary when not knowing who made it and what it was originally programmed to do would have made it seem all the more scarier as for all we the audience could do all Ambulance's could have been evil or it could have been just this one or it could have been none of them as that would then mean that every single Ambulance unit that we see in this episode would then force us the audience to be tense as we wouldn't know what to expect from it next which is something that would have made the whole idea of having an evil ambulance seem all the more scary and frightening then what it actually is in the episode.
While there are alot of things that this episode does indeed get right there some things that it does get wrong. Like the fact that they true to shoehorn in a love story between Mundy and Canterbury James Olliphant which while it is something that is set up early enough in the episode for it to become a plot point later on in the episode Steven Moffat does nothing with it as we don't get to see the two of them hang out as alot of there scenes together are them either working or discussing the war that there helping to take part in and that's really it and while yes granted this does lead to great emotional pay off near the end of the episode it still leaves the romance the episode feel unneeded as they very easily could have just had Mundy and Canterbury be just good friends and quite literally nothing about there plot or parts in the episode would need to be changed but for whatever reason the makers of this episode chose to make Canterbury be head over heels in love with Mundy even to the point where they make a running joke out of it they still chose to do nothing with it when if you have something that you know that your going to pay off later on in the episode then you better have a good reason for including it in your episode because if not it's just going to feel pointless which is the very case with the romance part of this episode as there was no need for them to be in love with each other in this episode and while the two actors do indeed have some great chemistry with each other that still doesn't mean that it had to be in the episode but because it is we are now stuck with a pointless subplot that goes nowhere and adds nothing to the overall plot of the episode.
Speaking of Mundy Flynn she was the other thing that really didn't work in this episode it's not that she's badly acted or badly written because she's not. Instead it's more due to the fact that she's not that developed as a character which is something that does make alot of sense as we only get to see her for a very short amount of time in this episode but the episode is asking us to invest some time into this character and for her big emotion pay off to work that is something that we need to and sadly we can only do that if we get to find out alot more about her what ae her likes or her dislikes and hobbies we know that she like to give tattoo's to people and is motherly in nature but that's really it and even then we don't get to see any of those traits come into play all that much in the episode which is a shame because her scene with Splice when they thing that there going to die is a really sweet scene and it is something that does show just how good of an actor Varada Sethu could be but even then just because you have one or two good scenes with a character doesn't mean that we get to know her whole character as we don't know what her motivations are for joining this war we just know that she signed up for it and that's really it which if the character was only appearing in a few scenes would have been more then enough but she's basically a main character in this story and we don't know enough about her to either like or dislike her as character and yet if you compare that to John Francis Vater who through his daughter and even the opening scene of the episode we get to find enough about him to get to like him as a character and yet we get to know next to nothing about Mundy Flynn despite her being in more of the episode then what John Francis Vater was.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty four minuets and forty four seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running time for the show at this point in time with this episode really having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time but at the same time this episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as we get to find out next to nothing about any of the new characters and nothing about the series main story with Ruby and the Snow gets advanced in anyway whatsoever with The Doctor just taking it as something that she can do and something that means that she must still be alive and while the episodes reveal of the evil Villengard corporation being the ones that started the war on this uninhabited planet just to boost up the death rate and keep people buying there products was a really good idea it's also one that's predictable as well and one that's not really that well developed as the episode does nothing with it and heck they don't even bring it up all that much in the episode with the company only being mentioned a small handful of times and the fact that they started the war with themselves only being mentioned the once and isn't something that's that well built up when somethin that's this big and is meant to be the big reveal of the episode should have been something that's really alot more built up then what it actually ends up being but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is ana action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action thats actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As even tho the episode only has one small scene in it that you could really call an action scene as it does involve Ruby firing a space laser to get the Ambulance's attention off of The Doctor it is something that does lead to really great moment where she gets hit by Canterbury who believed that she going to injury Mundy and because of that she takes a rather impressive fall back into the crater where The Doctor is and actually starts to die which is a great moment and is the one of the only times in this whole series where having The Doctor cry actually does make sense as he's just watched a friend get shot at all the while there's nothing that he can do to help her because if he takes one foot of that mine then not only does he blow up but so does the whole planet but at the same time it is a bit of stretch to call it an action scene as while the episode on the whole is very action packed there's not really a fight scene in this episode with this episode being more of a war drama then it is a science fiction action show which is the great thing about Doctor Who as every episode is new genre with this episodes one action being really well done as it adds to the tension of the episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a decent and easily one of the best episode of this series of the show as it has The Doctor actually acting like The Doctor with him even getting a typical Doctor Who speech which works well enough not only for his character but for this episode as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a gran old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images hat I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.