Doctor Who Randomized Rewatch: Aliens of London

DW "Aliens of London"

Joining Star Trek in this blog's stable of Randomized Rewatches is Doctor Who. The classic and new series, as well as The Sarah Jane Adventures, are all fair game here. First up is an early outing for the modern series, as Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor accidentally takes Billie Piper's Rose back home not 12 hours after her departure, but rather 12 months. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, he brings her back to Earth directly before the apparent "first contact" with an alien race.

The Ninth Doctor as presented in this episode is a giggling genius, amused by most everything around him and filled with a sense of glee, excitement, and wonder at history unfolding on Earth. Still, he warns Rose in the TARDIS, "Don't you dare make this place domestic", as Jackie and Mickey learn the truth of Rose's adventure in space and time. The show in general has benefitted from a more domestic approach, giving unprecedented realism to the life of a contemporary Earth companion. And for all the Doctor's broad grins, he has made rather a hash of things by bringing Rose back so late.

In an amusing early moment, Rose grapples with the unique privilege she has as one of the few humans to know of the existence of aliens... right before an alien spaceship flies over London for all to see. London gets a mini-Independence Day, as the ship crashes into Big Ben and creates a worldwide crisis. Writer Russell T. Davies deploys reams of cod-authentic news footage to cover events, with the clear intent of portraying a grounded take on an alien invasion. But brilliantly, just as the Slitheen have staged a phony invasion as a diversion, so the show Doctor Who has staged a phony sense of grittiness as a diversion from what the show truly embraces: bonkers, over-the-top farting aliens!

The Slitheen have engineered events to take control of the British government, walking around in constrictive human politician skinsuits they can unzip to reveal their true form. It's a whole-heartedly silly concept, and indeed, the climax of the episode is just people standing and staring as the Slitheen shed their disguises. Indeed, one wonders why one of the Slitheen in particular bothers to unmask at all if the plan was just to electrocute everybody! But the reveal is an end unto itself. And that's the choice "Aliens of London" ultimately makes: shedding its pretensions of realism, to glory in the wonderful absurdity of Doctor Who. 7/10.

Continuity notes:
- That's future Torchwood operative Toshiko Sato examining the fake alien, and of course Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, is introduced here as well.
- The Doctor infiltrates a UNIT facility, gets an entire security team's worth of guns pointed at his face, and then effortlessly transitions to giving them orders. He used to work for UNIT, after all. (But then why, later in the episode, does he react like he just figured out UNIT is involved?)