Review - Aliens of London

We get to break free of the constraints of the 45 minute format for the first time since the re-boot with Aliens of London. Because this is the first episode of a two-parter, it has a longer build-up than other episodes, which is quite refreshing.

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aliens of London

The effects were reasonably good except for the electrocution effect at the end, which just looked kinda flat. The Slitheen suits were a bit average, looking very much like something from Yo Gabba Gabba, but I'm still happy to overlook these things if they're not too jarring. They're still not as bad as the Wheelie Bin of Death, which will forever be my yardstick for crappy CGI in this series. I suspect the ship impacting with Big Ben was a good old-fashioned model shot though, which was nice.

Old-timey effects. Get it?

I liked the clever use of TV reports to progress the story early on. It was no doubt a nice cheap way of doing it and it felt quite natural. There was a good use of stock footage too, which helped give a global feel to the incident without a silly montage showing people in national dress in front of famous landmarks.

The main monster reveal was done quite well. We get an earlier tease with the unzipping of the forehead, but the full reveal doesn't happen until the end of the episode. I suppose this is a benefit of the two-part structure. The Pig-Alien was a great red herring villain, because it allowed us some tension and cheap scares in the morgue scene and kept The Doctor distracted for a while, even if we audience members could see the Slitheen doing their thing.

The fart jokes may be a little grating for some, but I think it fits reasonably well in the context of Doctor Who being a family show. It's something for the kids, really. Contrast that with the political satire in the form of Rose saying she has no idea who is Prime Minister because she's missed a year (a year is a long time in politics), and the jab at politician's private lives, which I'm going to call the first instance of In-Who-Endo.

"I quite liked being Oliver. He had a wife, a mistress and a young farmer. God, I was busy."

Again, I am left with nothing but sympathy for poor Mickey. He's been harassed and persecuted for a year and nobody seems particularly sorry about it. Rose and The Doctor continue to act as though they have been told they are boyfriend and girlfriend, and are still trying to work out why. At least there appeared to be some residual feelings for Mickey. I liked that he made it clear that the main reason he hadn't moved on was because people thought he'd murdered Rose, rather than that he'd just spend a whole year pining for Rose. He did, however, spend the year extensively researching the man who stole her away, which may as well be the same thing.

So, a solid outing and really highlights how a two-parter can effectively achieve a slow-burn on the build-up and monster reveal.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Like most of these early episodes, there's little to be done. They may not be masterworks, but they are solid episodes.

Perhaps a better design for the Slitheen would have helped, something that translated better to what they could produce as a suit, but that's just being picky. Most of the episode was exposition, as it's a two-parter, but I think the pacing worked well and the episode didn't drag.

Harriet Jones is somewhat annoying, but I suspect she was supposed to be. That said, she gets worse in later appearances, so I shouldn't complain. easing up on that Gods-awful catch phrase when she introduces herself would be nice, but again, I mostly say that with hindsight of how it gets flogged again in future appearances.

It all needs to be taken in the context of the story as a whole I suppose, so we'll see what the next review yields, shall we?