9.5: World War Three
In which Russell does a satire.
Broadcast: April 2005
Watched: July 2021
“You pass it to the left first.” Also: “This ain’t time for a conga.”
This is the first story that tries to do anything more sophisticated than linear A-to-B plotting… so again, it’s a shame everyone only remembers the farting aliens and the shoddy direction.
It’s a big Mickey story. I like that he’s turned himself into Clive, hunting alien conspiracy theories because no one will talk to him any more. I like the redemption of him saving Jackie and then saving the world. I love the bit when the Doctor asks him to go with them, accepting him at last, but then pretends to refuse to save Mickey’s blushes when he’s too scared. Jackie’s “Can you promise me she’ll be safe” is clearly meant to be a similar kind of character arc, ending in the bit when she waits 10 seconds for the TARDIS to return before leaving.
But again: we forget all that, because of farting aliens.
The direction... I quite like the weird, proscenium arch direction of some of the action scenes (people and aliens alike running across the screen from left to right, etc.), even if it does seem to be a cock up. The bigger problem I think is in the scene where the Doctor opens the door to the Cabinet Room to confront the Slitheen. There is no reason why they don’t kill him then and there, and the door is open forever. I suspect this is a direction failure rather than a script one.
Another problem: the Slitheen really do look rubbish. That’s actually quite unusual in modern Who.
Two thoughts on the titles. Aliens of London/World War Three are both rubbish, which suggests to me they weren’t quite sure how to sell or position this story. The others in the first half of the season go THE COMPANION, LITERAL DESCRIPTION, LITERAL DESCRIPTION, [erm], HEADLINE GRABBING ALIEN’S BACK, THIS ONE HAS CONSEQUENCES, THIS ONE’S ABOUT ROSE’S DAD... it’s only these two where they seem to be struggling. I suppose it’s an attempt to go “Oooh, alien invasion!” which wasn’t really something that had been done on this scale before… but you kind of have to decode that.
The other thought is on the opening titles... the fact both leads get their names in the credits. That feels like a mission statement too.
Other things...
I’d say the Iraq satire hadn’t aged well but it was rubbish at the time. RTD doesn’t know how the UN works either.
The “What was his name?” bit is another nice mission statement: no nameless extras.
How exactly does the Doctor persuade a kid to clean the TARDIS at the end?