Aliens of London

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

164a – "Aliens of London"
Doctor Who episode

First contact, or something more sinister?
Cast
Doctor Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor)
Companion Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Guest stars
Production
Writer Russell T. Davies
Director Keith Boak
Script editor Elwen Rowlands
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Mal Young
Production code 1.4
Series Series 1
Length 1 of 2 episodes, 45 mins
Originally broadcast April 16, 2005
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"The Unquiet Dead" "World War Three"
IMDb profile

"Aliens of London" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on April 16, 2005. It is the first of a two-part story. The concluding episode, "World War Three", was broadcast on April 23.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The Ninth Doctor takes Rose back to 21st century London, just in time to witness a spaceship crashing into the River Thames, triggering a worldwide state of alert and the closing off of the city. As the Doctor investigates the survivor of the crash, Rose finds problems closer to home.

[edit] Plot

The Doctor uses the TARDIS to take Rose back to her flat, supposedly 12 hours after she left her mother Jackie (in "Rose"), but discovers that they have actually returned 12 months since that point; Jackie declared Rose missing and Mickey Smith was accused but cleared of murdering Rose. As Rose expresses her frustration at the Doctor for not being able to tell the truth of where she's been, a spacecraft speeds through the sky, crashing through Big Ben, and splashes down in the River Thames. Central London is quickly sealed off, forcing the Doctor and Rose to follow events on television. An alien is discovered in the wreckage and taken, under command of General Asquith to nearby Albion Hospital. The general examines the body and asks Dr. Sato, the pathologist, to learn all she can about the creature. As various "alien-welcoming" parties occur in the estate flats that evening, the Doctor sneaks off to his TARDIS alone, promising Rose he will not interfere with Earth's first alien contact and that he won't leave her, and materialises at the hospital. There, managing to influence the guards, he is able to meet Dr. Sato and the alien, and determines that the alien is really just an Earth pig, enhanced by alien technology; someone wanted to fake the alien crash.

Meanwhile, due to the inability to locate the Prime Minister and with gridlock around London, MP Joseph Green, a large, flatulent man and a Chair of a DEFRA committee, is instated as the acting Prime Minister by Indra Ganesh, a Junior Secretary with the Ministry of Defence. Ganesh gives Green the emergency protocols for dealing with an extraterrestrial encounter, and introduces him to Margaret Blaine of MI5 and Oliver Charles, an MP who is a Parliamentary Liaison at the Department of Transport. Ganesh leaves the trio alone, who begin laughing among themselves. Harriet Jones, a backbench MP, attempts to deliver a report to the trio, but ends up overhearing General Asquith complaining to Green of his inactivity. The three think it a joke, passing gas as they laugh, then begin to unzip their heads, revealing a blue light, causing the General to scream. General Asquith is killed, the being occupying Charles now using the General's appearance as its own.

As Rose tries to tell Mickey and Jackie about where she had been for the last year and that the Doctor is her friend, the TARDIS rematerialises back at the flats. The Doctor explains to Rose and Mickey that the alien crash was all faked, and that the ship was actually launched from Earth, meaning that whomever launched it has been on Earth for some time, while Jackie calls the Emergency Alien Hotline to report the Doctor as an alien. Jackie's call triggers a "Code 9" alert; when the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey leave the TARDIS, they are surrounded by soldiers, but while Mickey is able to escape, the Doctor and Rose are escorted to 10 Downing Street. There, they find several other alien experts, including those from the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, gathered to decide on humanity's course of action. While the Doctor is asked to be a part of the meeting, Rose is not, though Harriet Jones offers to keep an eye on her. Harriet shows Rose the empty skin of Oliver Charles, and on further investigation, they find the dead body of the Prime Minister, which they tell Ganesh about. However, Blaine blocks their exit and begins to unzip her head. Simultaneously, police inspector Strickland who has been talking to Jackie after the Doctor was captured, begins to do the same. In the meeting room, General Asquith also unzips his head, and reveals himself as the alien Slitheen, while Green sends a deadly electrical shock through all the alien experts, including the Doctor. The episodes ends in a cliffhanger into "World War Three".

[edit] Continuity

  • A poster announcing Rose's disappearance states that she has not been seen since March 6, 2005. However, the BBC-produced "official" UNIT website indicates that the climactic events of "Rose" happened on March 26.[1] The same site also dates this episode at either May 26[2] or June 28,[3] 2006. If June 28 is accepted, "Boom Town" (and also "The Parting of the Ways") would have to take place in late December 2006 — the same week as "The Christmas Invasion" (dated to 2006 by the Guinevere One website[4]). On the other hand, if only on-screen evidence is accepted, "Aliens of London" would take place in March 2006, "Boom Town" in September, and "The Parting of the Ways" later in the autumn or early winter.
  • The official police poster is the first reference to the Powell Estate on the television series. Rose is described as, "19 years old, 5 feet 4 inches in height, slim build with shoulder-length blonde hair." The photograph used is one of Billie Piper herself, rather than one of Piper playing Rose.[5] Several other, home-made posters are seen on Jackie's table, including one with a banner headline saying "WHERE IS ROSE?".[6]
  • The Doctor tells Rose he is 900 years old. The last on-screen mention of the Doctor's age, in Time and the Rani, put it at 953.[7] See The Doctor's age.
  • UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, is mentioned amongst the experts on aliens, its first appearance on television since the 1989 serial Battlefield. The Doctor mentions having worked with them in the past, but that they wouldn't recognise him now, alluding to regeneration.
  • Mickey notes that he found out on the Internet that the Doctor had worked before for UNIT, among other things. A notation at http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk/ implies that Mickey is the one who has been updating Clive's website since the latter's death in "Rose".
  • The TARDIS key began as an ordinary-looking Yale key, then changed during the Third Doctor's last season into a more alien looking one, which was also used for the first two seasons of the Fourth Doctor's tenure. It then reverted back to the Yale key for the rest of the run of the original series. The alien key made one last appearance in the Doctor Who television movie. It has now returned to looking like an ordinary key, except that it starts to glow when the TARDIS is arriving.
  • A boy spray paints the words "BAD WOLF" on the side of the TARDIS while it is parked on the council estate.
  • The TARDIS was previously defaced with chalk scribblings in The Time Warrior (1973)[8] and The Leisure Hive (1980), graffiti in Paradise Towers (1987) and was painted pink in The Happiness Patrol (1988).
  • The Cardiff Royal Infirmary provided the setting for the fictional London Albion Hospital. The interior scenes at "10 Downing Street" were shot at Hensol Castle in Wales. The Doctor revisits the hospital in 1941 during the episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances".[9]
  • The episode ends on a cliffhanger, the first since episode two of Survival in 1989. The story continues in "World War Three". This is also the first occasion since Invasion of the Dinosaurs in 1974 in which the first episode of a serial does not share its title with the second.
  • Dr Toshiko Sato, the "government pathologist", returns in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood.
  • The events of this episode are briefly mentioned in a conversation with Toshiko and Owen in the Torchwood episode "Exit Wounds". In Torchwood, Toshiko is a computer expert, not a pathologist, and it is explained that because Owen was hungover from the night before, Toshiko covered for him and said that she was a doctor and examined the space pig.

[edit] Production

  • This episode had the working title "Aliens of London Part One" ("World War Three" being "Part Two").
  • When the ship crashes into the clock tower, both the numbers on the clock face and the text beneath are backwards. According to the DVD commentary, director Keith Boak altered his shots of the crash sequence but this was not relayed to the visual effects team, who had prepared according to the storyboarded version. As a result, the sequence was electronically flipped to make it conform to the spaceship's final descent pattern.
  • The clock also appears to keep working after the incident: the time reads roughly 10:55 when the spaceship strikes it, but reads roughly 6:10 when the clock is later seen on a news broadcast.
  • The entrance to the Prime Minister's residence was a redress of a similar-looking door in Central London.
  • The screen of the detection software that identifies the Code 9 carries the crest of the UK government as identified by the motto and the feet of the supporters. However the crest is incorrect as the two supporters (the lion and the unicorn) are swapped over and the roses, thistles, and clovers that are normally around the motto are missing.

[edit] Cast notes

[edit] Outside references

  • The production team had intended to suggest that the murdered Prime Minister in this episode was current real-life incumbent, Tony Blair. On the DVD commentary for the following episode, producer Phil Collinson explained that they had hired an actor to play the dead body on the understanding that the man was a Tony Blair lookalike. When the resemblance proved disappointing, they decided to avoid showing the body clearly. The suggestion that the body is Blair's remains in Harriet's line "I'm hardly one of the babes", a reference to the large number of female Labour Party MPs who entered the House of Commons in Labour's 1997 general election victory, who were dubbed "Blair's Babes" by the British media. That Tony Blair was elected in Doctor Who continuity was confirmed in "Rise of the Cybermen".
  • During the night scene set on the balcony outside the Tyler flat, "Starman" by David Bowie is heard playing in the background.

[edit] Broadcast and DVD releases

[edit] References

  1. ^ Top Secret: Unit
  2. ^ UNIT History
  3. ^ Secure Unit
  4. ^ British Rocket Group - Guinevere One Project
  5. ^ http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p145/fancover5/cap552.jpg
  6. ^ http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p145/fancover5/cap554.jpg
  7. ^ "Time and the Rani". Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Pip and Jane Baker, Andrew Morgan. Season 24. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1987.
  8. ^ "The Time Warrior". Jon Pertwee, Robert Holmes, Alan Bromly. Season 11. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1973-1974.
  9. ^ "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances". Christopher Eccleston, Steven Moffat. Series 1. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2005.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
The TARDIS Index File has information related to:

[edit] Reviews

v • d • e
Doctor Who: UNIT television stories
Second Doctor
Third Doctor
Fourth Doctor
Seventh Doctor
Tenth Doctor
Minor appearances
Torchwood
See also
v • d • e
Slitheen television stories
Ninth Doctor
"Aliens of London"/"World War Three" • "Boom Town"
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Minor appearances
v • d • e
Doctor Who series 1 episodes
"Rose" • "The End of the World" • "The Unquiet Dead" • "Aliens of London" • "World War Three" • "Dalek" • "The Long Game" • "Father's Day" • "The Empty Child" • "The Doctor Dances" • "Boom Town" • "Bad Wolf" • "The Parting of the Ways"