Who Review: World War Three

Excitement turns to dread as the inhabitants of Britain are told by their government that not only are aliens real, but an alien space ship has Earth in its sights. War is inevitable. But the Doctor, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, and Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North) know the truth. The aliens are the Slitheen family from a distant planet, and they have compressed their eight feet of malicious green flesh into the body shells of the government officials they have killed. And now they are in charge, they want to put into action their plans for the planet. Plans that don’t bode well for the people of Earth. It’s a race against time, with the future of humanity in the hands of a back-bench MP, a teenage girl, a wide-eyed young man with a computer, and a Time Lord with a sonic screwdriver. And the only plan left might leave them all dead.

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

Our heroes manage to escape their respective cliff-hangers from last time (see “Aliens of London”), but the danger hasn’t past. Not by a long shot. The Slitheen family are still in control, and Mickey and Jackie are still being threatened by a Slitheen. This episode has some good moments, one of which is when the Doctor tries to figure out where the Slitheen are from so he can help Mickey. Rose and Harriet Jones think of all the things they know about them, each piece of information narrowing down the options, until the Doctor hits upon their planet of origin: Raxacoricofallapatorius. This tells the Doctor they are largely calcium-based, hence the wind problems, and are, therefore highly volatile around acetic acid. A swift concoction of pickled onions, pickled eggs, and other similar vinegary items, and the Slitheen explodes.

The scenes between the Doctor and “Margaret” Slitheen are also good. Particularly when he tells her, from the safety of the steel-encased cabinet room of 10 Downing Street, that he will stop her. “Trapped in your little metal box?” she mocks. “Yes,” the Doctor replies. She smiles, but her smile wavers as the metal doors close, and she sees the fire in the Doctor’s eyes.

In this episode, we learn the full scope of the Slitheen plan. They aren’t interested in military glory, but rather they want to make money from the Earth’s demise. By convincing the UN there’s a space ship with “massive weapons of destruction” aimed at Earth, the Slitheen gain the access codes to Britain’s nuclear arsenal. The missiles aimed at the “space ship” will actually be used to strike other countries, triggering a third World War, that will reduce the Earth to radioactive slag. The Slitheen, safe in their space ship, will ride out the war, then sell the planet’s irradiated remains to companies who can use it as a source of energy. The Slitheen have been sending a signal from their base in the North Sea advertising the up-coming sale–a signal the Doctor discovers, and, with Mickey’s help, deciphers and jams.

The only solution left open to the Doctor is a counter-strike against the Slitheen. The Doctor wants to launch a missile on 10 Downing Street, destroying the Slitheen before they can release the nukes. This, of course, would put himself, Rose, and Harriet in direct danger, relying on the steel cabinet room to protect them. He has Mickey log into the U.N.I.T. web site, and trigger a Tomahawk missile from a nearby submarine. Just as the nuclear countdown reaches zero, the missile hits, the Slitheen are destroyed, and our heroes are safe, as is the world.

It’s a neat story, with lots of good dialog. I’m still not comfortable with the humor level, especially the excessive dwelling on the Slitheens’ unfortunate wind-breaking as a result of being compressed into human skins. I also detect a political undertone to the story that seems to me a bit too blatant. When “World War Three” aired, the Iraq War was close to three years old. Critics of the war claimed that it was simply to protect American oil interests in the Middle East–particularly in Iraq. It was also said the American claim that Iraqi president Sadaam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction was untrue, presenting to the UN a false premise for the war. I think both of these factored quite deliberately into the plot. I don’t so much object to the messaging as I do how in-your-face it is. The line about “massive weapons of destruction” took the story into parody, which spoiled things for me.

At the end, the Doctor asks Mickey to join the TARDIS team, which is a sign of how much he has grown in this story. The Doctor took exception to Mickey’s cowardice in the first story, “Rose.” But in these two episodes, Mickey grew a backbone and made some tough decisions. The Doctor may still not like him, but he seems to respect him. Mickey declines the offer, however, saying the Doctor’s lifestyle is too much for him. We also see the Doctor’s dark side again, last seen when he allowed the Lady Cassandra to explode (see “The End of the World”). Here he is willing to send a missile against a family. Right or wrong, it’s not the kind of thing you expect from the Doctor, who traditionally eschews the military response, and abhors violence.

“Aliens of London” and “World War Three” are not the best of the season, and probably miss-able. Though they are entertaining, and have some good scenes that make the rest of the two stories worthwhile.