Time and Space: A Doctor Who Journey

Series 1, Episode 4 : Aliens of London
Written By: Russell T. Davies
Directed by : Keith Boak
Villians : The Slitheen
Synopsis : The Doctor takes Rose home just as a spaceship crash lands in the Thames.  The Doctor and Rose try to solve the mystery of the crash, the survivor and try to unmask the Slitheen.

Truth, I find it very hard to review this episode.  I dislike it.  I usually skip right over this one and the next episode as well when I watch the series.  For the sake of this blog however, I will buckle down and watch it again.

Why do I dislike this episode so much.  Well, that's an easy one.  The Slitheen.  They annoy me.  They aren't frightening in the least.  They are kind of stupid too which makes it hard to believe that they were even able to establish themselves as well as they did.  And to top it off, I hate potty humor.  I don't get it.  The fart joke gets super old quite quickly.  I realize this is a family show and that kids may find this amusing, but I also find it patronizing that they seem to cater to the lowest common denominator with these villains.

Now, not everything in this episode is bad.  We get to see a real mama bear side of Jackie when she unloads on the Doctor for taking Rose away from her for over a year.  We see a tiny bit of the strength that Mickey becomes capable of in later episodes.  And we meet the wonderful Harriet Jones.

While this is one of my least favorite episodes of the series, It is important to watch it at least once since it does foreshadow some important events and introduces some important characters.  However, after you've seen this one once, you can probably skip it in the future like I do.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• The Doctor gets his time/date wrong again by returning Rose 12 months later instead of 12 hours
• There is a kid spray painting Bad Wolf on the side of the TARDIS
• Jackie is the first mother to ever slap the Doctor
• The Doctor reveals he is 900 years old.
• The alien ship that crash lands takes out the iconic Big Ben landmark on its way down
• The first mention of U.N.I.T. is in this episode
• The Doctor gives Rose a TARDIS key
• The U.N.I.T. soldiers follow the Doctor's orders without even questioning him, even though he hasn't identified himself
• Toshiko Sato makes an appearance in this episode as a pathologist.  Tosh is a technical expert in Torchwood and later reveals that she was covering for Owen this day as he had a hangover and she pretends to be a doctor.
• The Doctor refers to Mickey as Ricky multiple times in this episode
• The Slitheen have never heard of the Doctor
• U.N.I.T stand for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
• The Doctor makes reference to his past regenerations when explaining why U.N.I.T won't recognize him
• The Slitheen that attacks Jackie is the only one with a visible zipper
• This is the first cliffhanger episode in 16 years
• There are no mentions of the Time War in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode
• There are no mentions of the Title in this episode
• There are 16 farts in this episode
• Harriett Jones introduces herself 4 times in this episode.