Aliens of London

160a – "Aliens of London"
Doctor Who episode
The Slitheen spaceship crashlands in the Thames.
Cast
Doctor Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor)
Companion Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Others Camille Coduri – Jackie Tyler Noel Clarke – Mickey Smith Penelope Wilton – Harriet Jones Annette Badland – Margaret Blaine Corey Doabe – Spray Painter Ceris Jones – Policeman Jack Tarlton – Reporter Lachele Carl – Reporter Fiesta Mei Ling – Ru Basil Chung – Bau Matt Baker – Himself Andrew Marr – Himself Rupert Vansittart - General Asquith David Verrey – Joseph Green Navin Chowdhry – Indra Ganesh Naoko Mori – Doctor Sato Eric Potts – Oliver Charles Jimmy Vee – Space Pig Steve Speirs – Strickland Elizabeth Fost, Paul Kasey, and Alan Ruscoe – Slitheen
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	1st of 2-part story, 45 minutes
Originally broadcast	16 April 2005
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Unquiet Dead" "World War Three"

"Aliens of London" is the fourth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television show Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 16 April 2005. The 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.

It is the first of a two-part story. The concluding episode, "World War Three", was broadcast on 23 April.

Plot

The Doctor returns Rose back to Earth in the TARDIS, but miscalculates, ending up 12 months after he first left with Rose instead of 12 hours. As such, Jackie, Rose's mum, is furious with the Doctor, and Rose's boyfriend, Mickey is upset as he was suspected of murdering Rose. While Rose expresses her frustration to the Doctor of not being able to tell the truth of where she's been, they witness a spacecraft crash through Big Ben and fall into the River Thames. Central London is shut down while its population become excited at the possibility of first contact with an alien species. The Doctor suspects trickery, and uses the TARDIS to land inside the hospital where the alien pilot has been taken. Along with Dr. Sato, he discovers that the alien craft was launched from Earth, and its pilot is nothing more than an Earth pig, modified by alien technology.

Meanwhile, the government is unable to locate the British Prime Minister due to the confusion of the crash, and Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Monitoring of Sugar Standards in Exported Confectionery, is named acting Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. However, Green is revealed to be a Slitheen, a calcium-based alien species that compress their bodies into large human "suits" resulting in frequent releases of flatulence, along with two other high members of the government, Margaret Blaine of MI5 and Oliver Charles, Transport Liaison. While they secretly celebrate successfully luring the humans into their plan, they are unaware of their conversation being witnessed by Harriet Jones, the backbench MP for Flydale North.

When the Doctor returns to Rose, they are surrounded by soldiers, prompted by a call from Jackie to the Emergency Alien Hotline, and escorted to 10 Downing Street. The Doctor is asked to join a panel of alien experts, including those from UNIT, while Rose is escorted into the building by Harriet. Harriet tells Rose about the aliens, and together they discover the corpse of the Prime Minister. They make to reveal their discovery but are caught by Blaine, who begins to unzip her human suit to attack them. Meanwhile, as the Doctor attempts to convince the experts of the forgery of the events, Green sends an electrical shock through the assembled group, including the Doctor. These events lead to a cliffhanger, resolved in "World War Three".

Continuity

Continuing the "bad wolf" theme that ran through the series, a boy is seen scrawling the phrase on the TARDIS.^[1] 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^[2] (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 says 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 Cardiff Royal Infirmary provided the setting for the fictional London Albion Hospital. The Doctor revisits the hospital in 1941 during the episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances".^[3][4] 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.^[5]

Production

The Cardiff Royal Infirmary was used as the set for Albion Hospital.^[6] The exterior of 10 Downing Street was a similar house in Central London,^[7] while the interior was filmed in Hensol Castle, Vale of Glamorgan.^[8] Mickey's flat is the same set as Jackie's and Rose's.^[9]

Cast notes

Lachele Carl, the American reporter, reappears as a reporter in "World War Three",^[10] "The Christmas Invasion",^[11] "The Sound of Drums",^[12] "The Poison Sky",^[13] "Turn Left",^[14] "The Stolen Earth" ^[15] and the Sarah Jane Adventures stories Revenge of the Slitheen ^[16] and Secrets of the Stars.^[17] The character is listed in the credits under the name Trinity Wells. She most recently made an appearance in the five-part third series of Torchwood, known as Children of Earth and in the Tenth Doctor's final story The End of Time. Rupert Vansittart later appeared in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Dead London where he played Sepulchre.^[18]

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 impersonator. When the resemblance proved disappointing, they decided to avoid showing the body clearly.^[19] The suggestion that the body is Blair's remains when Harriet Jones says that she is "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".^[20]

Broadcast

Overnight figures showed that "Aliens of London" was watched by 7 million viewers in the UK, an audience share of 34%.^[21] When final ratings were calculated, figures rose to 7.63 million.^[22]

This episode together with "World War Three" and "Dalek" were the first released on the UMD format for the PlayStation Portable. The three episodes were then released on a DVD, then later with the rest of series 1 on a box set.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ninth Doctor

• Aliens of London on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• BBC Doctor Who Homepage
• "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• "Aliens of London" at Outpost Gallifrey
• "Aliens of London" at TV.com
• Doctor Who Confidential — Episode 4: I Get a Side-Kick Out of You
• "Bong!" — Episode trailer for "Aliens of London"
• Mock report from BBC News 24
• "Aliens of London" at the Internet Movie Database

Reviews

• "Aliens of London" reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• "Aliens of London" reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
• "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide