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PRODUCTION INFO

Name

Aliens of London

Series 1

Episode 4

First Transmitted

16 April 2005

Final Ratings

7.63m

BOXSET RELEASE

DVD RELEASE

GALLERY

Aliens Of London

CAST

Regular Cast

Christopher Eccleston (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose)

Guest Cast

Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Ceris Jones (Policeman), Jack Tarlton (Reporter), Lachele Carl (Reporter), Fiesta Mei Lung (Ru), Basil Chung (Bau), Matt Baker (As himself), Andrew Marr (As himself), Rupert Vansittart (General Asquith), David Verrey (), Navin Chowdhry (Indra Ganesh), Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones), Annette Badland (Margaret Blaine), Naoko Mori (Doctor Sato), Eric Potts (Oliver Charles), Corey Doabe (Spray Painter), Jimmy Vee (Space Pig), Steve Spiers (Police Commissioner Strickland), Elizabeth Frost, Paul Kasey, Alan Ruscoe (Slitheen).

CREW

Written by	Russell T. Davies
Directed by	Keith Boak
Produced by	Julie Garner and Phil Colinson

SYPNOSIS

The Doctor takes Rose home. But when a spaceship crash-lands in the Thames, London is closed off, and the whole world goes on Red Alert. While The Doctor investigates the alien survivor, Rose discovers that her home is no longer a safe haven. Who are the Slitheen?

PLOT

Rose and the Ninth Doctor have returned to the Powell Estate. Rose, thinking she has only been gone twelve hours, heads off to see her mum. Meanwhile, The Doctor notices a poster depicting a missing girl. Jackie is shocked to see Rose, who is lying that a friend of hers needed to talk to her over night. As Rose returns her mother’s hug, she notices several posters in the living room that say she is missing. A breathless Doctor enters the room and informs Rose that she’s been gone twelve months, not twelve hours.

Later, a policeman questions The Doctor; Jackie called the police as she did not believe Rose’s claims to have been travelling as her passport is still at home. The Doctor explains that he employed Rose as his travelling companion; they simply lost track of time. The policeman inquires as to if this term refers to anything sexual in nature, to which both The Doctor and Rose retort “no.” Jackie questions if The Doctor is really a doctor, or simply made up stories to lure in Rose for some kind of vile purpose. The Doctor tells her that he is one, to which she says “Prove it, stitch this mate” and slaps him.

Later, Rose and The Doctor chat outside on the roof of the Powell Estate. The Doctor is surprised Jackie slapped him, remarking his companion’s mothers have never slapped him throughout his 900 years of travelling through time and space. Rose notes that’s “one hell of an age gap” between them. She then laments that she’s seen so much in her travels with him, but she can’t tell anyone. Both are shocked to see an alien spaceship pass overhead and clip Big Ben before crashing into the river.

Rose and The Doctor try to visit the scene but are prevented by traffic; Rose suggests the TARDIS, but The Doctor tells her that is a bad idea as everyone in the world is now watching the skies for more aliens. They head for home to watch the news on television. Several people are visiting, while The Doctor tries to watch the news. He sees General Asquith entering the hospital where the alien has been taken. The news also reports that the Prime Minister is still missing.

At the hospital mortuary, Dr Sato performs an autopsy on the alien. Meanwhile, several important figures gather at 10 Downing Street, including Joseph Green. He is informed by Indra Ganesh, the junior secretary, that he is acting Prime Minister for the crisis. As Ganesh attempts to lead Green away, he is accosted by Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, who wishes to meet with the Prime Minister but is brushed off. Green meets with Margaret Blaine and is given the emergency protocols.

The Doctor decides to leave the party, giving Rose a TARDIS key; he tells her that the crash was genuine, as it gave all the signs of engine failure meaning that day is the day the human race learns that they are not alone in the universe, and can start becoming part of the greater world beyond Earth. He promises he won’t interfere, but is just going for a wander as the atmosphere inside the flat is ‘too human’.

Despite his assurances, The Doctor decides to investigate when Mickey notices him. Giving chase, he reaches the TARDIS just as it disappears. The Doctor heads to the hospital where the alien is being held. He accidentally walks into a room of soldiers, but when they hear screaming, The Doctor calls out a battle formation and they all run out of the room and the soldiers listen to The Doctor’s orders. He finds Dr Sato, who says that the “dead” alien is alive and has run off. Giving chase, they find that the alien has the appearance of a pig, albeit one running on its hind legs and wearing a suit. It runs away in obvious fear, and The Doctor tries to catch it. Despite The Doctor’s command, one of the soldiers shoots the alien dead. Saddened, The Doctor tells the soldiers it was just scared and trying to run away.

Back in the Cabinet Room, General Asquith meets with Green and Blaine, who are acting strangely. He attempts to relieve Green of command, but Green, Blaine and another man, Oliver Charles, unzip their foreheads. Asquith screams. Unknown to them, Harriet Jones has sneaked inside the room and watches them from her hiding place, as they kill him.

After examining the body, The Doctor informs Dr Sato that the pig is (or rather was) an ordinary pig from Earth. It had its brain rewired and was stuck in the ship which was sent to dive bomb into the Thames. Although its obvious the crash was faked, the technology involved is indeed not from Earth. Sato questions why aliens would fake an alien encounter, only to find The Doctor has gone. Meanwhile, Mickey arrives at Rose’s flat, revealing that several people, including Jackie, had suspected he murdered Rose. Sneering at Jackie, Mickey tells Rose that Jackie called the police three times because she thought he killed Rose though there was not any evidence of such and then Jackie continued to harass him. The accusations ruined his reputation.

Outside, as Mickey is gloating that the Doctor has left Rose, the TARDIS materialises. The trio enter but the interior causes Jackie to flee back to her flat and call a number to report The Doctor. Whenn she mentions the word ‘TARDIS’, an alarm is triggered after a brief spat with Mickey about his name really being “Ricky”, The Doctor tells her that he has deduced that the spaceship landing was faked; it was launched from Earth, and whoever did it has been here for a while. Mickey points out that all the crash has done is put the world on red alert, which is unusual if the aliens were actually planning to invade. He notes that UNIT has been called in to deal with the crisis.

The trio of Green, Blaine and Asquith complain about compression and gas exchange. They receive a code nine — The Doctor, an expert in extra-terrestrial affairs, has been located. On the TARDIS, The Doctor finds that experts and specialists on alien encounters are being brought in and realises that these people belong to UNIT. He fills Rose in on the organisation and Mickey confirms that the Doctor has worked for them before, having spent the past year researching The Doctor’s past history on Earth. Rose suggests going to UNIT for help, but The Doctor refuses as the world doesn’t need another alien (and also points out he’s ‘changed a lot’ since his last meeting with them).

The Doctor decides they need to check out the crashed spaceship up close now the roads are clearing. However, when The Doctor, Rose and Mickey step out of the TARDIS, they are surrounded by police and helicopters. Mickey runs away, and The Doctor and Rose are taken in; however, The Doctor tells Rose that they’re not being arrested but instead escorted to the heart of the discussion. He’s the ultimate expert on aliens, according to UNIT files. They are taken to Downing Street, where The Doctor is brought in to meet with the other experts. Rose does not have proper clearance, so Harriet offers to stay with her. Meanwhile, a policeman visits Jackie for information.

The experts are gathered with Green and Asquith in a small room. Harriet takes Rose to the Cabinet Room and tells what she saw — Green and Blaine are aliens in skin suits who killed Asquith. Suddenly the two find the body of the Prime Minister hidden in the cupboard.

The Doctor interrupts Asquith telling everyone that three days earlier, some radiation was detected in the North Sea and was due to be investigated but this was forgotten after the crash. The Doctor wonders aloud why the spaceship crash was faked, since all its managed to do is panic the population and get the Earth’s alien experts in one place. The Doctor suddenly realises that this is what the aliens want; anyone who has the expertise and knowledge to fight them gathered together. He now understands the crash wasn’t a diversion but a trap. The policeman visiting Jackie begins to unzip his forehead. Ganesh, Rose and Harriet are caught by Margaret Blaine, who unzips her forehead. In the room below, Asquith unzips his forehead, and Green – thanking the attendees for wearing their ID cards – uses a remote control to electrocute the experts including The Doctor. They announce themselves as the Slitheen.

NOTES

This episode had the working title Aliens of London Part One (World War Three being Part Two).

The episode ends on a cliffhanger, the first since episode episode two of Survival. The story continues in World War Three. This is also the first occasion since Invasion of the Dinosaurs in which the first episode of a serial does not share its title with the second.

A poster announcing Rose’s disappearance states that she has not been seen since 6 March 2005. However, the BBC-produced UNIT website indicates that the climactic events of Rose happened on 26 March. The same site also dates this episode at either 26 May or 28 June 2006. If the June date 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). 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. In whole, the notice says, Rose Tyler has been missing from her home on the Powell Estate since 6 March 2005. Rose is described as 19 years old, 5 feet 4 inches in height, slim build with shoulder-length blonde hair. Anyone with information regarding Rose should contact 0207 946000. The photograph used is one of Billie Piper herself, rather than one of Piper playing Rose. Several other home-made posters are seen on Jackie’s table, including one with a banner headline saying WHERE IS ROSE?.

When The Doctor complains of being slapped by Rose’s mother, Rose laughingly remarks, You’re so gay! This remark has caused some controversy in fan circles, some seeing it as an anti-homosexual slur. Davies, who is gay, wrote in an e-mail response that it was the way people talked and claimed that he was trying to provoke discussion by using the phrase.

Another running joke, involving the Slitheen suffering from badflatulence (due to the gas exchange) while in their human disguises, was also slightly controversial in fan circles, with some critics disapproving of the style of humour. It did, however, give rise to one of the most quoted lines uttered by the Ninth Doctor during the season: Would you mind not farting while I’m trying to save the world?

The scene where the pig-like alien is breaking thought the metal door with Dr Sato watching in shock is reminiscent of an almost identical moment in the TV Movie, in which the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor breaks through the metal door of the morgue, terrifying a hospital worker.

Dr Sato is later revealed to be Toshiko Sato. (Everything Changes) She was working undercover for Torchwood during this incident and in fact her colleague Dr Owen Harper was originally to have done the autopsy, but he had a hangover and was just recently appointed to the team. (Exit Wounds)

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, dubbed Blair’s Babes by the British media. That Tony Blair was elected in The Doctor Who universe was confirmed in Rise of the Cybermen.

The armoured personnel carrier seen outside Number 10 is a Saxon, possibly foreshadowing future events.

According to Russell T Davies in Doctor Who Magazine, as well as Doctor Who Confidential, the decision to establish the Bad Wolf meme in the series did not occur until after the spur-of-the-moment decision to have the words bad wolf graffiti-painted on the TARDIS subsequently Bad Wolf references were added to the scripts for most of the other Series 1 episodes, and not with standing a few minor or inferred references in the interim, returned in force in the Series 4 episodes Turn Left and Journey’s End. With the origin of the meme established, the mystery that remains is exactly why the words bad wolf were chosen to be spray-painted on the TARDIS in the first place (as opposed to any other phrase). But then, again, perhaps the Little Pig pilot had something to do with it.

Although not clearly seen on screen, one of the UNIT officers killed by the Slitheen at the end is wearing the name tag Frost (the tag is seen more clearly in publicity stills). This may have been a reference to the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip character Muriel Frost, who worked for UNIT.

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 to the Yale key for the rest of the run of the original series. The alien key made one last appearance in the TV Movie, it has now returned to looking like an ordinary key, except that it starts to glow when the TARDIS is arriving.

The Doctor repeatedly refers to Mickey Smith as Ricky. In Rise of the Cybermen, it is discovered that Ricky Smith is the alternate version of Mickey in Pete’s World

Eric Potts (Oliver Charles) would later play Lothar Ragpole in Nocturne.

As is routine for post-2005 Doctor Who, a NEXT TIME trailer for the next episode is shown at the end of the episode.