10 Criminally Underrated Doctor Who Stories

6. Boom Town

Doctor Who Boom Town
BBC

This is that episode. You know the one. That one episode in almost every series of Doctor Who that’s clearly a hasty addition designed to save as much money as possible because the budget’s running dry. The Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack Harkness arrive in the harsh alien landscape of… Cardiff… to take a break from their travels while the TARDIS recharges. Riveting.

That is, until they discover that an escaped Slitheen has gone undercover as the Mayor and has rigged the new nuclear power plant to detonate right on top of the Cardiff spacetime rift (one of Cardiff’s many natural wonders), letting her surf the temporal blast right back to Raxacoricofallapatorius.

When the Doctor learns of this peculiar plan, he quickly captures the Slitheen and takes her prisoner… and also out for dinner. This leads to a disarmingly brilliant dialogue scene, as this low-budget comedy episode transforms into an analysis of the Doctor’s character and how he reacts when an enemy treats him as an equal. Russell T Davies’ ability to create such an interesting story on such a small budget is testament to his impeccable skill as a writer.

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Patch is a pop culture enthusiast and purveyor of puns. He writes about media in a vague attempt to justify the alarming amount of time he spends consuming it. Nobody's convinced... but nobody's told him that yet. He spends his spare time working on Portal 2: Desolation, an ambitious fan-made sequel to Valve's beloved puzzle games.