Doctor Who: Boom Review - 9 Ups & 3 Downs

An underrated strength of Moffat's is his ability to quickly establishing supporting casts that viewers are invested in, even with relatively little dialogue, and this episode is no different.

Straight off the bat, we're introduced to John Francis Vater and his 'Dad skills', and we're told everything we need to know about his character, and why we should care about him. And then, of course (because it's the cold open), he is immediately killed. This guy could've felt like just another redcoat, rendering the plot with his daughter a little hollow later on, but he doesn't.

The other key supporting character from this episode is Mundy Flynn, who is rather interestingly played by Varada Sethu, who we know is joining the main TARDIS team next year. According to RTD in the episode commentary, Sethu is not playing the same character here that she will be as a companion, through there was a vague allusion to this character being connected somehow.

We wouldn't be opposed to this, as she puts in a solid performance here, as does Bhav Joshi as Canterbury, who is introduced and killed off rather quickly after he makes the mistake of declaring his unrequited love, which we know is a death sentence in Doctor Who.

One criticism here is Splice. The script seems to have been written with a slightly younger child in mind than the actress they cast, which leads to her character seeming a little too clueless about the world she inhabits, and the fact that a hologram clearly isn't her dad.