Aliens of London (TV story)

Aliens of London was the fourth story in the first series of Doctor Who. It was notable for featuring the first cliffhanger in the BBC Wales run, by virtue of starting the first two-part story. Keeping cliffhangers in the show allowed Davies to expand the plot and restore a well remembered part of the original series.

Narratively, the episode introduced the Slitheen, who would return to Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures. It marked the first appearances of Toshiko Sato, who would later feature as a regular character on Torchwood, and the recurring character of British politician Harriet Jones. It also introduced UNIT to the revived series.

One of its legacies — sometimes forgotten by writers — was offered in its pre-title sequence. As the Ninth Doctor mistakenly brought Rose Tyler one year into the viewer's future, the "present day" of Doctor Who and its two BBC Wales spinoffs were generally considered to be one year later than the year of initial broadcast.

It was also the final episode of Doctor Who to have any portion recorded at BBC Television Centre.

Synopsis
Rose returns home to discover that she has been missing for a whole year, although for her, it's been a couple of days. However, before she can explain her absence, a spaceship crashes into Big Ben, causing a worldwide catastrophe. Worse still, the Prime Minister has mysteriously disappeared... The Doctor's investigation puts him in the spotlight with the British government, as his long history of defending Earth finally catches up with him. But there are sinister goings on at 10 Downing Street, and politician Harriet Jones' quest to get some answers brings her into a brave new world... of aliens. Meanwhile, Rose finds trouble closer to home, as her past mistakes threaten to tear her family apart.

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. As she hugs Rose, the Doctor enters and informs Rose that she's been gone twelve months, not hours. Jackie has been frantic with worry, but now she begins to scold Rose for not getting in touch with her. Interviewed by a policeman, the Doctor says that Rose is his companion. Jackie hits the Doctor.

Later, Rose and the Doctor chat outside. Rose can't tell her mother about what she has done. 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. 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 before he leaves. Mickey arrives, and Rose learns that several people, including Jackie, had suspected him of murdering Rose.

The Doctor uses the TARDIS to get to the hospital. He accidentally walks into a room of soldiers, but when they hear screaming, 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. Despite the Doctor's command, one of the soldiers shoots the alien dead.

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.

The Doctor informs Dr Sato that the "alien" is fake. He then leaves. Outside, as Mickey is gloating that the Doctor has left Rose, the TARDIS materialises and the Doctor is back. After Jackie sees the TARDIS interior, she goes upstairs and calls a number to report the Doctor.

The Doctor deduces that the spaceship landing was faked as well. It originated from Earth, and whoever did it has been here for a while. 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.

When they step out of the TARDIS, they are surrounded by police and helicopters. Mickey runs away, and the Doctor and Rose are arrested. 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 and the Prime Minister.

The Doctor figures out why the spaceship crash was faked — to get the Earth's experts in one place. 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 uses a remote control to electrocute the experts.

Cast

 * Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Spray Painter - Corey Doabe
 * Policeman - Ceris Jones
 * Reporter - Jack Tarlton
 * Reporter - Lachele Carl
 * Ru - Fiesta Mei Lung
 * Bau - Basil Chung
 * Matt Baker - As himself
 * Andrew Marr - As himself
 * General Asquith - Rupert Vansittart
 * Joseph Green - David Verrey
 * Indra Ganesh - Navin Chowdhry
 * Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton
 * Margaret Blaine - Annette Badland
 * Doctor Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Oliver Charles - Eric Potts
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * Alien - Jimmy Vee
 * Strickland - Steve Spiers
 * Slitheen - Elizabeth Fost, Paul Kasey, Alan Ruscoe

United Nations Intelligence Taskforce

 * UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, is mentioned as being among the experts on aliens. The Doctor mentions having worked with them in the past, but that they wouldn't recognise him now.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor claims to have participated in drinking contests with former Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
 * The Doctor says he is nine hundred years old.

Bad Wolf arc

 * A boy spray paints the words "BAD WOLF" on the side of the TARDIS while it is parked on the Powell Estate.

Story 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 TV: 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 (Invasion of the Dinosaurs part one was titled Invasion).
 * A poster announcing Rose's disappearance states that she has not been seen since 6 March, 2005. However, the BBC-produced "official" 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 Slitheens suffering from bad flatulence (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 1996 Doctor Who television movie, in which the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor breaks through the metal door of the morgue, terrifying a hospital worker.
 * 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.
 * 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 notwithstanding 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).
 * 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 Doctor Who television 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 TV: Rise of the Cybermen, it is discovered that Ricky Smith is the alternate version of Mickey in Pete's World.
 * This is the first episode to examine deeply the impact which the departure of a companion with the Doctor can have on those left behind. In this case, Rose's family believed her to have been murdered, and her boyfriend Mickey had become a suspect. The impact of a companion's travels with the Doctor on family and friends back on Earth becomes a recurring theme throughout the Russell T. Davies era.
 * Beginning with this episode (broadcast in 2005, but set in 2006), most "modern day" Earth stories are said to take place approximately one year after the year in which they were broadcast. As noted above, this has not been applied consistently. This displacement also applies to the later Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures spinoff series, and has been applied fairly consistently, although some discrepancies have been noted. This would continue until TV: The End of Time, at which point "modern day" stories once again synched up with the year in which they were aired, and explicitly followed for Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures and Series 3 of Torchwood (and implied for SJA Series 3).

Ratings

 * 7.63 million viewers

Myths
None

Filming locations

 * The Cardiff Royal Infirmary provided the setting for the fictional London Albion Hospital.
 * The entrance to the Prime Minister's residence was a redress of a similar-looking door in Central London.
 * Cardiff Royal Infirmary, Newport Road, Cardiff
 * Westminster Bridge, Westminster, London (News report on the crash)
 * Tower Bridge, London (seen as the Slitheen's ship flies over it)
 * The Queens Walk, Westminster, London (seen when the Slitheen's ship crashes into the Thames)
 * Hensol Castle, Glamorgan, Wales (Interior of Downing Street)
 * Bute Street, Cardiff (when Rose are taken to Downing Street in the limo)
 * John Adam Street, Westminster, London (Exterior of Downing Street)
 * Belvedere Road, London
 * Whitehall / Parliament Street, Westminster, London (seen as the Slitheen ship flies over the top)
 * Brandon Estate, Kennington, London (Long shot exterior of Powell Estate)
 * Channel View Flats, Cardiff (Closer shots of Powell Estate)
 * Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Imperial Way, Newport
 * BBC Television Centre (Studio TC4), Shepherd's Bush, London
 * HTV Wales Studios (Studio 1), Culvershouse Cross, Cardiff
 * BBC (Kendal Avenue), Kendal Avenue, Acton

Production errors

 * When Jackie Tyler punches the Doctor, it is a clear miss.
 * When the alien announcements appear on the TV, they appear slightly blurry, as a screen would really be if taped. However, when the channels are changing, the image shown has no blur.
 * The close-up shots of the Palace of Westminster clock tower (a.k.a. "Big Ben"), as it is destroyed by an alien ship crashing into it, show the clock faces back-to-front. This is because the director wanted the ship to move across the frame the other way.
 * The clock tower on Big Ben appears to keep running even after being struck by the spaceship. The time reads roughly 10:55 when the spaceship strikes it, but reads roughly 6:10 when the clock is later seen on a news broadcast. (The shot is flipped)
 * Around 26:32, when Mickey appears at the party, the BBC News broadcast in the background can be heard talking about how, "with no head of state", "it falls to Harriet Jones to form an emergency government". This didn't happen until the subsequent episode.
 * At one point, a news reporter is standing by the Thames, citing an alien body being found; however, after the channel is changed to Blue Peter for around 30 seconds, once it's changed back to the news, the same reporter is now standing in an entirely different location. It's impossible that he would've had enough chance to move in such a short space of time.
 * When Jackie has called the police to her flat the Doctor alternates between shots, sometimes having his hands in his pockets, other times having his arms crossed.
 * In one close-up of a photographer taking pictures outside 10 Downing Street the scene is reversed to provide an opposite angle. You can see the "Nikon" nameplate is reversed on the front of the camera.
 * When the Doctor is kneeling over the Slitheen's engineered Pig Mutant, the seam of the plastic mould of the costume is clearly seen.
 * In the close up shots of the Pig Mutant, the Pig is clearly seen still breathing.
 * When Rose enters the TARDIS after the Doctor returns from the hospital, the Powell Estate is clearly not outside the door; it is simply a black background.
 * When the Doctor and Dr. Sato are looking over the body of the Pig Mutant, the chest can be seen rising and falling.
 * When the TARDIS lands in Albion Hospital, the "BAD WOLF" graffiti has disappeared, only to return when the TARDIS lands back at the Powell Estate.

Continuity

 * Dr. Sato later reappears in the Torchwood spin-off series, where her full name is revealed as Toshiko Sato. (TV: Everything Changes)
 * TV: Exit Wounds establishes that she was working undercover for Torchwood during this incident and in fact her colleague Owen Harper was originally to have done the autopsy. This retroactively makes this the first appearance of Torchwood in the series.


 * UNIT makes its first appearance on screen since TV: Battlefield. The Doctor spells out the acronym — United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. This would be the final on-screen use of this name, as by the time the full name of the organisation was uttered again in TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, it has been changed to Unified Intelligence Taskforce. (Apparently the UN objected to the use of its name in the fictional organisation, even though it had been used as such since at least 1968.)
 * The TARDIS was previously defaced with chalk scribblings in TV: The Time Warrior and The Leisure Hive, graffiti in Paradise Towers and pink paint in The Happiness Patrol.
 * The Doctor visits Albion Hospital again in 1941. (TV: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances)
 * In TV: Love & Monsters the crash sequences (and the events that follow) are seen from an entirely different point of view.
 * The Doctor tells Rose he is 900 years old, but in TV: Time and the Rani he was 953, in PROSE: Set Piece he was 1000 and in PROSE: Vampire Science he was 1,012. The Doctor spent 100 years on Earth (PROSE: The Burning to Escape Velocity) which makes him at least 1,112 (this isn't counting all the intervening time during adventures either). The given age of 900 has been the baseline for all future references to the Doctor's age (such as 903, given in TV: Voyage of the Damned). (See The Doctor's age.)
 * During his first incarnation, the Doctor previously visited 10 Downing Street in July 1900 in the company of Steven Taylor and Vicki Pallister. (AUDIO: Upstairs)

Home video releases

 * Aliens of London together with World War Three and Dalek were released in a collection in both DVD and UMD format in the UK in 2005. The DVD version was released in North American in 2006.
 * This was also released as a vanilla release along with the next two episodes.
 * It was also released as part of the Series 1 DVD box set.
 * This was also released with Issue 2 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.

External links - Online media

 * Doctor Who Confidential - Episode 4: I Get a Side-Kick Out of You
 * Official BBC Next Time Trailer
 * Mock report from BBC News 24 (used in Aliens of London)

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