11. Boom Town

The TARDIS crew take a holiday, but the Doctor encounters an enemy he thought long since dead.  A plan to build a nuclear power station in Cardiff City disguises an alien plot to rip the world apart.  And when the Doctor dines with monsters, he discovers traps within traps. 

- DR. WHO COLLECTORS' EDITION EPISODE GUIDE

This episode was another one of those 'down to earth' stories where the writers base the plot in their own back yard, Cardiff, just like they did with the episodes with 'Aliens of London' and 'World War Three'.  The way the camera crew used popular known locations of London in the previously mentioned episodes, they do the same of scenic shots of Cardiff.  To help them along with this 'what if' scenario, they even bring back a previous 'bad guy' in the human suit of Margaret Bling, a female member of the Slitheen family, also from the prior episodes. 

The opening episode shows a Government Nuclear Advisor warning somebody out of camera shot not to go ahead with a planned construction of a nuclear power plant, and the Advisor speculates that by the obvious engineering flaws, it's almost as if it's designed to go into meltdown.  Then the camera shows who the Advisor is addressing, and it's our old nemesis, Margaret, now the Mayor of Cardiff.  She thanks the Advisor for his advice, and the last shot we have is of the unlucky victim being attacked by the Slitheen when she takes off her human suit.

The next scene shows Micky getting off the train at Cardiff station and walking up to the TARDIS parked in the town square.  He and Rose hug, he shares his usual barbs with the Doctor who calls him 'Ricky' and Micky gives Jack a wary glance and announces that their new companion comes off as 'cheesey'. Rose explains to Micky that they're refueling the TARDIS over the Rift that runs through Cardiff, briefly telling him the story about Gwyneth and the Gelth (another previous episode, 'The Unquiet Dead').  As the four get ready to depart the TARDIS, Jack asks why the TARDIS looks like a Police Public Phone Box?  Rose tells him it's a cloaking device.  The Doctor explains that it has a chameleon circuit, so it disguises itself for whatever location and time it's in.  But when it landed in the 1960's (ironically when the DR. WHO series started) the circuit got stuck.  Micky asks if there were actual Police Boxes?  The Doctor says yes, on street corners.  The police phoned for help before there were mobiles or portable radios, and if they arrested somebody they could shove them inside until help came.  Micky then points out there are no more Police Boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?  The Doctor says to him, "Micky, let me tell you something about the human race.  You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, and what do you do?  You walk past it.  Now stop your nagging and let's go and explore."

However the foursomes' fun is cut short when the Doctor notices on the front page of a newspaper a picture of the new Mayor of Cardiff… Margaret Bling.  So off they trot, down to Carfiff Town Hall to apprehend their criminal.  A funny chase ensues, with Margaret trying to teleport out, but with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, he is able to reverse it.  When they take Margaret back inside her office to investigate the nuclear power plant, the Doctor realizes that the power plant when it would go into meltdown, it would open up the Rift, causing the planet to explode and Margaret with a pan-dimensional surf board, would ride the explosion out of there. 

As our heroes brain storm on Margaret's cunning plan, the Doctor notices the poster for the nuclear power plant, calling it "The Blaidd Drwg Project" - Welsh for Bad Wolf.  The Doctor remarks to Rose how they keep coming across those words wherever they go… Gwyneth said those words when she sensed Rose came from the future, Henry Van Statten's helicopter was called Bad Wolf 1, the graffiti of the words painted on the side of the TARDIS in the episode 'Aliens of London', and the Bad Wolf News on Satellite 5 in 'The Long Game'. 

The Doctor announces that they will take Margaret home in the TARDIS, and Margaret states that her planet has the death penalty, and that they would be delivering her to her death.  The Doctor tries to shrug this off.  Then back in the TARDIS, as they try to wire up the pan-dimensional surf board up to the TARDIS controls to refuel the TARDIS even faster, Margaret goads the Doctor into taking her to dinner in her favourite restaurant as a last meal.  He eventually agrees, and the humorous dinner scene made this Dr. WHO fan almost roll sideways with laughter!  She distracts the Doctor to poison his drink, but he simply switches glasses.  She tries to shoot him with a poison dart from her finger, but he easily catches it.  She even tries to excrete poisonous gas from her mouth, but the Doctor nullifies it with breath freshener spray.  Finally in a desperate attempt, she pleads with the Doctor for a second chance, to start over again and promises to live her life differently. 

However their evening is cut short, when suddenly a rumbling can be heard and the earth quakes.  Margaret and the Doctor run back to the TARDIS, to see the Rift opening up, with light and energy pouring out of the TARDIS and filling the sky.  Margaret's devious plan that the Doctor hadn't factored into his calculations, was that she had programmed the pan-dimensional surf board to tap into an alternate power source if the nuclear power plant didn't go ahead, and now that it was tied into the TARDIS, she was going to use it to destroy Earth and ride the shock waves out of there.  She holds Rose hostage by the throat, and prepares to make her getaway, when the power surge opens up the heart of the TARDIS.  The Doctor tells her that his ship isn't any ordinary ship, the TARDIS is alive, and she was ripping it apart.  He tells her to look into the heart of the TARDIS… and when she does, the Margaret human suit falls empty to the floor and the Doctor closes the Rift. 

The former large alien that was a member of the Slitheen family, is now an egg.  The telepathic TARDIS read Margaret's mind and when she looked into its heart, it granted her wish.  She is now an egg, able to be reborn and have the chance for a fresh start.  The Doctor picks up the egg and says that they'll drop her off at the hatchery back on her home planet, and Margaret will be able to live her life all over again.