World War Three

Dear Gary—

“Deadly to humans, maybe,” the Doctor says as he removes the fatal ID card that the Slitheen are using to electrocute the gathered intelligentsia at Downing Street (vaguely reminiscent of the assorted experts in The Day the Earth Stood Still but not really). He then turns the tables, attaching the device to one of the Slitheen, thus effectively disabling the assorted Slitheen who were also menacing Jackie and Rose and Harriet Jones. The Aliens of London cliffhanger resolved; so starts World War Three.

It is a slam bang, action filled first few minutes of the episode, and like so many action adventures it is dependent on the absolute incompetence of both bad guy and good guy alike. Everybody should be dead five times over, but hesitations, dithering, and indulgences in gloating abound and everybody escapes.

Meantime the murdered specialists go unmourned. (“Excuse me, people are dead. This is not the time for making jokes.”  Thank you, Harriet Jones.)

However, like all good action adventure, World War Three sells the improbable.

“What, you? Trapped in your box?” Margaret the Slitheen knows the Doctor is facing the impossible. “Yes, me.” The Doctor knows he can face up to the impossible.

The Doctor’s confidence sells it despite the implausible. The implausible; the ease with which Mickey hacks into the Royal Navy’s database to launch a missile; the use of ‘buffalo’ as the only password used by both UNIT and the Royal Navy; the UN releasing the security code to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Monitoring of Sugar Standards in Exported Confectionery; a TV anchor getting the news that the UN is going to release the code even before the code has been released. The implausible.

Doctor Who was always keen on the action glossing over the questions. In New Who there is little time to even ask the questions; the action is non-stop.

“Right then, question time.” Except, of course, when the Doctor wants to pause to ask a few questions. And the Doctor uses the most improbable means to pause the action, using a bottle of port to threaten the aliens. The sheer audacity of it stops the Slitheen temporarily; luckily for the Doctor, when they get wise to the trick the Doctor simply activates the steel walls protecting the Cabinet Room he, Rose, and Harriet Jones are standing in.

The walls close, effectively keeping the aliens out but also trapping the Doctor in. It is a nice change of pace from the running around in circles inside Downing Street up to this point. There is a brief respite as the Doctor and company make their own inquiries before the action picks up in the confines of Mickey’s flat. It is a highly suspenseful sequence with the scene switching between the attack in the flat and the Doctor desperately seeking information in his wood paneled cage in order to save Mickey and Jackie; which of course he does in the nick of time with the most unlikely of weapons—vinegar. Questions, action, the unbelievable; all mixed together in classic Doctor Who style.

Then there is that other question hanging in the air, the question Jackie asks of the Doctor: “Is my daughter safe?” Pause. Silence. No answer. “Is she safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that?” Pause. Silence. No answer. The Doctor cannot answer and he does not cover the question with action. It is a pointed moment of non-action. Until, of course, the action catches up with them and the Doctor can thankfully brush aside the question, leaving it hanging in the air unanswered but not forgotten.

Mickey puts his finger on it: “This is what he does, Jacks, that Doctor bloke; everywhere he goes, death and destruction; and he’s got Rose in the middle of it.” The Doctor realizes it as well, and it almost paralyzes him. “I can’t guarantee your daughter will be safe,” he tells Jackie when he discloses that there is a way out of the predicament they face; and to Rose he says, “I could save the world but lose you.” (I do find this a false dilemma, though, since if he doesn’t save the world Rose will be lost regardless.) “This is my life, Jackie,” he tells Rose’s mother, “it’s not fun, it’s not smart, it’s just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will.” Except the Doctor can’t decide, and so the ever dependable Harriet Jones steps in and makes the decision for them all.

This makes me think, Gary. In reviewing these first few stories of Rose and the Ninth Doctor I have noted how each is a flawed or damaged person looking to the other for guidance or redemption. However this episode also is highlighting the deleterious effect each sometimes has on the other.

For the Doctor’s part it is an interesting parallel back to the Fifth Doctor in Earthshock. However in that earlier serial the Doctor’s faith in friendship in his stand against the Cybermen comes across as a newfound strength. In contrast, the Ninth Doctor wallows in his feelings and is immobilized.

As for Rose, Harriet Jones tells the story. “You’re a very violent young woman,” she remarks to Rose. And when Rose explains her insensitivity as being due to her association with the Doctor, Harriet diagnoses, “Well that’s a strange friendship.”

A strange friendship that is still being worked out; expanding horizons and opening outlooks; at the same time feeding egos and inflating defects. And I’m sorry, Gary, but I have to dump on Rose some more; because when the Doctor says, “I could save the world but lose you,” Rose gets off on that; she smiles to herself; that is one ego that doesn’t need feeding.

However, they are beginning to trust one another and to work as a team. The Doctor learns he can count on Rose to sacrifice herself in order to save others (even if there is a supreme sense of self in that self sacrifice). And when in a tight spot she is quick on her feet and the first to start offering suggestions. Her mother and Mickey are right, it is a dangerous world the Doctor is offering Rose, but Rose has acclimated to the alien nature of it and is thriving on the danger. “The first time I stepped in there it was spur of the moment,” she tells the Doctor. “Now I’m signing up. You’re stuck with me.” She has packed her bags and everything. She is fully on board with the Doctor.

It is a natural progression in the life of a young woman to move away from home. Still, though, Rose’s departure feels heartless, and again the Doctor is complicit. Jackie is all set to give in and allows that he is “good in a crisis.” She is even planning on making dinner for him. But the Doctor won’t meet her half way; he gives Rose no choice but to leave with him at once. Rose makes a half hearted protest before rushing to pack.

“Don’t go sweetheart,” Jackie pleads to deaf ears.

Mickey fares a little better. After helping to save the world, the Doctor treats him with a modicum of respect and even offers to take Mickey aboard the TARDIS. It is too soon for Mickey, however. He requests that the Doctor help him to save face with Rose, and when Rose repeats the offer to join their ventures the Doctor states that Mickey is not welcome. Rose never misses a beat, shrugs, says ‘so sorry,’ and runs off, leaving Jackie and Mickey once again.

She is a thoughtless and selfish young woman who thinks she means well, and it is heartbreaking to watch as Jackie counts out the ten seconds for Rose’s promised return and then leaves when the time expires; and even more heartbreaking that Mickey stays behind, forever waiting.

The Jackie and Mickey story in World War Three is more than heartbreaking, though. It is heartwarming as well. The arc of their relationship, from the previous episode to this, is much more meaningful and enriching than that of the Doctor and Rose. “You saved my life,” Jackie says to Mickey; “God, that’s embarrassing.” From antagonists, the two slowly progress towards friendship as they experience not only the life and death nature of the Doctor’s world, but as they experience the range of very human emotions associated with Rose’s return and departure.

“Do it then,” Mickey tells Jackie, daring her to stop him from launching the missile that might very well end her daughter’s life but save the world. He stops, turns to Jackie, stares her in the eyes, and demands, “Do it then.” Stop me; I can save the world but lose Rose; stop me; it is a silent, desperate plea. They stare into one another’s souls. Mickey returns to the Doctor on the phone and his work on the computer. “Do it then.” A subtler and deeper moment than Rose’s more melodramatic “Do it” to the Doctor when he outlines his plans to save the day that could get her killed.

Mickey and Jackie, the unsung heroes of World War Three.

And then there is Harriet Jones. “Harriet Jones, who does she think she is?” Jackie Tyler might not think much of her, and Rose and the Doctor might be the splashier heroes, but Harriet Jones, “architect of Britain’s Golden Age,” is a true hero and deserves the recognition.

Mickey and Jackie and Harriet Jones.  This trio alone makes World War Three worth watching. The action holds my attention, the Doctor and Rose keep my interest, and the Slitheen entertain me. Mickey and Jackie and Harriet Jones, however, stand out above them all.

And so I send this out, Gary; like Mickey, forever waiting . . .