'Boom Town' Story Code 1.11 by Russell T. Davies

“You killed her and stripped her and used her skin. You’re pleading for mercy out of a dead woman’s lips” – The Doctor

Six months after the Doctor thwarted the Slitheen’s attempt to destroy the Earth, Margaret Blaine, the only surviving member of the alien family, has become the new Mayor of Cardiff. Elsewhere, Mickey Smith, answering the call to bring Rose her passport, arrives at Cardiff Central train station and makes his way to the TARDIS, which is currently sitting outside the city’s Millennium Centre. Entering the time / space vessel, Mickey rejoins Rose and the Doctor, and clashes egos with the newest member of the crew, Captain Jack. The TARDIS has run low on fuel, and so the Doctor has brought it to the site of the rift that he and Rose sealed back in the Nineteenth-Century; the scar over the rift is intensely radioactive, and is precisely what the ship needs to replenish its energy cells. At the town hall, the Mayor calls a press conference to unveil her new scheme, the Drwg Blaidd Project, in which Cardiff Castle is to be demolished to make way for a nuclear power station that will provide prosperity and jobs to the city. When a reporter named Cathy Salt confronts Margaret over the project’s alleged curse - which has seen the death of safety experts, advisors and even the project’s architect – the Mayor becomes concerned, particularly when Salt reveals that she has found information leaked onto the internet that shows the station will suffer a meltdown worse than Chernobyl. Margaret decides to kill the reporter, but when Salt reveals that she is pregnant and soon to marry, Margaret finds herself feeling sad and lonely, and cannot bring herself to murder the woman. Leaving the TARDIS to re-energise itself, the Doctor, Rose, Jack and Mickey head off for dinner at a nearby restaurant, where they enjoy a good meal and Jack’s wild anecdotes - until the Doctor spots a newspaper headline about the new Mayor… Recognising his old foe from her photograph, the Doctor and his companions make for the town hall; Jack tries to take charge, but the Doctor reasserts his authority – although he still chooses to go with Jack’s plan. While Jack, Rose and Mickey cover the exits, the Doctor seeks an audience with the Mayor; but when the Slitheen learns of her visitor’s identity, she tries to escape out of the window, only to be trapped in the street by the Doctor and the others. Margaret tries to escape using her emergency teleport device - which saved her life six months earlier - but the Doctor merely uses his sonic screwdriver to bring her back, and after several failed attempts, the Slitheen surrenders. Back in her office, Margaret explains her new plan for Cardiff, but the Doctor sees through this act of supposed philanthropy, pointing out that her scheme is in fact to cause a huge cosmic explosion, which Margaret will then ride out into space inside an energy bubble created by her surfboard-like tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator device. The Doctor also notes that Drwg Blaidd means “Bad Wolf” in Welsh – two words that have recently followed him and Rose around wherever they have been. Putting this down to co-incidence, the Doctor then resolves to take Margaret back to her home planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius. The Slitheen objects, as she and her family have been sentenced to death by her people, but the Doctor is adamant, knowing that if he lets Margaret go free, she will continue her evil schemes and kill again. The Doctor takes Margaret back to the TARDIS as his prisoner. It will take twelve hours to re-energise the ship, and while the crew prepare to wait things out, Margaret determines to make the Doctor and his friends as uncomfortable as possible over the Time Lord’s decision to take her to her death. Leaving the ship, Rose agrees to Mickey’s proposal for pizza and a hotel room for the night. While Jack oversees the TARDIS’ repairs, the Doctor accepts Margaret’s request of a last meal, and, using two of Jack’s electrified bracelets to stop the Slitheen from running away, he takes her to a restaurant. Meanwhile, Rose tells Mickey of all the amazing alien worlds she has visited with the Doctor; feeling inadequate, Mickey blurts out that he has a new girlfriend. After failing to kill the Doctor over a glass of wine, Margaret - real name Blon Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen - attempts to trap him in an ethical debate over his right to be her executioner, remarking that he has caused countless deaths himself. She tries to tell the Doctor that she has changed, but the Doctor does not believe her. Rose and Mickey argue – she is cross that he has dumped her, while Mickey is angry that even though Rose left him for the Doctor, he cannot bring himself to let go of her. They are interrupted by a tremor: buildings shake, electrical equipment explodes and cracks appear in the earth. Rose races for the ship, while the Doctor and Margaret make their way through the terrified public. Reaching the TARDIS, they see a colossal energy wave pouring from the rift into the time / space vessel. As Jack reports that the Extrapolator is the cause, Margaret seizes Rose and takes her hostage; she then reveals that her back-up plan has begun: the Extrapolator was to lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. But before the Slitheen can continue her plan, the TARDIS console opens, revealing the heart of the ship; Margaret is showered with a brilliant white light and regressed to an egg, enabling the Doctor and Jack to override the Extrapolator and reseal the rift. Rose leaves to find Mickey but can find no sign of him; she is unaware that Mickey is hiding from her, and he then turns away and leaves. Rose rejoins the Doctor and Jack, and together they set course for Raxacoricofallapatorius; they will leave the unborn Margaret with another family, giving her the chance to redeem herself in a second shot at life.

Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), William Thomas (Mr. Cleaver), Annette Badland (Margaret Blaine [Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen]), Noel Clarke (Mickey), Mali Harries (Cathy Salt), Aled Pedrick (Idris Hopper), Alan Ruscoe (Slitheen)

Directed by Joe Ahearne
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young
A BBC Wales production

TX:
3rd June 2005 @ 7.00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Ninth Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack and Mickey

*Working title: 'Dining With Monsters'

*Bad Wolf sightings: The Mayor's nuclear power station scheme is called the Drwg Blaidd Project - “Drwg” is Welsh for 'evil' or 'bad', while “Blaidd” means 'wolf'. The official BBC website for this episode depicted a scene of the TARDIS standing amidst the apocalyptic wasteland of Cardiff – moving the mouse over the TARDIS caused the words “BAD WOLF” to appear in graffiti on the front of the ship.