After a pair of divisive opening episodes last week, Boom feels like business as usual for Doctor Who. The first episode in this new era not to be written by (past and present) showrunner Russell T Davies, Boom is penned by Steven Moffat…the past showrunner of Doctor Who (from 2010 to 2017). It’s an episode that feels like it’s time travelled from 2017, an entirely different era of the show, and simply swapped out the two leads for their 2024 counterparts.

In case the previous four episodes hadn’t sold you on our new resident Time Lord, Ncuti Gatwa throws himself head-first into a Doctor-centric instalment that pushes the character to the edge. Forced into keeping absolutely still for the majority of this forty-five-minute episode, Gatwa consistently commands the screen, relishing every line of dialogue he’s given and hitting every emotional note perfectly. Millie Gibson‘s Ruby feels somewhat side-lined in this episode, fulfilling an archetypal companion role before being supposedly ‘killed’ and ‘resurrected’ before the end credits roll. Although as next week’s 73 Yards seems to be a Ruby-centric, Doctor-lite episode, this narrative choice does make sense in the broader context of the season.

We also meet Varada Sethu (who’s set to be next season’s companion), engaged in a slightly different kind of Star War, but who makes a strong impression in her interactions with Gatwa and Gibson. Susan Twist‘s cameo as sinister ambulance robots was quite spooky, contributing to the script’s satire of AI and the commercialisation of warfare (arguably a much-needed warning of a potential real-life future here on Earth). Director Julie Anne Robinson makes good use of some state-of-the-art visual effects technology to bring Kastarion 3 to life, with plenty of murky, moody shots. While it’s a nice touch that the episode focuses on the fact that this is Ruby’s first alien planet, it does raise a number of questions after the apparent six-month time-jump between the first two episodes (where have the Doctor and Ruby been travelling in all that time?).

Boom inherently feels like a Steven Moffat script, to the extent that it was difficult not to be reminded more of Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi‘s Doctors in some of Gatwa’s lines, or a bit of Amy Pond, Clara Oswald or Bill Potts in Ruby’s interactions. It’s an odd feeling for an episode so early on in this new run, especially after having had exclusively Davies-penned episodes up until this point. Even the surprise early appearance of Varada Sethu (admittedly playing a different character to her companion role next season) is reminiscent of Jenna Coleman‘s early debut in Moffat’s own Asylum of the Daleks, while the inclusion of Villenguard (first mentioned in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), the Anglican Clerics (having appeared in the 2010 and 2011 seasons) and references to fish fingers and custard (the Eleventh Doctor’s favourite late-night snack) all serve to make Boom something of a throwback episode.

None of this is to say that Boom is a bad episode, however. In fact, it’s one of the strongest episodes in recent memory, despite its feeling of familiarity. As a forty-five-minute exercise in suspense, it works incredibly well, bolstered by Gatwa’s terrific lead performance. Moffat’s script bounces around some really great ideas, particularly in its satire of warfare. Some of the comments about faith will probably ruffle a few feathers, while the themes around parenting are emotive if a little clichéd. Steven Moffat has become something of an auteur, with a recognisable tone of voice which has proven to be divisive over the years, and while I’m not sure that Doctor Who needed him to come back (especially after only 6 years), it’s great to have him come back with a high-concept and intimate narrative. It’s an approach that’s served him well in the past, and while this isn’t Blink or Heaven Sent, it is certainly a tense watch and a welcome change of pace from the last few episodes.

My overhanging criticism of Boom is that it feels like business as usual for Doctor Who, a hark back to an earlier era of the programme in what was promised as a clean slate (this is ‘Season 1’, after all). Boom feels like an episode from a decade ago, and while this can be viewed as a positive and a negative, it does feel like another dose of nostalgia in a new era that seems determined to keep looking backwards. Here’s hoping next week’s episode – promised by Russell T Davies as “one of the greatest things I’ve ever made in my life” – feels more new and exciting.

Doctor Who returns to BBC One next Saturday at 18:50

Join us for our series blog review next week