Aliens of London

Did You Know?

• A novelisation of this episode and "World War Three" written by Joseph Lidster was released as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook on 26 March 2026 under the title Aliens of London as part of the Target Collection.
• Naoko Mori appeared in this episode and went on to feature in the spin-off Torchwood as a result of her performance.
• The Slitheen aliens are part-computer-generated imagery and part-prosthetic/costume.

Plot

The Ninth Doctor intends to return Rose to Earth twelve hours after her departure, but miscalculates and arrives twelve months later. Rose's mother Jackie is furious, believing Rose was abducted and murdered; Rose's boyfriend Mickey is also upset, having been suspected of murdering her. As Rose expresses frustration at not being able to tell the truth, a spacecraft crashes through Big Ben into the River Thames. Central London is shut down, and the population becomes excited at the prospect of first contact. The Doctor suspects trickery and uses the TARDIS to land inside the hospital where the alien pilot has been taken. He discovers the craft was launched from Earth and the pilot is a pig modified by alien technology. The government cannot locate the Prime Minister, and Joseph Green MP is named acting Prime Minister. Green is revealed to be a member of the Slitheen, a family of aliens who compress their bodies into large human suits, causing frequent flatulence. Two other high government officials, Margaret Blaine and Oliver Charles, are also Slitheen. The Slitheen celebrate luring humans into their plan, unaware that MP Harriet Jones has witnessed their conversation. When the Doctor returns to Rose, Jackie discovers the truth about the Doctor and the TARDIS and calls it in. They are surrounded by soldiers and escorted to 10 Downing Street. The Doctor is asked to join a panel of alien experts including UNIT members; Rose is escorted into the building by Harriet, who tells her about the aliens. Together they discover the Prime Minister's corpse, but are caught by Blaine, who begins to unzip her human suit to attack them. At Jackie's flat, a police officer also unzips his suit and attacks her. The Doctor attempts to convince the experts of the forgery, but realizes the experts have been lured into a trap. Green sends an electrical shock through the assembled group.

Production

Executive producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young oversaw production, with regular producer Phil Collinson. The episode was initially titled "Aliens of London, Part One". Davies was inspired by the 1958 British science-fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit and by Paul Cornell's novel Human Nature for the idea of an antagonistic family. The decision to have the Slitheen invade Downing Street was inspired by the Girls Aloud "Jump" music video set there. The production team intended to suggest the murdered Prime Minister was the real-life incumbent Tony Blair; they hired an actor as a Tony Blair impersonator, but when the resemblance proved disappointing, they avoided showing the body clearly. The role of Harriet Jones was written specially for Penelope Wilton by Davies, who had previously worked with her on Bob & Rose. This episode is the last to have UNIT stand for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce; it was later changed to Unified Intelligence Taskforce after complaints from the real United Nations.

Broadcast and reception

Russell T Davies noted he had to check editorial policy before screening because the episode clashed with the 2005 United Kingdom general election. Overnight figures showed 7 million viewers in the UK, a 34% audience share, with an Audience Appreciation Index score of 82. Final ratings rose to 7.63 million. This episode, together with "World War Three" and "Dalek", were the first released on UMD format for the PlayStation Portable, then on a DVD, and later with the rest of series 1 on a box set. "Aliens of London" received generally mixed reviews. Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave a grade of C, positive toward how the story showed Rose's home life in her absence. In 2013, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times described the two-parter as "flashy but silly" and thought the storyline of Rose's family worked because of the "vivid" characters, praising Wilton's performance. The A.V. Club's Alasdair Wilkins gave a grade of B−, finding the problem more in execution than conception; he argued the televised version did not display its more nuanced parts. Burk and Smith in Who is the Doctor were more positive; Burk called the story "loved and hated by fans in equal measure" but a "delight" for him, while Smith called it the closest the new series and Davies "ever gets to pastiching the Classic Series' most beloved writer, Robert Holmes." There were minor audience complaints about Rose's remark "You're so gay"; Davies defended himself by saying he was trying to reflect how people talk in real life.