Steven Moffat has been responsible for some of the finest episodes of Doctor Who in the modern era, perhaps even overall in the pantheon of great Who stories.

Though his time as a showrunner saw some aspects of Doctor Who become a little divisive, not to mention wrapped up in the writer’s need to create puzzles out of everything and everyone, episodes such as Blink and Heaven Sent are often regarded as some of the absolute best stories ever in the show’s very long history.

This new season, labelled as ‘Season One’ (despite being the 40th season of the show), is intended as a soft reboot; a jumping on point for new viewers, and an attempt to widen Doctor Who’s appeal, availability and audience even further in the US in particular.

However, the season’s first two episodes dropped last week, and weren’t particularly well received by many fans.

I enjoyed them, personally, but that wasn’t without my own concerns and caveats.

Showrunner and writer Russell T. Davies (who deserves massive credit for bringing Who back from the dead in 2005, after nine years without any live action Who at all, and making it what it is today) was responsible for both episodes, and seemed to need a bit of reining in; some ill-judged toilet humour, dodgy CGI and a fun, but ultimately pointless and excessive musical number, were among the issues even I found with Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord.

So to say that Steven Moffat’s return, as the writer of the third episode, was highly anticipated is quite the understatement.

And we got a very Moffaty episode; that is to say, Boom is filled with the tropes and ideas we’ve seen before in his episodes, but also: it is really good.

The Doctor and Ruby land on a war-torn planet, where a platoon of Christian (Anglican, to be specific) soldiers are engaged in a long, drawn-out conflict with an enemy they can’t see. Exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor almost immediately steps on a pressure sensitive landmine, and is forced to figure out how to save himself, Ruby and the planet itself, without budging an inch.

It’s about as subtle as a brick to the head with its commentary on US politics in particular, with capitalism, organised religion and the response to gun violence all under the spotlight.

In fact, it’s hard not to view this season so far as a very blunt sociopolitical commentary and critique on the US, which is incredibly characteristic for socially aware British writers and Doctor Who in particular.

In fact, at Portsmouth Comic Con recently, during a panel in which Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, Eighth Doctor Paul McGann and the Seventh Doctor’s companion Ace, Sophie Aldred, were all involved, McCoy mentioned that it was easy to see the US-funded, ultimately ill-fated 1996 TV series pilot (now referred to as Doctor Who: The Movie) as a satire on America itself. After all, the TARDIS lands in America, and what happens?

McCoy reminds us that the Doctor steps out of his TARDIS, only to be immediately shot and killed. Basically, “Hello, America!” and then he’s killed in a hail of bullets; the audience at the Panel laughed uproariously at this observation.

So really, it should be no surprise that the first three episodes of ‘Season One’ each take their digs at the current state of American politics and political discourse, in none-too-subtle ways.

Space Babies took aim at the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement, The Devil’s Chord cast a non-binary drag queen in the best role of the series so far and Boom really places the exasperating response of ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ to mass shootings front and centre, not to mention the blunt depiction of the roles of capitalism and religion in war (even prodding at healthcare and AI along the way).

Like I said, it’s not exactly subtle.

Still, it’s not all about the obvious commentary; Boom is just a straightforward, tense and cleverly written Doctor Who episode.

Moffat’s life-after-death trope, seen in so many other episodes of his, perhaps most memorably in Tenth Doctor two parter Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, is a big element here, as is the rogue AI consciousness and aforementioned religious soldiers, also a recurring aspect of his stories.

It’s a brilliantly performed episode; leads Ncuti Gatwa (who even gets a literal mic drop in Boom) and Millie Gibson are both very comfortable in their roles as Doctor and companion already, but the supporting cast are all great too.

Shot on a Mandalorian-style virtual background, it also looks fantastic; it’s hard to imagine this particular episode looking so good in any previous era of Doctor Who and still retaining a similar look and feel.

Though, pulling my nerdy hat on even more tightly, NuWho Season 9 opening episode, The Magician’s Apprentice, pulls off a close vibe with its battle scenes, albeit without the full episode focusing on that aspect.

In any case, it seems like there were many fans with strong doubts about this season and, though I did enjoy the opening episodes, I do kind of see where they were coming from.

Boom should allay those fears somewhat, as it’s easily the strongest episode so far and feels like an instant return to form.

Though it also has a few typically Moffaty lapses in logic (how does the Doctor keep talking so much, when that would clearly destabilise the mine, if it’s so sensitive even to the rush of adrenaline?), it’s bold, tense, involving and poignant; no doubt I’ll be watching it again before the next episode drops in a week.