"Doctor Who": "Boom" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kastarion 3

The Doctor and Ruby land on Kastarion 3, a planet that has been ravaged by war. Which is a shame, because it has a beautiful sunrise. The Doctor wanders into a minefield, and the rest of the episode is just waiting for the bomb to go off.

Answer: Villenguard

Villenguard fights war using an algorithm which is focused on maximizing profit. As a result, anything that is an expense -- such as a soldier who takes longer to heal than the algorithm permits -- is eliminated. The algorithm turns out to be a central plot point.

Wayland Yurari is the evil corporation from the "Alien" series. Geocomtex was Henry Von Stratten's company in the Ninth Doctor story "Dalek" (2005). And Harmony Shoal was the evil corporation in the Twelfth Doctor story "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" (2017).

Answer: Splice

Splice Alison Vater, orphaned by the Villenguard Corporation, was played by Caolinn Springall. It takes her a while to realize her father is dead.

Caolinn Springall is new to acting but her credits include the sci-fi series "Citadel" (2023) and Iris in "The Midnight Sky" (2020).

Mandy appears in "The Beast Below" (2010). Angie is one Clara's charges in "Nightmare in Silver" (2013). And Chloe was in "Fear Her" (2006).

Answer: Fingers

Right after the Doctor stepped on the landmine, Ruby said that he had four fingers left. Which as the Doctor points out is better than two fingers.

Part of the drama of "Boom" is watching the landmine count closer and closer to detonation.

Answer: Beach

The Doctor actually says the line about beaches twice in "Boom." Given the basically entropic nature of the universe and long term geological shifts, he is probably right.

I think the phrase is supposed to be about the transient nature of things.

Answer: Mundy

Mundy Flynn is an ordained Anglican minister/marine. At first, she is suspicious of the Doctor, but eventually becomes his ally.

Mundy has a crush on her fellow soldier Canto. Unfortunately, he gets killed before they can do something about it.

Mundy was played by Varada Sethu. For regular Disney Plus viewers, she was on the "Star Wars" series "Andor" as Cinta Kaz. In April 2024, it was announced that Sethu would be joining "Doctor Who" as a new companion during Season 15.

Answer: Antelope

At some point, John and Splice had been on a planet that had antelopes. It is implied that it was Earth, so it's nice to known at least some African species are around in the future.

Answer: Canterbury

Canto was short for Canterbury. The city is most significant for Anglicans, as the Archbishop is the religious leader of the Church of England.

Canterbury James Oliphant was played by Bhav Joshi. He had been acting regularly in British television since 2019. Joshi played detective Jay Mallic in "Granite Harbor" (2022-24).

Answer: Themselves

The Doctor, being clever, figures out that the Villenguard Algorithm has manufactured a conflict because war is more profitable than peace. So the Marines were fighting a phantom war against nobody on an lifeless planet.

The war effectively ends when John Valen literally becomes a "ghost in the machine" and hijacks the corporate computer system. He disarms the land mine and revives Ruby.

The Eleventh Doctor did fight the Weeping Angels with a group of clerics.

Answer: Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat returns to "Doctor Who" after a six-year absence. Moffat was showrunner from 2010 to 2017. He wrote some of the best episodes of the first Russell Davies era, including "Blink".

Julie Anne Robinson directed "Boom." She has been working on both British and US television since 2000. She directed "Space Babies" (2024) earlier this season.

Joe Anderson played the doomed soldier John Vater. He began working regularly in films and television 2005 and is also known as a singer.

Susan Twist has made regular appearances on the show during the Ncuti Gatwa era. In "Boom" she plays Ambulance, the menacing computer that kills people based on profit/loss margins. Whether her character is an enemy of the Doctor or an ally was not yet determined when "Boom" aired. She is somewhat reminiscent of Missy, the female incarnation of The Master.