avoids them. She then asks him to take her to another planet instead. Jack begins integrating the extrapolator into the TARDIS to speed up the engine recharge. Rose and Mickey hang out together, and he claims to her that he is dating someone else because she is not there for him. Before Rose can answer whether she will come back to Mickey, Cardiff is struck by a large earthquake that is coming from the Rift. The Doctor, Blaine, Rose, and Jack regroup and find that the extrapolator was a trap meant to redirect the energy from the TARDIS into the Rift, rupturing it. Jack and the Doctor are unable to stop the energy transfer, and Blaine takes Rose hostage and demands the extrapolator. The heart of the TARDIS opens on the console, bathing Blaine in light. While she is captivated by the light, Jack and the Doctor close the rift and disable the extrapolator. As the console closes, they find that Blaine's human suit is empty except for an egg. The Doctor surmises that the TARDIS sensed that Blaine wanted a second chance at life and gave it to her. The TARDIS crew decides to return the egg to Raxacoricofallapatorius so Blaine can be raised in a different family. Rose realises Mickey has left without saying goodbye. She runs out to look for him, but finds he has gone. Continuity The Rift was established earlier in the series in "The Unquiet Dead". Margaret says that as a child she was threatened with being fed to venom grubs; these creatures appeared in the First Doctor serial The Web Planet (1965). Production According to an interview with executive producer and episode writer Russell T Davies in Doctor Who Magazine, this episode was originally offered to his friend and former colleague, the critically acclaimed and award-winning scriptwriter Paul Abbott. Abbott accepted and submitted a storyline, revealing that Rose had been bred by the Doctor as an experiment in creating a perfect companion. The episode was titled "The Void". However, Abbot had to abandon the project due to other commitments. Davies wrote "Boom Town" instead, bringing back Badland as Blaine due to her performance in "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" being "brilliant", though she had few lines. The actor playing Mr Cleaver, William Thomas, had previously appeared as Martin the undertaker in the 1988 classic series story Remembrance of the Daleks. This