| ARMY OF GHOSTS/DOOMSDAY by Russell T Davies |
| Story 21 Synopsis: The TARDIS arrives back on modern-day Earth. Jackie tells the Doctor and Rose that ghosts have recently started to appear, only for a short time every day. The Doctor traces the origin of the transmissions to a mysterious building - Torchwood Tower. Torchwood is a secret organisation using alien tech to help protect Earth, and revive a British Empire. They found a rift in the air, and built the tower around it, to analyse it. This causes the ghosts to appear. They also have a strange sphere which no-one can open, and which registers no mass. The Doctor identifies it as a Void Ship, built to travel the Void between universes. There are cracks between universes, and the ghosts are from another universe, crossing to this one. He also finally finds they're the Cybermen. They open the rip wider, allowing millions of Cybermen to cross through around the world. Then, the Sphere starts to open. The Doctor is surprised to find it's nothing to do with them. But Rose, reunited with Mickey, in the basement with the Sphere, sees it open, and Daleks emerge. There are only three of them, but they're guarding a Genesis Ark, which contains Time Lord technology. The Cybermen propose an alliance, which the Daleks refuse. War begins. The Doctor manages to escape and meet up with Mickey and Rose. Pete Tyler arrives from his parallel Earth. They rescue Jackie. The Genesis Ark will only open through the touch of a time traveller - Mickey provides it by mistake. The Daleks levitate, transporting the Ark into the open air, where the Doctor realises what it is - a prison ship, containing millions of Daleks. The Doctor has access to the Void rift, which he plans to use to send everyone covered in void particles back into it. The Daleks and Cybermen will be trapped in the Void. Rose stays to help keep the switch open. By using some of Torchwood's alien tech, she and the Doctor cling safely whilst everyone goes through the rift. Rose loses her grip, but is saved by Pete, and taken to the parallel Earth, from which she can never return. Earth is safe, but Rose is distraught. The Doctor manages to make one final trip to talk to her, but it lasts only a couple of minutes, and then it's over. But to his surprise, the Doctor isn't alone... |
| Review:- So, the big season finale, with the return of the Cybermen, and the Daleks... It's hard, in fact almost impossible, to try judging this story on its own merits. It wasn't written or produced with that intention, and it certainly wasn't watched with that intention. It relies on its viewers having watched the rest of the series up to now, and probably ideally the 2005 series as well. Because this story is about Rose Tyler, and how her strong relatiosnhip with the Doctor came to an untimely end. The story begins with her and the Doctor meeting her mum, and learning about the ghosts. The ghosts lead them to Torchwood. Torchwood leads to the Void Ship. Which leads to the return of the parallel universe angle from Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel. Which of course leads to the ghosts revealing themselves as the Cybermen. But as if that's not enough, the Void Ship contains... Daleks! And from there, it's a short stop to the idea of the Cybermen and the Daleks working together, but the Daleks won't have it, so a fight to the death it is. With Earth as the battleground. And there you have it. The return of the Cybermen is not enough. The Cybermen breaking through into our universe is not enough. Throwing in the Daleks and the "fan dream" of a war between the Doctor's two biggest enemies makes it exciting enough for a season-finale. And not just any old season-finale, but one which allows RTD to write Rose out of the Doctor's life. For this is the underlying motive behind this story. Just as last year's season ended in such a way to provide the overt spectacle of masses of Daleks to counter the covert method of regenerating the Doctor, so this time we get a change of names, but the story remains the same. Does that matter, though? Well, opinions are divided. The main problem with these set-ups is that they have to lead to proper resolutions, and once again, that doesn't really happen. As if millions of Cybermen all over the Earth isn't a big enough problem, there is a major aside in Doomsday about the Genesis Ark, which has spooky Time Lord tech. Despite some suggestion that it could be Davros, it turns out to be a prison ship, dimensionally transcendental, and containing lots of Daleks. Well, that's all well and good, but since the Daleks have already by that stage been proved as far superior to the Cybermen, it's rather overdoing it. And it just means the conclusion has twice as much work to do. Sadly, RTD tries to get clever. Whereas the "Bad Wolf" resolution could appear to be a deus ex machina finish with no fore-shadowing, here the Doctor has his special specs on from an early stage, and is consequently almost too relaxed about how to save the day. It goes to the other extreme for silliness. There appear to be many flaws with the whole "suck them back into the void" plan. But it does provide for an excuse to trap Rose in the other universe. And Rose does at least get a good deal out of it - reunited with Mickey, with both parents alive and well, and a serious job helping Torchwood. Her schmalzy goodbye on the beach is nauseating, although slightly better than the attempts at emotion a year ago. Other elements get a brief mention. Torchwood doesn't seem as impressive as it's clearly meant to be, and it's entirely unsurprising that they should crumble ineffectively as soon as the Cybermen appear. Quite how this bodes for the imminent spin-off series is hard to tell. The Cybermen get a little build-up, but are soon comprehensively put down by the Daleks. The latter's invulnerability was established back in Dalek, so the war soon becomes all too one-sided. It's tempting to think that RTD knew this, which is why it fades into the background pretty quickly. So much for realising a "fan dream". As for the Doctor... well, his antics saved the world, but now his life moves on, and he wasn't alone for long... but that's another story. Overall, it's a solid piece of entertainment, but not as good as it should have been, or as good as it thinks it is. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |