Army of Ghosts

A story directed by Graema Harper and written by RTD is going to be a curious thing, rather like teaming up Bob Baker and Dave Martin with Douglas Camfield: a bizarre combination of breathlessly action-packed camera work and a tongue-in-cheek script. That sort of sums up Army of Ghosts, though thankfully this time the script is a little more focused than RTD's previous efforts (though not the standard of his consumate Tooth and Claw) and runs along fairly smoothly and purposefully, though shows the usual signs of overt ambitiousness (packing in Torchwood, 'ghosts', military, Cybermen, Daleks etc.), domestic tedium (a superfluous reunion with Jackie in that bloody flat again; Jackie travelling in the Tardis), and totally inappropriate and jarring contemporaneous terrestrial 'jokes' (the Doctor's completely stupid 'I ain't afraid of no ghost' and his 'Come on my beaut-a-y!'), and, as usual, whimsical snatches of modern day popular culture (the rather silly excerpts from Trisha and EastEnders - thankfully very brief; the absurd ghost weather report and the derivative snatch of the Ghostwatch programme, lifted from the early 90s TV spoof hosted by Michael Parkinson.) Now we know where the Tenth Doctor gets all his peurile references from: watching Jackie's TV all the time! A far cry from the poetry-quoting Fourth and Sixth Doctors. Tennant is certainly the 'TV Doctor' (and sorry for spelling your name wrong in all my reviews by the Mr T, I left out one of the n's). And talking of parallel worlds, isn't it odd that while they show a snippet from EastEnders as the terrestrial programme it is, and should be, in the Who universe (though this has no place in it), the very actress who played the woman who killed Dirty Den - hence his ghost appearing in the Queen Vic - is cast as the episode's main incidental character. Very odd casting given the circumstances. Mind you, arguably nothing has been as controversial still as that scene from Remembrance of the Daleks with the TV announcer - now that was risky.

RTD is gifting the older fans a complete orgy of nostalgia in this penultimate episode: Cybermen and Daleks aside, there are also some subtle touches such as the sarcophagus standing next to the Tardis in the hangar (cue Pyramids of Mars) and the Tardis on a truck (cue Time Monster) (the new series is fairly good at these visual touches actually: in my review of Idiot's Lantern I missed mentioning that the roof aeriels of the houses were all shaped like swaztikas for instance). In all surface ways this is almost the most nostalgia-heavy Doctor Who story ever done (second perhaps to The Five Doctors) - one can only puzzle as to the conspicuous absence of UNIT in the proceedings, but maybe they'll make an appearance next episode.

RTD's 'polemics' are back with the revelation that Torchwood is committed to reviving the British Empire and, tellingly, refuses to use 'the metric system', obviously very territorial and anti-European. This is all actually quite a good touch (as were the lycanthropy insinuations regarding the Royal family in Tooth and Claw) and is perhaps needed in a show which traditionally conveys thinly-veiled political comment on the issues of the day, and with the rising tide of territorialism among many European states (not least the UK), this is, in my opinion, very welcome. It does however sit oddly next to the simultaneous thread of patriotism and Britishness running through most of the new series to date (ubiquitous Union Jacks throughout The Empty Child/Doctor Dances, Christmas Invasion, Idiot's Lantern and Fear Her). But I suppose what RTD presents us with is the difference between outright nationalism and diluted, Brit-pop-ish, Blairite, wet patriotism - Britishness in other words. Mmm. I'm still not a fan. Despite the ongoing liberal polemical touches to new Who, it still lacks the leftist radicalism of the old days (cue Ambassadors of Death, Claws of Axos, The Sea Devils, The Green Death, The Sunmakers, Kinda, Remembrance of the Daleks, Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric, for example).

Army of Ghosts does have a certain energy, pace and drama about its direction which was also present in Harper's Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, but this time we don't have a) Roger Lloyd-Pack to muck it up with ham, b) a sharper definition camera as opposed to Rise's blurry soap-opera one and c) none of the parallel Earth-setting nonsense (remember how difficult it was for the Third Doctor to get to the parallel Earth in Inferno? no to mention the Fifth Doctor's hilarious rant about how going to and from E-Space (a parallel universe) isn't like a 'taxi service').

The cliffhanger was obviously pretty climactic, but ranks as probably the most laboured ever in the show's history - and what on Earth are Daleks doing travelling in such a celestial sphere? Isn't RTD over-estimating their technological abilities? Well, let's see if this plot element is fully explained next week.

As for the Doctor's 1980s cereal packet paper 3-D glasses - well - again, hopefully these will be explained too, as the Radio Times hints this week. Otherwise, they look very silly and gimmicky - another idea thrown about by RTD down the pub no doubt.

Seeing the clip from next week, well, while aspects look quite promising, especially the genesis ark (Davros?), I'm sorry to see all those cardboard cut-outs from the parallel Earth are threatening to descend once more. Why? Just leave them be where they were. Having Micky return is one thing - and I admit that was very well directed when the lab assistant turned out to be he, with a wink to Rose - but not the entire cast of McRae's soap - including, inevitably, the parallel father of Rose.

Let's hope Doomsday delivers what is hinted at in Army of Ghosts, overall a reasonably engaging episode and RTD's second best-written one after Tooth and Claw.

6/10