Army of Ghosts

Well .... Season 2 finale!

I promised myself I would not write a review until I had seen both parts at least a couple of times, but having read the reviews so far (and fiddled with a Sky + box) I thought I would throw caution to the wind and add my opinions now.

This series it's obvious that Doctor Who team have experimented in some areas and tried to improve in others, with mixed results as I am sure most people would agree (even if they don't agree which episodes work) for example I sat and watched Love and Monsters and loved every minute of it, however the person watching it with me kept saying "This isn't Doctor Who! Wheres the Doctor?"

So we, like the Doctor and Rose, have been on a bit of a bumpy ride recently and finally ended up back on Earth in the presence of the wonderful Jackie Tyler and slap bang in the middle of another mystery, this time concerning the apparent return of dearly departed loved relatives in ghostly form and the hugely name dropped Torchwood Institute.

Having read most of the spoliers, seen the pics and watched the trailer I sat there knowing what to expect, the Doctor, Rose and Jackie get mixed up with Torchwood, there'll be Cybermen, oh and Mickey and Pete will be back too, Rose is going to die (wonderful pre-lude and opening credits "This is the story of war on Earth .. the last story I will ever tell" - made me shiver) and possibly Captain Jack will be back.

I love Jackie tyler, and it was great to see her finally taking a trip in the Tardis, as well as the dialogue between her and the Doctor when they got to Torchwood. Over recent episodes I have had little good to say about Rose, going from most develped character to most annoying during the first half of the season so it was good to see her taking a more active role, off on her own to explore with the psychic paper.

My only niggle I would point out at this point is that Torchwood did not bowl me over, it looked like a very British version of Area 51 from Independance Day - hovering spaceship included. Yvonne's interaction with the Doctor was interesting but she doesn't quite cut it as a ruthless boss of a secret organisation that annoyed him so much in the Christmas Invasion. All those guards and no one noticed a few Cybermen hiding behind some polythene sheets?? Hmmmm...

If you take last years penultimate episode, I found it rather fustrating that even though I knew it was the Daleks - you didn't get to see them until the last few minutes because of the build up and nod to popular culture by RTD. This time though we get that still (great idea for Eastenders, but their characters always find a way of cheating death anyway!) and you get the Cybermen appearing much sooner to kick start the build up.

It didn't take a leap of imagination to realise the ghosts were Cybermen, I did enjoy watching them appear all over the world though, as well as the re-appearance of the new and improved Mickey, there is something very scary about Cybermen appearing at the front door and the top of the stairs though.

So the episode cliff hanger is set ... millions of Cybermen and only the Doctor can stop them, Rose and Mickey are trapped with a sphere that probably contains the Cyber Controller ... its opening ... hang on wheres the closing music ... what is coming out of it ... THUD! I actually fell off the sofa and screamed when the closing music finally cut in.

Of course it's gushing fan boy .. Cybermen AND Daleks ... some will hate it, but despite spotting a sly extermination in the previous weeks pre-lude I really hadn't expected it to be true (remember all the hype a few months ago when it was leaked - then nothing).

So it's all down to the last 45 mins ... and I expect there will be more sofa gripping moments as well as a few watery eyes by the end of it ...