Doomsday

Since the start of the year there have been two television “events” I have looked forward to; the World Cup and the second series of Doctor Who. In many ways my experience of one has mirrored that of the other: I felt slightly let down by the footy, and not just because of England’s typically early departure. The football on display was easily the most mediocre of my lifetime and the final was decided by yet another penalty shoot-out – exciting to watch but an unsatisfying conclusion to the world’s biggest sporting event.

I was hopeful that Doctor Who, which like the World Cup had been patchy in parts with only the occasional moments of brilliance, would redeem itself with a barnstorming finale to make up for the mediocrity of “New Earth”, “Tooth and Claw”, “The Impossible Planet/”The Satan Pit” and “Fear Her.

Happily, after the intriguing events of its immediate predecessor “Army of Ghosts”, “Doomsday” came along and instantly made me forget the many things that have bugged me in this series – the Doctor and Rose’s laboured “chemistry”, the rubbish acting from all concerned in “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit”, the smug in-jokes and cringy hug in the latter episodes and a great deal of Billie Piper’s acting in every episode – for, well, a while at least!

“Doomsday” was an example of the Russell T Davies era Who at its very best – epic storytelling involving the world in danger combined with strong character development for several of the players, particularly the Tylers and also Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Yvonne, who it transpired was more a misguided patriot than an evil fascist.

The episode continued, logically enough, where “Army of Ghosts” left off, with the dramatic realisation that the Daleks, and not the Cybermen, were responsible for bridging the gap from the alternate universe of “Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel” to ours. The malevolent pepperpots were desperate to protect something called the Genesis Ark from enemy hands at all costs – we know this because they helpfully said to Rose and Mickey “We must protect the Genesis Ark at all costs”.

Rose managed to blag the Daleks into thinking she was too important to kill by convincing them she knew loads about their history, and the new, cannier Mickey, fresh from three years fighting the Cybermen in an alternative reality (as you do), followed her lead. Sadly, the bloke from Eastenders who played one of the much-maligned members of the Ferreira clan (appearing here as a Torchwood scientist) was not so lucky, and was plungered to death in a gratifyingly grisly scene.

The Doctor and Jackie, meanwhile, were trapped upstairs with the Cybermen, who were also busy explaining away their plans – is it any wonder that both the Doctor’s biggest foes consistently fail in their world-domination schemes when they can’t shut up telling him and his mates what they have in store for them? Schoolboy error.

Anyway, the whole point of the opening scenes was to provide an excuse for the DoctorÂ’s two great enemy factions to confront each other, which they promptly did. Anyone who had a fiver on the Cybermen to win would have been gutted, as the DaleksÂ’ guns proved to be more than a match for their effete looking wrist lasers.

The Daleks, incidentally, were given some cracking lines in these opening scenes. When warned by the Cybermen that the two sides were now at war one of them cockily replied: “This is not war, this is pest control!”. It added: “Cybermen are superior to Daleks in only one way; how you die!” and boasted that four Daleks were enough to take on the millions of Cybermen who were now present on our Earth.

Sadly, the Cybermen did not reply: “Oh yeah? You and whose army!”, but if they had done they would have received an emphatic response – the Genesis Ark (remember that?) was actually a Dalek prison ship stolen from the Time Lords. Inside were millions of the little buggers, kept in such a small device thanks to Time Lord technology i.e. it was bigger on the inside.

To be honest with you I got a little bit lost after that but I do know that Mickey’s new Geordie mate Jake popped up along with the alternate Pete Tyler to help save the day. The Doctor concocted some scheme or other that would conveniently send both the Cybermen and the Daleks to the Hellish “void” between the two realities. The only downside was that all of his companions, including Rose, would have to permanently relocate to the alternate Earth.

Rose predictably rebelled and ended up staying to help the Doctor. She looked like she was going to fall into the void herself but was then saved at the last minute by Pete, who took her to the alternate reality and out of the Doctor’s life. The end – except for a poignant epilogue where the Doctor managed to use the TARDIS to project an image of himself to a beach in Norway, which in no way looked like the Welsh coast, to say a final goodbye (and to learn from Rose that Jackie was up the duff, thanks to a quick moving alternate Pete).

This episode offered a fitting end to the second series and to the Rose-era as a whole. It wasn’t perfect – there were gaping plot holes: why did the Yvonne Cybermen still have a free will? The Daleks apparently needed the touch of a time-traveller to open the Genesis Ark but how did they know they would find one on our Earth (or did I miss something here)? Also, how thick must be the Cybermen be if they cannot crack reality-hopping technology when even that Geordie fella off CBBC can do it via a handy device that fits into the palm of your hand?

I liked the direction and the effects were mostly OK, even if the CybermenÂ’s guns seemed to be not much more impressive than the weapons you get at your local Laser Quest. The use of music seemed to be less obtrusive than in previous episodes; I particularly liked the mellow tune used in the epilogue, when Rose followed the DoctorÂ’s voice to the Welsh, sorry Norwegian, coast.

Humour was used sparingly and to good effect, such as Mickey smirking that a battle between a Dalek and a Cyberman was like “Stephen Hawkins versus the speaking clock”. The meeting between Jackie and the alternate Pete was funny and poignant; especially amusing was the look on Mickey and the Doctor’s faces when Jackie said there hadn’t been anyone else since her own Pete died! I loved Jackie telling the Doctor to shut-up when his convenient parallel universe spiel was over-shadowing her and Pete’s moment. Compare this to the unfunny opening scene to “The Impossible Planet” when Rose jokes that they could simply go back to the TARDIS and leave at the first sign of danger, and her and the Doctor collapse with laughter – this is how you do knowing self-parody without appearing smug.

Remarkably, the dramatic finale to the Doctor-Rose story arc managed to overshadow the Dalek-Cybermen aspect to such an extent that you were almost glad to see the back of the old villains so that the emotional denouement could play out. Maybe that has been Russell T DaviesÂ’s greatest achievement since he brought the show back, to create characters you actually care enough while placing them in ever more ridiculous situations each week.

Either way, I’m hopeful for the next series for a variety of reasons: David Tennant clearly has the potential to get even better in the role, the prospect of new material, including Stephen Fry’s postponed script (imagine how mad that one will be!) and – sorry to harp on about this – no Rose. Hopefully, the script writers will take their queue from Tennant’s vastly different portrayal to Christopher Ecclestone’s and write Martha as the anti-Rose: not so touchy feely and maybe even prone to disagreements and antagonism with the Doctor (after all, the chirpy Dick Van Dyke routine would get on anyone’s nerves after a while, no matter how big the TARDIS is).