Doomsday

A thrilling episode, with some genuine moments of greatness, that had an awful lot of work to do in its short time and just about managed to do so. However, as a conclusion to the Rose story, it became a victim of its own sentimentality and, just as it approached its apotheosis, the whole thing came crumbling to the ground.

Firstly, how appropriate it was that the coda to this episode was played out on a windswept beach in Norway. Well, an alternative Norway. The Scandanavian sagas see the progression of the cosmos not as a smooth and stable progression but as a constant struggle between opposing forces, those of creation and order against those of destruction and chaos. The War In Heaven played out with Cybermen and Daleks over Canary Wharf.

'Doomsday' situates its themes very firmly in Scandanavian myth, from their concept of the beginning of the cosmos as one vast open void that could easily stand in for the denoument of the Cybermen and the Daleks being swallowed into the Void to Torchwood Tower representing the mighty tree at the centre of the world that spreads its roots into the lands of the dead and the living (the two alternate universes perhaps?)

'Doomsday', for me, was more about about symbolic and actual acts of reproduction, surrogate mothers and fathers and their children than playground shooting matches between the two big bads of Who.

Ever since 'FatherВ’s Day', weВ’ve realised that Rose has been in search of a father figure, a proxy Pete, and the Doctor has been that to a point. Here, the Doctor and a version of Pete swap places. RoseВ’s story has been about creating an alternate family unit and both she and Jackie have, through the Doctor, been striving to find a catalyst for this. The series has very much from the start been about the feminine principle, the bonding between mother and daughter and lost or surrogate children, especially Mickey and perhaps even the Doctor himself. The series has focused on the relationships between parents and children as representative of eternal self-renewal. JackieВ’s scene in В‘Army Of GhostsВ’ when she predicts Rose will become a stranger is her way of infusing her daughter with knowledge of the larger dimensions of life and death and to provide her with a sense of her problematic destiny.

The Rose story has very much been about a teenage girl having her personal relationships overloaded with archetypal content (e.g. the Doctor) and in the end it is down to her mother to enable her to detach from this and become her own woman. The death we witness is of the Rose weВ’ve seen with the Doctor, the child Rose. By the end of 'Doomsday', and her separation from the Doctor, she recognises that she has been forced to become the woman she needs to be to survive and carry on.

Jackie and Rose have, as IВ’ve said, been looking for another Pete Tyler and in 'Doomsday', the alternate Pete replaces the Doctor as a catalyst and reunites the disparate elements of the В‘familyВ’ В– Rose, Jackie and Mickey. The crucial moments where this happens are in the first meeting in the corridor between Jackie and Pete where despite their own counter arguments they discover they need each other. ItВ’s beautifully played and the reaction shots from Noel Clarke, David Tennant and Billie are superb, especially the raised eyebrows at JackieВ’s В‘thereВ’s never been anyone elseВ’. Later, the Doctor and Pete exchange looks of understanding and complicity when they mutually agree that the best course is to get Rose and Jackie back to the alternate Earth. Pete drives much of the narrative and ultimately returns in time to save his daughter before she plunges into the Void. In fact, Pete and Jackie are operating on the same level as the Doctor and Rose, individuals in each couple willing to sacrifice and redeem themselves to save the other.

The feminine principle also runs throughout other areas of the story В– the Daleks and their Genesis Ark (a mobile womb perhaps), YvonneВ’s upgrade by the Cybermen and JackieВ’s pregnancy are all aspects of symbols of fertility in the story.

With the main plot concerning the reuniting of the В‘familyВ’ unit, the sub-plot is driven by the Daleks at the expense of the Cybermen, I feel. They did descend to being little more than cannon fodder which I was hoping the current series and this particular story would avoid. It was the Cyber slaughter ofВ’ The Five DoctorsВ’ all over again.

So, whilst the idea of a Cyber-Dalek confrontation was in principle a good idea, it didnВ’t completely live up to its promise. It looked spectacular, particularly the flying Daleks over London, but in the end, much as I enjoyed it, I wondered what exactly was the point. At times, it seemed little more than two street gangs amusingly name calling and pulling tongues at each other. Despite this, I think the further echoes of the Time War, use of Time Lord technology (a genuine twist which no one saw coming) and the Cult Of Skaro were very exciting additions to the ongoing mythology.

Unfortunately, you couldnВ’t really say the same for the Cybermen. In fact, a scene which could really have embellished the true horror of Cyber conversion was badly misjudged. The Cyber-Yvonne was risible in my opinion and it struggled to emulate similar scenes in Mark PlattВ’s В‘Spare PartsВ’ which handled this sort of material considerably better. The Cyber-tear was just another tear too far and a contrived plot point.

Talking of tears, when we get to the last ten minutes of the story, why are we then subjected to a very drawn out epilogue? I felt the tragedy of RoseВ’s departure worked perfectly well up to the section where the Doctor walks away from the wall in Torchwood HQ and the screen goes black. Murray GoldВ’s music, which hadnВ’t really distinguished itself this time, picked up and the beautiful scene of the two main characters separated literally by a wall of their own grief was fantastically played by Tennant and Piper. There was then the longeur of Rose being woken by a dream and all of them packing off in the jeep to Norway.

The last goodbye on the beach was again over-long but played very well and beautifully shot. However, the cut to Tennant in the TARDIS with some rather obviously applied trails of glycerine on his cheeks really sent this crashing to the ground. It smacked of fake sentimentality for me and sucked away any genuine feelings that were being articulated. I have no problems having the Doctor in tears and being upset at leaving Rose but this was a bungled scene and, for example, JoВ’s departure in В‘The Green DeathВ’ was better handled and felt subtle, honest and genuinely moving. It was very odd watching these last scenes, as I felt IВ’d got more catharsis out of Pete and Jackie reuniting earlier and now I really didnВ’t feel that moved by all of this. Certainly the final scene of В‘The Girl In The FireplaceВ’ wiped the floor with this and Tennant played that so much better and it evoked more emotion without the recourse to tacked on tears. In the end I was rending my garments in frustration rather than sadness.

Other than the ending, this was a great episode, not a patch on last yearВ’s В‘Parting Of The WaysВ’ because it really had too much to clear up for 45 minutes to cope with and it tried much too hard to impress and came undone with the burst of over-sentimentality at the end. Graeme Harper marshalled the action with his customary skill (the lovely mix between the two TorchwoodВ’s was great), it looked a million dollars, moved along at a good pace and was genuinely thrilling at times.

And did we really need the rather jarring Catherine Tate cameo? Only 170 days will tell.