So here we have it В– the long anticipated finale to Season Two of Doctor Who 2.1, the episode where half of us long to see Piper fragged and where the other half long to see her walk away with life; the episode where we get to see the ultimate battle between Cybermen and Daleks (if we ever wanted that); the episode where we hope to see David Tennant at his best and the episode where we wait to see what caliber of drama Russell T Davies can bring us.

Result: *long sigh* I donВ’t know.

Let me get some biases out of the way first by saying that I was never a fan of Rose Tyler. I found her smug, irritating, hypocritical, and, ultimately, much to the failure of DaviesВ’ original promise, little more than cannon-fodder. In 2005, we were promised a new relationship of teamwork, a new challenging dynamic from a companion, and something utterly modern. We didnВ’t really ever get that. Rose saved the day a couple of times, but mostly just ended up being sucked up by television aliens, getting chased by zombies, and sitting around watching the Doctor babble about things she never understood. Worse, the decision for a romantic leaning really just gave Tennant and Piper an opportunity to act asinine now and again when the script said В“now frolic like teenagers in denialВ”. I wanted to see her die; I wanted to see her go down in a blaze of gloryВ… and when Davies promised us this at the end of Fear Her, I knew immediately that IВ’d never get it. Here comes the end of PiperВ’s tenure as companion and it was little more than Star Trek conventionality. She ends up in a parallel universe, nothing is sacrificed, and the big gaping potential to open up that door again stays possible. How cheap. It cheapens the relationship between she and the Doctor and it cheapens the risk-taking of the production staff. Smells a bit overdone to me.

Now that that is out of the way, letВ’s get to the episode.

It wasnВ’t terrible, but for a season finale, it was pretty mediocre. The potential for these two villains meeting was always a tempting idea and dangerous one because on one hand, Daleks and Cybermen together become twice the threat (both responsible in one way or another for taking an incarnation). However, it also opens the door for some terrible fanwank opportunities and some very lazy scripting. Unfortunately, Davies took Door C and not only gave us painful scripting, but embarrassed the recurring villain from the season. The Daleks meeting the Cybermen quite simply sucked sour frogВ’s assВ… it didnВ’t have to, but it did. They met, they didnВ’t like each other, and then the Daleks just slaughtered Cybermen until the Doctor saved the day. Davies wrote it so that the Cybermen looked like the Junior Physically-Challenged Gun Squad against the entire Stalin Regime. There were more Cybermen in this episode than there are spyrochaetes in Syphilis victims and they couldnВ’t deal with four Daleks. After failing to kill a single one with a weapon, why not just march in, pick one up, and suplex it until it gets disoriented? Why not grab it by its armor and rip out the ugly blob that lives within it? Nope. Better stand there and get slaughtered. They lost all respect as a true Class A villain because Davies thinks Daleks are immortal. Instead we got witty banter about pest control and whoВ’s better at dying. I could imagine all kinds of fans grinning as if watching what would happen if ET met Predator in a fight to the death, actually believing that something great was occurring. Where is the suspense in that? Why cheapen one or the other? The worst part is that is what the episode became about: two aggressive aliens ignoring the protagonists while every recurring character makes an appearance. We got В‘em all: Jackie, Mickey, Pete, Jake, Daleks, Cybermen, Time Lord technology, more Daleks. I was waiting for the Face of Boe to show up with Captain Jack, Jo Grant, The Master, Adric, Paul McGann, and a pack full of Bandrils. Davies just seemed to lose control over himself and created an episode where the intelligent subtlety so often used lost out to mindless action.

Saying that, it was pretty good mindless action with lots of running, lots of near misses, some clichГ© reunions, followed by more running and frenetic pacing. Every one of those recurring characters could have been at risk, any one of them a potential target. Rose was certainly one candidate and that kept us on the edge of our seatВ… which was all the more deflating when it seems that every major character (barring the Doctor once every few seasons) is pretty much immune to the horror going on around him or her. I wonВ’t fault this decision because Davies has said that the show should inspire optimism, but I think the border can be pushed too far when no one is really at risk. It just loses its impact when you know everyone is safe.

In that same sense of things being safe, the fact that the Daleks just keep growing in numbers haunts my dreams sometimes. It was made so vital that the Doctor destroyed his people to finally deal with the Daleks and there just seems to be more and more of them. First one, then the Emperor with an army, then four more, then millions! Just like Jason Voorhees, these beings of evil just keep finding a way back, almost as if the producers just donВ’t have the heart to let them rest for a season or two.

The Doctor finds a way to save the day, turns the magic key, sucks up millions of foes, and finally loses Rose to the alternate universe. ItВ’s all very quaint, albeit not very original. So thatВ’s why we had an alternate universeВ… it was a cheap plot device; so thatВ’s why Jackie Tyler of the alternate universe diedВ… it was a convenient way of reuniting our version with a Pete. I donВ’t know. Smells a little lazy to me.

The acting was top-notch at least. Piper brought intensity to her final moments that were impossible not to respect; TennantВ’s blood-curdling scream as Rose helplessly flies towards the Void and inability to requite his love fully brought out a cold severity in the character that really foregrounds the tragedy in his past and future, one that we have gotten glimpses of in between the giggling and frolicking that pervaded us so often. We got to see a teary-eyed Doctor in the final moments and whether some like it or not, it is an added dimension to the Doctor promised in the resurrection of the series. In that respect, the actors keep an otherwise garbled clichГ© of a mess somewhat stable.

Still, the fact remains that if we didnВ’t have the final ten minutes to say goodbyes, what we got was a pretty shabby attempt at forcing two villains together in a way that turns out to be a bit of a fiasco and a lot of unneeded fanwankery that sort of compromises the very careful first season with a season of lulls and a finale that doesnВ’t deliver much more than one-liners and running.

And then Tate comes in to the picture. I guess the good Doctor canВ’t stay sad for too longВ… which undermines the entire final ten minutes by not allowing the viewer the respect to just sit and wonder for a few months how Rose and the Doctor are fairing without each other for the first time since the new series began. The emotional potential of the teary-eyed farewell goes out the window because itВ’s more important to let us know that we have a runaway bride on our hands. I donВ’t knowВ… this just seemed like a bad decision to me.

Davies should sit down, have a pint, take a deep breath, and try to get his bearings for a third season that is bound to be the most decisive season so far in regards to whether Doctor Who is here to stay or just another fleeting series that grows tired far sooner than it need to.

In "Boom Town," Margaret Slitheen accused the Doctor of riding into town, stirring up trouble, and then riding on out again before he ever has to deal with the consequences of his actions. While the Slitheen wasn't exactly an entirely trustworthy or unbiased source, we had an uncomfortable feeling then that she might have had a point. After all, hadn't the Doctor already ridden out of town after "World War III" without a thought to how those he'd left behind would pick themselves back up--not to mention, without making sure all the Slitheen were really dead? And her words would ring truer than ever in the very next episode, "Bad Wolf," when we found out that the Doctor's intervention to kill the Jagrafess and stop the news network's control in "The Long Game" led to a century of darkness and an even worse form of evil insinuating itself.

And now it's proven true one more time. The Doctor didn't hang around in the Cybermen's alternate universe for the long-term work of making sure the cyber-threat was truly neutralized. He thought they were finished...but "it's not the first time he's been wrong." And for the third time in two seasons, his failure to stick around and make sure is coming back to bite him in the arse. And the consequences for his companion may be even worse.

In a season that has seen more than its share of brilliant episodes (in particular, "Tooth and Claw," "The Girl in the Fireplace," and "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" come to mind), "Army of Ghosts" stands out as one of the best. While some fans online decry it as blatant fan-sploitation and the result of a childish fanficky pre-occupation with "versus" battles, the episode is written very nicely and directed with just the right sense of timing. While there are a few moments of silliness, the episode presents an equal number of brilliant moments to make up for them. And all this in an RTD-written ep, yet!

A bit on the silly side is the first TV montage where channel-flipping brings up nothing but ghosts, ghosts, ghosts. Some fans decry this as rubbish, and at first it does seem a trifle overdone. But on the other hand, we've just been presented with a very disturbing sight: blurry ghosts walking about and nobody finding anything odd about it. We need the comic relief for catharsis, so we can laugh uneasily and relieve the tension those creepy ghosts have just brought out. And it does make an interesting contrast with "Aliens of London," where Rose suggests watching TV to learn more about the alien crash landing. Now it's the first thing the Doctor does.

Equally silly is the Ghostbusters riff...but again, this silliness is about to be balanced out by Jackie's "not human anymore" speech to Rose, so we sort of need that silliness so things don't get too heavy for too long. In fact, all through the episode you see the moments of levity alternating with the moments of spookiness pretty consistently--and pretty brilliantly. After all, if we're going to see someone get upgraded to Humanity 1.1 one moment, we'd darned well better get something like the Doctor stepping out of his Tardis to a standing ovation the next. It doesn't do to let us get too scared--or too amused. The direction in this episode, by classic Doctor Who hand Graeme Harper, is top-notch. (Harper also directed the other Cybermen 2-parter earlier this season, which was another excellent piece of work.)

There are some truly brilliant pieces of characterization in this episode, starting from the very beginning when we see Rose at several times in her life, mentally narrating that she thought she'd be with the Doctor forever, but this is the story of how she died. RTD certainly knows how to grab the viewers' attention. We're left wondering just what we're supposed to make of Rose thinking this to us while she's standing on a desolate Welsh beach looking bereft. What does she mean by "how she died"?

And then there's her mother, Jackie. It doesn't seem too promising at the beginning, with Jackie casually accepting the ghost as being her dead father (why not Pete instead, one wonders?) and Rose thinking she's gone off her rocker. But then we get Jackie's "not even human" speech to Rose--not the usual "I worry about what you're doing, gallivanting around the galaxy with a strange man" speech she's made in the past, but more of an "I worry about who you're becoming." This speech seems to have more of a resonance than Jackie's usual worries, because it's a lot harder to resent someone worrying about what you are than about what you're doing.

And then there's Jackie's "kidnapping"--which, her indignant protest to Yvonne Hartman notwithstanding, seemed to me to be rather intentional on her part; after all, she wasn't exactly waiting by the door trying to get out. No, Jackie had been dealing with the ghosts for two months that the Doctor hadn't even been there, and she'd blindly accepted one of them as being the spirit of someone close to her. She must have felt entitled to some answers--and no matter what she thought of the Doctor (and she seems to have warmed to him considerably, given her rather enthusiastic greeting), she would have known that tagging along would be the best way to get them.

When Jackie is grabbed by the Doctor and pulled out and introduced as Rose (one wonders if this was intentional on the part of the Doctor, so that Rose would have more freedom to operate--though given that he didn't even look inside before pulling her out, one also wonders if he was just being quick on his feet), you have to give her credit. she doesn't go to pieces--she stoicly plays along and, as far as banter with the Doctor is concerned, gives as good as she gets. (She has some great dialogue even before that, in fact--her deadpan threat about ending up on Mars is one of the episode's best lines.) For all that Jackie is often considered annoying, Camille Coduri has great comic talent to be able to play her that way--and great dramatic talent to make Jackie occasionally sympathetic when she has to be, in spite of all that.

Through this whole episode, we see that there really is more to Jackie than her shallow exterior lets on. We've seen flashes of this in "Aliens of London/World War III," "The Parting of the Ways," "The Christmas Invasion," and even "Love and Monsters," but "Army of Ghosts" is where we start to see our Jackie Tyler really come into her own, much as Mickey did in "Age of Steel." She may not be as quick on her feet and adaptable to new situations as Rose, but she's fiercely loyal and knows when to let her heart override her head.. She may babble on in social situations and misunderstand questions put to her (such as talking about the noise her neighbor heard in the basement when the Doctor asks her when it started), but she also knows when to remain quiet. Even many of the things she does say elicit more information from Yvonne. ("There's isn't a British Empire." "Not yet.")

Perhaps much of the babble and shallowness is protective camouflage. The way she goes from man to man (even vamping Eccleston in "Rose"), her badly-hurt feelings after Elton turned out not to be who she thought he was in "Love and Monsters," and her desire to believe that ghost could be her departed father--all of these bespeak a desperate sort of vulnerability and loneliness, especially since Rose has left the nest. But even with that vulnerability, at heart Jackie is one tough lady. She had to be, to raise Rose all by herself. You can see the contrast in the alternate Jackie from "Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel"--not tempered by having lost Pete and having had to raise a child alone, that Jackie is much more of a spoiled brat, even at the age of 40. Rose finds this out when she tries to relate to alt-Jackie as she would have related to her own mother, and gets yelled at for her troubles. You can bet that "our" Jackie would never have been caught by those Cybermen.

I wonder if Jackie and alternate-Pete will get together in episode 13, each seeing in the other someone like the person they've lost. It would provide a sort of closure--and closure seems to be one of the themes of this episode, beginning as it did with that recap, complete with the planet earth shot that opened "Rose," a shot of the Eccleston Doctor to remind us with whom Rose first fell in love, and "The Christmas Invasion." One way or another, Rose's story comes to an end with this two-parter. Mickey is back, and perhaps other familiar faces will be too. Old enemies are returning to settle the score. It's all coming together.

As for new characters, Tracy-Ann Oberman plays Yvonne Hartman with great gusto. This is not a truly evil person. Patriotic, even borderline fascistic, and a touch amoral, yes--but not evil. She's just management--much the same sort as the Editor in "The Long Game," though a bit more benign and less smugly secure. She's a "people person" who believes in knowing everyone's name and believes that group applause and feel-good platitudes make a team work better. Like so many other Doctor Who villains, going all the way back to "Tomb of the Cybermen," she believes that what she is doing will make the world a better place. However, unlike those others, she is at least willing to listen to what the Doctor has to say--even if it's too late by the time she does.

And speaking of "Tomb of the Cybermen," there are some great references to that and to other classic Doctor Who adventures here. The way the Cybermen slice through the plastic sheeting is just like the way they sliced through the polythene sheeting to emerge from their cryogenic cells in "Tomb." The Doctor refers to the Eternals, the immortal race from "Enlightenment." There are even links back to earlier Tennant episodes such as "The Christmas Invasion," where Yvonne admits to shooting down the Sycorax ship, and "Tooth and Claw," where Queen Victoria declared the Doctor an enemy of the crown. Even as small a touch as Rose exiting the Tardis with the same backpack she took inside in "New Earth" reminds viewers of what has gone before.

And then there's the return of the Doctor's oldest, best-known foe of all, for what promises to be the who-would-win (or "Who would win"?) fanfic battle royale of the century. Small wonder some are calling it fan-sploitation. (Well, actually they're using a somewhat coarser word, but I don't want there to be any problem with Outpost Gallifrey publishing this review.) Some fans are saying that RTD has sold out for ratings, that the script is full of cliches, and worse. All I can say is, I don't care--if they could exploit this fan that way more often, I'd be a very happy camper.

RTD was, for once, smart about keeping the big surprise a secret. Or at least almost smart. The trailer for last week's show had a shot in it--the Dalek extermination kill effect--that implied Daleks might be coming back. Fortunately, I managed to miss noticing that when I viewed the trailer myself. Apart from that, they did a remarkably good job of keeping a lid of secrecy on the cliffhanger--including blanking out the final scene from the preview copies they distributed. And what a payoff! They edited it just right--the shot with the foggy shapes emerging from the light, the cut back to Rose, Mickey, and Dr. Singh for just long enough for Mickey to say those aren't Cybermen and for your hindbrain to begin to recognize the blurry shapes... And then the cut back to the shapes as worst suspicions are confirmed, and icy chills running down your spine as the implications sink in...marvelous. I had thought that the episode was blowing the opportunity for surprise by revealing the Cybermen as early as it did--but as it turned out, it was a red herring--a distraction to keep the true surprise in abeyance. And thus we are left with what may be the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) cliffhanger in all of modern-day Doctor Who. Masterfully done, RTD.

Another clever moment is the failure of the psychic paper to produce the desired results. We already knew that someone familiar with it could recognize it when someone else was using it (from Rose and Captain Jack in "The Empty Child"). It only remained to see it fail to work on someone else to complete the circle. (Though I would give a great deal to understand how it was able to affect a mechanical lock.) The Voidship was an interesting concept, too, tying in nicely with the Tardis's inadvertent side-trip to the Cybermen's home universe. And Torchwood...Torchwood is a fascinating organization. The idea of an entire organization, over a century old, entirely dedicated to obtaining and reverse-engineering alien technology and keeping tabs on The Doctor is an interesting one. Yes, people will complain that it's a blatant retcon since they never appeared (or existed) prior to this series, letting the Doctor carry on his work during the UNIT years without any problems. But if we let that become an issue, we would then have to throw out all the other Doctor Who stories that were supposed to happen in a future year that is now a past year. The thing about time travel stories is you just can't think too hard about them or they fall apart.

Acting on the part of the regulars was excellent. Tennant was as much the Doctor as he ever has been, complete with little idiosyncrasies like running around setting up alien gizmos, walking the wrong way down corridors, and peering at things through 3D glasses. He is by turns contemplative, worried, dramatic, angry, even embarrassed on occasion...as well as "so very sorry." When he is met at the Tardis door by a squad of armed soldiers, even when he is explicitly told he is a prisoner, he is not fazed and indeed he carries on as if he were perfectly free and glad to be there. He knows that just because they say he is a prisoner does not necessarily make him one, and this is where he needs to be right now anyway so he might as well not kick up a fuss over it. And his theatrics--the broken glass analogy, the placid acquiescence to going ahead with the ghost shift--are perfectly Whovian. It's as Yvonne said, he does like to make a mess.

Rose is ever her plucky self--except in the pre-credits teaser, where she is more subdued. Fans are still arguing over the meaning of the flashback scenes--whether the fact that she's walking on a beach as she speaks her voiceover about this being how she died means that she's still alive after all, or whether what we're seeing is just another flashback, or what. In spite of that, she really isn't given that much to do in this episode, overall. She has a couple of scenes, but the spotlight for this part is mostly on the Doctor and Jackie. I expect we'll see a good deal more of her in "Doomsday," though.

It's good to see Noel Clarke again as Mickey, even if this 2-parter is likely to mark his swan song from the series as well as Rose's. It's interesting to see his new, hardened, "Rickyish" attitude, too. He's got more confidence in himself and more determination; he's been battle-tested and knows what he's made of. I wonder where that gun came from--the Torchwood warehouse, or the Cybermen's homeworld? And rounding out the cast of important characters is Raji James turning in a decent performance as Dr. Singh, a determined if frustrated Torchwood scientist who has "disposable extra" practically written all over him in felt-tipped marker. If he survives more than thirty seconds into the next episode, I will be very surprised.

Speculation is running fast and furious on the Doctor Who newsgroups as to exactly what Rose's "death" means. The fact that she herself is narrating it (as well as standing on a beach looking doleful during the voiceover) suggests that she must still be alive in order to be narrating it, as Doctor Who hasn't tended to go in for the existence of a life after death by which she could be narrating having died. But with RTD at the helm, anything is possible. Clinical death followed by resuscitation, faked "death" and relocation under a witness protection program (or even into the Cybus alternate dimension), getting turned into a Cyberman, regenerating as a result of her exposure to the Time Vortex last season, or even emotional trauma so debilitating that she "died" inside. Or it could very well be "the real thing." Who can say? One thing's for sure, this cliffhanger has gotten a lot of people talking.

"Doomsday" will hopefully answer a lot of unanswered questions raised by this episode. I look forward to it with trepidation, as RTD has allegedly promised to end Series 2 with a huge cliffhanger (though whether he referred to the cliffhanger on "Army of Ghosts" or another one on "Doomsday," I'm not quite sure). One thing's for sure: if Doomsday ends with a cliffhanger as bad as this one, which will have to wait 5 months for the Christmas special to resolve, I swear I am going to do mayhem to somebody.

В“WeВ’ll always be okay you and me, donВ’t you reckon Doctor?В”
В“SomethingВ’s in the air. Something coming. A stormВ’s approaching.В” В– В“Fear Her,В” Week #11.

“…you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death and I will not allow it. You will leave these shores and will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good and how much longer you can survive this terrible life.” – “Tooth and Claw”, Week #2.

“…the valiant child who will die in battle so very soon.” – “The Satan Pit,” Week #9.

В“This is the story of how I died.В” В– В“Army of Ghosts,В” Week #12.

And so is this it? Act I, Scene I, and Rose is dead? As IВ’ve documented above, the hints have been there throughout the season, but I never really believed it. I still donВ’t, and as in the mind-bogglingly beautiful pre-credit sequence it is Rose narrating her final story (albeit from a very В‘after-lifeyВ’ looking beach) I think there may still be a glimmer of hope for our heroine. В“More of a metaphorical death,В” as my sister so sagaciously put itВ…

In terms of the stakes, Russell T. Davies has written В“Army of GhostsВ” much in the same vein as last yearВ’s penultimate episode, В“Bad Wolf.В” It starts slowly, and Davies gradually cranks up the tension until we reach fever pitch. As Billie is leaving the show, it seems only fitting that her swansong should begin back on the Powell Estate in London, effectively where it all began. I love the first few establishing shots of the episode - Rose turning up with her washing for Jackie; Jackie planting a smacker on the DoctorВ… Jackie has got used to having her little girl show up every so often with the laundry and a Time LordВ… its just business as usual. Only it isnВ’t; not this time. The Doctor and Rose turn their back for five minutes and they find that the world has gone mad. В‘GhostsВ’ are everywhere; a part of everyday life, as accepted as cars and chips and Sky digital. Only their slimline stature masks what they are - В“A footprint doesnВ’t look like a boot.В” The Doctor doesnВ’t believe that they are peopleВ’s loved ones back from the dead, and interestingly, nor does Rose.

As weВ’ve not seen that much of her this season, I was pleased to see Camille Coduri play a major part in the controversial episode В“Love & Monsters.В” I can only assume that with Rose leaving the series, the Tyler entourage will be following her through the exit (one way or anotherВ…) and as such this two-parter is as much JackieВ’s farewell story as it is RoseВ’s. In fairness, Jackie probably gets a damn sight more to do in В“Army of GhostsВ” than Rose, who for her part spends quite a while locked in the TARDIS inside the Torchwood Tower whilst the Doctor pretends that Jackie is Rose. Coduri is bang on form with her usual comic relief - В“IВ’m forty!В” В“Ah bless!В” В– but again, we get to see her more vulnerable side; her maternal side. On top of that, she gets to see a slice of this life that her daughter leads, and it doesnВ’t look like she approves for a second. The look on her face as the Doctor В‘killsВ’ the Cyber-controlled humans in Torchwood Tower speaks volumes.

“…this woman… this strange woman… walking through the marketplace on a strange planet a billion miles from earth, but she’s not Rose Tyler. She’s not even human anymore…”

JackieВ’s brief moment of reflection says a lot about her fears for her daughter. In a way, sheВ’s gone beyond fearing that Rose will die off on some adventure В– sheВ’s more afraid that her Rose will just fade away, consumed by the woman that she is becoming. She also raises some salient points that were addressed through Sarah Jane in В“School Reunion,В” about what becomes of the DoctorВ’s companions when there is nothing else В– when there is no one else В– left. Compared to those like Ace, Mel, Peri, Nyssa, Romana, etc. who were all left to very uncertain fates by the Doctor, as well as those like Roz, Adric, Sara and Katarina who actually died on their travels with him, Sarah Jane got off lightly, and even the idea of sharing SarahВ’s lonely fate terrified Rose.

В“If itВ’s alien, itВ’s oursВ… for the good of the British Empire.В”

В“Army of GhostsВ” finally introduces us to Torchwood, and I must say that it isnВ’t at all what I expected. After all the hype about Captain JackВ’s forthcoming Cardiff-based TV show of the same name, I made the fundamental mistake of thinking that Torchwood must be the good guys. After their deplorable actions in В“The Christmas Invasion,В” I should have known better. Yvonne Hartman (Tracy-Ann Oberman) is absolutely superb as the woman apparently fronting this ultra-top-secret organisation. She knows the name of every single person working under her, yet she acts like a Nazi В– she will justify almost any atrocity В“..for the good of the British Empire.В” Incidentally, I liked the little Eastenders in-joke В– the Barbara Windsor cameo, with the ghost of Dirty Den (who was murdered by ObermanВ’s character in Eastenders) showing up in the Queen Vic! Not the first link between Doctor Who and the popular soap operaВ…

В“They can shoot me dead but the moral high ground is mine.В” ThatВ’ll learn В‘em, Doc! For Doctor Who fans, the role of Torchwood in the showВ’s mythology is fascinating. During the seventies, the exiled third Doctor (and occasionally the fourth) worked for UNIT В– the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. The Doctor had access to information above top secret, yet heВ’d never heard of Torchwood. And why? Well aside from the fact that Russell T. Davies hadnВ’t invented it yet, the Doctor had never heard of Torchwood because he is their public enemy number one В– he was listed by name in the organisationВ’s charter set up by Queen Victoria shortly after her encounter with him in В“Tooth and Claw.В” Moreover, Torchwood works for the British Empire В– not the United Nations. Suffice it to say, the Doctor is more than surprised when he finds out that this organisation not only exists, but that they have built a skyscraper (Canary Wharf, a.k.a. Torchwood Tower) to reach a spatial anomaly in order to exploit it for financial gainВ… only to allow these В‘ghostsВ’ to enter our world and destabilise the whole universe!

The source of this spatial anomaly is revealed to be what the Doctor calls a В“Void ShipВ” В– a supposedly impossible vessel, even by Time Lord standards, which has absolutely no atomic mass and can travel between parallel universes. And so the question is, who is in there? Who has the technology to exist outside time and space, in the place that the Eternals call В“The HowlingВ”? I think all the hardcore Doctor Who fans watching had an inklingВ…

В“This world is colliding with another, and I think I know which one.В”

And so the Cybermen appear en masse. En masse like we’ve never, ever seen them before. The scenes of them worldwide really convey just what an invasion force this is - “Bleeding through the fault lines…”, millions of ‘em!!! As the Doctor so brutally puts it – it’s “…not an invasion. It’s too late for that. It’s a victory.” The Cybermen have conquered the Earth, and that’s only half the cliffhanger. The Torchwood scientist, Dr. Rajesh Singh (Raji James), Rose and MICKEY (how the hell did he get here?) are sealed in a room with the Void Ship – a ship that suddenly activates, and much to the older, braver, more confident Mickey’s surprise, doesn’t contain any Cybermen…

В“Mickey Smith, defending the Earth!В”

В… but instead, is full of DALEKS! And not just any Daleks В– the DALEK SUPREME no less!

Daleks and Cybermen! Talk about fanw**k. I feel sorry for any episode that is going to get compared to В“The Parting of the Ways,В” but by the looks of things next weekВ’s В“DoomsdayВ” is going to be every bit as epic as last yearВ’s action-packed season finaleВ…

Is this the script where Russell T Davies has finally sold himself out to the fans? I would say yes and no with an emphasis on the no. But more on that later…

Season Two has been such an odd beast. Personally I think it has been stronger than year one, but not in the ways that I thought it would be. I thought by the latter half of year one that the series had found its groove but certain episodes this year have proven that there is still a lot for Doctor Who to learn in its new format. Certainly they seem to have mastered the new episode length with very few episodes this year feeling rushed or crammed (New Earth is probably the only exception to that rule but that for me is a bleed over from year one). The episodes I thought I would LOVE, I have been a bit indifferent about (New Earth, The Idiot’s Lantern, The Satan Pit) and the episodes I thought would pass by unnoticed have turned out to be real new highs for the show (School Reunion, Love and Monsters, Fear Her). I have already re-evaluated my opinions on some episodes; The Girl in the Fireplace has proven extremely re-watchable and given its mix of SF and history to be one of the best examples of its kind with a genuinely sumptuous production and Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel are not quite as brilliant as my initial impression, being basically a huge action adventure but I will still champion its outstandingly visual direction. And astonishingly my absolute favourite of the year is still Tooth and Claw, easily my favourite episode of the series so far, tensely written, beautifully performed and with possibly the best direction Doctor Who has ever seen, this is an astonishingly good piece of television.

So how can Army of Ghosts possibly live up to all this excitement? It doesn’t really but then it is only part one of two and as a build up to an explosive climax it certainly tops last years Bad Wolf. There are a lot of plusses to this episode that I feel I should mention simply because they have never been done before and yet are such obviously winning ideas. Having Jackie travel in the TARDIS is fabulous and Camille’s gorgeous portrayal of this most ordinary women is (as ever) treasurable. Her reaction to being kidnapped (“If we end up on Mars I’m gonna kill you!”) is genius and the Doctor passing her off, as his deluded, aged, rubbish at tea companion is worth the admission price alone! Jackie reminds me a lot of Quark from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (no I don’t mean you can wank her off by tickling her ears!). Quark played such an important part in that show because he was the only person who pointed out the flaws and faults of the optimistic, jolly, nobody-can-beat-us Federation. Jackie fulfils a similar role in Doctor Who, asking the questions nobody wants to answer. Will my daughter survive this life? Can you guarantee her safety? In Army of Ghosts Jackie has an uncomfortable moment with her daughter when she confronts her with how much she has changed, how much she acts like the Doctor now and how if she continues this life of hers she will no longer be Rose Tyler. It is another (unsubtle but well written) that Rose is on her way out and I hope when the next companion steps into her shoes there is a Jackie to point out these very real dangers with travelling with the Doctor.

There was something gloriously off kilter about all the early scenes, which is deliberate thanks to the ghosts and their effect on society. The idea of the Doctor and Rose returning to London to discover something is amiss and has been happening for a while is not a new one (Invasion of the Dinosaurs springs to mind) but works a treat at making the Doctor feel uncomfortable. Flicking through the TV channels didn’t really work that well, I did like the mental Chinese women and the ghost weather report but I wasn’t that impressed with Barbara Windsor or Trisha Goddard’s contributions. They really did feel like RTD going look how cool we are! What was exceptional is how he sets the stories on such a grand scale with ghosts swarming about across the globe. Since the show has come back it is no longer just London that sees the brunt of alien invasion, like The Christmas Invasion this convincingly puts events on an international scale which makes it seem all the more real.

Nobody who has been following the show could have missed the Torchwood references and now at last we get to see inside the institute. I can understand that fans are cross because this secret organisation has never been mentioned before and yet it has supposedly been under the noses of UNIT and the Doctor throughout all of his adventures. Come on guys if they are going to keep this show running they need to keep on adding new elements and this is the sort of conspiracy-cum-government organisation that really could have been kept a secret. Visually, it wasn’t as impressive as I was expecting being little more than a hangar and a control room but the ideas behind the organisation more than make up for it. Following on from Tooth and Claw’s inception of Torchwood it is wonderful to see that Her Majesty’s ideals have been nurtured and abused by this organisation, Yvonne’s suggestion that its sole purpose is to exploit alien artefacts and weapons to ensure Britain’s independence as an Empire is terrifying (but very interesting). The fact that Torchwood seems to be under the impression that it is better than the general public is also slightly worrying, as Yvonne says to Jackie the knowledge they have gained from alien effects are for their benefit alone. Nice continuity with the mention of the destruction of the Sycorax spaceship too.

The first half an hour is take it or leave it Doctor Who, with lots of nice scenes for everybody but really just marking time for the stunning last fifteen minutes. RTD has certainly learnt a thing or two about cranking up the tension because the climax to this episode is almost unbearably exciting. We all knew the Cybermen were coming back thanks to their appearance in last weeks teaser but that doesn’t affect their suddenly appearance behind the plastic sheet in Army of Ghosts. The design is so fantastic, isn’t it? And Graeme Harper shoots them so damn well that even just one comes across as a real menace. So how much better is it when suddenly the ghosts are revealed to be the Cybermen army bleeding through the fault lines of dimensions? The shots of them materialising around the world and smashing their way through a family home and menacing them on the stairs is truly classic Doctor Who. Suddenly this feels much more important (and especially more deadly than The Age of Steel because this is our world). Cybermen clunking through the streets has been done before but not with a budget like this and finally an invasion can look as realistic as it can be.

Of course this being the lead in to a season finale the surprises don’t end here…oh no there are two more returns which are punch the air fantastic. Surprisingly it was the appearance of Mickey (looking so lickably gorgeous I want one!) that thrilled me more. I was devastated at the end of The Age of Steel to see him leave and genuinely thought it was the last I would see of him. He seems more confident, more sure of himself and much more ready to take on nasties than he did before. If you watch this season from beginning to end (including The Christmas Invasion) it is Mickey not Rose who features the most development.

And of course there is that ending which half of fandom will be ecstatic about and the other half will want to crawl up and die. Cybermen and DALEKS? Is this the work of a producer who wants to deliver a genuinely classic slice of Doctor Who or a man who wants heavy ratings to continue by appealing to the very thing kids will salivate? Personally I think they can pull it off, given what I have seen so far but I can understand the scepticism, this is after all the ultimate fan wank.

It could be great, it could be dreadful but by the look of the teaser; Daleks, Cybermen, Jackie, Mickey, Jake, Pete, Rose’s departure…it certainly will be one to watch!

This Episode is a bright shining star in an otherwise very poor second series. Up to date I have been underwhelmed by the 2nd year of the new Doctor Who, I have found the writitng to be infantile, cliched and and at times downright cheesy. A few episodes were a bit above average but that's the best I have been able to say about this series, that is until now.

Army of Ghosts has got me pumped!

Don't get me wrong, this episode still has a lot of the faults mentioned but the scope of the plot and sheer magnitude of the event just overshadows any flaws.

I mean we have Cybermen AND Daleks!! The episode built up very nicely to the climax and the reveal was very well done.

I am a Cyberman fan from childhood and was disappointed with their first appearance this year and did not hold out much hope for this episode. But somehow they seemed more menacing this time round than before! The scene with the kid trying to escape up the stairs only to see another Cyberman appear was great and I am sure will scare a lot of kids.

Mickey, who I do not normally like always seems to be at his best when directly involved in action. I liked him a lot this episode and his new can do attitude. I definitely felt he was competant enough to really save mankind.

The acting in this episode was actually much better than the norm. Even the minor characters played thier part unlike normally when we have been subjected to minor characters being overly theatrical. Raj the scientist was paticulary good.

The Torchwood Director, Yvonne actually came across very well, I expected her to be your normal TV baddie boss, who never listens till it is too late. She actually listened to the Doctor without appearing to be in awe of him or kow towing to him.

The Doctor himself was less his irritating self despite the Alonso cracks and the Ghostbuster bit. He did not gurn as much and I found him a lot more bearable! Rose was great as usual and I liked how she got caught out with the psychic paper. It seems to me she did not really believe it would work anyway!

I love Jackie Tyler and she can do no wrong in my eyes and really look forward to the second part where she meets her husband from the alternate Earth.

And lastly we have the Daleks and they look as evil as ever and this is coming from someone who always favored the cybermen but in this episode the Dalek appearance was justifibly the climax of the episode and has got me all excited for the conclusion.

Only good episodes give me the impetus to right a review and this has been the only one I have reviewed this season, lets hope the final episode lives upto all expectations.

Exterminate!!

A lot of us Who fans first fell in love with Doctor Who because of the cliffhangers. They were always well executed and always left you fearing the worst for the Doctor and his companions. But this week's episode finale for me was one of the best ever and it is full marks for the Doctor Who team for teasing us all the way that the cybermen were going to invade earth ... and then what do you know, the mysterious sphere has nothing to do with the metal meanies at all, and in all their glory, the Daleks take centre stage at the end of a thrilling episode.

In last week's review of "Fear Her" I had suggested that the new season of Who had not quite lived up to the same atmosphere as last season in terms of gravitas. Well, score that out. This was the episode we have been waiting for to showcase David Tennant at his best as Doctor Who.

From the opening scenes with Rose admitting she was on her final journey, to the generous homecoming and, fourth on-screen kiss for the Doctor, though arguably the least enjoyable, the episode had begun at a rattling pace.

The arrival of the ghosts was suitably mysterious and the Doctor's efforts to pin one down and find out what they were all about had more than a touch of Ghostbusters about it.

The arrival at Torchwood was similarly impressive and I really thought that Tracey-Ann Oberman was first class in the part and suitably sexy as well. I am sure a few of us wouldn't mind if she was the new companion but we'll move swiftly on! She was fantastic and gave Torchwood an air of true professionalism and authority.

The appearances of Derek Acorah, Tricia and Barbara Windsor were neatly done. The glorious finale with the cybermen invading Earth was marvellously done right down to the little boy trying to escape from the cybermen by running up the stairs only to confront another one! How many times were you in that situation as a kid when watching Doctor Who and imagining what could happen! Don't have nightmares, do sleep well is the BBC Crimewatch's message. Whether the same can be said for the Doctor after the finale of this epic story remains to be seen but it is shaping up to be one hell of a battle next week. The cybermen versus the Daleks and the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Jackie and Rose's Dad re-united, I can't wait till next week's encounter. Just like it always used to be. The cliffhangers were the best!