DOCTOR WHO: SERIES TWO DIARY, pt II

The first half the season saw two episodes stand out above the rest, School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace, and even The Girl in the Fireplace just fell short of being perfect. The rest of the season so far has just lacked a certain spark, verve and sense of grand adventure. So far, the reason for this is the episodes have been so random, with less to bind them together, and Davide Tennant's Doctor hasn't that engaging and the dynamic between The Doctor and Rose has also struggled to find its footing. They even managed to put in a pretty lacklustre two-parter which failed bring the Cybermen into the new show as a tour de force, it fell flat. Six episodes to go, six chances to improve, including a second chance at the Cybermen at the end of the season.

2.8 The Impossible Planet

As you have probably guessed, the failure of the series to deliver on a dramatic level, apart from School Reunion, has continued to make me less and less enamoured with the current run of episodes. This has been especially true after the rather disappointing return of the Cybermen. The series needed a shot in the arm, something to get me interested again and looking forward to the next episode. I've been hopelessly waiting for David Tennant to deliver a performance to equal his effort in School Reunion, and his relationship with Rose to get some sort of consistency and overall direction, as I thought this was the only way it could be saved. The Impossible Planet proves there is another direction the show can go in to give a better return than previous efforts: scale. The Impossible Planet just has a sense of scale and grandeur that we haven't seen in the new show so far, and it feels good.

In The Impossible Planet the TARDIS materialises, for the first time in the new show, at a location that is not Earth or a space station orbiting Earth. It's not long before The Doctor and Rose discover they are on a remote sanctuary station along with a human crew and a number of Ood, a slave race that is used as a labour force. The humans are part of an expedition to investigate the planet, light years away from anywhere, because it is situated at the mouth of a black hole, and yet it isn't being sucked in. The planet was once home to a very ancient civilization, the language of which the TARDIS can't translate, and there is a mystery power source deep within the planet and the team are currently drilling down to find out what mysteries lie below the surface. In typical Doctor Who fashion, The Doctor has arrived just as things are getting interesting, as crew members begin to hear voices, the TARDIS is lost when part of the planet surface collapses, the Ood begin to act strangely and the drilling equipment is rapidly approaching its objective.

As has been mentioned in the introduction, The Impossible Planet delivers a Doctor Who episode on a scale we've not seen before in the new show. I realise that The Parting of the Ways was pretty big and grand, but there is something about The Impossible Planet that just gives it a sense of scope, and it felt more like movie quality science fiction on the small screen, rather than a small scale British drama. I sense this is what was trying to be achieved with Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel, but it still felt a bit 'small drama', while The Impossible Planet breaks out of this box and takes a small, but very important step, to a much bigger world. This was Doctor Who reaching out to grab movies like Alien, The Abyss and Event Horizon by the balls, and it works really well.

The special effects in the episode are superb, while you can still look at them and recognise they are not as good as the more expensive US science fiction shows, they are easily the best in the show so far, and really add to the episode. It's easy to gush about the various money shots of the black hole, the outside shots of the station and the various incidental uses of technology, such as the holograms showing the progress of the drills, the make-up on the Ood, etc. This is all reflected in the sets as well, which look great, you never once get the impression they've done it on the cheap and your mind has to work to believe they are on this remote, cold and dilapidated base. The episode works technically on many levels, but the key shots are the scenes which take place with the viewing window to the black hole being open, the dead crew member floating towards the black hole, and the excellent scenes deep in the planet with The Doctor and another crew member investigating the chamber at the core. The new show has had some great effects in it, but The Impossible Planet undoubtedly goes down as the episode with the most effects in it at every level, and this just raises the whole production.

Was The Impossible Planet the most original story ever told? No. I'm sure the whole idea of Satan possibly being an ancient alien, which is the idea they seem to be going with, has been done before somewhere, along with the idea of other mythological entities being aliens. The whole vibe of the episode felt a bit like the computer game Doom, the feel of the space station and the whole idea of 'demonic' influences entering a science fiction setting. There has even been some discussion about the various sound effects in the episode being very similar to Doom, as if some of the technical people had the game in their minds when putting things together. Despite this lack of originality it worked for me as an overall science fiction package. It's true that the characters manning the space station are a bit bland, but they serve their role in the set-up and integrate with the overall fabric of the episode, even if they don't have any dramatic purpose in and of themselves. I prefer this to the ineptly written and acted characters in Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel, along with the pathetic attempts to endear them to us before they died, and the way they continually seemed to drag the episode down into the territory of small scale BBC drama.

The relationship between The Doctor and Rose continues in the same vein as what was established at the beginning of the season, two 'young' people having fun trekking through time and space. It would seem the episodes School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace, which flirted with a distancing of the relationship, have been forgotten about, and the challenges to their relationship presented in those episodes are not going to be dealt with in any way. It's a bit like they think they dealt with it in those two episodes but didn't, or they are going to come back to it, but in the meantime here are a few episodes which set the relationship back, as if nothing has ever happened.

The Impossible Planet works because it swaps the intimate and dramatic intensity of the first series, which hasn't overly been present in the second series, with adventure on a grand scale. This helped by a good set of performances by all the cast, excellent special effects, great scary and unsettling scenes and excellent writing, as the episode is very well paced with a brilliant build up in the final moments. As a result, The Impossible Planet has to go down as something unique in the new show, as it represents Doctor Who delivering on a sort of grand science fiction adventure. In the early 90's, US television finally matured and the whole idea of producing TV episodes like 45-minute movies, in terms of overall production values, came into being. While Doctor Who may not necessarily be at this level yet, The Impossible Planet is an episode that feels the closest to it, and takes a solid step in that direction.

What will be interesting about The Impossible Planet, is how it stands up over time. This is a diary review, being written in the moment, and as such it's easy to feel the impact of the overall scale of The Impossible Planet, and get swept along by it due to the less than perfect season overall. In the back of my mind, as I compare it to season one episodes like The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, I'm left wondering if The Impossible Planet is actually that grand? It certainly doesn't have the character intensity, neither are its characters as interesting. I also suspect, over time, the grandness of it may prove to actually be not that epic in scale, despite the glorious effects, and the non-Earth location, when compared to the realisation of World War II London, and Rose and Captain Jack flirting on top of a space ship in front of Big Ben. Time will tell if The Impossible Planet shines because of the episodes leading up to it, or because it truly is good.

I'm really hoping that The Satan Pit delivers on the excellent opening episode, and that David Tennant will hopefully be faced with a serious adversary, and he gets to play the darker and more sinister side of The Doctor, which he's very good at.

2.9 The Satan Pit

The Impossible Planet left me wanting more, and I was desperately hoping that The Satan Pit would deliver. It's interesting to compare this to how I felt at the end of Rise of the Cybermen, that left me hoping that Age of Steel would deliver something to redeem the rather weak first episode. In contrast, The Impossible Planet leaves you wanting The Satan Pit to live up to the premise of the first episode and ratchet the whole thing up another notch. At the beginning of The Satan Pit, the evil force below the surface of the planet has taken over the Ood, and Rose and the crew of the station are under assault. Meanwhile, The Doctor and Ida are deep within the planet, among the remains of an ancient civilisation, and an ancient seal has just opened.

It's hard to write about The Satan Pit as an individual episode, as both The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit work so well as a two-part story that you really have a 90-minute movie, making any discussion of the episodes independently superfluous. This is, in itself an achievement, as the only other two-part episode that has come close to achieving that is The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, and even it doesn't do it as well. The Satan Pit is split into two narrative strands: you essentially have Rose and the crew trying to escape off the planet, and The Doctor and Ida stuck below the planet's surface and facing the fact that investigating what lies beyond the seal is their only option.

Rose and the crew's attempts to escape the planet provide us with some classic scifi action and adventure, as they try and make their way to the space ship despite being faced with a horde of Ood. The great thing about these scenes is, while they don't deliver on the scale of similar scenes in the Alien movies, and would have trouble doing so for budgetary reasons, they do deliver, and are very different from the action scenes we've had so far. Just like how the rest of the episode makes that leap from 'small scale BBC drama' so do the action scenes, dropping the tired format of just featuring the characters running around in similar Earth-bound environments (sometimes the same old factory or warehouse), or running away from a monster's eye view of what is pursuing them. The action in the air ducts was well done, and the rapidly crawling Ood proved suitably eerie. Even the stereotypical sacrifice of the more militaristic character to save the rest proved a welcome addition. This was only a warm up for the excellently done scenes, both in terms of drama and special effects, of the crew escaping in the space ship, with Rose ultimately being forced to shoot out the 'cockpit windows' so Toby, possessed by the Beast, was sucked into the Black Hole. All very well done.

All the action is counterbalanced by the slower and more philosophical elements of the episode, represented by The Doctor's descent beyond the seal, and him being forced to contemplate that his understanding of the Universe and what is possible may not be entirely correct. This part of the episode is great because it gives an excellent feel for the wonder, mystery and sense of discovery that The Doctor and Ida are facing, as they are surrounded by the remnants of an ancient civilisation and a seal that has not been opened for countless millennia. The scenes generate feeling. This works well with another underlying theme of the episode, The Doctor's fascination with humanities boundless enthusiasm for exploration despite the inherent dangers. The whole question of whether the Beast was the Satan figure in humanities religions and mythologies was essentially left unanswered, remaining a matter of faith and belief. This was also good, some could argue it was the only way to answer the question, but it worked really well, providing enough to challenge The Doctor's concepts about the Universe and unsettle the crew.

The special effects in The Satan Pit are worth a special mention again, as they delivered both in terms of being very impressive at times, but also more importantly, they delivered in a way that added to the fabric of the episode rather than detracting from it. Numerous times in the new show the special effects have let the episode down, delivering something that didn't add to or enhance the overall piece, but detracted from it. This isn't the case with The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit and this in itself is an achievement, as it proves, once and for all, that while the new show may not be able to do it every episode, it can deliver an off Earth episode and look good doing it. A particular special mention has to go to the realisation of the Beast, as not only did the special effects team do it in a way that wasn't embarrassing, it was done in a way that looked great and had style. The Beast was believable, and had a visual look that was impressive and had visual flare.

As for the perennial question about David Tennant? Well, his performance in this two-part story didn't detract from it, but it didn't overly add anything to it either. It just worked, which is more than can be said for a lot of the others. The reason for this is simply because his performance was more measured, no wide swings of emotion, as when he starts getting too angry or exuberant his performance tends to break down and starts to lack credibility. He strikes me as an actor who should be displaying his emotions in a more subtle manner, as every time he's done that his performance has been stronger.

The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit don't present the most original story, and if you look at some of it too closely it probably doesn't make sense, and the elements of the episode have a number of obvious inspirations, the great thing is, this doesn't really matter. The reason for this is simple, this is Doctor Who on a scale we've not seen the new show reach before, with the exception of maybe The Parting of the Ways. It was Doctor Who delivering on a big scale, scifi, action and adventure tale with enough philosophical material to keep us all interested. It's essentially action movie Doctor Who, and it seemed to work. The characters might not have been the deepest, but I cared about them and wanted them to survive, which is all you can expect from such a large cast. The various action scenes worked and generated some tension, rather than being scenes you knew should have been tense, but left you uninvolved. The effects were very good, and probably set not only a new level for Doctor Who, but a new level for British genre television, if not British television generally. It was an slick 90-minute package.

Not only that, The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit may represent a turning point. The Beast told Rose she was going to die in battle, and this is obviously referring to the final two episodes of the season which feature the Cybermen again. As I expected on the run up to season two, Billie Piper has stayed around to provide a transitional character for season two, but Rose won't survive into season three. We only have four episodes left, so I'm hoping we get a good run of episodes as the series runs to its conclusion, and the possibility of it getting a bit darker.

2.10 Love and Monsters

The early signs for Love and Monsters didn't look good, as it seemed to be an episode born out of providing two star vehicles: a part for Peter Kay and the showcase of a monster designed as part of a Blue Peter Doctor Who competition. It had 'comedy episode' written all over it, something not that serious, a bit of fluff. The amazing thing is, nothing could be further from the truth.

Love and Monsters introduces us to Elton, played by Marc Warren, a Doctor Who obsessive, due to meeting The Doctor in his early childhood, and then becoming drawn into The Doctor's life due to all the events that have happened to him over the last year or so: being attacked by living shop dummies (via the episode Rose), watching a space ship crash into the river Thames (via the episode Aliens of London) and seeing the world held hostage by a giant space ship (via the episode The Christmas Invasion). Elton's fascination brings him into contact with a group of individuals who are all hunting down The Doctor, and they build their lives around the social aspect of this group, which they call LINDA (for London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency). It's not long before this is ruined by the arrival of Victor Kennedy, played by Peter Kay, who distracts the group from the social element, and more towards an organised hunt for The Doctor. It's not long before Elton begins to question what's important in life.

Love and Monsters is one of the best episodes of the new series, up there with Dalek, Father's Day, The Parting of the Ways and School Reunion, and this surprises me, as I really did have the episode pinned as a bit of fluff. It earns this status through not so much being different, which it is, as it's an episode which changes the format of the show, even to the extent the central characters are different, but because it tells an excellent story, with very good characters, and it has emotion to it. It also represents Russell T Davies second best episode by a significant margin. The influence of Russell T Davies on the show has always been a bit of a dichotomy, while he always seems to demonstrate and understand the serious, dramatic potential of the show, due to understanding The Doctor as a catalyst of change, and that change can often involve pain, suffering and death, his scripts have often been the more humorous episodes, often with so much thrown in they lack any coherent theme and pace (with the exception of The Parting of the Ways). This is not the case with Love and Monsters, and ironically enough, since The Doctor isn't the main character, this episode harks back to stronger Russell T Davies scripts present in such shows as Bob and Rose and Queer as Folk. In short, the style of Russell T Davies works in this episode. As a single piece of dramatic television, it is just very good.

A large part of the episode's success has to be given to Marc Warren, whose portrayal of Elton, is excellent. This performance combined with the the Russell T Davies script produced great results. Elton is a character introduce for this episode, and over the course of 45 minutes you are held by his story, and connect with the character immediately. I'd argue we get a stronger feel for Elton, and his passion, loves and fears in 45 minutes than we have for David Tennant's Doctor in 10 episodes. This goes to show that Doctor Who and the 45-minute format are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they just need to be written better.

Peter Kay's performance as Victor Kennedy and the Absorbaloff monster is brilliant. While Peter Kay is obviously a comedian, he manages to make the character humorous without making him totally ridiculous. To be honest, he manages to impart a repulsiveness into the alien that has to be admired, the whole scene in which Elton and Ursula discover Victor's true form and how their friends have been absorbed into his body is very good and establishes the Absorbaloff as a sinister adversary. Even the obviously humorous parts, like Victor not being touched because he supposedly has some strange disease walk a fine line between humour and the ridiculous and it works well.

The whole package just works. Too often in the new Doctor Who, especially in this second season, the whole episode doesn't work as a complete package. You get an overall good episode but some of the sets are repeated from other episodes, or the pacing is off, or there is no character development, badly used humour or a whole host of other things. This isn't the case in Love and Monsters as the humour works, the characters are some of the best in the show so far, the love story works, the direction and the musical score is inspired and the whole convention of Elton making a video diary as a way to frame the episode wraps it all up perfectly.

It's difficult to discuss Love and Monsters without mentioning the fan reaction to it. It would seem some of the hardcore Doctor Who fans don't see the inherent beauty, romance and darkness of the episode and instead they are taking it as a personal attack on them. They seem to see themselves in the LINDA group, and feel that they are being made fun of due to the obvious social inadequatenesses of some of its members. Despite forming most of my social life around a Star Trek club, and the associated conventions, for a good number of years (albeit well over a decade ago), I didn't see this at all. I just saw a number of characters each with their own issues and problems, who found friendship with each other, and ultimately love. I'm not sure what it says about some of these fans that they saw this episode as an attack, it would seem some of them are very defensive or have the knives out so much for the people behind the show they are looking for faults. I don't understand those who can't see the inherent brilliance in the story, but instead count it as a bit of comedy fluff of Scooby Doo proportions. I don't understand how they cannot see that Jackie Tyler's attempts to seduce Elton aren't bad comedy, but instead are representations of a tragic figure who has momentarily lost her way due to being alone. They seem to miss the depth of the episode on every level, and I'm sure a large part of this is driven by the fact it is a Russell T Davies script. I'm beginning to think, while quite a few Russell T Davies episodes have had reason to be criticised in the past, some of the hardcore fans are just jealous, him being a fan of Doctor Who, and gay. After all, gay, self-important Doctor Who fans are legion, and I bet they don't like the fact one of their own made it and they all obviously think they could do better.

Ultimately, Love and Monsters is just an excellent romantic story in which we see how normal individuals have had their lives affected, both positively and negatively, by the influence of The Doctor. The acting is very good, it balances humour and serious elements perfectly, and weaves the various ELO tracks throughout the episode so well they enhance they overall feel. It also returns a bit of the mood of the first season, which has been sadly missing this season, of The Doctor being a catalyst for change, and just touching him can be dangerous and inspiring at the same time. It adds a bit of the mythical, which stands out from the banality of season two. Let's hope this is continued into the final three episodes.

2.11 Fear Her

Fear Her leaves me speechless, not because the episode was amazing, it was far from that, but just because I'm stunned by it. When it finished I was sort of left looking at the TV thinking what the hell was that? So, was it really that bad? Well, yes, in parts it was really bad and certainly represents a low point in the series, but at the same time I can't bring myself to look upon it as so bad it has zero positive elements. Or is it just really, really, crap? As I say, stunned.

The episode opens with the camera panning over a quintessential British Close, we have a banner which tells us it's the Olympics of 2012, and we have people pushing pushchairs, workmen fixing some tarmac, even a postman and some kids playing outside. The image is only spoilt by the flyer on the lamppost indicating a child is missing and a mad old woman saying she can sense something and telling a couple of kids to get inside as 'it's going to happen again' (she later has a number of other comedy, and badly acted, lines just for good measure). Shortly after, the kid just vanishes, having been sucked into a drawing created by Chloe, the strange girl in the house opposite. Needless to say, after the credits, The Doctor and Rose arrive, head into the Close and get pulled into the mystery. Why is the girl pulling people into drawings?

Fear Her is a bit like a cross between an episode of a Soap Opera and an old Children's TV show with a bit of science fiction thrown in, say Chocky. You also get The Doctor thrown in for good measure. It's just bizarre. It's like an episode of Brookside, it even takes place in a stereotypical Close, just with a sprinkling of aliens. I mean some of it is just comedy, in a bad way. You have the strange old woman who seems to be able to sense something weird is going on, shouting at the kids to get inside. She's even played by an Eastenders actress. She even has slightly wild eyes. You have Rose being attacked by something hiding in a garage that proves to be a comedy creature of swirling graphite. You even have Chloe speaking in a ridiculous, breathless voice to show that she's speaking as the alien, it's just embarrassing. Yes, it's major league kids show territory again, and then not necessarily one of the better ones.

The story is a mixture of a tired classic used to deal with some interesting issues. An alien, normally one used to travelling with millions of others, has fallen to Earth and taken Chloe as a host. The alien is not used to being alone, and Chloe herself is experiencing problems due to being abused by her father who has died in a car crash. Chloe now finds herself without friends and unable to communicate her fears and concerns to her mother. As a result, Chloe and the alien inside her represent two people who are incredibly lonely. As a result, the alien is allowing Chloe to trap people in 'ionic' energy prisons, represented by what she draws, and also to have things she draws, often related to her anger, come alive. She conjures up the graphite creature already mentioned and has her 'father out of her nightmares' living in her closet.

Needless to say, Chloe and the alien get more and more desperate and out of control and graduate to not only vanishing people from the street but making all the people on the Olympic stadium vanish. She also captures The Doctor in a picture, forcing Rose to act on her own. The finale ramps up the stakes to Chloe drawing an image of the Earth in an attempt to suck the population into one big picture. It makes this surreal journey from being small scale Doctor Who in every respect to suddenly the whole Earth being in jeopardy and it doesn't work. That isn't the end though, the true finale is driven by the fact that the representation of her father, from her dreams, that Chloe brought to life in her closet, isn't destroyed when the alien leaves. As a result, Chloe and her mum have to destroy it by rapidly working to overcome Chloe's fears, and hence Chloe gets a resolution along with the alien.

The final moments of the episode are just embarrassing, with the Olympic Torch, which happens to be running past the entrance to the Close, being used to heat up the tiny alien spaceship, only to weaken the runner, so The Doctor has an excuse to run gloriously up the podium in the Olympic Stadium and light the giant brazier to cheering crowds. It is just really bad. The intention was, obviously, to have the miracle that is the Olympics provide The Doctor with another chance to champion the brilliance of humanity, right down to celebrating with them in that great moment. The trouble is, it just takes a step too far into embarrassing territory, and the theme isn't woven into the episode in a significant way anyway.

One of the more interesting parts of Fear Her is a throwaway comment made by The Doctor while he is discussing how the alien is just a child with Rose, he mentions that 'he was a father once'. I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the classic show, but I don't think the issue of whether The Doctor had kids was fully resolved. The answer now seems to be yes, which throws Rose for a full ten seconds. Will this be something that's never touched on again? Or will it become part of series three? Despite this being an interesting gem even if it never features again, it also does represent the one single bit of character development in the episode. David Tennant and Billie Piper put in competent performances, but have nothing really that meaty or dramatic to work with beyond playing their characters to type.

This is all a bit muddled, but then the episode is muddled. The whole process that allowed it to get to actually being filmed and aired must have been muddled. It just feels wrong, like it doesn't fully belong as part of the series. It feels a bit like an extended Doctor Who special they'd show as part of something else, Children in Need or something. It's certainly a representation of how variable season two has been. The whole process of having Doctor Who written by desperately different writers is an interesting one, as it does give you a feeling of excitement in terms of what's going to happen next, but it also results in oddities like Fear Her.

To be honest, overall, it probably is the worst episode of the new show so far. Even right down to the strange, totally empty attempt to tag a bit of foreboding on the end, with The Doctor looking up into the sky at the Olympic fireworks, and suddenly being able to tell some bad times are coming. It just felt like a vain attempt to smack some foreshadowing on to what was a lightweight episode.

2.12 Army of Ghosts

This is it, the two-part finale, the last chance for season two to deliver on something as intense, dramatic and heroic as Dalek and The Parting of the Ways. I know what I want, a two-part episode featuring the Cybermen that puts everything on the line, and the heroes of the piece know it and rise to the occasion. Does Army of Ghosts give us any indication that season two is going to go out with a bang?

The episode opens with a monologue from Rose, describing her journey with The Doctor and how she has seen the Universe, but this is the story of how she dies. After the credits we see the TARDIS returning to Earth so that Rose can visit her mother, and in traditional fashion, bring her washing home to get done. It's not long before The Doctor and Rose discover the fact the population of Earth has become obsessed with their dead relatives visiting them as ghosts on a periodic basis. A lot of pulp-technology later, and The Doctor has tracked the source back to Torchwood Tower, the headquarters of the Torchwood Institute set-up by Queen Victoria as a reaction to meeting The Doctor in Tooth and Claw. Torchwood has the remit that anything alien falling to Earth is theirs to use in the restoration of the British Empire. Torchwood has in its possession a golden sphere which is a vessel for travelling the darkness between realities, and its arrival opened a portal between worlds.

Army of Ghosts is very well done, it has a lot of elements and explanations to get in, as it does largely serve as a set-up for Doomsday, and the introduction of Torchwood, but all this doesn't matter, as it is done with enough pace and energy that you don't really care. From the arrival of the TARDIS to the arrival of the Cybermen and Daleks, the episode doesn't stop for a breath. Not only that, it doesn't make the mistake of the previous Cybermen two-part episode and basically reveal the whole plot to the audience so they can watch The Doctor ever so slowly catch up. Is it true that Torchwood seems a bit small scale? A bit like a children's TV version of a sinister conspiracy organisation? Yes, it's all true, but to be honest it didn't really matter when I watched it. I was conscious of the fact the comedy levers for opening the rift were completely ridiculous, but I didn't care as I was being carried along by it. This is how season one used to feel like.

The episode also touches on a number of recurring elements even if it doesn't labour on them in any way. The Doctor has continually marvelled at humanities propensity for investigating the unknown, despite them investigating something they shouldn't have in this episode. The Doctor is also responsible for creating Torchwood, so it could be argued his sense of fun in the face of danger, as displayed in Tooth and Claw, has resulted in him being responsible for the invasion and to some degree Rose's death. It'll be interesting to see if these issues are investigated further in Doomsday.

All the characters put in great performances. We get Jackie in the TARDIS pretending to be Rose. We get Mickey back as his much more confident self, ready to blow some Cybermen apart. Rose gets to act in a more experienced way, using the psychic paper, working the TARDIS a bit. We even get a good performance from David Tennant, which while not showing the emotional depth of Christopher Eccleston, still works in its own slightly madcap way. It goes to show, that when toned down, and a bit more level, with a dramatic situation to back it up, David Tennant can be good in the role, and his slightly more wacky take on it all can work. After all, I doubt we'd have seen Christopher Eccleston's Doctor track the source of the ghosts with a device that looked like a Ghostbusters backpack and a pair of 3D glasses.

I've got one thing to say about the Cybermen: they are back. These are the Cybermen from Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel, obviously, and the new show must be acknowledging that the Cybermen of the Doctor Who universe have died and these are going to take their place. Based on the strength of their appearance in the middle of season two, that would have been a travesty, but based on their five minutes worth of material in Army of Ghosts, it looks like it's going to be fantastic. To be honest, the Cybermen are the same, they still talk in a computerised voice, they still have the same look, they even still walk around in organised units as if of one mind, but what they don't do is speak in catchphrases, they talk to The Doctor as protagonists, as if they have a living and intelligent brain. That solved it all, and they are much stronger for it, it even makes the voice less annoying. The other bonus, albeit not as major, is they get wrist blasters, meaning they don't have to lurch around and grab people in a comedy fashion any more like Frankenstein's monster.

What's interesting about the final two-part episodes of the new Doctor Who show, albeit there has only been two seasons so far, is they know how to deliver a killer cliffhanger. The cliffhanger at the end of Bad Wolf was also brilliant, probably the best bit about the episode, and Army of Ghosts delivers another brilliant TV moment. While I'd had advanced warning that the Daleks and Cybermen would be in the final episode, anyone who didn't know this would just assume the golden sphere was part of the Cybermen plan or something they'd come to get, the last thing anyone would have expected would be for Daleks to fly out of it. That moment when the Cyberman says the sphere is only something they followed through, to be quickly followed by the entrance of the Daleks is almost perfect as far as cliffhangers go. That moment is so good, it even overshadows the scenes of the ghosts slowly materialising as Cybermen, forming up into organised units before the final revelation. In all honesty, Army of Ghosts may well beat the previous best cliffhanger of science fiction TV, Star Trek: The Next Generations Best of Both Worlds.

One thing Army of Ghosts does well is set-up Doomsday to potentially be one of the most explosive episodes of the new series so far. Will it beat Dalek or The Parting of the Ways? It's hard to say, but it has the potential to. We have an invasion to deal with, the meeting of minds between Dalek and Cyberman, and the death of Rose. The last one is the most important as it will change the series significantly, as it will undoubtedly change The Doctor, and it will undoubtedly change the show as all the secondary cast that are connected to Rose will probably disappear from the series. Hopefully we will see some really intense stuff. I can see Rose realising there is more to Mickey than she gave credit for. We have Jackie potentially meeting the alternate universe Pete, and they are a perfect match, as the real Jackie represents the woman he used to love and the alternate Pete represents the man of purpose she always wanted the real Pete to be. It's hard to imagine how an episode with so much potential could fail.

Army of Ghosts is a great episode, pulling together a number of strands from previous episodes and bringing the Cybermen back in a major way. It does all this and then throws the Daleks in as well just when it seems it can't get any bigger or more exciting. The only real negative to the episode, is it puts one hell of a lot of pressure on Doomsday, as Army of Ghosts sets up a situation that couldn't make the expectations on Doomsday any higher. By the time the publicity has gone into overdrive over the course of the next week, it will be highly surprising if Doomsday isn't the most highly rated episode of the new Doctor Who show.

2.13 Doomsday

It's safe to say Army of Ghosts ended with one of the best cliffhangers ever seen on British TV, it was certainly the best cliffhanger ever seen in a British genre TV show; to be honest, it's probably one of the best genre cliffhangers ever. Army of Ghosts left us with the Cybermen having invaded Earth from the parallel Earth introduced in Rise of the Cybermen, the Daleks flying out of a golden sphere designed to travel the darkness between realities and Torchwood headquarters about to be the location for a clash of the titans between two of The Doctor's primary enemies.

Doomsday is one of those episodes which promises a lot, to the extent that you believe that there is no way it can deliver on what it promises. Let's face it, we have the clash of the Daleks and the Cybermen to deal with, no small feat in and of itself, the conclusion of Rose's time as The Doctor's companion, a level of resolution for all of the characters that orbit Rose, her family and Mickey, and, if that wasn't enough, a sensible and exciting resolution to the whole invasion. The amazing thing is, Doomsday is just pure writing genius, as it manages to achieve all this with verve, pace and excitement and it's a 100% pure emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. As for the Dalek and Cybermen confrontation? You couldn't have imagined it better, and that is a sign of pure genius.

It's safe to say the episode works on all levels, the writing, direction, music and the acting but what binds it together is the sheer pace of the episode as it starts where Army of Ghosts finished and then just does not stop. It just moves from one intense scene to the next, the music matching the scenes perfectly, and carrying you along. Each moment is more exciting than the previous one, delivering on all the high points so delightfully promised. It has humour, of the clever and witty kind, not the slapstick variety, it has romance, action and tragedy, and it is just a perfect package.

So the Dalek and the Cybermen confrontation? As has been said, totally amazing, but not for the reasons you expect. The build up to the episode, and all the publicity, including a Radio Times sporting two different covers, one with Team Dalek and one with Team Cybermen on the front, focused on the fact it was going to be all out war. What you get isn't so much that, because for the majority of the episode the Daleks only number four (and that's part of the absolute brilliance of it). The confrontation isn't great because of any mass war, it's great because they have a battle of philosophies, wits and shear bad ass attitude. The Daleks get the best of the lines, standing firm, showing no fear, despite facing off against the 5 million Cybermen. As the Daleks say, it is just a matter of 'pest control'. This episode knows it's writing a story about heroes and plays to that 100%, it also knows it has to get villains right as well, and both the Daleks and Cybermen re-assert themselves as major league antagonists that are a joy to watch. I said when I watched Dalek and The Parting of the Ways, and I'll say it again, the fact the Daleks are such brilliant characters, even to the point of getting some of the best lines, and really come across as a tour de force on the screen, is one of the major achievements of the new show.

So, Rose doesn't actually die. I must admit, before I actually saw the episode I was of the mind that if they finally wimped out and didn't kill her I'd have felt a bit disappointed. I was wrong. She doesn't actually die and the resolution was still great. It was good because it resolved the issue of Rose, and her orbiting family, while still feeling extremely sad, tragic, romantic and heart warming all at once. Like the best episodes the new series has to offer, the heart of the episode is pure emotion. We get to see Rose cement the respect for Mickey she gained in Age of Steel. We get a brilliant reunion between Jackie and Pete, despite them being from different universes, because they are a perfect match for each other. Rose also gains a purpose in the form of the alternate Torchwood, thus giving her life meaning, the lack of it being the reason she joined The Doctor in the first place. In all honesty, the only loser at the end of Doomsday is The Doctor, forced to travel through time alone once more.

Christopher Tennant? Well, it was inevitable that the question was coming, considering my problems with his performance over the course of season two. The interesting thing about David Tennant is he can deliver a performance that is equal, if not better in some ways, than the more tragic performance delivered by Christopher Eccelston, such as the one we saw in School Reunion and elements of The Girl in the Fire Place, but in the majority of episodes his performance was not that even, and just too damned random. In many ways, The Army of Ghosts and Doomsday represent a consolidation of his portrayal of The Doctor as the episodes manage to merge the wacky side with the darker and more intense side and produce something that works as a whole. He may have tracked the ghosts down with a contraption worthy of Ghostbusters but it worked. He may have spent half the episode putting on 3-D glasses as some sort of sensing device, but it worked. In many ways, David Tennant finally delivered as a whole, managing to pull of a varied performance that was larger than the sum of its parts and, in many ways, was better than his predecessors due to offering more variety.

Overall though, the episode delivers because it delivers on what the new Doctor Who show does best: pure mythical, romantic and emotional storytelling. It is a show that has heroes and villains of mythical proportions, a journey for the main characters that is classically romantic in scope and the emotional implications of all this are worn, plain to see, on the sleeve. The Doctor walking in on the Daleks knowing hell get to confound them with a great dramatic conversation and a neat plan. The meeting of Jackie and Pete through the smoke caused by two destroyed Cybermen. Rose giving it the whole dramatic protagonist routine when faced with imminent death at the hands of the Daleks. The scenes just keep coming. In short, it is pulp done well, a pulp hero, and his companion globe trotting around the Universe facing off against all sorts of despicable aliens.

And when that hero clashes with one of his iconic nemesis, be it the Daleks, Cybermen or The Master (who we haven't seen yet) you usually get an episode that is balls to the wall heroism, with a hero who knows he's one, villains who know they are badass and an emotional rollercoaster that can't be beaten by any other television show. When the stakes are high, the writing team of Doctor Who are one of the best currently on television, because they know how to deliver. They don't tone it down, they don't discuss what they can't do, instead they seem to be intent on putting everything to the max, on the screen and delivering a script that is funny, sad, romantic and heroic all at once.

I may have had my issues with a number of season two episodes, but season two does do one thing, and that's deliver a two-part season finale that represents some of the best Doctor Who that the new show has put on the screen. When Doctor Who is good, it's just fantastic, and Doomsday is, assuredly, fantastic.

The Series Ends...

So, season two finally comes to an end, the new Doctor has been bedded in, for good or bad, and the scene is set for a new companion in series three. How did it all go in the end, now it can be viewed as a whole? Well, I still believe the first half of the season was very hit and miss, with the episodes just having a lot less in them to emotionally connect you to them, they felt more like a children's TV show when compared to the season one episodes. The episodes that stood out in the first half of the season were School Reunion, which was excellent and really defined the potential in David Tennant, and elements of A Girl in the Fireplace, which was very good but damaged by a few too exuberant scenes by Tennant and misplaced humour.

Thankfully, the second half of the season kicked it all into gear, giving us a grand,science fiction vision of Doctor Who in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, the brilliant and inspired Love and Monsters and probably the single and best piece of Doctor Who the new series has delivered in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, regrettably we had the atrocious Fear Her as well, but you can't have everything.

Overall, the season was a bit like David Tennant's performance, a bit wild, and a bit inconsistent, but hopefully season three will hit the ground running with the writing team eyeing up the quality episodes of season two as the way to go. I also hope that David Tennant looks at his measured performance in School Reunion, and the excellent combination of the serious and the slightly wacky in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday, and goes on to deliver throughout season three.

Overall, the season may have been less consistent than season one, but the show certainly got braver and more bold, and when it was good, boy was it good.

Ian O'Rourke, as well as being the man behind Fandomlife.net, is also a fan of anything that engages his imagination, be it a book, comic, TV show, theme park, an IT Project or business change.