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| Rose Tyler says an unwilling farewell. |
2 episodes: Army of Death, Doomsday. Approx. 90 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Graeme Harper. Produced by: Phil Collinson.
THE PLOT:
The Doctor brings Rose home for a visit, only to learn that ghosts have been appearing all over the world for the past few months. They don't interact with anyone - They're just blurred humanoid outlines that appear at the same time every day. Over time, it has gone from terrifying to normal, and a perusal of TV broadcasts shows that their presence has been folded into people's daily lives.
The Doctor runs an experiment to track their origins and follows the trail to the Torchwood Institute, the modern version of the organization founded by Queen Victoria after her run-in with the Doctor. The Time Lord is eagerly greeted by Yvonne Hartman (Tracy-Ann Oberman), Torchwood's director. She is unfailingly polite to him and to Jackie, who the Doctor passes off as his companion. But she makes it clear that they are prisoners, even as she gives them the grand tour.
Yvonne shows off Torchwood's greatest secret: a mysterious sphere the Doctor recognizes as "a Void ship." She tells them that the Sphere came through a breach between universes, a breach Torchwood has studied ever since. Their experiments have allowed the ghosts to manifest... Which gives the Doctor just enough information to realize that something horrible is soon to happen.
He talks Yvonne out of starting the next experiment, but it is already too late. Key members of the staff are now controlled by an outside force. They start the shift against Yvonne's orders, and the ghosts appear, then solidify, revealing their identity: Cybermen!
But the Cybermen are not responsible for the Void ship. As the Sphere finally opens, the Doctor realizes to his horror that his two deadliest enemies are about to meet...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Knows instantly that there is something very wrong about the ghosts, as his ominous refrain of "a footprint doesn't look like a boot" indicates. He seems to already suspect the ghosts' true identity, and doesn't seem the least bit surprised when they are revealed as Cybermen. As in Rise of the Cybermen, he tries to keep everyone alive by urging that no one fights back. But when Mickey and his friends from the parallel Earth appear, the Doctor urges them to take the opportunity to save both worlds. David Tennant is back on form after largely disinterested performances in Love and Monsters and Fear Her. He dominates every scene he's in, even in those moments when the Doctor hangs back and allows other characters do most of the talking.
Rose: Insists that she will never stop traveling with the Doctor, which worries Jackie. She already sees her daughter changing, and is concerned about what that will mean for her future. "In forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman. This strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler, not anymore. She's not even human!" Billie Piper gives her best performance of the series. Rose's emotional torment when she's separated from the Doctor is palpable, and Piper also captures the lower-key but equally felt pain and longing when she finally gets to say farewell in the epilogue. My only regret is that this wasn't the last seen of her, as her later appearances dilute the impact - But that's a complaint I'll reserve for another time.
Mickey: I very much enjoyed the Mickey of this episode, who has become so much more confident than he has ever been before. Out of the Doctor's shadow, away from Rose's orbit, he has become his own man, and he is finally comfortable within his own skin. He is vastly more comfortable with Rose's closeness to the Doctor than in the past. He may make a comment about Rose's heart rate rising when she sees the Doctor, but it's more a humorous aside than anything - He's no longer competing, and so is no longer resentful.
Jackie Tyler: The bulk of the first episode pairs the Doctor with Jackie, which turns out to be an unexpected treat. Jackie clearly respects him, and follows his lead when the situation turns serious, but her caustic comments puncture his pomposity at just the right moments to make for some quite funny bits. The Doctor, in turn, plays at being exasperated with her, but is clearly having a good time bantering. In retrospect, their brief teamup feels like a preview of the Doctor/Donna relationship of Series Four, and it works for exactly the same reasons.
Cybermen: Russell T. Davies proves his fanboy credentials by making his second series finale a "Daleks vs. Cybermen!" extravaganza. Part Two even includes a quite funny scene in which the Cyberleader and lead Dalek trade insults ("You are superior in only one respect... You are better at dying"). Both are also well-scripted individually. The Cybermen invade, and basically conquer, through stealth. They use Torchwood's "ghost shifts" to position themselves and send an advance guard to take control of the institute's machinery. When all is in place, all that is required for victory is to step through. This is perfect for the Cybermen, who have always been most effective when spending half the story skulking in shadows (ala The Moonbase or The Invasion), rather than when trying to conquer with force.
Daleks: By contrast, the Daleks burst into the story screaming "Exterminate!" at top volume. They keep Rose and Mickey alive because they can help secure their triumph, but they quickly dispose of the hapless Torchwood scientist with them. When Rose snaps that they didn't need to kill the man, the lead Dalek replies in its grating, metallic voice: "Neither did we need him alive." They are want only to secure their race's future while exterminating all in their path - humans and Cybermen alike. A memorable moment has the Doctor sizing up the four Daleks: "Sealed inside your casing, not feeling anything ever. From birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage, completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream."
THOUGHTS:
The two-part finale to Series Two is a big production, with a large guest cast and big-scale battle scenes. Very likely, the cheapness of the previous two episodes was in part to squeeze the budget for this, and it does pay off. Graeme Harper directs with confidence, finding some breathtaking visual setups, and the momentum is such that the two-parter passes in an eyeblink.
I've sometimes had issues with Russell T. Davies' scripts, in that he almost delivers strong character moments but has a tendency to lose control of his plots. This two-parter is the most controlled I think he's done. It's superbly structured. The first episode builds the mystery, laying out all the major pieces in a way that feels effortless. The big invasion comes at the end of Part One, leaving the second episode delivering the action in a big way - but without losing control of the narrative.
For all that it gets right, I can't quite award full marks. The near-invincibility of the Daleks makes the Cybermen impotent in the second episode - quite the achievement, given how frightening a presence the first episode has made them. They are further undermined when one subject overrides their programming in a particularly silly (and completely unnecessary) moment near the end - a bit that I find far worse than the annoying but very brief "Ghostbusters!" moment in Episode One.
Despite this, the two-parter holds up as being very good to excellent. It has spectacle without losing sight of the characters. It manipulates viewer emotions without becoming sappy. It also boasts one of the best incidental scores of the entire series, particularly the piece that runs over much of the (highly effective) epilogue. As season finales go, this story is one of the better ones.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
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