Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 2, Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 2, Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts

Rose narrates a short monologue. Nothing happened for the first 19 years, then she met The Doctor, then they did stuff, and it looked like carrying on forever. But then came Torchwood and the Army of Ghosts. This is the story of how she died.

Cue title sequence.

Rose and The Doctor arrive back in the present. Jackie is pleased to see them, kissing The Doctor for good luck, though she appears to have lost her mind as she thinks her dead father is coming to visit. Just then, a ghost appears, so perhaps she isn’t that mad. Although it sets alarm bells ringing. As Jackie says the ‘shift’ is about to end, we briefly see people at the ‘Torchwood Institute’ (FINALLY!) pulling a lever, shutting down a system. The Doctor flicks through the TV channels, seeing that it’s all over the world, including Eastenders. It’s been going on for about two months, which caused panic to start with, until people got used to it. Though Jackie swears she can smell her father in the ghost, The Doctor says that it’s a psychic link which the ghosts use to make their pull on reality stronger.

At Torchwood, the woman who appears to be in charge exchanges notes with some scientists who are guarding a sphere that technically doesn’t exist, as well as Martha Jones’ cousin (we’ll touch more on that in Series 3).Fake Martha flirts with a colleague, arranging to get a coffee. They head into a restricted area undergoing some work, but it goes a bit tits up when she bumps into a Cyberman.

Assuming the role of Ghostbusters, The Doctor and Rose set up some detecting bits to detect bits. Torchwood power the lever back up, as Fake Martha and Gareth return with extra Bluetooth ear pieces, a-la people in the parallel world. Jackie gets all depressing by telling Rose that if she keeps travelling she won’t be the same in forty-odd years time, which shouldn’t be news to anyone anyway, as everyone changes after forty years. Outside, The Doctor traps a ghost in his field, alerting Torchwood. They catch the TARDIS on camera, and send troops to meet it as it appears at Torchwood. Showing The Doctor and Jackie (pretending to be Rose) around Torchwood, the lady in charge (Yvonne) tells them that anything alien that comes into British airspace is shot down, stripped of its parts, and used for the good of the British Empire. It was created by Queen Victoria, and The Doctor is still an enemy of the state. They take him to the sphere we saw earlier, which The Doctor identifies as a Void Ship, a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, and technically impossible. Turns out that the sphere appeared from nowhere, followed by the ghosts, but when Yvonne says that they want to open it, The Doctor refuses, wanting to send it back to the hell of the Void. Fake Martha, meanwhile, is getting other colleagues assimilated.  Rose exits the TARDIS, donning a lab coat and doing some exploring.

Yvonne takes The Doctor to the...control room, I suppose, where we’ve seen the levers and stuff. The sphere came through here, a gap in the world, and they had to build a skyscraper to reach it. The Doctor warns that any more ghost shifts and the cracks that are present in reality could smash like glass, bringing something unwanted through, but Yvonne simply says they’ll be more careful. In the end, he uses reverse psychology to stop her doing it. For now, anyway.

Below, Rose is exploring still. She uses the psychic paper to get into the sphere room, but some psychic training means that the scientist guy from earlier isn’t fooled. He asks Samuel to call security, who HOLY CRAP THJAT’S MICKEY! WHAT THE BLEEDIN’ BLOODY HELL IS HE DOING HERE?! Rose does remarkably well to hide her surprise, I must say. Yvonne and The Doctor are talking about how the ghosts probably came through with the sphere, when the re-programmed employees start the ghost shift programme again. The building starts shaking, and the sphere becomes active. The Doctor has to sever the psychic connection in the employees, killing them as it did those on Pete’s World, but he needs to find a transmitter to block the signal that’s overriding the systems or something. Downstairs, Mickey tells Rose that they’ll beat them again. And by ‘them’, he means...oh, we’ll have to wait a minute. The Doctor, Yvonne and guards find the source of the transmitter emissions – Cybermen! Our world is colliding with Pete’s World, and shit’s about to get real. Back with Mickey, he tells Rose that the Cybermen disappeared from their world, but Mickey (and presumably some friends) followed. In the control room, the Cybermen complete the ghost shift, revealing that the ghosts are all Cybermen. That causes a bit of panic round the world as you might expect, with people getting sort of killed.

Downstairs, the sphere opens and it’s not Cybermen. It’s...DALEKS! Cybermen vs Daleks! Delete vs Exterminate! Hell yeah!

Shit just got real!

Let’s be very clear about one thing here; the ending is one of the best endings to a Who episode you are likely to see. The Cybermen, flawed as they were in the two episodes earlier in the season, make for a chilling bad guy here, but to then have the mysterious sphere revealed to contain Daleks? Gods, that’s exciting stuff! Add to that the reappearance of Mickey, also out of the blue as it’s something we thought impossible, and you’ve got a whole load of twists and surprises that are pulled off brilliantly. I don’t know if the Cybermen, Daleks or Mickey were known to be appearing by the wider public before this aired, but I think the Daleks at least were a complete surprise.

Before all that excitement, the episode does a great job of building the mystery of just who the ghosts are, and what’s in the sphere. Though there are heavy hints about the Cybermen’s presence (outlines in the plastic sheeting, the ear pieces etc.), it’s not 100% clear, and it’s still a mystery how they could have arrived. The fact that they just piggybacked here is a shock, as you just assume that they created the sphere for that specific purpose, until you learn the truth of its origins.

Are there any negatives to the episode? In truth, no they aren’t. This is a brilliant episode from the off, and as well as the mystery and drama, it’s damn hilarious in places. Take The Doctor and Rose’s conversation when they first arrive in Torchwood, for example:

Rose: Doctor, they’ve got guns.

Doctor: And I haven’t, which makes me the better person. They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine.

That’s one of the funniest moments of the series, and a contender for my favourite line of all time. There’s also the moment where The Doctor pretends Jackie is Rose, calls her deluded and she threatens him with a kicking. Add to this The Doctor debuting ‘allonsy’ as he moves the TARDIS following his attempt to trap a ghost, and the very profound and deep moment, when Rose says that the ghosts are definitely human due to their looks, and The Doctor points says, ‘Maybe not. A footprint doesn’t look like a boot’, and it all adds up to a very strong script indeed.

  

Even after all this time, hearing Rose say that this is the story of how she died still brings tears to my eyes, as I know what’s going to happen at the end of the next episode. We’ll deal with that in the next review, of course, but there’s the threat of Rose’s death hanging over the whole episode here, though you’re mostly certain that she isn’t going to die in the first half.

Right from the start, this Torchwood seems incredibly dodgy, unlike Torchwood Three that we’ll get to know in the TV show, Torchwood. That bit has always confused me, but watching it again I suppose that Torchwood Three did exactly the same job of protecting the British Empire from aliens. It’s just that we get to know the characters in Torchwood must better, and none of them are as arrogant and smug as Yvonne (who is played excellently by Tracy-Ann Oberman).

Of all the actors, David Tennant continues to shine the brightest throughout this episode. Billie Piper feels very absent for most of it, though she’ll get her moment next time. It’s great to have Noel Clarke back as Mickey, giving him his chance to shine at last, and it’s always fun having Jackie Tyler along. I’ll miss Camille Coduri come next season, and I’m glad she gets a big part in the finale. Tracy-Ann Oberman is great as Yvonne, and though Freema Agyeman isn’t on screen for long as Adeola Oshodi, she’ll more than make up for it next season.

Torchwood Mentions

Ha. Good one.

Overall

A fantastic episode, full of mystery and drama, as well as a good dollop of comedy thanks to the excellent writing. A brilliant cliffhanger to leave us eagerly awaiting the finale.

10/10