Doctor
Who Season 2
BBC
DVD Volume 5
Fear
Her
Army
of Ghosts
Doomsday
Now
available to
order
online
Complete
2nd Series
Now
available
to
order online
|
Well, what an episode. Took me a few days to recover to be able to
write this review!
The Cybermen and the Daleks meet for the first time in Doctor Who (Doctor
Who - The Ultimate Adventure Stage Play is not counted!) so there is a
great piece of cinematography where we see the Daleks activating their
communications grid, cross to the Cybermen activating theirs, cross to
a Dalek leaving the room and taking to the corridor to meet the new menace,
cross to the Cybermen walking to the corner. Finally, after an agonising
30 seconds (plus about 40 years) the Daleks and Cybermen meet in the corridor.
(Well, of course it's a corridor!) The Cybermen propose an alliance, the
Daleks reject it and a fight ensues. Yes, Daleks are more superior than
Cybermen, but we knew that already. When one Dalek can destroy a million
people, a few upgraded people shouldn't be too much of a problem.
But what about the Genesis Ark?
Well, it's Time Lord technology. So, it's bigger on the inside. And,
it's a prison ship containing millions of Daleks! The Dalek Invasion of
Earth almost happened 150 years early.
Briefly:
Rose uses her knowledge of the Daleks and the time war to protect her and
Mickey. The woman that was running Torchwood gets turned into a Cybermen.
Jackie barely escapes it happening to her. Rose gloats to one of the Dalek
secret order that she poured the time vortex into the Emporer Dalek and
destroyed him. The Daleks need her alive because her time sensitivity means
she can open the Genesis Ark and release a million daleks. The Doctor appears,
explodes a few doors and helps the Cybermen attack the Daleks. Mickey falls
against the Genesis Ark on the way out activating it. The Daleks open the
roof of the building they're in and head skywards with it. Jackie is rescued
by Pete Tyler while war against the Cybermen rages around them. Cars are
exploding outside, Cybermen in people's homes, Cybermen marching around
the Taj Mahal, Cybermen being exploded by bazookas on bridges. The Daleks
release a million Daleks from the Genesis Ark and the Cybermen turn their
attention on Torchwood tower.
The Doctor has been wearing 3D glasses to see the void stuff and can see
that the Cybermen and the Daleks are steeped in it. All he needs to do
is open the rift into the void, reverse the polarity, and send all the
Cybermen and Daleks to hell. Unfortunately, because Pete, Mickey and the
team from Pete's World are also steeped in void stuff, they'll need to
go back to Earth2 before the Doctor opens the rift. And Rose has to go
with them. Just as the Doctor is about to activate the rift, Rose returns
and helps him, sucking millions of Cybermen and Daleks into the hole between
worlds. But Rose's lever unlocks and she has to try and move it back to
it's locked position otherwise some Daleks and Cybermen may be left. She
locks it but the strength of the void is too much and she gets pulled,
screaming towards the hole in reality...
Well, of course I'm not going to tell you what happens next!
In any case, this is a very teary episode so have your tissues ready.
This is definitely a 10/10 episode. In fact it really is an 11/10 episode.
Some trivia:
Earth 2 / Pete's World is about 3 years behind Rose's Earth! (Jackie
is 40 in this story but on Pete's world, Jackie would be 43 if she was
still alive.)
If the Daleks shut down communications from their room so that Rose's
mobile can't work, how is it that Jackie's still can. Just a localised
communication black out then?
Why is the Doctor seen walking around the room on the video link but
when we cut to the Doctor he's still standing next to Jackie talking with
her?
Why didn't we see any Cybermen smashing out of people's homes when
they're being sucked up by the void? Surely a few strong buildings could
hold the Cybermen until the void closes? (There was a command by the cyberleader
to converge on Torchwood so maybe all the Cybermen were out in the open.
But what about some of the injured ones inside buildings?)
The Black Dalek activates a temporal shift, moving himself forward
a few hours/days. Looks like Marsha Jones, Captain Jack, Torchwood and
the Doctor will be fighting the Daleks again in Season 3!
This is not only the first episode in Doctor Who that features Daleks
and Cybermen fighting, it is also the first episode to feature the Doctor
crying, with tears running down his cheek.
At the end of the episode a woman appears in the TARDIS in a wedding
dress. The Christmas Special is called The Runaway Bride and the announcer
says that it will be screened in 170 days!
Here's the BBC blurb for Doctor Who - Doomsday
It's the end of an epic journey as two mighty armies wage war across
the Earth, with the human race caught in the middle. But as an unstoppable
terror emerges from beneath Torchwood, the Doctor faces an even greater
dilemma – does saving the world mean the death of Rose Tyler?
David Tennant plays the Doctor and Billie Piper plays Rose. |