Doctor Who 2.12: Army of Ghosts
Jul. 1st, 2006 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayThis post will be filled with spoilers. But I have hidden them behind the cut because you really don't want to be spoiled for this one :-)
Umm....wow....and squeee!
I think that I now know what the big honking spoiler is that's been going round. If it's that Rose is going, then I think I've now guessed. If it's the manner of her departure, then please don't tell me because I want to be surprised. And also don't mention anything from the trailer - I managed to avoid it. I'm trying for a repeat of last year's Parting of Ways. i.e. see no spoiler, hear no spoiler, total surprise on everything :-)
Having got that out of the way...squeee!
I didn't quite avoid last week's trailer so I knew about the Cybermen. But I certainly didn't guess the sphere's inhabitants...
Actually, I was half-way convinced that it would be Captain Jack in there. So you can understand my mild surprise (I'm told that I actually gasped out loud at that moment) and why I was kind of going "But they...but...but...and it was...oh...and that...but..." for about five minutes afterwards.
I've started at the end, so I'll go back to the beginning now.
The beginning worked for me. I'm not sure why, because it tells me that Rose is going to die right up front. But I liked the beginning. There were echoes of Rose in the fly-down to Earth, but it was haunting and sad rather than the joyful start we had then. I think that's what has set the tone for the episode. Everything has suddenly got serious.
After that start, it goes back to the togetherness thing we've had going for the last few episodes and that first half was tremendous fun. Torchwood is finally there on the screen, having been lurking in the background all season, and the hints we had in Tooth and Claw about its mission are finally made real. The set-up for the organisation feels kind of quasi-military but also like a very strange Big Business thing. For some reason, an organisation set up to further the interests of the British Empire through alien relics seems like an odd mesh of Victorian and modern attitudes, which makes it fit remarkably well.
The "if it's alien, it's ours" spiel was mildly disturbing.
Somehow, I had a feeling that the psychic paper plot-device would at some stage be overridden, and I'm glad that it was in the big two-parter ender rather than a minor episode during the run (not that any episode of Doctor Who is minor, but...)
From last week's trailer, I'd been assuming that maybe Torchwood had been creating (or re-creating) Cybermen. Until I saw Mickey (yay Mickey!) I hadn't really guessed that it would be the Cybermen from Age of Steel. But at least my question of whether that rift was accidental has probably been answered - it's got to have something to do with that sphere. I have no idea whether we'll get the definitive answer on that, but in my mind I'm now pretty confident that the rift wasn't in any way accidental.
Even though I knew the Cybermen would be in this episode, I hadn't thought that they'd be the ghosts. The Doctor is right on that front - it's not an invasion, it's a victory. And I haven't the faintest idea how they'll get out of that one.
The entire episode was absorbing, but it was the final ten minutes that had me absolutely glued. It was incredibly charged, I couldn't take my eyes away and the build up to the opening of the sphere and the arrival of the Cybermen...
I think it's going to be a trade-mark of this show that they'll pull out all the stops for the season finales. The first part of last year's two-parter, Bad Wolf, had me worried because it seemed so out of place and then the final ten minutes had me absolutely gripped for the big reveal. Parting of the Ways was exhaustingly gripping. If Army of Ghosts was this powerful, then next week's is probably going to wreck me.
Is it next Saturday yet?
Umm....wow....and squeee!
I think that I now know what the big honking spoiler is that's been going round. If it's that Rose is going, then I think I've now guessed. If it's the manner of her departure, then please don't tell me because I want to be surprised. And also don't mention anything from the trailer - I managed to avoid it. I'm trying for a repeat of last year's Parting of Ways. i.e. see no spoiler, hear no spoiler, total surprise on everything :-)
Having got that out of the way...squeee!
I didn't quite avoid last week's trailer so I knew about the Cybermen. But I certainly didn't guess the sphere's inhabitants...
Actually, I was half-way convinced that it would be Captain Jack in there. So you can understand my mild surprise (I'm told that I actually gasped out loud at that moment) and why I was kind of going "But they...but...but...and it was...oh...and that...but..." for about five minutes afterwards.
I've started at the end, so I'll go back to the beginning now.
The beginning worked for me. I'm not sure why, because it tells me that Rose is going to die right up front. But I liked the beginning. There were echoes of Rose in the fly-down to Earth, but it was haunting and sad rather than the joyful start we had then. I think that's what has set the tone for the episode. Everything has suddenly got serious.
After that start, it goes back to the togetherness thing we've had going for the last few episodes and that first half was tremendous fun. Torchwood is finally there on the screen, having been lurking in the background all season, and the hints we had in Tooth and Claw about its mission are finally made real. The set-up for the organisation feels kind of quasi-military but also like a very strange Big Business thing. For some reason, an organisation set up to further the interests of the British Empire through alien relics seems like an odd mesh of Victorian and modern attitudes, which makes it fit remarkably well.
The "if it's alien, it's ours" spiel was mildly disturbing.
Somehow, I had a feeling that the psychic paper plot-device would at some stage be overridden, and I'm glad that it was in the big two-parter ender rather than a minor episode during the run (not that any episode of Doctor Who is minor, but...)
From last week's trailer, I'd been assuming that maybe Torchwood had been creating (or re-creating) Cybermen. Until I saw Mickey (yay Mickey!) I hadn't really guessed that it would be the Cybermen from Age of Steel. But at least my question of whether that rift was accidental has probably been answered - it's got to have something to do with that sphere. I have no idea whether we'll get the definitive answer on that, but in my mind I'm now pretty confident that the rift wasn't in any way accidental.
Even though I knew the Cybermen would be in this episode, I hadn't thought that they'd be the ghosts. The Doctor is right on that front - it's not an invasion, it's a victory. And I haven't the faintest idea how they'll get out of that one.
The entire episode was absorbing, but it was the final ten minutes that had me absolutely glued. It was incredibly charged, I couldn't take my eyes away and the build up to the opening of the sphere and the arrival of the Cybermen...
I think it's going to be a trade-mark of this show that they'll pull out all the stops for the season finales. The first part of last year's two-parter, Bad Wolf, had me worried because it seemed so out of place and then the final ten minutes had me absolutely gripped for the big reveal. Parting of the Ways was exhaustingly gripping. If Army of Ghosts was this powerful, then next week's is probably going to wreck me.
Is it next Saturday yet?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 09:16 am (UTC)And also don't mention anything from the trailer - I managed to avoid it
You'll get your wish there because there wasn't one :)
But I certainly didn't guess the sphere's inhabitants...
Once Mickey said it wasn't Cybermen I was hoping for some new big alien, or even an old one that we haven't seen yet. I'm a bit disappointed they're re-using the Daleks.
I'm not sure why, because it tells me that Rose is going to die right up front.
I'm not convinced she is. It was all the stuff Jackie was saying about her not being Rose Tyler any more - and that's sort of a way of describing dead. Which makes me wonder if they're going to circumvent what they said right at the beginning and make it so she's not who she was any more but is still technically alive.
Or I could just be talking bollocks :)
Even though I knew the Cybermen would be in this episode, I hadn't thought that they'd be the ghosts.
I thought it seemed kind of obvious, given the Cybermen would be in it. Although that could have been related to the trailer after last week's episode, not that I can remember what was in it.
I was also distracted in this episode by Raji James who played the scientist (ie this guy - not that I've met him at all or anything :)). He used to be in The Bill and is generally a really nice guy.
I did like Jackie kissing the Doctor (and his reaction) and her being the companion - I think she'd actually be quite good at it. And him trying to tell them to not note in his history that he travelled with Rose's mother :)
I was hoping for Jack too, but I'm sure Torchwood is set in Cardiff, so it makes me wonder what's going to happen to Eastenders-girl and Raji so that it moves.