I am – Hercules!!
While we here in the United States just finished watching the 27th season of “Doctor Who” on the SciFi Channel, the wily Brits have already seen “Doctor Who” 28.12 on the BBC. The verdict over there…
“Russ” says:
Hi Herc
Heres a review of Doctor who episode season 2 ep 12.."Army of ghosts" whic aired in the u.k tonight.
Well after a couple of meidiocre doctor who episodes we get back to business tonight of part 1 of the season finale!!..so here goes!
The doctor and rose visit Roses's mum back on present day earth but when they arrive they discover that ghosts have crossed over from the other side and have penetrated earth,they are everywhere and the doctor starts to investigate immediatley. Little do we know that the government Torchwood institute (torchwood will be dr who's new spin off show starting soon!!) have already began their own investigation of sorts and discovers that the doctor is back, and on the case. To cut things short the doctor arrives in torchwood to find he is greeted by the director of the torchwood project, a women called Yvonne Hartman. She begins to explain what is going on and shows the doctor a sphere type ship they have captured,apparently after much technobabble and expostion, it appers that this is a ship that meant for inbetween dimensions,it exists outside of time and space!!, all the time this is happening various personnel have been lured to a part of the base where they are kind brainwashed and sent back out to do some nafarious doings which we dont know what yet.Eventually the doctor realises that the Cybermen through using the sphere have found a way to cross over to our dimension from the one which we saw earlier in the season in the 2 parter "rise of the cybermen/age of steel. The cybermen start to invade the earth,all over the world in fact..untill that is.. the sphere ship begings to crack...and out come ......THE DALEKS !!!!!!!!! end of ep!
Well what an ending,cant wait till next week!! The final ep in the season will feature both the cybermen and the daleks for doctor who's very first time and what a battle it proposes to be..well was this ep any good really?
THE GOOD
A great pre-credits sequence with rose ..MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! ..Telling everyone that this is "The story of how i died",some nice cg work of the doctor and rose on another planet,looked kinda prehistoric?,the return of Mickey..yes i like him!, the end invasion of the cybermen.
THE BAD
Not much,but it does take a while to get really going and sould of done with a tad more action but i guss this is being saved for next week..can't wait
I give this ep 4 out of 5
“Kelvington” says:
Doctor Who - Army Of Ghosts - A Review And Recap
Wow just when you think “Doctor Who” might be flailing a bit, they pull this one out and show us what it means to produce good television again. While the opening bit is very down beat, Rose talking about her death in the past tense and all, the episode on a whole is one of the best yet. It definitely holds up to last years series finale, and oddly some familiar faces show up. Here’s a short overview of what happened.
The episode begins with a long shot of Earth, with Rose giving a voice over of how this is the place she was born, and this is where she died. She talks about how she met the Doctor, including a glimpse of the last Doctor and a place we’ve not seen in any episode. We find out this is the story of how Rose died.
After the credits, we see the Doctor and Rose come home to visit with Jackie, whom as it turns out has a visitor of her own coming. Her Dad, but there’s a problem, dad is dead, long dead. Murray Gold does a great job hinting at his “Song For Ten” in the background music, making us remember the first time the Doctor was here.
When long dead dad makes an appearance he’s sort of blurry, and humanoid looking shape, that Jackie swears is her pop. Seems these ghosts are everywhere. Oddly no one is scared of them, and they have even invaded pop culture, as the Doctor skims channels on the Telly, to see the ghosts in everything from weather forecasts, to talk shows, and even a very popular soap from the UK. It’s a hilarious and exceptionally expensive moment watching the Doctor change channels and seeing all the different ways ghost have been incorporated over the entire planet.
Jackie swears they are human, and the Doctor reminds her, a foot print looks nothing like a boot. We now are introduced properly to “Torchwood”, with a woman who looks so much like Gillian Anderson, that she could be her sister. Her busty, full of cleavage sister. It seems Torchwood can make the ghosts appear and disappear with a device they are working on, and seem quiet happy to do so.
We are also introduced to the ball in the basement, sort of golden ball that just hovers there, and look ominous. And of course there are people scanning it, trying to figure it out. The Torchwood facility is a lot like a huge military complex but with an emphasis on people skills not just power. Think UNIT, with a friendly face.
A couple of Torchwood employees sneak off for a snog, and in the process meet this year’s greatest foe, the walls of hanging sheets of plastic. Perfect for setting a scary mood, and perfect for covering up what lies behind. It turns out there’s a Cyberman there and when the people return to their posts, they have not one, but two Bluetooth ear pods on, similar to what the people of the parallel universe had in their ears.
One of the funniest moments of this year occurs when Rose asks the Doctor if he’s going to sit back and do nothing, when the Doctor emerges from the lower level of the TARDIS, with a proton looking backpack on his back, and saying… “Who you going to call?” and Rose quips back.. “Ghostbusters!!”.
The Doctor uses his device, which looks so much like a Dalek manipulator arm, that I swore that’s what it was last week. He uses it to determine where the ghosts are coming from, and Rose and Jackie inside the TARDIS work the scanner and try and locate the source of all this. In a tender moment between Rose and Jackie, they talk about Rose’s future and what she will be like if she stays with the Doctor. When the Doctor finds out where the ghosts are coming from, he immediately points the TARDIS to it, just as Torchwood use London’s street cameras to catch a glimpse of the TARDIS as it vanishes from view. The Gillian Anderson-esque leader of Torchwood called Yvonne Hartman, susses out that the Doctor MUST be on his way here and makes plans to receive him.
The TARDIS starts it journey, when Rose points out that her Mum is still on board, this displeases the Doctor, but he uses it nicely in a moment or two. The TARDIS appears inside a warehouse in Torchwood complete with guns pointed at it, and a greeting from Yvonne, once the guns go down, the salutations to the Doctor start, along with the idea of “If it’s alien, it’s ours” sort of the Torchwood motto. The Doctor pulls Jackie out of the TARDIS and introduces her as Rose, while the real Rose is left in the TARDIS to figure out what’s going on. The Doctor is informed he’s a prisoner, but in a polite way, as he’s introduced to the ball of death in the basement. Plus we get a little history of Torchwood itself, which if you were a fan of the show you already know.
It turns out this ball, is a void ship, that lives outside of time in the void between dimensions, and the Doctor suggests they send it back to Hell before things get too ugly. Yvonne, tells the Doctor, there is great power to be harnessed here for the British Empire, so they can be free and independent from the middle east. The way the ghosts are brought into this world is via a particle beam being shot at wall that opens a hole in space, and allows the ghosts to pass into our world in a controlled way. The Doctor, tells them, that this is creating cracks in our universe and the other universes are bleeding in. He implores her not to do it again, and instead of stopping her sits down and watches her get ready to open the void. He won’t stop her, which scares Yvonne more than she will admit, and she stops the ghost shift, as they call it.
Rose is investigating on her own, trying to use the psychic paper to get around the facility, until she comes across the ball in the basement, where she is asked by a technician for her authorization, she produces the psychic paper and is found out immediately, because the people in Torchwood have been trained in some level of psychic ability, and aren’t fooled by her Jedi mind tricks. We notice that in the background that a familiar face is there… it’s Mickey working for Torchwood it seems.
While the Doctor is chatting away with Yvonne, the power to the ghost shift starts powering up, and can’t be stopped. The people who met up with the Cyberman are now taking control of the facility. The Doctor stops them with his sonic screwdriver, well, kills them is more like it. But he tells us they were already dead, which makes it OK. While the ghost shift gets stronger, the ball in the basement starts going all wonky and shaking the place up a bit. The Doctor and Yvonne discover the Cybermen who make a grand entrance cutting through the plastic paper walls. As thousands and thousands of ghosts start to appear as normal but this time they fully form into Cybermen and start taking over the planet. We are treated to several shots of the Cybermen showing up all over the place, including in people’s homes and waiting for them upstairs. Good luck getting the kiddies to go to bed tonight!
The ball in the basement starts to open while Mickey and Rose look on, Mickey is ready for them and unveils a hidden gun and prepares to use it on the Cybermen, except… Cybermen aren’t coming out of the ball, but DALEKS start to emerge. This makes the place go mad, as the episode ends with Daleks screaming their now famous “Exterminate, exterminate!”.
For an episode that comes just weeks after the terrible abomination that was “Love & Monsters”, I was shocked at how much I liked this one, and how the time literally flew by. Next Saturday night is way to far off for us to wait for the conclusion of this episode. Which I suspect will draw one of the highest ratings ever for a “Doctor Who” episode, and this is a very nice introduction to the world of Torchwood, coming to a telly near you in the very near future.
The direction was quick and full of great shots that we will remember for a very long time, the music this week didn’t detract or overshadow the actors too much, which it has been doing for the last several episodes, and the acting was right on par.
While we have no choice but to wait seven full days for the conclusion, here is a little taste of what’s to come - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv9QuNghybI
Just my 2¢
