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Army of Ghosts

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181a – "Army of Ghosts"
Doctor Who episode
File:Armyofghosts.jpg
The titular army of ghosts, Cybermen who have not fully materialised, march along Westminster Bridge.
Cast
Others
Production
Directed byGraeme Harper
Written byRussell T. Davies
Script editorHelen Raynor
Produced byPhil Collinson
Executive producer(s)Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
SeriesSeries 2
Running time1st of 2-part story, 45 minutes
First broadcast1 July, 2006
7:00 PM
Chronology
← Preceded by
"Fear Her" 		Followed by →
"Doomsday"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who which was first broadcast on 1 July 2006.[1] It is the first episode of a two-part story; the concluding episode, "Doomsday", was first broadcast on 8 July.

The episode takes part on contemporary Earth, some time after the Doctor’s and Rose’s visit to Earth in "Love & Monsters". During this time, the public have become accustomed to intermittent appearances of ghosts. The Doctor tracks the source of the ghosts to the Torchwood Institute, where the Doctor learns of the Cybermen from "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" crossing a breach in the Void created by a Dalek-piloted void ship.

Plot

The episode begins with Rose Tyler narrating how her life changed when she met the Doctor, and that she thought it would last forever. But then came the ghosts, Torchwood, and the war, and begins to tell how her travels ended.

The TARDIS materialises on the Powell Estate so Rose can visit her mother, Jackie Tyler. Jackie shows the Doctor and Rose, to their surprise, that ghosts have been regularly visiting since they last left. After watching various television programmes, the Doctor and Rose find out that the ghosts started visiting several months before, and over time humanity accepted them. Disturbed by both the ghosts and their appearances being scheduled, the Doctor traces the "ghost shift" to One Canada Square, the secret base of the Torchwood Institute.

Torchwood are shown to be, along with causing the ghosts to appear, experimenting on a sphere, which arrived concurrently with the ghosts. The sphere is commented to be without mass or a gravitation field – physically, it does not exist. The cause of all these is shown to be a breach between universes caused by the sphere, allowing Cybermen from a parallel universe[2][3] to filter through, and slowly infiltrate Torchwood's ranks.

Upon arriving at Torchwood, the Doctor is taken prisoner, along with Jackie, who Yvonne Hartman, director of Torchwood, believes to be Rose. The Doctor is told that his encounter with Queen Victoria made him an enemy of the state, and was the catalyst for the creation of Torchwood.[4] He is then shown the sphere, which he identifies as a "void ship", and the experiments on the breach, which the Doctor strongly disapproving of both practices, noting that experimenting with the breach will only cause it to fracture more.

Rose, free from detection, masquerades as an employee, and explores Torchwood. She is able to get into the chamber where the void ship is located, but is immediately questioned by Dr Singh, who is in charge of experimenting upon the sphere. He discovers that Rose is an imposter, and asks his colleague Samuel, who Rose recognises as Mickey Smith, to seal the doors.

At the end of the episode, the breach is fully opened, and the multitude of Cybermen are able to cross the Void. The Doctor notes that the Cybermen had already invaded the Earth successfully. At the same time, the void ship begins to open, and Mickey prepares to kill whatever comes out. The final scenes happen concurrently, and are of the Doctor learning in horror that the void ship is not of Cybermen design, and Rose, Mickey, and Singh watching four Daleks unexpectedly emerging from the void ship, with their leader, a Dalek Supreme, giving the order to exterminate.

Continuity

The majority of this episode takes place in the Torchwood Institute, which is seen on screen for the first time. The phrase "Torchwood" first originated from an anagram of Doctor Who used to conceal the "rushes" tapes during the filming of the first series.[5] It was an arc word used through the majority of the second series,[6] starting with the series one episode "Bad Wolf".[7]

The episode's secondary plot device is the Cybermen, from the universe featured in "The Age of Steel" and "Rise of the Cybermen".[8][9][10] The Cybermen breaking through plastic sheets is a recurring theme throughout Cybermen appearances, in particular, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion and Earthshock.[11][12][13][14]

Production

The two-part finale comprising "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" was originally going to take place in Cardiff on the time rift which was the focus of the episodes "The Unquiet Dead" and "Boom Town". With the commission of the Torchwood series in 2005, Davies decided to base the spin-off in Cardiff and relocate "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" to Canary Wharf in London.[15]

To ensure that Noel Clarke and Shaun Dingwall (Mickey Smith and Pete Tyler, respectively) were available for filming, the story was filmed in the season's third production block along with "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". Filming for the story started on 2 November 2005 on location in Kennington, but this story did not become the primary focus of the production crew until 29 November, when filming began on the scenes in and around the sphere chamber. Scenes in the lever room, the main setting for the story, were filmed between 12 December and 15 December, and 3 January and 5 January 2006.[15]

The episode is also the first episode in which Freema Agyeman appears. Originally only considered for the role of Adeola in this episode, Russell T Davies admired Agyeman's acting, especially alongside Tennant, and called her back to fill the role of companion that Piper had chosen to leave. Agyeman was officially announced to be playing Martha Jones on 4 July 2006,[16] with the Daily Mail commenting that she was (instead of Mickey Smith) the Doctor's "first black assistant".[17] Agyeman first appeared as Martha in the episode "Smith and Jones", which explained the resemblance between the two characters that she had portrayed.[18]

The episode also features references to other programmes by the BBC. The most notable of these is the cameo of Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, where she bars a ghost who she presumes to be Den Watts from The Queen Victoria. Watts, presumed killed in 1989, returned to the soap in 2003,[19] before being killed a second time in 2005 after being written out of the show.[20] Additionally, the shot of One Canada Square is taken from the opening credits of The Apprentice.[21]

Broadcast and reception

To keep the appearance of the Daleks secret, the final scene was removed from all preview tapes and replaced with a title card reading "final scene withheld until transmission", including the copy given to the Doctor Who microsite's "fear forecast" team.[22]

The episode was watched by 8.19 million viewers, and was the seventh most watched programme of the week, behind four World Cup games and two episodes of Coronation Street. The Companion episode of Doctor Who Confidential gained 570,000 viewers.[23] The episode's Appreciation Index was 86,[15] above the average baseline of 77 for drama series.[24]

The episode was generally well reviewed by critics. The Stage commented that the episode was "a tense contest, full of drama, tears, adversity and two powerful forces coming face to face in the ultimate battle" while mockingly downplaying the England football team's defeat earlier that evening. The author of the review then stated that the cliffhanger increased his affection of the show.[25]. The Guardian commented that the episode was "Who back at its best" while The People complimented the humour of the scene of the Doctor channel surfing.[26] Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity gave the episode an A- rating.[27] Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode 9.8 out of 10 (Incredible), and complemented the pacing of the episode and the revelation of both the Cybermen and the Daleks, concluding that "you couldn't ask for a better cliffhanger".[28]

After its initial airing, the episode was released on DVD with "Fear Her" and "Doomsday" on 25 September 2006.[29] The story ("Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday") was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[30]

References

  1. ^ IMDB profile for Army of Ghosts
  2. ^ Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-05-20). "The Age of Steel". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-05-13). "Rise of the Cybermen". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Euros Lyn, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-04-22). "Tooth and Claw". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Doctor Who spin-off made in Wales". BBC News. 17 October 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Welcome to Torchwood". Doctor Who Confidential. 2006-07-01. BBC. BBC Three. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Joe Ahearne, Producer Phil Collinson (2005-06-11). "Bad Wolf". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-05-13). "Rise of the Cybermen". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-05-20). "The Age of Steel". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson (2006-07-08). "Doomsday". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Writers Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis, Director Morris Barry, Producer Peter Bryant. The Tomb of the Cybermen. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |began= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |ended= ignored (|date= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Writer Derrick Sherwin, from a story by Kit Pedler, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer Peter Bryant. The Invasion. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |began= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |ended= ignored (|date= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Writer Eric Saward, Director Peter Grimwade, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Earthshock. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |began= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |ended= ignored (|date= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Russell T Davies. "Army of Ghosts commentary" (MP3). Retrieved 2006-09-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b c Template:Brief
  16. ^ BCC press release "Freema Agyeman is New Companion Martha Jones"
  17. ^ Daily Mail 5/7/2006 - Exit Billie as Doctor Who get's first black side-kick
  18. ^ Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Charles Palmer, Producer Phil Collinson (2007-03-31). "Smith and Jones". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "Sixteen million watch Den's return". BBC. 2003-09-30. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Dirty Den actor leaves EastEnders". BBC. 2004-11-06. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Episode 12: Welcome to Torchwood" (Embedded Flash object). Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. Retrieved 2006-07-02.
  22. ^ "Fear Forecast: Army of Ghosts". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. Retrieved 2006-09-16.
  23. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2006-07-18). "Army of Ghosts Final Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "Sarah Jane Final Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. 2007-01-26. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  25. ^ Wright, Mark (2006-07-02). "Who bounces back". The Stage. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2006-07-06). "TARDIS report: Week in Review". Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ Clifton, Jacob (2006-12-30). "Et in Arcadia Ego: Army of Ghosts recap". Television Without Pity. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Haque, Ahsan (2006-12-22). "Army of Ghosts review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 5". BBC Shop. BBC. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  30. ^ "Nippon 2007 Hugo Nominees". World Science Fiction Society. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
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