Army of Ghosts

Army of Ghosts
177a – "Army of Ghosts"
Doctor Who episode
Army of Ghosts.jpg
The titular army of ghosts, Cybermen who have not fully materialised, march along Westminster Bridge.
Cast
Others
Production
Writer Russell T Davies
Director Graeme Harper
Script editor Helen Raynor
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Series Series 2
Length 1st of 2-part story, 45 minutes
Originally broadcast 1 July 2006
7:00 PM
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"Fear Her" "Doomsday"

"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 place 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.

Contents

Plot

The episode begins with a cold open in which Rose Tyler, via narration, recollects her life with The Doctor and how she believed their adventures would continue indefinitely before all that changed and she announces, "This is the story of how I died."

The TARDIS arrives back on the Powell Estate where Rose and The Doctor visit Rose's mother, Jackie Tyler. Jackie is pleased to see them, however she is behaving strangely and remarks with happy anticipation that her deceased father - Rose's grandfather - will arrive soon. Despite Rose's gentle protestations that her grandfather is dead, Jackie insists that he has returned in some capacity and has been visiting her for some time. At this point a vaguely-humanoid, luminous silhouette appears in the flat, surprising both The Doctor and Rose but delighting Jackie before disappearing after a short time. Television broadcasts confirm that this is a worldwide phenomenon and Jackie explains that a few months previously millions of these "ghosts" began to appear at regular intervals in numbers all over the world with humanity coming to accept them and believing that they are the manifestations of long-lost loved ones.

Dismissing the possibility that these are returning spirits, The Doctor deduces that the ghosts are impressions of something forcing its way into the universe and tracks the source to One Canada Square, revealed to be the secret headquarters of an organisation known as Torchwood which, along with its director Yvonne Hartman, is shown to have a special interest in The Doctor. Arriving inside Torchwood HQ via the TARDIS, The Doctor and Jackie, who is mistaken for Rose, are imprisoned and then given the reason for the ghosts appearance - an invisible breach in the universe through which a mysterious spherical object has arrived. The Doctor, after an inspection of the sphere, reveals that it is a "void ship", an indestructible vessel designed to exist outside of space and time and inhabit the void - the nothingness between universes.

While Torchwood have no explanation for what the sphere is or where it came from, it is shown that they have been responsible for the arrival of the ghosts as they have been periodically forcing open the breach with the aim of using it as an inexhaustible power source. Hartman also reveals to The Doctor that his encounter with Queen Victoria made him an enemy of the state, and was the catalyst for the creation of Torchwood. Unbeknownst to all at this point, an unseen party has infiltrated the institute and has been successful in subjecting two Torchwood staff to manipulation.

Rose, free from detection, masquerades as an employee and explores Torchwood. She gains entrance to 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.

Back in the command centre, the two employees under manipulation initiate an unscheduled "ghost shift" and forcibly open the breach, ignoring Hartman's orders to stop. The extended shift causes millions of ghosts to appear across the globe before they materialise into their true form. The ghosts are Cybermen from a parallel universe and have been attempting to gain access to our own via the breach. Simultaneous to their arrival, the void ship - previously undetectable to any scientific instrument - suddenly activates and begins to open. The Doctor, puzzled at how the Cybermen could have created such an advanced piece of technology, asks the Cyber Leader how they were able to use it. The Cyber Leader responds that the Cybermen are similarly oblivious to the origins of the sphere and that they merely followed its course through the breach.

Down in the sphere chamber, Mickey explains to Rose that after a battle in the parallel universe, the Cybermen mysteriously disappeared. He happened upon their means of escape and returned to his native universe with the intention of stopping them. Believing Cybermen to be in control of the sphere, he produces a gun and prepares to fire until the sphere opens fully and Rose is horrified by what emerges: four Daleks that immediately identify their location as Earth and prepare to exterminate all life forms.

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.[2] It was an arc word used through the majority of the second series,[3] starting with the series one episode "Bad Wolf".[4]

The episode's secondary plot device is the Cybermen, from the universe featured in "The Age of Steel" and "Rise of the Cybermen".[5][6][7] The Cybermen breaking through plastic sheets is a recurring theme throughout Cybermen appearances, in particular, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion and Earthshock.[8][9][10][11]

The episode is also the first in which Freema Agyeman appears, although she is not playing the role of Martha Jones, which she would play in series 3, but a minor character named Adeola. Russell T Davies admired Agyeman's performance as Adeola 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,[12] and first appeared as Martha in the episode "Smith and Jones". In that episode she refers to her cousin Adeola, explaining the resemblance between the two characters that she had portrayed.[13]

Although both Cybermen and Daleks previously appeared in The Wheel in Space, The War Games, The Mind of Evil, Logopolis, The Five Doctors, and "Dalek", this two-part episode (including the next episode "Doomsday") is the first time that both the Cybermen and Daleks play a major role. They would later appear together in "Human Nature" and the two-part episode, "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang".

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.[14]

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.[14]

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 whom she presumes to be Den Watts from The Queen Victoria. Watts, presumed killed in 1989, returned to the soap in 2003,[15] before being killed a second time in 2005 after being written out of the show.[16] Other British TV personalities appearing in the episode are Trisha Goddard, Alistair Appleton and famed ghost-hunter Derek Acorah, appearing as themselves. Additionally, the shot of One Canada Square is taken from the opening credits of The Apprentice.[17] A programme with the same name as a controversial broadcast in 1992 by the BBC, Ghostwatch, also appears in the show.

Location shooting took place at the Coal Exchange and Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff Bay.[18]

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.[19]

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.[20] The episode's Appreciation Index was 86,[14] above the average baseline of 77 for drama series.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity gave the episode an A- rating.[24] Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode 9.8 out of 10 (Incredible), and complimented 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".[25]

After its initial airing, the episode was released on DVD with "Fear Her" and "Doomsday" on 25 September 2006.[26] The story ("Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday") was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[27]

References

  1. ^ IMDB profile for Army of Ghosts
  2. ^ "Doctor Who spin-off made in Wales". BBC News. 17 October 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4349120.stm. 
  3. ^ "Welcome to Torchwood". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three, Cardiff. 2006-07-01.
  4. ^ "Bad Wolf". Writer Russell T Davies, Director Joe Ahearne, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2005-06-11.
  5. ^ "The Age of Steel". Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2006-05-20.
  6. ^ "Rise of the Cybermen". Writer Tom MacRae, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2006-05-13.
  7. ^ "Doomsday". Writer Russell T Davies, Director Graeme Harper, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2006-07-08.
  8. ^ The Tomb of the Cybermen. Writers Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis, Director Morris Barry, Producer Peter Bryant. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 2 September 1967–23 September 1967.
  9. ^ The Invasion. Writer Derrick Sherwin, from a story by Kit Pedler, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer Peter Bryant. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 2 November 1968–21 December 1968.
  10. ^ Earthshock. Writer Eric Saward, Director Peter Grimwade, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 8 March 1982–16 March 1982.
  11. ^ Russell T Davies; Matt Savage. "Army of Ghosts commentary" (MP3). Archived from the original on July 21, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060721104122/http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/army-commentary.mp3. Retrieved 2006-09-16. 
  12. ^ BCC press release "Freema Agyeman is New Companion Martha Jones"
  13. ^ "Smith and Jones". Writer Russell T Davies, Director Charles Palmer, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2007-03-31.
  14. ^ a b c "Army Of Ghosts" / "Doomsday" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
  15. ^ "Sixteen million watch Den's return". BBC. 2003-09-30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3151484.stm. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  16. ^ "Dirty Den actor leaves EastEnders". BBC. 2004-11-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3988347.stm. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  17. ^ "Episode 12: Welcome to Torchwood" (Embedded Flash object). Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/confidential/index12.shtml. Retrieved 2006-07-02. 
  18. ^ "Walesarts, Coal Exchange and Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff Bay". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/doctor-who-wales/alllocations/cardiff-coal-exchange-mount-stuart-square. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
  19. ^ "Fear Forecast: Army of Ghosts". Doctor Who microsite. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2006/fear/f-armyofghosts.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-16. 
  20. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2006-07-18). "Army of Ghosts Final Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071210142836/http://www.gallifreyone.com/news-archives.php?id=7-2006#newsitemEEVFkypuuujkJchNLT. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  21. ^ "Sarah Jane Final Ratings". Outpost Gallifrey. 2007-01-26. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071011060412/http://gallifreyone.com/news-archives.php?id=1-2007#newsitemEEyAlplpukpAlaFiUP. Retrieved 2007-10-30. 
  22. ^ Wright, Mark (2006-07-02). "Who bounces back". The Stage. http://www.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/2006/07/who_bounces_back.php. Retrieved 2008-01-17. [dead link]
  23. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2006-07-06). "TARDIS report: Week in Review". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071210142836/http://www.gallifreyone.com/news-archives.php?id=7-2006#newsitemEEVkkAkEyZrdWVpnfR. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  24. ^ Clifton, Jacob (2006-12-30). "Et in Arcadia Ego: Army of Ghosts recap". Television Without Pity. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071218122450/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/Shows/Doctor-Who/Stories/Army-Of-Ghosts-1. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
  25. ^ Haque, Ahsan (2006-12-22). "Army of Ghosts review". IGN. http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/752/752206p1.html. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  26. ^ "Doctor Who: Series 2 Volume 5". BBC Shop. BBC. http://www.bbcshop.com/invt/bbcdvd1964. Retrieved 2008-01-07. 
  27. ^ "Nippon 2007 Hugo Nominees". World Science Fiction Society. http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_nominees.php. Retrieved 2007-03-29. 

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