Doctor Who - Army of Ghosts

[raven]

Wow. That was really, really good.

No, it really was! I didn't like the prologue very much - I thought it was a tad schmaltzy - but I think it might shift into context after next week's. We shall see. But for now, stuff I liked specifically about that one:

-Jackie kissing the Doctor, heee. And he's such a boy about it, wiping it off disgustedly. Heh.

-the ghost effects. I thought they were marvellously creepy, especially as they look all elongated and naked, like full-size versions of the Roswell greys.

-the montage on television that the Doctor flicks through! I liked the flashes of Hindi - understandable Hindi, at that! - and Japanese interspersed with Trisha and Peggy Mitchell! It was so, so note-perfect and well-observed.

-the two Torchwood minions, Gareth and Adi, having their little clandestine rendezvous, and Yvonne letting them!

-Yvonne in general, in fact. What a good villain - irritating, subtly menacing (Her saying, "Oh, yes," when the Doctor asks if he's a prisoner was pretty creepy), and with amazingly bouffant hair. And with moments of humanity, like above where she approves of Gareth and Adi.

-In fact, the Torchwood Institute in general. I like the bright white light and the glass, all very twenty-first century, juxtaposed with imperial units and scary imperialism!

-The Doctor explaining that Rose looked into the Time Vortex and aged herself fifty-seven years. Heh.

-the Sphere. I think that's a great idea - something that doesn't exist, and creeps everyone out in the process. I love the concept of things that subconsciously make people frightened, and this was a great take on it. Again with the funky juxtaposition - I like this sinister artefact juxtaposed with Rajesh, who is so bored he's on Su-Doku book no. 509.

-the computer saying "Online" at the start of the Ghost Shift. I just like the details.

-the Doctor's explanation of what the Void is. The mention of hell was intriguing - Satan Pit reference? - but it really got me when he cracked the glass. Surprisingly for Doctor Who, this makes sense. Of course, it makes sense as in the hairline-cracks-in-reality-oh-so-bad-science type of sense, but still. The shattering glass is pretty damn good.

-MICKEY! Oh, lovely, lovely Mickey, defending the earth! Rose is a bit useless in this - although he does try - but he is just marvellous. The reveal that "Samuel" is him - look at that grin! - is the most marvellous part.

-"They're dead." Before, the Doctor wouldn't have killed them like that, even if he did apologise. This is a newer, ruthless Doctor. I like it.

-the Cybermen! All over the world! And killing the newsreaders! Ohmygod so good.

-And the Daleks are in the Sphere! Ohmygod.

In conclusion, yes! It was really, really good! Roll on next week!

Comments

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

I liked the way Jackie's reaction highlighted that about the Doctor - his willingness to do what is necessary, even if it involves killing 'innocents'.

I also it's quite hilarious how much fonder Jackie is of the Doctor now he's gorgeous David Tennant rather than brooding (yet strangely attractive) Christopher Eccleston!

[liliaeth]

Well that and he sent Rose back home in Parting of the Ways. Think about it, she now knows that when it comes down to it, he'd try to keep Rose safe. I'm pretty sure that that can't have hurt her opinion of him.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

YES! I thought that! Poor Jackie, so transparent. *g*

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Quite superb, and by far the best episode this season, so far.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't quite say that - I think School Reunion and GitF are still the best - but it was a stellar episode and a vast improvement on a lot of the others.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Fantastic, wasn't it?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee, indeed!

[tmpe5t.livejournal.com]

I kind of felt that they were already dead and just animated by the cybergubbins*... How cool was Mickey? he's been off fighting the cybers and is all confident and "yeah, don't worry babe!" and has an M41a Pulse rifle off Aliens... Where the frell did he get that?!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Mickey was awesome! I loved Mickey! And yes... where did he get the gun? It just seemed randomly shoved behind a shelf! *g*

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I must be in the minority here, but I didn't like it at all. There's nothing that I could point to as memorable, and basically it just seemed to be serving as the prequel to a whole lot of fanwank (Daleks! Cybermen! Hasn't this all been done before?)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

You'd have preferred 'Doctor Who Confidential', then, with our first glimpse of Torchwood, the Jack rather than Yvonne version.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Yvonne didn't seem particularly convincing as the head of a major research institute. (Neither would Jack, incidentally.) She reminded me too much of Henry van Statten.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

No, that's the strange thing. As they said in Confidential, everybody assumes that the Daleks and Cybermen have taken each other on in the past, but they never have.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean that the particular "versus" plot had been done before, but only that so many of the plot elements seemed familiar.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Everyone's got one, I think. I'm the only person in the world who didn't like The Satan Pit.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

MICKEY AND DALEKS OMGYAY.

And Jackie! I actually like Mickey and Jackie in this series. I think it is to make up for wanting to drop-kick Ten and Rose. YAY MICKEY.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Mickey and Jackie = LOVE. Although I think Ten and Rose were pretty bearable in this episode, even if Rose was slightly rubbish at, y'know, doing stuff.

[marcella-riddle.livejournal.com]

Jackie's been waiting 25 episodes to snog the Doctor! (Yes, I counted! haha!)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! I don't think she was that keen on Nine, though. But Ten - yes!

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

And I was right when I figured from the preview that he'd broken the glass himself with the sonic screwdriver. Go me.

(And maybe this was perfectly obvious to everyone else, too, but still. ;)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I don't remember it at all from the preview, so definitely not obvious to everyone else. *g*

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

...and maybe I can start a few more sentences with the word "and"?

*fidget* ;)

[gwynnega]

Yay, Daleks and Mickey, etc.!!! A very good ep.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It really was! Mickey was especially wonderful.

[julianelupin.livejournal.com]

Yes to the Daleks and yes to the sphere and yes to just about everything else. My jaw dropped once when the ghosts revealed themselves as Cybermen and again with the Daleks. I mean... wow. *incoherent*

Also, the Ghostbusters dancing? AHAHA. XD And the 3-D glasses appearing again and again. I love it. So cute.

And Mickey! Mickey Mickey Mickey. I love him. He's really grown on me. I liked him anyway, but sort of because I pitied him - but now he's grown. He's come into his own. What a great gift from the folks in charge, in a way. Mickey's a total badass now.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

What I found funny is that they are those pathetic 1950s/60s red-dand-green 3D specs, not the modern polarised ones. Still, I suppose it wouldn't be obvious that they were 3D specs if they were the modern ones.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

The sphere was my favourite part. But it was all so good. And Mickey - yes, yes! So wonderful!

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

Eee, yes. Loved this episode, especially the Hindi and Ten and the dorky & ridiculous 1970s 3d-glasses. And Yvonne, who was cool for whatever reason, and Mickey, being all confident and self-assured and generally not the tin dog (not that, mind, there's much wrong with being a tin dog) and Rose being all reasonably self-sufficient, and Ten again. It's making me ridiculously incoherent. (More so than usual?)

And while I do agree that the prologue wasn't particularly great, it was really rather appealing from a visual point of view. (!)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, the terrible glasses. I'm sure I had ones like those as a kid. And yay for Mickey!

Ditto on the visual appeal of the prologue. It was good, just... out of context. And context may yet be provided.

[parma-violets.livejournal.com]

OK, you can't just leave us dangling like that. What were they saying in Hindi?

Didn't the Cyberman strangle the newsreader? I wonder where their Touch Of Doooooooooom has gone?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, nothing exciting. Just classic newsreader-speak about ghosts everywhere.

That is a very good point. I didn't notice that, but it's true.