(723) Doomsday

Whether you like her or not, you cant deny that Billie Piper has had an impact on the new series. In the month that I have been doing this where she has been a part of the show, the one thing that was clear was that she has been more involved in the stories than any of her predecessors. Even Ace wasn’t able to pout and throws strops quite like Rose. Ok I am on the Anti-Rose side of the argument. This is the story where Rose is written out and I was severely tempted to have a sick bucket by my side as I watched this. The problems with this story largely stem from Rose. The first shot is of her standing moodily on a huge rock on the beach. Quite why she’s stood there like the welsh statue of liberty but that’s for another time. This story should really have been about the first proper encounter between the Daleks and Cybermen.

The sight of Cybermen walking through the streets is a great one and one that would have looked great in the classic era. It’s slightly frustrating that they don’t seem to walk quicker or run. I know that they run in a Matt Smith story but watching this today it seems really slow how they move.

The Daleks aren’t there to just make up the numbers. They have something called the Genesis Ark and that is quite is the more interesting aspect of the episode. The four Daleks that appear are the Cult of Skaro who are meant to be greater than the emperor. I think everyone had spent the week between this and the previous episode trying to guess what was inside the Genesis Ark. I didn’t guess that it was in fact a prison containing millions of Daleks.

The encounter that takes place with the Cybermen and Daleks happens quite early in the episode. It’s weird that neither side knows about the other. After all they have done in the universe its weird that they haven’t bumped into each other at some point. It was clear that they were never going to work together although I confess that I am slightly disappointed with this. It would have been cool to see a Dalek/Cybermen coalition. Sadly apart from a few moments they don’t really have much to do in terms of driving the story.

When Rose makes the decision to leave her mother in the parallel world, there was a part of me thinking that if things had worked out differently then she would have nagged the Doctor to try and find a way back. That obviously didn’t happen and we have the goodbye scene between the Doctor and Rose but the Doctor isn’t there. Although his hear is blowing in the wind so he is clearly in front of Rose. It’s a prolonged and frankly boring scene which only serves Rose the chance to get all blubbery and over emotional. She’s not happy that she’s stuck with Mickey, her dad and her mom and doesn’t care that worlds would end if the Doctor tried to get her back.

There is a bit where Yvonne Hartman as a Cyberman shoots all the Cybermen and as she is shooting, there is a tear coming out of the eye. It’s an oily tear but it’s a wonderful moment and is still impressive today.

There is a cool video about how Doomsday should really have ended. It can be found on YouTube https://youtu.be/QfK8y7KVADo . The final six or seven minutes starts a trend that carries on for the next two series finales where the main threat of the story is over and then there is way too much time given over to sentimental drivel. The very last bit of the episode sets up the Christmas Special in a way that I don’t think many people saw coming and that was with the sudden appearance of Catherine Tate in a wedding dress and even the Doctor is confused.

This episode is one that I find confusing to decide what I think about it. I think that it was good to have a Dalek/Cyberman battle but think that it was wasted because Rose was the centre of the story and the best thing about her leaving is that this wont be the case for a while. This season hasn’t been as strong as the previous one. I think that there were some good episodes but it didn’t have the enthusiasm and the energy that the previous one did. If memory serves me correctly then the next series is a much stronger one and more importantly, it doesn’t feature Billie Piper. Tomorrow sees the next Christmas Special and an interesting one.