Doctor Who – Series 2 Vol.5

The final three episodes of the BBC’s relaunched version of the sci-fi classic, starring David Tennant as the legendary Time Lord, and Billlie Piper as his human sidekick Rose. In ‘Fear Her’, the time travellers arrive in London in 2012, just in time for the Olympic Games. But in a quiet suburban street, something strange is happening – people are going missing with no explanation. Is there a connection to a strange little girl who never leaves her room, and who spends all her time drawing pictures? In ‘Army of Ghosts (Part 1)’, the Doctor and Rose pay a visit to see Jackie (Camille Coduri), but are shocked to discover that mankind is now sharing its world with millions of strange spectral figures. As the Doctor investigates the truth about these supposed ‘ghosts’, he is led to the secretive Torchwood Tower, where he uncovers a plot to harness a rip between the dimensions as an energy source. But the Torchwood operatives face an even greater threat than they realised, as the ‘ghosts’ are revealed to be the dreaded Cybermen, breaking through from their dimension. In ‘Doomsday (Part 2)’, Cybermen are the least of the Doctor’s worries as the Void Ship in Torchwood’s basement is revealed to contain a squad of Daleks. Using captured Time Lord technology, the Daleks prepare their own invasion of Earth, and as the Daleks and the Cybermen battle each other for supremacy, the Doctor works out a way to close the rip between the dimensions. But in order to get it shut, will Rose have to make the ultimate sacrifice?
The second series of the new Doctor Who disappears with a bang, thanks to an excellent two-parter that throws in the Doctors’ old foes with the departure of companion Rose Tyler.
Yet this final disc of the series two collection actually kicks off with “Fear Her”, a decent enough way to spend three quarters of an hour, but far from the series highlight, and not the reason most people will buy this disc. It’s a breezy tale of a little girl whose disturbing drawings come to life, a premise admittedly with some promise. The execution though is fairly middle of the road, and save for some fun moments along the way, it’s fairly forgettable, if entertaining, stuff.
The closing two parter though is terrific. It kicks of with “Army Of Ghosts”, which finds the residents of Earth being visited by strange ghostly shapes, believed to be assorted relatives who have long since died. Predictably, that’s not the case, and much to the shock of Torchwood, an Earth-based organisation investigating alien technology, the world promptly finds itself pretty much invaded. And there’s still room for things to get worse in “Doomsday”, with more than one major villain from the Doctor’s past arriving on Earth, prompting a major battle, the return of faces from earlier in the series and a farewell to Rose Tyler.
It all wraps up another hugely successful series of Doctor Who, and once again does it with a considerably strong pair of final episodes. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again–we can’t wait to see how they’ll top it next time around