It’s Saturday once more. This recording opens with a short trailer for Doctor Who, then the recording has been edited to remove any more trailers (silly past me) so we come to Doctor Who – Doomsday. Prepare yourselves, it’s going to be emotional. Even the continuity announcer is twisting the knife. “…but is it goodbye to an English Rose?”
After a Previously On which reprises Rose’s “This is the story of how I died”narration, last week’s cliffhanger is resolved quite quickly. As the Daleks approach, Rose yells out “Daleks!” Then tells them she knows their name, and all about the Time War, and says they should keep her alive. Mickey and Rajesh sensibly join in. “Yeah, Daleks, Time War – me too.” “Yeah, and me.” The Daleks are concerned with something called The Genesis Ark.
The Doctor reassures Jackie. “What’s down there? She was in that room with the Sphere. What’s happened to Rose?” “I don’t know! I’ll find her. I brought you here and I’ll get you both out, you AND your daughter. Jackie, look at me. Look at me! I promise you. I give you my word.” Reader, on my first viewing, I was not reassured.
The Daleks ask Rose which of them is least important. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Which of you is least important?” “No, we don’t work like that, none of us.” I’m reminded of the time (a few years after this) when we got a new boss running our department, and at my first meeting with him, he asked me “Which is your weakest team member?” I told him that as a team we all had responsibility for all parts of the code, and I didn’t rank developers like that. He kept asking me, and I kept refusing to even consider the question. I wonder now if maybe I was subconsciously channelling Rose Tyler. That guy did have more than a whiff of Dalek about him, now I think about it.
Rajesh steps forward. “I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone.” It’s a brave thing to do, and he doesn’t end well.
The Cybermen detect the presence of unknown aliens, and the Daleks open communications. This scene is so good, as it’s basically two cybernetic races trash talking each other. It’s probably a good thing for the Doctor that they couldn’t bring themselves to team up.
The Daleks spot the Doctor in the background of the Cybermen’s broadcast, and identify him as an enemy. They turn to Rose. “Identify him!” “All right, then… if you really want to know. That’s the Doctor.” The Daleks instinctively back away. “Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor? NOW you’re scared.”
The Cybermen take Yvonne Hartman and Jackie away for processing. So much for the Doctor keeping her safe. Yvonne tries to face her fate bravely. “I did my duty. For Queen and Country.” But in the end she faces the spinning saws of Cyber conversion.
The Cybermen try to mock the Doctor. “You are proof.” “Of what?” “That emotions destroy you.” “Yeah, I am. Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope’s a good emotion. And here it comes.” He looks behind the Cyber Leader, where a group of armed humans in masks appear out of nowhere, and zap all the Cybermen, including the Cyber Leader.
It’s Jake, from the Parallel Earth where the Cybermen came from. He explains that their version of Torchwood developed a device that would let them travel between worlds in the same way the Cybermen are travelling.
Jackie is being dragged to be converted when the Cyberman dragging her is interrupted by another. With the death of the Cyber Leader, another of them has to be upgraded. As they’re talking, Jackie is looking around for an escape. I have a vivid memory of watching this. I was sitting in my chair, with my almost three-year old son on my lap, both watching. My wife had our brand new baby girl in the chair next to me, and our older two daughters were watching from the futon. It was at this precise point that I actually leaned forward and whispered “Run!” to Jackie, as I was convinced at this point that they were going to kill her.
Jake takes the Doctor back to his world to demonstrate the technology. And there he meets the man in charge. Pete Tyler.
Mickey has one of the transport discs, but he can’t use it as it only takes one person, and he’s not leaving Rose. They speculate that maybe they’re being kept alive because they’re time travellers, and the Daleks can use their time energy to activate whatever the Genesis Ark is. The Daleks tell them that the Genesis Ark is actually Time Lord technology, stolen during the Time War.
Pete tells the Doctor that the Cybermen all vanished three years ago. So it’s taken them three years to cross the void. “Look at it. A world at peace. We’re calling this the Golden Age.” “Who’s the President now?” “Woman called Harriet Jones.” “I’d keep an eye on her.” “But it’s a lie. Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The icecaps are melting. They say all of this is going to be flooded. That’s not just global warming, is it?” “No. It’s the breach. I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Back in the Sphere room, the Daleks want Rose to activate the Genesis Ark. But she tries to deflect them. “You’re gonna kill us anyway, so what the hell. If you… escaped the Time War, don’t you want to know what happened? What happened to the Emperor?” “The Emperor survived?” “Until he met ME. Cos if these are gonna be my last words, then you’re gonna listen! I met the Emperor. And I took the Time Vortex and poured it into his head and turned him into dust. D’you get that? The God of all Daleks… and I destroyed him!”
Before the Daleks can get too pissy and exterminate Rose, the Doctor arrives, surrendering himself to the Daleks. Unarmed as always. Rose tells him the Daleks have names. He recognises them as the Cult of Skaro, a secret order of Daleks.
When they threaten him, to make him activate the Genesis Ark. “You have no way of resisting!” “Well, you got me there, although… there is always this.” He holds up his Sonic Screwdriver. The Daleks are not impressed. “A sonic probe?” “That’s “screwdriver”.” “It is harmless.” “Oh, yes. Harmless is just the word. That’s why I like it! Doesn’t kill, wound, maim, but I’ll tell you what it DOES do. It is very good at opening doors.” He presses a button, and all the doors to the chamber explode inwards, and Jake and his team, along with a lot of Cybermen, come in guns blazing. There’s a lot of mayhem and zapping, and a moment when Rose falls over, and Pete is there to pick her up again.
During the action, Mickey stumbles and puts his hand on the Ark, starting its activation.
Jackie is running from Cybermen. She gets away from one group only to encounter another group in a corridor, but before they can kill her, they’re zapped from behind, by Pete. So Jackie from our world meets Pete from his world for the first time – and yet, in many ways, they’ve known each other for years. This is another sublime scene. Everything about it is perfect. All the performances, all the little touches. Like when Pete says to Jackie “But you were left on your own. You didn’t marry again, or…?” and she replies “There was never anyone else.” The look on Mickey and the Doctor’s faces is priceless. Pete tries to stay logical. “Thing is, though, Jacks… you’re not my wife. I’m sorry, but you’re not. I mean, we both… You know, it’s just sort of…” until he can’t deny the new reality they’ve found themselves in. “Oh come here!” and the run to each other. And hug. Reader, I cried.
The Genesis Ark is taken to the top of the building, then out of the roof, where it opens, and starts spitting out Daleks. It’s Time Lord technology, bigger on the inside, and it’s a prison ship. Filled with millions of Daleks.
The Doctor’s plan is to open the void and reverse it. All the Daleks and Cybermen, because they’ve travelled through the void, will all get sucked into the void. Rose says that she’s also been through the void. The Doctor tells her that she has to go with Pete back to his world. He’s only opening the breach from this side, and once all the Daleks and Cybermen have been sucked into the void, the breach itself will disappear into the void, closing it forever, and fixing the warming problems on Pete’s world. Rose doesn’t want to go. She tells her mother “I’ve had a life with you for 19 years. But then I met the Doctor. And all the things I’ve seen him do for me, for you, for all of us, for the whole…stupid planet and every planet out there… he does it alone, Mum. But not any more. Cos now he’s got me.” But the Doctor puts one of the transport discs around her neck and they all zap back to Pete’s world.
Rose isn’t having that, and hits her button again to take her back to our world. Left there, Jackie pleads with Pete to go back and get her. “But I’ve got to go back!” “The Doctor said, every time we use one of these, it damages the whole world, now that’s it!” “She’s your daughter!” “She’s YOUR daughter, not mine. That’s an order!” “Mickey, tell him! Tell him, Mickey! Mickey!” Looks like Jackie and Pete’s rekindled relationship might be doomed from the start.
The Doctor is resigned to having Rose there, and frankly, he needs her, because the setup of the Breach room has two huge levers which start the breach up, and I doubt one person could have managed both of them. And there’s Cybermen heading up the stairs towards them. But another Cyberman blocks their way. ” You will not pass.” “What is the meaning of this?” “You will not pass. I did my duty for Queen and Country. I did my duty for Queen and Country. I did my duty for Queen and Country.” It’s Cyber-Yvonne, and as she’s zapping the Cybermen, there’s a close-up of an oily tear. Just wonderful.
The Doctor and Rose get the void open, and have to hang on to supports attached to the wall as Daleks and Cybermen are dragged into the void from all around.
Rose’s lever unlocks, and the void starts slowing down. Rose gets to the lever and manages to lock it back in place, but can’t make it back to the wall support. She’s being dragged into the void.
But before she hits it, Pete appears, catches her, and hits the button to take her back to his world. The void closes, forever.
But some time later, Rose has a dream about the Doctor, telling her to go somewhere. So they all pack up the Land Rover and go on a road trip. To a beach in Norway. The Doctor appears, only a projection from the Tardis. “it takes a lot of power to send this projection – I’m in orbit around a supernova. I’m burning up a sun, just to say goodbye.” Rose tells him that the name of the beach, in English, is “Bad Wolf Bay”.
They catch up on news. Rose is working at Torchwood. Jackie is expecting a baby. And we learn why “this is the story of how [Rose] died.” “You’re dead, officially, back home. So many people died that day, and you’ve gone missing. You’re on a list of the dead. Here you are, living a life, day after day. The one adventure I can never have.” “Am I ever going to see you again?” “You can’t.” “What are you going to do?” “I’ve got the Tardis. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords.” “On your own. I… I love you.” “Quite right too. And I suppose… ..if it’s my last chance to say it… Rose Tyler…” but before he can complete the sentence, he vanishes, back to the Tardis. He stands there for a moment, almost as if he’s going to finish it, but doesn’t.
Rose is heartbroken. Jackie runs to her to give her a hug. It really is all about the hugs.
Back on the Tardis, the Doctor starts preparing to travel, but suddenly, there’s a woman there, wearing a wedding dress. It’s Catherine Tate. “What?!” “Oh!” “What?!” “Who are you?” “But…?!” “Where am I?” “What?!” “What the hell is this place?!” “What?!” And the titles promise “Doctor Who will return at Christmas in The Runaway Bride.” Some fans were not happy with this casting decisions. They were very, very wrong.
Media Centre Description: The end of an epic journey, as two mighty armies wage war across the Earth, with the human race caught in the middle. But as an unstoppable terror emerges from beneath Torchwood, the Doctor faces an even greater dilemma – does saving the world mean the death of Rose Tyler?
Recorded from BBC ONE on Saturday 08 July 2006 18:58
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Saturday 08 July 2006 19:00
After this, there’s a brief tease for a new series coming later in the summer – Robin Hood. Then the recording ends.
VHiStory 