Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Raji James (Dr Rajesh Singh), Freema Agyeman (Adeola), Hadley Fraser (Gareth), Oliver Mellor (Matt), Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell), Hajaz Akram (Indian Newsreader), Anthony Debaeck (French Newsreader), Takako Akashi (Japanese Newsreader), Paul Fields (Weatherman), David Warwick (Police Commissioner), Rachel Webster (Eileen), Kyoko Morita (Japanese Girl), Maddi Cryer (Housewife), Derek Acorah (Himself), Alistair Appleton (Himself) Trisha Goddard (Herself), Paul Kasey (Cyber Leader), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek/Cyberman Voices), Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Stuart Crossman, Anthony Spargo, Dan Barratt, David Hankinson ((Dalek operators))
CREW
Written by
Russell T. Davies
Directed by
Graeme Harper
Produced by
Julie Garner and Phil Colinson
SYPNOSIS
Rose and the Tenth Doctor return to modern-day London to find a mysterious epidemic of ghosts all over the world. As The Doctor searches Torchwood Tower to find answers, something sinister lurks in the building.
The Daleks first appear in the original series in The Daleks, and in the new series in Dalek. In their brief appearance in Army of Ghosts, it was unclear whether these Daleks are survivors of the oft-mentioned Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, or are themselves from an alternate universe (not necessarily the same one as the Cybermen). The Void Ship makes either equally possible. However, in Doomsday The Doctor and the Black Dalek both make it clear that the four Daleks are survivors of the Time War.
The preview shown at the end of Fear Her contained scenes for the entire two-parter rather than just Army of Ghosts. One of these scenes contained anearly give-away of the Dalek’s involvement, in the form of a a person being shot with an energy weapon and their skeleton being revealed as they’re fried, the effect of a Dalek weapon since Rememberance of the Daleks.
Although mentioned in Bad Wolfas the correct answer to one of the Anne Droid’s questions, Torchwood is first referred to in The Christmas Invasion, and created as a result of The Doctor’s meeting with Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw. Since then, it’s been referred to in School Reunion (blocking Mickey’s data access), Rise of the Cybermen (an alternate universe version, mentioned twice in background conversations), The Idiot’s Lantern (the police are afraid of their involvement), The Satan Pit (the expedition represents the Torchwood Archive), Love & Monsters (the source of much of Victor Kennedy’s information about The Doctor) and Fear Her (in the background). The Doctors explicitly mentioned in the Torchwood Royal Charter. When The Doctor notes that he’s never heard of them in all his time on Earth, Yvonne Hartman makes it clear that this was deliberate – he is the enemy, so they’ve kept their existence as secret from him as they could. It’s somewhat odd that, in all his years with UNIT, he never butted heads with them over some piece of alien technology, but not entirely impossible. Tenth Doctor can be notoriously unobservant, and Torchwood were trying hard not to be noticed by him.
Despite classifying him blithely as “the enemy” and making it clear that he is a prisoner, Yvonne Hartman clearly hopes to use The Doctor in a cooperative capacity similar to that which UNIT used him. She seems to be counting on The Doctor’s natural curiousity and meddlesome nature to overcome any resentment at being a prisoner, and in fact, he does largely cooperate (and attempt to bully) as if he were not under any duress.
The use of Bluetoothearpieces as a control mechanism for uncoverted human agents is reminiscent of the use of the EarPods in Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, although those were not wired directly into the brain. The use of hardwired control implants suggests that the alternate universe Cybermen are starting to utilise partial conversions, as the Mondasian/Telosian Cybermen have since Tomb of the Cybermen.
The Cybermen now have energy weapons embedded in or mounted on their ams. This seems inconsistent with the level of technology seen in Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, and may suggest that the Cybermen had access to the alternate-universe Torchwood files.
In describing how different races refer to the Void, The Doctor refers to the Eternals, seen in Enlightenment. The Tenth Doctor fails to mention that the TARDIS has itself been in the Void at least twice (The Mind Robber and Logopolis, both of which have the TARDIS taken out of time and space).
The Doctor’s mutation of Yvonne Hartman (when he stops trying actively to convince her to stop the Ghost Shift) is reminisicent of his mutation of the scientists in Tomb of the Cybermen, although with different ends in mind. In both cases, however, The Doctor has some idea of what is going to happen next and deliberately chooses to be coy and manipulative rather than just revealing what he knows (or suspects) is going on.
The Cybermen and the Daleks previous appeared in the same story together in The Five Doctors, but never interacted. A story involving both races was planned in 1967, but scrapped when Terry Nation would not give permission for the Daleks to be used.
The Doctors plan to infiltrate Lumic’s processing plant, above, between, below, is reminiscint of his plan to gain entrance to Rassilons tower in The Five Doctors.
Rose refers to the Gelth when talking of the ghosts, the creatures she and the Doctor encountered in The Unquiet Dead.
The idea of a Dalek with a new colour scheme from the rest of the troops relates back to the earlier stories, such as the stories Day of the Daleks and Planet of the Daleks.
The names of the Daleks from the Cult of Skaro are Thay, Sec, Jast and Caan.
Rose remembers the last time The Doctor tried to send her to safety, away from him in The Parting of the Ways. She also recalls the events of her becoming the bad wolf, when she channelled the powerof the time vortex to destroy The Daleks.
The Daleks in the Void Ship have been in hiding since the Time War’s end, and thus are as surprised to see The Doctor as he is to see them. They ask him, “How did you survive the Time War?", word-for-word mimicing his own question to the Daleks in The Parting of the Ways
The Tenth Doctor drops hints of his own involvement in the Time War, mentioning that he fought on the front lines, and was present at the “fall of Arcadia”. The statement creates more questions than it answers, though, since The Doctor is not a soldier, and we don’t know what significance Arcadia might have. On the other hand, it’s reminiscent of his statement that he was with the Filipinio army at the battle of Reykjavik in the 51st Century in The Talons of Weng Chiang. And of course, where The Daleks are concerned, The Doctor has been willing to make an exception to his general pacifism since their very first appearance in The Daleks.
While it’s somewhat understandable due to time constraints, it’s a little odd that UNIT is not clearly in evidence or explicitly mentioned during scenes involving fighting.
The Daleks recognise the alternate-universe Cybermen as “resembling” the Mondasian/Telosian Cybermen. The dialogue suggests that they also recognise that these Cybermen are different.
Pete Tyler’s universe includes Torchwood, but it’s never really clear if there’s an alternate Doctor in that universe, or if perhaps the point of divergence between the two universes came after The Doctor’s adventure in Tooth and Claw that leads to Torchwood’s formation. Without some explanation of this sort, it’s not entirely clear why Torchwood would exist, since it stems directly from The Doctor’s interactions with Queen Victoria. (Rewatching Father’s Day, it’s momentarily tempting to think that the alternate universe was created by Rose saving Pete, but Pete and Jackie never had Rose at all in that universe, and Rose was a baby when “her ” Pete Tyler died.)
Pete Tyler says to The Doctor that he knows who he (The Doctor) is, now. It’s not clear if this is because Mickey has told him everything he knows (which is really quite a lot), or if Pete has read the alternate universe’s Torchwood files.
The Void Ship’sDaleks appear to be from “our” universe (based on their references to the Time War and recognition of the Doctor), but the Cybermen followed the Void Ship from their universe to ours. This suggests that the Void Ship has been ping-ponging around orotherwise traversing universes, rather than simply waiting in the Void to emerge, and either way it’s implied that the crack the TARDIS fell through in Rise of the Cybermen was caused by the Void Ship.
In addition to the Black Dalek successfully escaping (presumably his shell is essentially a self-contained time capsule), we do not see the fate of the Cyber-converted Yvonne Hartman.
The new President of Great Britain in Pete’s universe is Harriet Jones, and her Presidency is being hailed as a golden age. In “our” universe, she was first seen as MP for Flydale North in Aliens of London/World War Three, at the end of which she begins to take charge in the chaos, and the Doctor remembers that she goes on to become a three-term Prime Minister responsible for Britain’s Golden Age. In The Christmas Invasion she is Prime Minister, but her actions toward the end lead The Doctor to attempt to topple her government with just six words, suggesting to her aid, “Don’t you think she looks tired?”. In Love & Monsters, Victor Kennedy is seen reading a newspaper with headlines suggesting her government is still embattled, but nothing on screen has suggested it’s actually fallen.
Bad Wolf Bay, the Tenth Doctor and Rose say their goodbyes from, relates back to the running theme of series one, where the words &lsquo, bad wolf&rsquo, appeared in the majority of places the Ninth Doctor and Rose landed, the reason for which was given in The Parting of the Ways.
According to the Torchwood website, most of the humans who were cyber-converted were pulled into the void along with the original Cybermen. A few had their cyber-components wrenched from them but those whose components were made in this universe were left behind. Most of these people died shortly afterwards but one appears in the Torchwood episode Cyberwoman.
The working title for this episode was Torchwood Rises.
The Doctor says, “Allons-y” and “Allons-y, Alonso!” for the first time. He would get to say “Allons-y, Alonso” to an actual Alonso in Voyage of the Damned. For those who do not speak French, a translation (“Let’s go!”) would not be provided until Midnight, two years later.
Freema Agyeman makes a pre-Martha appearance in this episode as the doomed Torchwood worker Adeola Oshodi. Russell T Davies has stated that he would have rewritten this episode so that Adeola survived had he known Agyeman would turn out to be a perfect casting choice to fill the soon-to-be-vacant companion role
The Doctor has previously encountered Black Daleks. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase, The Daleks’ Master Plan, Resurrection of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Genocide Machine, The Apocalypse Element, Jubilee, The Juggernauts, Blood of the Daleks)
Jackie goes into the TARDIS again. (Aliens of London, The Parting of the Ways)
