Cast and Crew
David Tennant as the Doctor
Billie Piper as Rose Tyler
Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler
Noel Clarke as Mickey
Raji James as Doctor Singh
Nicholas Briggs was the voice of the Cybermen
Tracy-Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman
Shaun Dingwall as Pete Tyler
Andrew Hayden Smith as Jake Symmonds
Paul Kasey as Cyber Leader
Written by Russell T. Davies
Directed by Graeme Harper
Originally aired on the 7th of July 2006 on BBC One in the United Kingdom.
Synopsis
The Cybermen are in control of Earth, but four Daleks and a mysterious 'Genesis Ark' threaten to plunge the planet into all-out war.
High Points
- The Daleks and Cybermen insulting each other. Arrogant though the Daleks sound, one can't help but get the feeling that they're correct about their chances.
- Pete and Jackie's meeting.
- The revelation of what the Genesis Ark is.
- The very final setup for this year's Christmas episode.
- Yvonne's final scene, which raises some questions about the Cybermen and what happens after.
Low Points
- The final outcome, which I'm not going to mention due to it being intensely spoileriffic, doesn't quite match what we've come to expect from the starting voiceovers. It's a fine ending, but one feels slightly cheated.
The Scores
Not an enormous chance to be original here, but as with last week it doesn't feel particularly rehashed and gets another four out of six.
The effects were a bit disappointing after last week. As we observed in series one, flying Daleks don't look quite real enough on this sort of budget. Five out of six.
In terms of story this is a fitting conclusion to last week, offering even more peril and disaster for the Doctor to avert, with a nice dose of self-sacrifice to go with it. Fortunately the Daleks vs Cybermen thing didn't get too cheesy, neither did it feel like a fanboy's idle musings. Five out of six.
Acting was again good, but we're now entirely into characters we've seen before and we know how we expect them to behave and how we expect the actors to handle them. Fortunately, this is exactly what is delivered. Five out of six.
There's a true sense of disaster approaching which gives a nice emotional response, especially when the Daleks and Cybermen are fighting all across London. I don't think the departure of Rose prodded quite as much as it was intended to though. Five out of six.
Production was again worthy of a great deal of credit, although I've not yet figured out why alternate-Torchwood is all dark and gloomy and looks like someone recently detonated a bomb in it. Maybe someone recently detonated a bomb in it, but that doesn't quite fit with their given timeline. Five out of six.
Overall I'm pleased to withdraw my misgivings from last week and give this episode an enthusiastic six out of six.
Doomsday therefore receives a grand total of thirty-six out of forty-two.
