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   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   ARMY OF DEATH (BF AUDIO)   
      
   4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Jason Arnopp. Directed   
   by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   The Doctor brings Mary to the planet Draxine, where he has promised a   
   fun and peaceful time. He should know better by now than to make such   
   promises. The city of Garrak has been leveled by a bomb detonated by   
   its president, who was also the leader of an insane death cult. The   
   city of Stormhaven still stands, but its new President, Vallan (David   
   Harewood), is out of his depth in the current crisis.   
      
   Not that many people wouldn't be. Garrak's dead have risen as animated   
   skeletons, and are laying siege to Stormhaven. If the Doctor cannot   
   determine what intelligence is animating the dead and what it wants,   
   then it may be the end for both cities!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   The Doctor: He is instantly intrigued by the skeletons. Instead of   
   simply reacting to the threat of them, as the Stormhaven guards do, he   
   thinks to let them through - an act which saves lives, and which   
   allows him to see what their short-term goal is. When he learns the   
   full extent of the force affecting the dead bones of Garrak, he cannot   
   disguise his genuine fascination with the project. It repulses the   
   moralist in him, but he is also a scientist who thirsts for knowledge   
   and an adventurer who craves new ideas and adversaries, and he is   
   excited at both the accomplishment and the spectacle.   
      
   Mary: Is taken aback by the Doctor's fascination with something she   
   sees simply as an obscenity. This does not actually shake her faith in   
   him, as she can also see that he works to save lives and that he is   
   ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of strangers. Still, it is   
   here that she finally sees how alien he is. This part of Mary's   
   characterization works well. Less effective, however, is a strand of   
   the story that sees Mary struggling with growing feelings for the   
   Doctor - something only vaguely hinted at in the other stories of the   
   season, and whose prominence here jars. This either needed to be   
   explored in the previous stories or dropped from this one. Preferably   
   the latter, as the Companion with a crush on the Doctor idea has been   
   done before, and done better.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   The 8th Doctor/Mary Shelley season ends with what I expected (and   
   hoped) would be an all-out horror piece, with armies of walking   
   skeletons assaulting a sole human city. A fantastic idea, to end a   
   strongly horror-themed Who season on such a tale.   
      
   But there's no horror to be found in Army of Death. There's no real   
   atmosphere, little sense of dread. Army of Death does not even seem to   
   be meant to be frightening.   
      
   This is an odd choice for a story constructed around an army of the   
   walking dead. But that's okay - I long ago promised myself I would not   
   trash a story for what it is not. Army of Death largely ignores the   
   horror elements and instead attempts to be an action piece, with a   
   fast pace and multiple set pieces. Not the choice I wanted made, but   
   it's not like I don't enjoy a good, fast-paced action story.   
      
   For just over three episodes, the story works on this level. The set   
   pieces are strong and visually engaging, the pace is fast, the music   
   is distinctive. The guest characters are a bit bland for the most   
   part, with only David Harewood's flawed president making any real   
   impression, but they're functional enough to carry the plot. And in a   
   story like this, Plot Is All.   
      
   The downfall of a story that's made up largely of action set pieces,   
   however, is that such a structure demands a climactic set piece that   
   tops all that came before it. Writer Jason Arnopp attempts this, using   
   the Hollywood "bigger is better" mentality.  But... Well... He applies   
   that mentality a bit too literally. Because what happens after the   
   army of skeletons reach their goal? What comes at the end of all this?   
      
   If you don't want to know, you should stop reading now.   
      
   Because at the end of the story...   
      
   We get...   
      
      
   THE MONSTER   
      
   Once all the human skeletons reach their objective, they combine,   
   Voltron-style, to form one gigantic skeleton which calls itself "The   
   Bone Lord" (yes, the giant skeleton can speak.  Unfortunately).   
      
   The Bone Lord is a major miscalculation. An army of skeletons = good.   
   Skeletons are inherently creepy, in that they reflect us with all the   
   surface polish and personality removed. An army of the walking,   
   faceless dead - an army of what we will someday become - attacking us?   
   That is effective.   
      
   But a Godzilla-sized skeleton that declares itself "The Bone Lord"   
   before setting about the serious business of stomping Tokyo?  That's   
   just another giant monster, in a series that's had no shortage of   
   those over the decades. It simply isn't viscerally effective.  It's   
   actually rather boring.   
      
   The climax is also weak in writing terms, much weaker than the rest of   
   the story. Stray characters are squashed so that, Saward-style, the   
   script doesn't need to worry about doing anything with them. There's   
   not one, but two heroic self-sacrifices (TM) - both from the same   
   character, at that! Oh, and the villain pauses to explain its   
   motivation to the Doctor, just because sometimes a villain needs a   
   good gloat. The explanation is... unsatisfactory.   
      
   Thankfully, this is a season finale, so there's a brief epilogue   
   between the Doctor and Mary that allows things to end on a character-   
   centric note. This scene is very well-written, and is wonderfully   
   performed by Paul McGann and Julie Cox. This tag allows both story and   
   season to go to credits on a grace note.   
      
   But it's not quite enough to wash away the bad taste of a narrative   
   blunder that all but kills this story for me. For the first three   
   episodes, I was leaning toward awarding a "6" to Army of Death. But   
   the climax squashes that score to a more dismal level.   
      
      
   Overall Rating: 4/10.   
      
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