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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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