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 single-handedly squashes that score.
Overall Rating: 4/10.
Previous Story: The Witch from the Well
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