I’d forgotten just how early this episode tells the viewers that the “ghosts” are actually Cybermen. On this rewatch I found this decision to be a mixed bag. For a lot of the episode this is a minor weakness for the episode, but at the climax it winds up being a big strength. I’ll explain:

I consider this to be a small weakness for a good chunk of the episode because we the audience, know more than the characters. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, in fact it can be an excellent device to create tension (Hitchcock’s bomb under the table example being the go to for explaining how). The problem for me at least is there’s a good chunk of time between when the episode reveals that it’s the Cybermen to the audience, and when the episode reveals this to the characters. So there’s a good chunk of the episode of our characters trying to solve a mystery we already know the answer to. I wouldn’t call it boring; all this time spent not progressing the story. But, it definitely felt like the episode was spinning its wheels and I grew a little impatient waiting for the plot to continue.

However I can’t hate the decision because it gives us a brilliant cliffhanger. This episode (and this season as a whole honestly) has put so much effort into foregrounding the Cybermen, it makes the Dalek reveal at the very end genuinely shocking. Purely in terms of giving the audience a ‘Holy Sh*t’ moment and hyping them up for the next episode, this is probably the best cliffhanger of the modern era.

So in terms of the actual plot, I don’t think there’s anything special here. It feels a little safe narratively speaking, lacking the ambition of the previous finale. It makes sense, and the stakes are high, but apart from the Dalek reveal at the end, it’s mostly just a pretty ordinary Doctor Who story, just on a bigger scale.

There’s good stuff here to be sure though. I found the Doctor and Jackie to be a fun little pretend Doctor/companion team. The Mickey reveal kinda rules.

We also finally get to properly meet Torchwood this episode. I find this version of Torchwood a bit odd. They’re so different to what Torchwood becomes, that it’s hard to reconcile them as the same thing in my head. The franchise spent a lot more time building up Captain Jack’s Torchwood that it has become the default version, and so it’s what I think of when I hear the word. This isn’t a criticism of the Torchwood from this episode. It’s not this episode’s fault that it feels different to a TV show that hasn’t even aired yet. I just find it a little jarring going back to watch this episode and this version of Torchwood is all.

As its own thing, the Torchwood from this episode is fun. I do enjoy that they’re antagonists, what they want is at odds with the Doctor, and they’ve caused some of the problems our hero needs to solve. But they’re not evil, just self-serving. They want to makes themselves, and by extension the British Empire more powerful, and their job is to eliminate hostile alien threats. Unfortunately they consider the Doctor to be a hostile alien threat (I mean, they’re not wrong). But I think it’s fun that despite being in conflict with the Doctor, there’s never really any hostility or aggression shown. They like the Doctor and are clearly fans of his work. So they claim he’s their prisoner, but he doesn’t feel like he’s in any real danger there. They butt heads with the Doctor, but tend to do so through delighted smiles. It’s a fun dynamic that feels fresh compared to many antagonists.

So yeah it’s a pretty ordinary story all told. Fun, but not especially exciting until the end, where the cliffhanger elevates it to being a little above average.