N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

You can call me a sour old grumpy puss if you like, but I’ve never really believed the Doctor and Rose were in love.

“This is the story of how I died.”

Rose, Army of Ghosts

Even now, re-watching these episodes, knowing how it ends, I just don’t get it. I can see there’s a strong relationship, I’ve seen the discussion they had in The Impossible Planet speculating about whether they’ll set up home and share a mortgage if they ever get off the base. I’ve seen Rose say she’s going to stay with the Doctor forever, and the Doctor seeming fine with that (despite cautioning her in Fear Her to ‘never say never’ when it comes to their being split up), and yet I still don’t see it.

Is there love between the Doctor and Rose? Yes, most definitely.

Are they in love? Given it’s now sixteen years since these episodes were transmitted, I doubt I’m ever going to be convinced.

And yet I had no so problems believing the Doctor had fallen for Reinette in The Girl in The Fireplace. Well, I’m obviously missing something.

All this does tend to mean the ending of Doomsday is diminished a little for me. It’s still pretty powerful stuff: David Tennant and Billie Piper wring every ounce of emotion out of it, but then it would still be a sad parting even if there was no love sub-plot, given all they’ve been through.

What of the rest of it?

Well, we get Barbara Windsor lambasting the ghost of Dirty Den in the Queen Vic and in a neat bit of casting it turns out Dirty Den’s missus is actually responsible for the “ghosts” turning up. In fact, Tracy-Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman, head of the Torchwood Institute, is one of the best things about the story, her character exuding the kind of über-confidence you can’t help but begrudgingly admire and despise in equal measure.

And of course we get Daleks and Cybermen on screen at the same time, which for a while is as much fun as you’d expect it to be, but ultimately gets a bit silly when you’ve heard many a high-pitched manic “Exterminate” being countered with low-pitched monotonous “Delete”.

I remember wondering at the time of broadcast if the Ark in “Genesis Ark” was spelled with a ‘c’ and that somehow protecting it would preserve the storyline arc begun in Genesis of the Daleks. I also remember being disappointed it was just a prison.

But, you know — we all have our fan-fic wish moments.

“I’m burning up a sun just to say goodbye.”

Doctor, Doomdsay

Ultimately, Army of Ghosts / Doomsday is all about Rose leaving. Regardless of my feelings about the character’s relationship with the Doctor, Rose Tyler remains a pivotal character in Doctor Who‘s history — one of the show’s most important companions.

And even if this isn’t quite the final goodbye we thought it would be, that scene on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay remains an impressive one.

These are my potential Target Library titles for Army of Ghosts / Doomsday:
— Doctor Who and the Army of Ghosts
— Doctor Who and the Doomsday Ghosts
— Doctor Who and the Void of Doom