The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Attack Of The Cybermen

Attack Of The Cybermen: Part One (05/01/25)

Firstly, that was a massive improvement on Colin's debut story on almost every level. The style echoes last year's Dalek story, unsurprising since it sees the Doctor encounter one of his big enemies in modern day London, features Lytton from that story making contact with said Big Bads via a jewellery heist, and is directed by Resurrection's Matthew Robinson and shown in 45 minute episodes. I'm not entirely sure about the double-length episodes. Yes, it brings it bang up to date with a lot of other (mostly American) Sci Fi shows and drama series, but it worked for Resurrection because it gave the serial an 'event' feel. I'm just wondering if 45 minute episodes might be a little too much to absorb for a teatime family Sci Fi series?

Second thing of note is that this story is written by a Paula Moore - following Season 20s Enlightenment it seems they've finally commissioned another story by a woman writer. Two in 22 years! They're really spoiling us! To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about the Doctor's characterisation for the first half of the episode. Whilst I appreciate that he and Peri still need to sort out their differences after whatever the hell you want to call The Twin Dilemma, and their dynamic is bound to be  very different to that of Peri and Five (see also Adric and 4/5), it did feel like needless bickering much of the time. It doesn't seem to help that this apparently takes place directly after the events of The Twin Dilemma, the Doctor and Peri having not visited anywhere since Jaconda and the Doctor having spent his time repairing things in the TARDIS - including the Chameleon Circuit! It now works, and the TARDIS has disguised itself as a Regency-style cupboard in a junkyard and an organ in some other works yard. I hope this is an ongoing thing for the season which ultimately ends with it going on the blink again as I think that could be quite fun! Also of note was the first junkyard being Totter's Lane from the very first episode - an entirely pointless inclusion but a bit of fun nonetheless.

On the whole, though, I think I'm taking to Colin's interpretation of the Doctor. He's brash and bombastic but, like his predecessor, has a quiet, serious side which contrasts with the more abrasive traits. Time, I'm sure, will tell if I do fully warm to him. 

Back to the plot; Lytton has a small group of criminals in tow including the wonderfully down-to Earth Brian Glover as Griffiths. It's great having someone like him in the show because he brings a realism to the episode whilst getting some of the funniest lines. This seems to have been a cover for Lytton to make contact with the Cybermen, who seem like they might be upgraded leftovers from The Invasion as they're lurking in the sewers beneath Fleet Street - what they've been doing for the last 15 years is anybody's guess, though! Unless that's just a coincidence and they've somehow travelled there from Telos (of The Tomb Of The Cybermen) which also made an appearance, following the escapades of two members of a slave party trying to flee the planet by stealing a Cybership. I imagine we'll have more encounters with them next week, but so far they've not really contributed much except for a bit of exposition and a reason for the Cybercontroller (also upgraded with a modern flight suit, Cyberhead and extra wide waistline) to make an appearance before our main cast arrive.

There was much made of the presence of Halley's Comet, which orbits the sun and passes us every 76 years, which was a nice acknowledgement given its concurrent return but which, again, didn't seem to contribute much to the narrative. The more I think about it, the more this episode feels like there was an excessive amount of padding. Nevertheless, starting the new Doctor's first full season with a return from one of his most epic foes was, in my opinion, exactly the right move. The Cybermen look great, and I'm loving their 'Stealth' Cybermen, painted black to hide them in the dark of the sewers (well done, lighting guys! A rare case of them getting it right!). It was a good start to the season and I wish Colin's debut had been more like this. I left Season 21 very apprehensive, but this has made me more optimistic for what's to come.

Attack Of The Cybermen: Part Two (12/01/25)

Okay, so that wasn't bad. I'm not 100% sure what was going on but for the most part Colin has been redeemed after his clusterfuck of a debut. The plot was somewhat continuity-heavy and had such a similar feel to it as Resurrection Of The Daleks that, if I didn't know better, I'd swear Eric Saward wrote it! On the whole, though, it was an impressive start to the new series and was quite promising for Colin's Doctor going forward.

The Cybermen persuaded the Doctor to take them to Telos where the Cybercontroller was reviving frozen Cybermen, many of whom had started to rot, possibly because of interference by the Cryons - Telos all-female indigenous people who can't live in temperatures above zero degrees Celsius and built the frozen cities which the Cybermen co-opted for their stasis 'Tombs' and makes you wonder how the Cryons evolved on Telos in the first place, but I digress - and the Doctor, Peri, Lytton and Griffiths all got split up after a rogue Cyberman attacked the party. The Doctor was recaptured and locked up with the Cryon leader, Flast; Peri encountered a group of Cryons who gave her some backstory, and Lytton and Griffiths joined forces with the two partially converted Cyber-slaves from last week and went off to commandeer the Cybermen's only Time Ship other than the TARDIS when it arrived on Telos. This means the Cybermen in the sewers weren't from Telos. Or does it? Maybe some of them left behind on Earth piloted the ship back separate from the TARDIS? I think they might have been on Earth to try and use Halley's Comet to wipe out the planet's population before the arrival of Mondas the following year, thus preventing its destruction. Maybe. But, for some reason, this was prevented.

Meanwhile, Lytton was caught and taken to Cyber-Control where he had his hands crushed before being put into Cyberconversion. Given that this is the first time we've seen the process and had it explicitly underlined that this is how the Cybermen propagate themselves, I wish more had been made of it! Instead, it was just used as an excuse to have a bit of graphic violence on screen. Griffiths and the slaves made it to the other Time Ship where they were all killed by the Cybermen piloting it, thus making their subplot feel very pointless.

The Doctor gave Flast the sonic lance Lytton had given him while they were held in the TARDIS so she could use the conveniently highly-explosive-in-above-freezing-temperatures substance stored en masse in their prison/store room to blow up Cyber-Control once the Doctor and Peri had escaped, and it was revealed that Lytton was working for the Cryons all along to try and rid them of the Cybermen by stealing their Time Ship or something.

Actually, the more I try to piece this story together, the less sense it makes. On top of this is the fact that, in the TARDIS scenes, the Doctor and Lytton acted as though they'd met and got to know each other quite well in Resurrection when the fact is (to the best of my knowledge) they didn't. I'm not even sure they actually had any scenes together! This all wasn't helped by how utterly awful the final scenes were. I can only imagine they were running out of studio time and did it all in one take, as the delivery of the Doctor's lines lamenting his misjudgement of Lytton, and Peri confirming Lytton was dead (in a similar jumping-to-conclusions way as Turlough at the end of Warriors Of The Deep Part One) were horribly wooden and very badly blocked, as was the following scene in the TARDIS (which has resumed its shape as a Police Box again with next to no comment). That said, I doubt anyone could have done much to make the dialogue of those scenes work!

But let's look at the positives. Peri finally got a decent outfit -  a red boilersuit to keep her warm in the freezing tombs - and the Cryons were a nice concept, albeit designed so that you had no idea who was who except for Flast (with different makeup, a cloak, and only in scenes with the Doctor). The others you literally needed to remember and check out in the closing credits. Sarah Berger (deep voice), Sarah Greene (high voice), and Esther Freud (I had no idea there was a fourth) all looked identical and I'm making the assumption it was Sarah Greene who played the Cryon Who Died. 

So, whilst the story didn't entirely work, it nevertheless got the new series off to a memorable start. Visually, it was impressive. Colin is a definite contrast to his predecessor and, whilst I'm still not a fan of his Pied Piper outfit, he's been given the opportunity over the last two weeks to show that the brief glimpses of Doctorishness seen in his debut have got room to develop and he's settling into the role. I think he could be very good as long as he's given decent scripts to work with.