The expectation gap on watching this story for the first time was pretty monumental, as Neil Gaiman had done such a stellar job with his first story. The idea of this being anything other than spectacular didn’t feel likely, for this to be bad was very disappointing. In the context of this series it’s especially disappointing because there had not been many hits.

I understand there were issues behind the scenes, and this was not exactly what Gaiman wrote. In the first third there are some interesting Gaimanisms, but as soon as the Cyberman is running around at high speed it does feel as if the story has lost the plot. It feels odd to have these new speedy Cybermen debut just a few episodes following the speedy Ice Warriors. Why can’t monsters creek and lumber?

The Artie and Angie stuff is not paid off to a good enough extent to justify their presence. They were brought in last episode, so they could be in this episode, then they add very little.

It’s a strong cast, Porridge is good. Bless Matt Smith with the entire production on his shoulders - 20 solid minutes of screen time is him shouting at himself. There is no phoning it in, he is working his socks off.

The design of Hedgewicks World is uninspiring, it doesn’t hold a candle visually to The Doctor’s Wife.