I pretty much feel like Age of Steel arrives at the same place as Rise of the Cybermen does for me, but it is a little different.

The prominence of just how awful the Cybermen can be is a lot more present in this second episode, and I feel like we get a good sense of how terrible the conversion process really is here. Something I didn't mention in my last reviews but is relevant is that the story does make some interesting parallels between the Cybermen and the advent of mobile phones along with the culture around it. This is particularly elegant given that the Cybermen have always been an exploration of humanity's relationship to technology. Unfortunately, both this and the preceding episode suffers severely in terms of execution.

Also, it's something I haven't mentioned before because it really hadn't bothered me all that much until here, but knowing what kind of person Noel Clarke is makes it rough to care for his appearances here. Stuff like that feels like it detracts from the appeal of content like this that lean more on Mickey's character.