There were some really, REALLY good ideas buried in this one. A shame about everything else though.

It's a shame that the story goes in all directions and makes understanding the episode rather complicated. Otherwise, the Cybermen are terrifying and the ambition is clearly there.

I have very mixed feelings on this one. There were a lot of little details I liked: the soundtrack is great, the gag with the chameleon circuit is fun, Lytton's potential for redemption in new and interesting. I also appreciate the body horror and the reminder of what Cybermen actually are under all that metal; that's exactly what I'm looking for with a Cyberman story, even if it didn't do quite as much with it as I would have liked.

On the other hand, this story was terribly paced, tonally inconsistent, and poorly executed. Like with The Twin Dilemma, a few more passes with a red pen might have saved it.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Twin Dilemma

I am pleasantly surprised. I've heard a lot of bad regarding early Colin Baker and after The Twin Dilemma seemed to reinforce that I was half-expecting to go into this story just to point and laugh at how bad it is. What I got instead was a thrilling little action story and an excellent Cyberman story that successfully did what it's spiritual predecessor, Resurrection of the Daleks failed to do; entertain me. Because I'm not a fan of the aforementioned Dalek story, the return of Lytton didn't feel very important to me. In fact, I didn't even know who he was until they mentioned the events of Resurrection. In hindsight I appreciate his return, it makes the world of Classic Doctor Who feel more interconnected.

While I really liked Earthshock, it didn't feel that much like a Cyberman story so I'm glad that this story brings back the elements of body horror (in the best way that 80s Who can manage) that haven't been present since the early 60s. I also really like that this story addresses the events of The Tenth Planet happening in 1986. While having Colin Baker's introduction story in the previous season seemed like an odd choice, I think it helped the writers gauge audience opinions and let them tone down a lot of the things that were problematic with his last story.

I like the gags with the chameleon circuit and it feels fitting to have such a brash and arrogant Doctor think that he can fix it. If the Sixth Doctor remains this good then he'll easily be up there as one of my favourites without the need of any audio redemption. Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this one and as long as this season maintains this level of quality I'll be happy with it.

Next Story: Vengeance on Varos

Attack of the Cybermen is a perfectly fine Cyberman story that doesn't necessarily do anything showstopping-ly, but doesn’t fail egregiously either. The costumes could have done with more (or... any) budget, but the half-converted human was a fun touch. The side characters were a bit forgettable but I liked the Doctor making mistakes and suffering the consequences of his actions. Peri even gets a normal costume in part 2, which is a sign that the bar is on the floor