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

It feels like the show has been broken down into lowest common denominators: sex appeal, violence, arguments, status games and all with a garish, camp lens. It’s tonally such an odd and nauseous combination.

Travelling with The Doctor at this point in his history is a brutal and unforgiving experience. How the wonderful Peri has the energy to keep up her cheer in the face of adversity I will never know. Everything about how Colin Baker has been written and then portrayed is totally misjudged. Peri’s overtly presented “sex appeal” for the dads is effective but also tarnishes the show a little. What are we supposed to be getting out of this? Shouldn’t a family show have a non-sexualised female lead for us to idolise? Nicola Bryant smashes the role though.

The story around him is initially rather good. A bank job with the returning ruthless Lytton and his cronies at the centre of it. Any other Doctor would easily seal the deal here but Colin Baker chews his way through every scene. I had plenty to defend him with in his debut story, and there is no doubt the role hasn’t been made easy for him given the production choices made around him, but my god the guy loves over acting. He is simply not suitable for the role. It’s so strange to be in a position where you want the camera to stay off of your main character so you can enjoy the rest of the story. The first half of this story in the hands of any of the first five doctors would be much, much better.

Having said that, some of the excesses of the era are unignorable. Does every character have to argue their way through the story? Why do we have to see a Cyberman shot point blank in the face with a regular gun?

The Cybermen don’t act like Cybermen in this. They seem emotional and have more human voices than I am used to, the modulation, rather than making them sound robotic, makes them at times unintelligible. The show seems to care more about lore than characterisation, which annoyingly makes them a generic monster.

The second half of the story suffers from being by the numbers plot wise, then the Cryons give off major Sensorite energy. Not a good thing. This is a big step down from what we’re used to.

I didn't hate these two episodes.  I liked how we got to play around with the Chameleon Circuit a bit and didn't find Peri or the Doctor that insufferable.  The stuff with the Cybermen weren't great and take up a lot of the episode, but luckily with only two parts it was a short enough experience I could appreciate some of the other fun stuff we were going for with these characters like Lytton and the Cyrons.  The latter look real bad just like the Cybermen, and this era of the show just could not put together decent effects or costumes for the life of them, but it was still at least worth watching to me.

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.