Attack of the Cybermen

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.