Revenge of the Cybermen

We reach the end of season 12, Tom Baker's varied and very promising first season as The Doctor. I am finding (like with Pertwee's first season) that I am blasting through these. Unfortunately this excellent season does not end on a high, this is bog standard, unimaginative Doctor Who.

This story is the first to feature another returning monster - the Cybermen, last seen in The Invasion seven years ago.

I love that they are back on Space Station Nerva but thousands of years before The Ark in Space. Doctor Who is run on a budget, so visiting the same space station at a different point in time enables them to pour the money from two serials into one beautiful set as well as an opportunity to flesh out the mythos of human history in this particular place. It grounds the show and makes it feel like part of something bigger.

I wish I could say the same about Voga, the Vogons and their leader Vorus - which is all terribly bland. There are some interesting ideas there - the planet of gold, the last cyber-war, fighting Vogon factions - but it all hangs together very poorly. The Vogons are unrelatable, I did not feel that I had any reason to care about any of them.

The glowing veins induced by the plague looked cool, it reminded me of the kind of effect seen in Patrick Troughton's era.

The plot points surrounding planting bombs in various locations were similarly retro, but in a bad way. The "we're going to put a bomb here" stories have always been my least favourite unless they are backed up by something else, here they are not. I enjoyed the fact that the Cyberbombs were strapped to our hero's backs though. The moment that Harry (trying to be helpful) dangerously attempts to unbuckle The Doctor's bomb is thrilling. This is followed up with a hilarious moment of Harry being chastised by The Doctor calling him an imbecile!

The established and well acted main three characters really helped lift this story, preventing it from being totally bad. Sarah Jane and Harry's hilarious conversation about gold Harry's obsession with gold is very funny and builds on their brilliant dynamic.

I'm not really sure what the whole betrayal storyline was in this, why was that human helping out the Cybermen? I was tired when I watched this and didn’t want to go back and see if I could pinpoint a motive - maybe I missed it.

This quote from my review of The Invasion pretty much pinpoints my issue with Revenge of the Cybermen:

The Cybermen are a wonderfully visual enemy. Because we have seen them before and understand their motives we are able to focus on other elements of the story leaving the Cybermen to do what they do best by looking ominous and creepy.

In this story the Cybermen don't seem like a cyber conversion plague (the creature's main motive) instead they are looking to destroy this particular planet which doesn't sit well with me. They are also not given ample opportunity to lurk in the shadows/ they are too visible for too long. The Cybermen's strengths lie in the moments just before their invasions come to fruition, not the invasions themselves.

It was was delighted that The Doctor receive a message from the Brigadier at the end of the story - after only a four story absence I am already eagerly anticipating UNIT's return. I want to see how they are written under the new team!

It's a shame that this was the only Fourth Doctor Cybermen story because you'd think the whole conversion aspect would be perfect for the Hinchcliffe gothic horror era in particular.

Unfortunately what we got was really far away from that, and all the criticisms of the Cybermen in the classic series from the 70s onwards like the gold weakness and the increased emotion come from this story. The Vogans are a bit rubbish too. I like the beginning of the story with the plague concept and the location shooting in the caves, but as a big fan of the Cybermen this was never going to be one of my favourites

A perfectly fine, serviceable story but a big step down from Genesis of the Daleks. It's fun, and has some great moments, but it seems to focus more on the Vogans than the Cybermen, and the Cybermen seem strangely emotional.

im so tired i cant process anything except "harry sullivan is an imbecile"