Rewatched 2025-05-07 (⭐⭐⭐)

Hmm, well. In terms of how it's filmed it's probably the worst of the McCoy era, if not late 80s Who. A lot of location filming that makes it look like a student film, and not a very good one. The writing's decent, not bad but also the plot could have had a few extra drafts. So, in terms of how this is made its really forgettable.

That being said, I like most of the performances - Lady Peinforte especially, I'd really like to see her in another story (if its able to capture her energy) - and I can at least understand what goes on at the end so it isn't the worst McCoy serial.

• I'm not sure what I was expecting with this story, but maybe something a little more exciting
• The Cybermen don't have much of a presence and that disappointed me, I love the Cybermen
• I'm not sure how this story adds much depth to the mystery of the Doctor, it doesn't really
• I did enjoy the scenes of Ace battling Cybermen
• Performances were great, so at least that served when the story doesn't

I went into this one expecting to be disappointed, but it was better than I'd anticipated. Not good, mind you, but an enjoyable enough watch. I really think this one suffers from having too much happening at once; Lady Peinforte, the Nazis, the Cybermen, at least one of them needed to go (preferably not Peinforte, though). The whole thing felt pretty bizarre, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it really could have done with a few more rounds of editing. Mind you, I did quite enjoy Seven and Ace here, and Peinforte's gambit at the end was interesting indeed. Overall, I think that this story is just overshadowed as the 25th anniversary story when compared to Rememberance. On its own, it's pretty fun, though I'm not in a hurry to rewatch it anytime soon.

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

Previous Story: The Happiness Patrol

I'd say this is McCoy's first dud. The fact that I can say that and it's still a pretty solid story says a lot about the quality of his era. There's a fair bit to like here. For starters, this story just looks brilliant. The sets are really nice and there's some great location stuff too. I also don't know what it is but the Cybermen look the best they have since 1966 here. I'm not sure what tweaks were done to the design since we last saw them but they look excellent.

There's a lot of odd stuff here though. The whole neo-nazi plot doesn't really amount to much in the end. Lady Peinforte is an odd character too, she's clearly very knowledgeable in things she shouldn't be. I'd be interested to see her backstory. There's also a lot of hints at the Doctor's unseen adventures which feel a lot like they're supposed to be building up to some big reveal a season or two down the line (but we all know how that turned out). I'm not sure I like the backstories they're hinting at for the Doctor but that's not a complain with this story.

The dialogue was very odd. You can tell the cast are trying their best but there were some really odd sounding lines that even McCoy and Aldred couldn't save. I'm also pretty sure some of it was ADR which really didn't help it sound natural. Other than that though, I had fun with this story but I can't say it's a particularly good one especially after the non-stop bangers we've been having.

Next Story: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy