📝8/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

This time: Poor Man's Spare Parts II

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

I love how the group is split up in the second part, reminiscent of the style used in Classic Who. This dynamic gives the episode a heist-like feel, making it far more engaging and exciting than the first part.

Helen Griffin delivers a standout performance as a fierce and compelling female freedom fighter. Meanwhile, Mickey finally rises to the occasion and embraces the role of a hero. I really enjoyed seeing him team up with Jake—they work well together and their budding camaraderie adds a nice touch.

These two episodes are directed by Graeme Harper, whose first credited work was Warrior’s Gate (1981). He would go on to direct several high-energy episodes of Doctor Who, and his skill is evident here. He does an excellent job, particularly in maintaining the suspense of the Cyberman reveal right up until the cliffhanger.

That said, the visual depiction of the parallel Earth is somewhat underwhelming—it comes across as very low-budget and lacks imagination.

This episode also takes time to remind us of the tragic humanity trapped inside the Cybermen. The absence of emotions is a grim necessity, as the alternative—being fully aware of the eternal pain inside those metal shells—is truly horrifying.

The story builds to a satisfying finale, followed by a poignant ending as Mickey chooses to stay behind in Pete’s World. His realization that he’s just the 'tin dog' is a bittersweet moment of growth for his character. Rose’s emotional turmoil, as her parallel father rejects her and Mickey leaves, adds a gut punch to the conclusion. While you can argue she had it coming, it still hits hard.

I pretty much feel like Age of Steel arrives at the same place as Rise of the Cybermen does for me, but it is a little different.

The prominence of just how awful the Cybermen can be is a lot more present in this second episode, and I feel like we get a good sense of how terrible the conversion process really is here. Something I didn't mention in my last reviews but is relevant is that the story does make some interesting parallels between the Cybermen and the advent of mobile phones along with the culture around it. This is particularly elegant given that the Cybermen have always been an exploration of humanity's relationship to technology. Unfortunately, both this and the preceding episode suffers severely in terms of execution.

Also, it's something I haven't mentioned before because it really hadn't bothered me all that much until here, but knowing what kind of person Noel Clarke is makes it rough to care for his appearances here. Stuff like that feels like it detracts from the appeal of content like this that lean more on Mickey's character.

What has the modern series’ debut Cybermen story got going for it? It’s a solid introduction to The Doctor’s foes with a good redesign and a strong, suspenseful build up - they *feel* important. The introduction of a parallel universe is also a success, allowing the show to kill off a new version of Rose’s mum and introduce a living version of Rose’s Dad - that is what sci-fi is for surely? I like that writer Tom MacRae decides to make this universe’s Jackie Tyler a complete nightmare.

Why is this not a classic then? It’s poorly directed, I know Graeme Harper is a legend in Doctor Who circles, but this isn’t his finest work. A serviceable script falls flat on many an occasion here. I don’t think they got the casting quite right either, none of the introduced supporting cast are quite right - with the sole exception of Lumic’s henchman. Noel Clarke also hams it up a bit too much with Mickey’s alter ego Ricky.

MacRae’s script starts to completely unravel in the closing 15 minutes where I found myself eye rolling on numerous occasions. The ending is full of random leaps of logic, maximum suspension of disbelief and pure gobbledygook. It doesn’t undo the fact that the general plot of this story/ several memorable moments and ideas come across very well.