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

Previous Story: Feast of Fear

It's always great to explore 5's personal vendetta against the Cybermen. This story is played excellently by the cast with nearly everyone having to play their roles while pretending to run a marathon. Peter Davison is especially exceptional and you truly feel the hatred he has for the Cybermen and desperation to save his companion.

The beginning of this story is oddly clunky, it has great concepts from the get-go but it's got some really blunt messaging about self-improvement. It's a fairly unique thing to tackle in a Doctor Who story but it's strange how this story presents self-improvement as something particularly awful. I understand some of the points being made but it really feels like the writer is complaining that all his friends are doing something he doesn't enjoy.

Still, that's a minor issue I have and I don't have much of a problem with it purely because of how novel an idea it is. The actual brilliance in this story comes in the second half with the twist-reveal of Cyber technology, it's done really well and the stakes genuinely feel real. Couple that with an excellent score and you get an absolutely solid story, I only hope the next one can live up to this one and give a satisfying resolution to the cliffhanger ending.

Next Story: Conversion