"Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel

When the Daleks came back, the obvious question that cropped up was when the second most-popular Doctor Who monsters would return, and this question was answered in the run up to the 2006 series. This is,to be frank, something that I was more excited about at the time than I would have been now, because I hadn’t watched/ listened to all the Cyber-stories in order. The Cybermen, let’s face it, have rarely had the opportunity to shine in the way that the Daleks did- of their nine previous appearances, I would only wholeheartedly recommend The Invasion and would recommend Earthshock with reservations. All the other stories have grievous flaws that cannot be overlooked. There was also the case of the other very successful long-running sci-fi TV franchise- it has been claimed that Star Trek’s Borg are a ‘rip-off’ of the Cybermen. This could well be true but (and I speak as someone who considers Who to be greatly superior to Trek in all its forms) I believe the Borg are everything that the Cybermen should have been and are a far better conceived and far more frightening race of monsters that the Cybermen ever were- a great Doctor Who villain that never appeared in the programme. < /controversy >

It is refreshing, therefore, that the Cardiff production team decided to reinvent the Cybermen for a new era. The origins of the original Cybermen are based in a future that never came to pass and contains much that the modern viewer would be unwilling to suspend their disbelief for. So we are now given a race of Cybermen from an alternative universe, who originated on Earth- a whole new origin story that is far more resonant, without contradicting the programme’s mythology. The reason for their creation is one that can easily be understood- John Lumic, an electronics and industrial magnate is dying. He is mostly confined to a wheelchair which also contains other life-support systems (shades of a certain other creator of a race of monsters!) and has created a cybernetic body that will allow him to live on, free of the agony that has tormented him for years. He is obsessed with taking away pain- in all its forms- from humanity, so he makes it his mission to ‘upgrade’ humanity- the results of which, we all know. This rings true and is tied in well with the current obsessions with software upgrades and built-in obsolescence. The parallel world is reasonably well constructed- Zeppelins are an obvious, yet undeniably impressive shorthand for ‘this is an alternate reality’- presumably the Hindenburg never crashed here. Tom MacRae paints a Britain that is a bit more oppressive than our own, but not so much that it feels alien . The character work is excellent with the yearning that Rose has for her father with the regret that Mickey has about his grandmother working very well. The Preachers are excellently characterised as a group and individually- it is very refreshing that an older female character like Mrs Moore can be included. The plot is very straightforward- some would say a bit too straightforward and there is a bit of clumsiness, such as the scene where Crane attacks Lumic and the resolution to the cliffhanger might have some slapping their heads. However, it does work dramatically, which is the main thing.

A very welcome step by the production team was the return of Graeme Harper as director and he doesn’t disappoint. Every shot and sequence is constructed with love and understanding and Harper brings a truly epic sensibility to the story- the loss of Joe Ahearne from the show’s roster has clearly been compensated for. The production is flawless, with excellent location filming being combined with brilliant effects work- the Zeppelins are awe inspiring, as is the moment the TARDIS drops out of the time vortex. The new Cybermen look fantastic and benefit tremendously from Harper’s direction- his gradual revelation of their appearance being expertly done.

The performances are generally very good. Don Warrington is fantastic as the President and Helen Griffin very believable as Mrs Moore. Mona Hammond always seems to play a West Indian matriarch, nowadays, but it is a part she plays very well indeed. Shaun Dingwall makes a very welcome return as Pete Tyler (who, as he feared, is now bald!) I am not entirely sure about Roger Lloyd Pack as Lumic, who seems to go a bit OTT in some scenes, but he doesn’t actually ruin them. The regulars are excellent, with Tennant all improvisation, righteousness and sympathy and Piper doing brilliant work, mixing Rose’s heroism with her streak of selfishness- I love the scene where she discovers who her counterpart in this world is! However, the best performance is that of Noel Clarke. He effortlessly makes Ricky and Mickey different versions of the same character and the emotion he puts into the scenes with his grandmother and the farewell scene is totally convincing.

"Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" is not the best story that Doctor Who has had since its revival, but it is still very good. It is in a league above most of the Cyberman stories of the 20th Century, not just because it is better written and realised, but because McRae and Davies understand the Cybermen better than their creators Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler ever did. Here, they are genuinely emotionless and a reason is given for them being so- because an unaltered brain would not be able to cope with waking up in a metal body, free, not only of pain, but of all tactile and gustatory senses. The dehumanisation of the creatures is cannily revealed in the fact that the two Cybermen who mention their previous identities were women. These are creatures of nightmare that we thank our lucky stars that we will never become- something they rarely were originally.

NEXT: "The Idiot’s Lantern"