This story is quite an important story. It’s the first story of Colin Baker’s first season as the Doctor and it’s also the first story that was intended to be aired in a 45 minute format. Resurrection of the Daleks was aired in a 45 minute format but it wasn’t made like that.
The story sees the return of Lytton who had previously appeared in the Peter Davison adventure ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and it’s a welcome return in my mind because Lytton is a superb character and is played just as well. The story is also the first time in the shows history that the TARDIS changes it’s shape. There is a theory that producer John Nathan-Turner was planning of changing it permanently but I don’t think this is the case because its one of the things that will stay the same. This was the first appearance of the Cybermen since the 1982 adventure ‘Earthshock’ which is one of the best Cybermen adventures of all time and whilst this isn’t on par with that story this is still a damn good story. This is set during the same time that ‘The Tenth Planet’. Now for a fan this would be a nice little tie in and I myself quite liked this but to a new viewer it wouldn’t mean anything. I was half expecting to see Anneke Wills or Michael Craze pop up.
Set twelve months in the future there are a few nodding references to previous stories such as An Unearthly Child where in this story the TARDIS arrives and during the course of the story there is a mention to the 1966 story ‘The Tenth Planet’. This is the time of Doctor Who where references to past stories were starting to take over the telling of a good story. I always have the approach that light mentions are ok but when they get as big as they do in this story then that’s when problems occur. The story spends the latter half of its running time on Telos where the 1967 story ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ is set.
The story sees the Cybermen trying to change the events of Earth in favour of them. The thing that I like about this story are the scenes set in the sewers because they are a rare thing in classic Who of dimly lit sets. This creates an eerie impression and that is well created by Matthew Robinson (who directed Resurrection of the Daleks) who also does a good job giving the rest of the story a grim feeling. There are issues with this story. The first being the Cryons. There rubbish, they do naff all and they look silly and they are just too unbelieveable and as a result everytime they are on screen I just get bored. Sarah Greene is perhaps one of the ‘celebrity’ guests of this story but sadly is hidden under the mask of the Cryon as is Faith Brown. Also, when do Cybermen eat? I ask this because the Cyber Controller (played by Michael Kilgarriff) is on the portly side. In fact if there was a Cyber version of a gym then the Cyber Controller should go there. A lot is made of the moment where the Doctor kills the Cyber Controller and to be honest whilst I don’t think it should be a regular thing, there are times when the Doctor has to do things that he wouldn’t normally do and that includes killing aliens that would quite happily kill him.
Colin Baker is very good and is so much better than in The Twin Dilemma. There is a nice moment at the end of the story after Lytton has been killed where he realises that he has misjudged him and I thought that this was a brief sign of how nice this version of the Doctor could be. Nicola Bryant does very little apart from running around in a bright pink leotard (not that that’s a bad thing) but like Colin Baker, her character has improved greatly since the last story and the character’s relationship whilst strange is still quite intriguing. Maurice Colburn steals the show though with his superb performance. We learn a bit more about the character and despite how were suppose to dislike the character I actually find myself liking him and thought that his final few scenes were very sad and well played by Colburn. Also worthy of a mention is Terry Molloy, making his only appearance without the aid of a Davros mask. His character is totally different from what we get with Davors.
I like Attack of the Cybermen. There are a few issues with it but there is something really good about it. Eric Saward who through some convoluted reason wrote this has written a story that has some very good characters and scenes. Matthew Robinson directed the story well and together this story is one of e highlights of Colin Baker’s first full season.
The story sees the return of Lytton who had previously appeared in the Peter Davison adventure ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and it’s a welcome return in my mind because Lytton is a superb character and is played just as well. The story is also the first time in the shows history that the TARDIS changes it’s shape. There is a theory that producer John Nathan-Turner was planning of changing it permanently but I don’t think this is the case because its one of the things that will stay the same. This was the first appearance of the Cybermen since the 1982 adventure ‘Earthshock’ which is one of the best Cybermen adventures of all time and whilst this isn’t on par with that story this is still a damn good story. This is set during the same time that ‘The Tenth Planet’. Now for a fan this would be a nice little tie in and I myself quite liked this but to a new viewer it wouldn’t mean anything. I was half expecting to see Anneke Wills or Michael Craze pop up.
Set twelve months in the future there are a few nodding references to previous stories such as An Unearthly Child where in this story the TARDIS arrives and during the course of the story there is a mention to the 1966 story ‘The Tenth Planet’. This is the time of Doctor Who where references to past stories were starting to take over the telling of a good story. I always have the approach that light mentions are ok but when they get as big as they do in this story then that’s when problems occur. The story spends the latter half of its running time on Telos where the 1967 story ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ is set.
The story sees the Cybermen trying to change the events of Earth in favour of them. The thing that I like about this story are the scenes set in the sewers because they are a rare thing in classic Who of dimly lit sets. This creates an eerie impression and that is well created by Matthew Robinson (who directed Resurrection of the Daleks) who also does a good job giving the rest of the story a grim feeling. There are issues with this story. The first being the Cryons. There rubbish, they do naff all and they look silly and they are just too unbelieveable and as a result everytime they are on screen I just get bored. Sarah Greene is perhaps one of the ‘celebrity’ guests of this story but sadly is hidden under the mask of the Cryon as is Faith Brown. Also, when do Cybermen eat? I ask this because the Cyber Controller (played by Michael Kilgarriff) is on the portly side. In fact if there was a Cyber version of a gym then the Cyber Controller should go there. A lot is made of the moment where the Doctor kills the Cyber Controller and to be honest whilst I don’t think it should be a regular thing, there are times when the Doctor has to do things that he wouldn’t normally do and that includes killing aliens that would quite happily kill him.
Colin Baker is very good and is so much better than in The Twin Dilemma. There is a nice moment at the end of the story after Lytton has been killed where he realises that he has misjudged him and I thought that this was a brief sign of how nice this version of the Doctor could be. Nicola Bryant does very little apart from running around in a bright pink leotard (not that that’s a bad thing) but like Colin Baker, her character has improved greatly since the last story and the character’s relationship whilst strange is still quite intriguing. Maurice Colburn steals the show though with his superb performance. We learn a bit more about the character and despite how were suppose to dislike the character I actually find myself liking him and thought that his final few scenes were very sad and well played by Colburn. Also worthy of a mention is Terry Molloy, making his only appearance without the aid of a Davros mask. His character is totally different from what we get with Davors.
I like Attack of the Cybermen. There are a few issues with it but there is something really good about it. Eric Saward who through some convoluted reason wrote this has written a story that has some very good characters and scenes. Matthew Robinson directed the story well and together this story is one of e highlights of Colin Baker’s first full season.
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