Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 1

This is the 20^th episode of Tom Baker’s first season and the final story of that season and the final story of the Arc trilogy. I know that the idea to set this story on the ark was a financial one but its done in a way which makes it seem like it was planned all along. I like the idea that it’s the same place but at a different point in time and the TARDIS will eventually get to them means that the viewer can rest assured that they can relax into the action and our heroes will make it out alive at the end of the story. Despite the familiarity of the setting, one thing that separates this story from ‘The Ark in Space’ is tone. It takes less than two minutes for the first dead body to appear. The group of people on the ark are very different to the ones that we encountered in ‘The Ark in Space’.

Kellman (Jeremy Wilkin) is immediately a great character as he is clearly at odds with the rest of the crew. It’s clear that he knows more than Lester and Warner because he is going to the trouble of removing evidence of signals from the mysterious Voga. Unlike Vira, Rogin & Noah in ‘The Ark in Space’, the characters of Lester and Warner have something about them. They are clearly very weary and untrusting of the Doctor, Harry and Sarah. They have clearly been through a lot and they are infinitely more interesting than Vira and Rogin.

Even though this has Cybermen in the title, the episode is lacking in the silver menace. They are mentioned once or twice. Oh well, its been nearly six months since I last saw them so I suppose I could wait another day. Gerry Davis is teasing us with their return (or Robert Holmes is) and its clearly designed to try and build up some tension and suspense in their return but what I would have wanted is for them to appear at the very end of the episode.

There is one shot of the Doctor, Harry and Sarah walking in the corridor and there is one actor playing a corpse and the rest are dummies. They are clearly dummies and it slightly ruins the illusion of a plague. Sadly this is the beginning of the issues with this story. The next issue are the vogans, the masks just look rather poor and in some cases it’s clear to see where the mask ends and the face begins. Another issue comes when the cybermats attack people. The CSO used to show them jumping is blatantly CSO and it’s just cringing to see people trying to fight them off. In fact the very last shot of the episode is of Sarah trying to fight off the cybermat. I’m sorry but despite the best efforts of Elisabeth Sladen’s acting, its just a rather damp ending to what has been a bit of a mixed episode. There were things that I liked about it but there are things that I am nt so keen on and its these things that I think will undermine the Cyberman’s return. Oh well I suppose that I may be wrong and the next three episodes will change my opinion. I doubt it but one can hope.