Revenge of the Cybermen - Episode 3

Today is the 400^th day of my journey to watch an episode of Doctor Who a day from the very beginning. I am now 50% through and the show has changed in the last 100 episodes and I don’t just mean in terms of leading man or even companions but more the tone of the show. It’s very much got darker since ‘The Daemons’. This is the first full episode that the Cybermen are properly in the story. I still don’t like the guns in the cybermens helmets. It means that they are hand free and I know that its good when your using Bluetooth but when you are on a beacon trying to destroy a planet. Also the voices aren’t quite right. It’s a bit like when the Daleks returned in ‘Day of the Daleks’ that the voices weren’t right.

Kellman does come across as quite a creep in this episode now he is face to face with the Doctor. His departure in the story comes at just the right time but there is a part of me that wonders whether he should have made it till the end and sacrificed it at the decisive moment. The purpose of the Cybermen is finally explained and its a good one because it makes sense. The Cybermen are there because they want to destroy Voga because it is pure gold.

The Doctor, Stevenson and Lester are going to be used to destroy Voga. Which is an interesting way of continuing their involvement in the story. The scenes where they walking through Wookey Hole are quite good and I just like the idea that the Doctor is freely admitting that he hasn’t got a plan but is forming one. It’s very much like the fourth Doctor. There is a nice scene between the Doctor and the Cyber Leader where the Doctor tries to belittle the leader by saying that they are nothing but a bunch of tin soldiers “skulking about the galaxy”. It’s clear that the Cybermen aren’t quite the force they once were and even the way that they have been written and are performing suggest that they aren’t quite the menace they were during their golden age.

Now the Cybermen are fully immersed in the story then I find myself a bit more interested in what is going on. That’s not to say that I can overlook some of the weaker elements of the story such as the vogans. The shoot out between the Cybermen and the vogans is rather silly as the Cybermen guns against the vogan guns. On a slightly more positive note, I do find the sight of the Cybermen walking through Wookey Hole to be a nice one because the contrast between the silver costumes and the brown rocks.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because it’s the first thing that Harry has done in several episodes. It’s a shame that it could be to cause the death of himself and the Doctor. Of course that wouldn’t happen but it’s fun to imagine what might happen to the Doctor. It’s good that this episode is finally moving but it’s a shame that the Vogans are involved because apart from that I really like this story and its easily the best episode so far.