(628) Attack of the Cybermen - Part 2

I was thinking before I started to watch today’s episode about the 45 minute format. I think that before 2005, I wasn’t keen on the longer format as I somehow felt that I wasn’t getting a better deal in terms of storytelling. Having had a decade (nearly) of 45 minute episodes, I can now appreciate the longer running time in the classic era. I don’t think that I appreciated certain moments leading up to the cliffhanger in the previous episode enough. The shot of Russell shooting a Cyberman close up is one of the more violent instances in this serial. The death of Russell is dealt with quite interesting because after the reprise, you don’t actually get to see Russell’s body and that is so Terry Molloy doesn’t have to get paid for a second episode which is perhaps smart financial sense.

The first couple of minutes are quite dramatic as everyone boards the TARDIS and the Doctor is threatening to blow up the TARDIS if the Cybermen don’t let Peri go. It is perhaps unfortunate they use BBC computer graphics to illustrate the countdown timer. That aside, it’s a good little moment and the episode is filled with these good little moments. The Doctor really doesn’t trust Lytton which starts quite early on in the episode and becomes almost a theme.

Michael Kilgarriff is the Cyber Controller and at a risk of being mean, he is quite a large Cyber Controller. Kilgarrif has previously played the K1 robot in Robot (1974) and I think that it was perhaps unfortunate that he does appear to be a bit on the large size.

There is a bit of a backstory given to why the Cybermen adopted Telos as their home world. The problem with this period in the show is that continuity started to creep too much into the show but on this occasion it works quite well because it all seems to tie in together. The touchy subject of what happened in The Tenth Planet is raised between the Doctor, Peri, Lytton and Griffiths. Oddly enough the year that this particular story takes place in is a year in advance of when this story was transmitted.

The sight of the Cybermen in the console room of the TARDIS without the Doctor is a very strange one but it’s one that I like. Peri has a change of costume in this episode, even the Cybermen understand that Nicola Bryant wasn’t particularly well dressed for Telos. When the story moves to Telos properly, the thing that stands out about the set for the tombs is that it is just as grim as the quarry.

If there is one aspect of this serial that doesn’t quite work then it is the introduction of the Cryons. Visually they are something that are very 1980’s. Their story is interesting in the build-up but when they appear then it’s a little bit disappointing. It’s the eyes which just a silly and also the moustache that appears to be on their faces which looked equally silly. Sarah Greene (Varne) and Faith Brown (Flast) are two of the Cryons who were quite famous in the 1980’s. Greene having appeared in Blue Peter (1980-1983) and Going Live for several years. Brown is someone that I am not as familiar with but apparently she was a big name.

Bates and Stratton’s foolhardy plan to take one the Cybermen’s ships does seem to have a better chance of success when they team up with Lytton and Griffiths. There is a nice progression of the character of Lytton during this episode. When the Cyberman squeeze Lytton’s hands so that blood comes out of them is one of the reasons why the too much violence line was pointed at the show during this time. It was too excessive in my opinion and slightly disconnected me from the story for a brief moment. The deaths of Bates, Stratton and Griffiths are grim but happen quite quickly. Unlike Lytton’s death which takes place over several minutes after he is being converted by the Cybermen. Lytton had been working for the Cryons and so that makes his conversion quite sad.  The Doctor’s reaction after he has been killed is a nice moment.

The Death of the Cyber Controller and that whole scene is another dramatic moment but it shows the Doctor attacking and is another example of how different Baker’s Doctor is going to be very different to Peter Davison’s Doctor.

The Doctor believes that the Timelords have manipulated matters to get the Doctor on Telos. The Doctor and Flast come up with a plan to use powerful explosives against the Cybermen. The scene when a Cyberman is attacked by the explosives and its quite good. Flast’s death is quite grim as she is forced outside the chamber and she basically burns to death.

The episode ends with the Doctor attacking himself for misjudging Lytton but I think that he acted like most people would have done. Ok so Lytton turned out to be a good guy but if you base you impression on the last encounter then the Doctor probably did act the right way. Maybe if Lytton had acted different in their first encounter then things would have worked out differently.

It feels like this is the first story that Colin Baker’s Doctor should have started off with. It was one of the best Cyberman stories even better than Earthshock. At the moment the story is in fourth position and I think that is a fair position for it to be in. There were some moments that I think were perhaps misjudged but apart from that I thought this is one of the prime examples of why Colin Baker was underrated as a Doctor.