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 Like many things in life, emotions are
something I often take for granted. That doesn’t mean I have a disregard for
people’s feelings, I really don’t. What I mean is that often I can be pretty
pithy at times and be a little oblivious to the effect sometimes of what I say and
it affects others.
To some people, I can be construed as a
little insensitive or emotionally detached. I kind of agree to the latter given
that I tend be more of a thinker in my approach to life rather than someone who
relies on their emotions a lot. That being said, I am human and I do have
emotions and like everybody else in the world, that is what separates me from
being a machine. That’s what separates most people from being machines.
Well, until now! If you can tell, I’m
trying to do my best to downplay not only the return of another iconic Doctor
Who villain but also how I feel about the first half of a two part story of the
new season. Anyway I slice it, this review is going to be positive, so I’m hope
you’re still with me.
Taking the alternative reality routine once
again, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey land in a different version to 2006 but
before they get into the obvious run of trouble you expect and hope for in
their new surrounding, it’s revealed early in the episode that the TARDIS is
broken and the vortex of time is gone. At first this appears to be a bad thing
until The Doctor realises that a tiny power cell and a reduction of his life
can get everyone home by tomorrow so they can leave this new London in 24 hours
then.
This new London which is one where Zeppelins are in
the air hovering around the city, the Royal family are gone and in their place
a President runs Great
Britain. This being a London where people
are instructed to wear earpieces that download information in their brains and
can control them but ultimately for Rose, this is a London where Pete Tyler is
alive and a millionaire, thanks to Vitex drinks company he runs and is still
with her mother Jackie, who has traded chav for chic in the process.
I felt the instant rehash to “Father’s Day”
coming a mile off, even before The Doctor had to utter to Rose all the dangers
of trying to interact with her parents but it seems that Rose is learning from
past experience as despite her desperation to see her father, she actually
listens to The Doctor and takes his advice on board. But still, let’s talk more
about this version of the Tyler’s,
shall we?
In absence of a child, we have Rose the dog;
Jackie’s faithful if not great with time keeping pet. Poor Rose had to find out
through a download of her parents status and boy, wasn’t she devastated by the
fact she doesn’t exist in this reality (I don’t know, I thought it would make
things less complicated for her but it doesn’t). The Doctor’s reaction to
finding out that this Tyler’s
Rose was a pooch had me in stitches too but seriously, just because Jackie and
Pete are rich, doesn’t make them content. If paraphrasing from Ava in Nip/Tuck
– different circumstances, same issues all over again.
Jackie and Pete are certainly the same in
any reality. He’s still a likeable jack the lad type (that also means Shaun
Dingwall is still great to watch) and Jackie is rather horrible at times but
more horrible here. Pete seems to make all the effort that his wife doesn’t
acknowledge. He tries to compliment her, he organisations a party for her 40th
birthday and he even keeps their impending divorce a secret, which benefits her
reputation in this world as well as his I would imagine. Just like “Father’s
Day” when it comes to these two, Pete always comes across as the more
sympathetic of the two, even though Camille Coduri gives one of her best
performances on this show to date with this episode.
Their attitude in regards to Rose (not the
dog) is also similar to “Father’s Day”. For instance, Pete is openly friendly
towards Rose while she (along with The Doctor) sneaks into the party as a maid
and even admits to feeling safe around her. Actually both Pete and Jackie open
up to Rose about their marital woes, unaware once again that’s she their
daughter from another world but unlike Pete, Jackie’s cold and abrasive manner
when she turns on Rose in the garden makes me wonder if Pete was alive in the
real life, would Jackie be a worse parent.
Getting back to the earpiece downloads in
question which are worn by the Tyler’s as well, the company behind all the
information is controlled by Cybus Industries, run by the enigmatic but 100%
insane John Lumic. Played by Roger Lloyd-Pack (mostly known as Trigger from
Only Fools And Horses), Lumic is a megalomaniac of the highest order who opens
this exciting episode by getting his creation, a Cyberman to kill an opposing
professor while then plotting to unleash an army of Cybermen on Jackie’s
birthday bash.
It seems that everybody in London is controlled in one way or another by
Lumic, who thanks to those earpieces can make people laugh for no reason and
stop them momentarily in their tracks. Don’t you just hate this guy? If not you
soon will.
His motivations behind recreating the
creatures last seen in 1988’s “Silver Nemesis” (or in 2005’s “Dalek” if you’re
including the head from an old design in that Utah alien museum) is down to
Lumic’s ongoing losing battle with his own mortality but the fact that he has
no qualms with kidnapping homeless men and slaughters them to turn them into
his cybernetic killing machines really makes him a nasty piece of work, even
worse than that spineless excuse Henry Van Statten from “Dalek” last season.
However before I delve into the Cybermen
plot further, another great strength about this episode is giving the virtually
underappreciated Mickey more screen time, a wonderful exploration of his
childhood (he was practically raised by his grandmother until she died five
years ago after both his parents abandoned him), it’s incredibly hard not to
feel bad for the guy.
Mickey has got some serious self esteem
issues and there’s a brilliant look at that when he visits his grandmother in
this new London and feels guilty about her death his. I actually get the impression Mickey
feels responsible for her death because no-one ever got around to fixing the
carpet on the stairs. Even Rose turned around and admitted that both her and
The Doctor either ignore Mickey or take him for granted and this episode hits
home about Mickey’s issues with abandonment and self-value.
It’s also interesting that being snatched
by a freedom fighting group called The Preachers which features ex-kids
presenter Andrew Hayden-Smith as Jake Simmonds (the lad who tried and failed to
save those homeless guys from Mr Crane earlier on) who tells Mickey or should I
say Ricky that he’s the most wanted man in Britain. Well that is until we meet
another tougher looking Mickey/Ricky, and our one is checked to see if he’s
with Lumic do we get answers about The Preachers.
The answers are hardly complex – they just
don’t wear the earpieces which them a choice and they want to stop Lumic in his
tracks. Still though the site of tough and control Mickey versus low self
esteem Mickey is intriguing and Noel Clarke deserves a BAFTA for his
performance in this episode. He really broke my heart tonight.
Now for the main action of the piece, who
given the fact that this is a two-parter, it was sensible to leave until the
last minute. The Cybermen came to attack, kill and convert everyone at Jackie’s
party and their presence most definitely didn’t disappoint.
It took a while for The Doctor to realise
his old adversaries were the main problem with this world (despite some obvious
clues at the start) but he soon learned who was on their way when he looked at
Pete’s computer and he wasn’t the only one as The Preachers also made their way
to the Tyler’s. Their return is deliberately timely too, given that it’s been
forty years since “The Tenth Planet”.
I bet the President of Great Britain had
wished he done more than indulged Lumic’s dark fantasies before being “deleted”
and when the Cybermen started attacking all at random in the Tyler’s mansion.
David Tennant’s reaction to telling Rose about the Cybermen was interesting. He
looked shocked but not as shocked as when The Doctor saw that lone Dalek last
year. Rose if you’re not badly damaged, you’re in for another education my
dear. Get the coffee out as the Cybermen have certainly been a destructive
bunch.
Although unlike the Daleks, who are
primarily fascist in their attack, the Cybermen are more logic thinking
survivalists, even if their said logic is twisted and gets a lot of people
killed. The choices that the Cybermen give everyone at the house are simple –
convert or die and sadly for The Doctor, neither is an option.
To amp up the tension that little bit more
we had The Doctor, Rose, Jake, Pete and both Mickey’s running for their lives.
The Doctor hoped to spare his and their lives by actually surrendering to the
Cybermen but these update simply don’t care and proceeded to attack
nonetheless. It seems a certain Time Lord and his pals are a little
incompatible with becoming a living brain in a cybernetic body. Jackie had
better that one doesn’t find her in the basement but either way, the excitement
is higher than kite for me and other viewers.
Also in “Rise Of The Cybermen”...
Exact Time Date: February 1st 2006, which
means Jackie is an Aquarius and apparently the same age as Cuba Gooding
Jr. Good for her!
John Lumic (re Cyberman): “Can it hear me?”
Dr Kendrick: “Might still be in shock”.
This episode is written by a guy named Tom
MacRae. There’s also a singer out there with the same name.
The Doctor: “Is everyone alright?”
Mickey: “I’m fine, sorry, okay, yeah”.
John Lumic: “If the President of Great
Britain can make it, so can you”
Pete: “He’s not married to Jackie”.
According to actor Roger Lloyd-Pack, he
based Lumic on the US Defence’s Donald Rumsfeld. As a non-Conservative person,
I can’t help but be intrigued by the political viewpoints we’ve gotten this
season. We even got a snotty remark about Tony Blair in this episode.
Mickey (to The Doctor): “You’re always
gonna chase after one of us and it ain’t gonna be me”.
We got another Torchwood reference here,
this time from Pete.
President (re Lumic): “You don’t think he’s
insane?”
Pete: “It’s not a word I’d use”.
The Doctor (to Rose): “If you want to know
what’s going on, work in a kitchen”.
Did anyone notice the “C” logo on the
Zeppelins and the Cybermen like handlebars when Lumic was downloading
information from Jackie?
Other Mickey: “The target is Lumic and we
are going to kill him”
Mickey: “From your kitchen?”
The Preachers backup team was called Gemini
– that’s my star sign and like the Tyler’s
my family had a Yorkshire Terrier, though ours was called Princess instead of
Rose.
Pete: “You think?”
Rose: “You can trust me”
Pete: “You can trust me on this”.
There was no trailer for next week’s episode.
That’s a nice touch as I want to be surprised.
Rose: “What are they?”
The Doctor: “Cybermen”.
The Doctor: “Into what?”
Cyberman: “The next level of mankind”.
Standout Music: Did anyone find the use of
“In The Jungle” seriously twisted as those homeless guys were being made into
Cybermen? I seriously did!
I had such high expectations for this
episode, I thought that I was almost going to be in for a letdown but “Rise Of
The Cybermen” is anything but that. Tom MacRae’s script is superb and this not
only the start to a fantastic two part adventure but also the best episode of
the season so far (sorry “School Reunion”). Next Saturday can’t come quick
enough.
Rating: 
» Review by Shawn Lunn, Copyright 2007.
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