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At Last! somthing a little bit closer to the spirit and excitement of last season's run. Okay, the plot was a little bit Sci-Fi by numbers, but "Rise of the Cyberman" more than made up for this by the quality of the script and by the performance of the majority of actors involved. So far in this series, the only real genuine scare factor was within the Werewolf episode, and all through the run it's lacked any real heart and soul (with the possible exception of the Doc playing the romantic hero in the last episode); this episode had a little bit of soul, but it wasn't as scary as it could have been. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Let's cover the good point first: the Cybermen looked good. Beyond that, this episode, other than the last few minutes, was a massive disappointment. Dull, unexciting, low on drama, excessive and inappropriate background music with overacting by Roger LLoyd Pack and his cockney henchman. At no stage did any of it seem remotely real. Was this really directed by Graeme Harper? Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm a big comic book fan. One of the first comic books I ever read was called What If?. What if The Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner...What if the Fantastic Four never got their powers...What if the X-Men were vampires. One of my favorite shows for awhile was called "Sliders" where four people travelled to different dimensions and saw what would have happened it America lost the cold war or if men were almost extinct or if the world was a little slow to develop technology. I love What If style stories. Sure it's a little bit of a throwaway because anyone can die and nothing really matters because it's not "our" Earth, but it's cool to see different realities nonetheless. The possiblities are endless. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You Will Be Deleted: Maximum Deletion will be the battle cry thats shouted on every playground in the UK come Monday. And quite a few offices, I'll bet! Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This episode had to be good. The season has gradually got stronger as it's gone along, and then mid way we get the cybermen back, plugged by a radio times cover to boot! Resurrecting a much loved and iconic monster, like DALEK, it had to deliver. Also like DALEK, it resoundingly did. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Imagine a fictional (hopefully) Doctor Who production meeting. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I have watched this three times now and sadly multiple viewings didn't improve it. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I see no reason to mince words: that was crap. Utter, embarrassing, ridiculous, slap-your-head-and-start-crying crap. Almost as bad as "New Earth", and definitely worse than anything the first series spewed up. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A mad wheelchair bound scientist creates a terrifying Robotic killing machine. No it is not Genesis of the Daleks, it is Genesis of the Cybermen! - Sorry 'Rise of the Cybermen'. In a strange new world everything seems the same, but things are not quite right. No, I do not mean the TARDIS landing on a parallel Earth at the beginning of this episode. I am talking about being a thirty something year old Doctor Who fan, trying to adapt to the new series. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I am willing to wait. Since this is a two-part episode, I am willing to wait and see if this manipulative, muddled mess was just a very slow lead-up to a grand adventure. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back into more traditional Who waters now, with guns, marauding robots and a shouty megalomaniac which, coupled with old series pacing courtesy of the double episode, by rights should make the old is good, new is bad brigade happy (though you know as well as I do its not going to happen). Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Let's get one thing straight here: there's a reason why the Cybermen were considered second fiddle to the Daleks. To put it rather bluntly, they simply Were. Yeah, sure, they got a little street cred by claiming the lives of one Doctor (the 1st) and a companion (Adric), and the bit with them coming out of the sewers of London in the Patrick Troughton era tale "The Invasion" is one of the defining images of the old series. But at the same time, they looked like thrown together dogshit in "The Tenth Planet" and the look never really got better. The whole "vulernability to gold" thing they threw in during the Tom Baker years got to the point where Daleks-and-stairs seemed like a serious dilemma in comparison. And, despite starting out as a cool concept of a dying race becoming robotic to save itself and then trying to spread the word, they became yet another race of galaxy-conquering-wannabes but without the vicious racism and paranoia that really drives a galaxy-conquest the way the Daleks' did. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There was a lot of expectation regarding this major tent-peg episode in the second series. just as there was a build up to the rturn of the Daleks in Episode 6 of the first series, Episode 5 carried a similar weight of hype. Except this time the bar has been set by such a stellar reinvention of the Daleks. we now know that iconic villains can be made totally thrilling for a new decade and so we approached the Cybermen in the hope that we would be similarly impressed. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It is difficult to fully review the first of a very strong two part story before the second has aired. The 2 part story was tried last season with varying results and, in my view, the format was not always used to its best effect. Sufficient to say Rise of the Cybermen got off to a very promising start. With more than a hint of Dalek Invasion of Earth and Genesis of the Daleks (men in wheelchairs apart from anything else) and Day of the Daleks with the attack on an English country house and Inferno (duplicate world), there was a lot going on here. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A new and interesting way of telling a Cyberman story. Although not up there with the stronger Cybermen stories like 'Tomb of the Cybermen' and 'Earthshock', but it does rate above average. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Great stuff, just the sort of hard as nails, no holds barred, action thriller the season has needed. This season (so far) has been confident, stylish, emotional, exciting but it hasnt been as punchy as I would like, although the brilliant Tooth and Claw made a damn good attempt (but in the end of the day that was more about atmosphere than frights). The Rise of the Cybermen is the sort of Doctor Who you wouldnt be ashamed to show to anybody, with gallons of gloss but a certain steeliness and forcefulness every show needs to unleash every now and again to make sure you are still awake. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IVE never reviewed the opening episode of a two-parter without seeing the denouement, so it feels like its only half-time, and I dont know the final score. Which I dont, of course! However, I can opine that this was a highly-promising first half, and another thoroughly-enjoyable episode. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You will become like us. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Half-time. Pause for breath and suck on an orange (or should that be a satsuma?) Thought the team played a blinder in the first 45 minutes. Over the moon, John. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
They look fake!' my sister scoffed a couple of hours before I sat down to watch 'Rise of the Cybermen' tonight. I rolled my eyes at her, content in the knowledge that Doctor Who is very much 'in' and she was one of the few unfortunates who hadn't 'got' it yet. There was a small knot of worry in my stomach, though - mostly as I didn't 100% disagree with her. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A golden opportunity was missed here to produce a genuine Cyberman version of Genesis of the Daleks in order to provide an excuse for having a parallel world array of the new Who soap-opera cast, Mickey and the Tylers. New Who sometimes seems as cramped as Albert Square - you'd think with a TARDIS and the whole of time and space to traverse, the Doctor et al could more frequently avoid reunions with Rose's tiresome family. The parallel Earth is a very very small parallel world indeed. One cannot entirely blame Mr McRae, at his tender 26 years, for a very flat and uninteresting script and its seemingly pointless revision of the entire Cyberman history and origins simply to suit, no doubt, the whims of an overly dominant producer who wanted an excuse to feature parallel Tylers for no particular reason. But what's the point of reintroducing an old enemy simply to completely re-write their entire mythology? The only excuse can be that it is a parallel universe, not therefore the same one which contained the tenth planet Mondas; an alternative reality in which the Cybermen rise from Earth itself rather than a twin planet. This is excusable ultimately. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Following the first series success with the Doctors oldest and deadliest foes, the Daleks, it was inevitable that the second series would feature his big number two enemy, the Cybermen. I think we all knew they were coming back long before the story broke in the press, but how would they return? What would they look like? What would the story be all about? In Rise of the Cybermen, Tom MacRae tells not one, not two, but three parallel stories, each and every one of them bound together wonderfully. With twice the time Rob Shearman had to re-invent the Dalek, the writer is able to slowly crank up the tension on all fronts before ending his first episode on an outstanding cliffhanger! Those who tuned into Rise of the Cybermen expecting a massive gratuitous Cyberfest may have been disappointed (and Im sure theyll be appeased next week), but I can honestly say that I was thrilled with it. Barring the obvious transformation of the inhabitants of this parallel Earth into Cybermen, there was not one aspect of this episode that failed to surprise me
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I am willing to wait. Since this is a two-part episode, I am willing to wait and see if this manipulative, muddled mess was just a very slow lead-up to a grand adventure. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So finally one of the most-talked about stories of the new season is upon us. And on the whole I found it to be pretty good in most areas, not least a successful debut from a new Dr Who writer. Certainly it made for a very promising opening episode of a two-parter, well have to wait and see if part two fulfils its promise
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Having almost wet myself at the trailers for this weeks who-fest, I had a lot of expectation of the episode in hand, entitled Rise of the Cybermen. And it did not disappoint. Right from the chilling beginning to the thrilling end, every minute of this episode was one to savour. Wonderful acting from everyone, especially Roger Lloyd-Pack as John Lumic, the creator bent on survival. Anyway, to the episode itself. It begins with a nervy scientist being electrocuted by the prototype Cyberman, after a debate with John Lumic. The episode then switches to the TARDIS, which crash lands after it came flying out of the time/space vortex and into nothing, or so we think. Mickey, (Unfairly ignored by the Doctor and Rose, but a wonderful, 10
20 minutes. 29
scene) then discover it to be a parallel Earth, and the TARDIS trio wander off for a while. The Doctor then discovers one small piece is clinging on for dear life, and gives away ten years of his life to charge it. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm an American viewer and a lifelong Doctor Who fan. Naturally I was very excited to learn that the Doctor was going to be brought back two years ago. I was relieved to see that the new series producers were taking the character seriously, and I greatly enjoyed season one. However, while I admire the way Davies & Co. have reintroduced the Doctor to a new generation, I still missed my favorite elements of the show. I missed the continuity from the original series, the eccentricity of the past Doctors, the planet hopping and "TARDIS family" of companions. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is probably the closest that the new series gets to evoking the nature of the original series, particularly the pacing. I thought this was deliciously paced. Most have complained it was too slow but I'd describe it as a slow burn, a building up to the inevitable. This is probably Graeme Harper, wanting to slow it down and get the maximum benefit by doing so. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Much, much better. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The main problems with this episode was that every tight spot the Doctor and chums found themselves in was solved by a device handily pulled from someones pocket whether it be the sonic screwdriver, that convenient cyber-killing TARDIS component, Roses mobile phone, various items in Mrs. Moores bag of tricks or the Geordie lads even more convenient knock-out-drops. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One thing is for certain - all across the UK (at least) school playgrounds will be full of children clomping round in Cybermen mode - the bew generation monster has been an undoubted instant hit!! Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Age of Steel was well crafted and highly enjoyable. There was so much detail to tonight's episode. It was very different in nature to "Rise of the Cybermen", tied up all the loose ends, and even had the emotional farewell of Mickey. The deadly cybermen were fantastic and suitably scary and menacing. Loved the scene were the cybermen re-awakened and came to life. At first, I was a bit unimpressed with how the cliffhanger resolved but when it was explained that it was the Tardis section from Rise of the Cybermen which saved the day for the Doctor and Rose, I could see the link and it was well done. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Well
that was Doctor Who in summer blockbuster mode. Following the general rules of blockbusters it was cinematic and epic but for me the whole was less than the sum of its better parts. I did feel it was less effective than Rise Of The Cybermen and that might have been down to some slightly uneven pacing and Graeme Harper trying a little too hard to make his compositions over stylish to the extent that some of the visuals were perhaps too self-conscious. A number of the group shots did seem rather artificially posed and that tended to lift me out of the moment at times. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Well it seems every episode of new Who has its totemic solecism: Rise of the Cyberman's was - missed out in my review - the typical RTD pop music gimmickery of having a burst of the grating The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight-Fit (as homo-erotic a fixture as the strange scene in which Mickey is interrogated bare-chested and strapped to a chair), obviously a belated hit of parallel 2006, serving as yet further confirmation of the producer's truly appalling taste in music (what next, Black Lace?); this week's episode slaps us in the face yet again with the tedious old 'love triangle' of Micky-Rose-Doctor with a really slushy farewell scene in which Mickey brings up the superfluous and ill-scripted hinted-at romance between the companion and her Timelord. Thankfully the Doctor at this point gives nothing away in his rather distant expression, solipsistically sidling back into the depths of the TARDIS on cue for the inevitably mawkish goodbye moment between his two Earth counterparts. It was also a massive disappointment that Mickey did not get the martyr treatment of his predecessor Adric (and Pex of course) - instead, a rather far-fetched departure on a parallel Earth, somewhat analogous to Romana's in E-Space. What's the bet somehow the TARDIS will unexpectedly and impossibly return to that parallel Earth in a future episode to check in on how Mickey is doing? Oh God. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yeah, well. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mickey Smith is not 'the new Adric' then. Mickey Smith is the new Romana! (Spoilers alert!!) Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reading the reviews for last week's Rise of the Cybermen I could see I was not the only one who was disappointed and was looking to this second epsiode to really bring this two-parter home. So much of the first episode smacked of lazy script-writing, plot convenience and adventure by numbers that many of us assumed that the real meat was in episode two. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Well it was a tense week, waiting for the resolution of episode fives cliff-hanger. How would the Doctor and company successfully escape / defeat the army of marauding Cybermen? Rather too easily, it turned out. I found it somewhat hard to stomach that the crystal absconded from the TARDIS would really have the power to zap all of the Cybermen, in fact dissolve them as they literally appeared to melt away. Maybe we were supposed to think that the crystal possessed some kind of supernatural, life-and-death power (like the heart of the TARDIS in Series One) but if so, this wasnt sufficiently explained. Could Tom MacRae not come up with something more credible than this? Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Part two of the New Series mirror universe Cybermen saga . Will the contrived inclusion of Mickey and Roses parallel bloodlings continue to hamper the otherwise strong return of the metal monsters? Can Rose get any more irritating? Will Robocop sue? All will be revealed in this weeks exciting episode! Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wheres Mickey? Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My enjoyment of this weeks episode was spoilt somewhat by the editorial staff of The Suns TV Mag on Saturday who printed the following plot giveaway: This episode could be Mickeys last. When his double dies, hes faced with a huge decision (ooh, what could that be?). Idiots. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I hate it because all the mocking derision that Ive spent the intervening week honing has to be junked and I am left with shamefaced admiration, guilty of second guessing BBC Wales and showing why they produce it and I, er, dont. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So we had ninety minutes of a very trad Dr Who story in many ways. Parallel Earth, Cybermen, evil supervillain but so much more than that. No previous Cyberman story has gone into such detail about the mechanics of the monsters and what happened to the people who become them. And Cyberwomen! The poor woman who became a Cyberman the day before her wedding and Jackie. You should have been able to spot the CyberJackie from the lashings of make up. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What fantastic direction. Hoo boy could I talk about the direction all day. Harpers vision is breathtaking, creating a feel of mechanical hell, highlighting the glistening silver of the Cybermen en mass in the gleaming moonlight. There are thousands of the buggers and they stomp across the screen gathering up the citizens for conversion. I cannot remember when the Cybermen have ever seemed quite as powerful or as totally emotionless, not a hint of (Excellent!) campness here just more of the horror and dynamism of the first episode. Had the metal monsters been treated as powerfully throughout their entire timeline I could perhaps understand why they are held in such high regard. Lets put it this way the Cybermen from this parallel world kick the shit out of the ones from ours and Im not just talking about their design (which isnt significantly different) but how the writer and director explore their potential. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SO, to reprise my own question from my last review, did the second half of the Cybermens return build on the promise of the previous weeks episode? I would say it stayed on the same level, rather then went higher, but that made for another enjoyable romp, and was a pleasing conclusion to a well-rounded two-parter. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The return of the Cybermen and these episodes really rattled along. Filters: Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor Television | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The first two part story of the second series of Doctor Who, Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel sees the return both of the series second most popular monsters, and director Graeme Harper, returning to the series after a break of nineteen years. And for the most part, its a successful return for both. Filters: Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor Television | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Its quite hard to find much to say about this story initially, despite the obvious big events it covers (Im sure Ill manage to anyway!). The departure of Mickey, the return of the Cybermen and particularly the return of Pete Tyler are oddly underwhelming, although it must be said that the first two are very well handled, and the Cybermen contribute greatly to the very classical, retro feel of this two-parter (which is the most Doctor Who-ey story in the new series so far). It was replete with references to original Cyberman stories, particularly The Invasion the escape up a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter of that story turning into an escape up a rope ladder hanging from an airship. International Electromatics also got a mention. Filters: Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor Television | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One thing the new Doctor Who can certainly hold claim to is its complete unpredictably. Filters: Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor Television | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This story's like a pop music cover version of a fantastic song first done as a demo by an independent band. It waters down what made the original so fantastic, and yet might still go to number 1 on the pop charts because some of the basic ideas that were so good are still basically there and because the production is so stylish. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I can still remember how Dalek blew my socks off when it first went out, and as a consequence when I heard the Cybermen were coming back I expected no less than an equally successful revival. In this context, Rise Of The Cybermen and particularly The Age Of Steel are major disappointments; they both have their moments, like practically everything in this season does, but they suffer from the kind of common failings that crept into the new series in increasing quantity in 2006. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I loved this story. Its perhaps the best synthesis of old and new Who weve had so far it contains the same vaguely ridiculous monsters and contrived chase-and-escapes that fans have always enjoyed, but it also brings in the new sentimental elements that Russell T. Davies has made an emphasis in the show, and explores emotional pain in ways that are at times poignant and at times almost unbearably horrifying. Its fast-paced, fun, literate, and very, very scary in other words, its great Doctor Who. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My feeling after 'Rise' was that this series just keeps on getting better. I was quite convinced that the concluding episode would keep up the almost impossibly high quality. While the conclusion was indeed very good, it did not ultimately make for a classic. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My overall impression of Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel was of a good, solid, very traditional but not classic Dr Who story. Containing many superb and sometimes disturbing sequences and with much to enjoy, sadly this was a notch down from being truly memorable, which isnt to detract from the return of the excellent director Graeme Harper or indeed from Noel Clarkes apparent swansong as Mickey (to whom of course the Age of Steel really belonged) whose character has been undergoing a pleasing progression since those rather far off days of Rose; and Clarke himself has proved a good ambassador for the show off screen. Indeed most of the cast were pretty good throughout and it was great to see Colin Spaull as Lumics chief henchman, whose character didnt however display the same loyalty as Nyder did to Davros in Genesis. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shes not really your mother. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Theres no question that David Tennants portrayal of Dr. Who is remarkable and enjoyable, hopefully harkening back to the days of Tom Baker by the time Series Two comes to an end. Emotionally moving stories like The Girl in the Fireplace, School Reunion and well-written stories such as Tooth and Claw have firmly established Tennants reign, further enhanced by the production quality and overall look and feel of the show. Unfortunately, Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel are embarrassing blemishes on a pristine second season. Filters: Television Series 2/28 Tenth Doctor |