N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
It had to happen. There had to be a dip in quality at some point. Despite having a few moments along the way Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel is the first story for me that hasn’t met the standards the show has set so far.
On the plus side, it’s another good story for Mickey, who gets to have some fun opposite his parallel universe counterpart, Ricky.
And these parallel universe Cybermen are suitably chunky, thudding around London intoning “Delete”. If ever there was character choreography designed for kids to emulate in the playground, it was this combination of thumping march and baritone murder/death instruction.
There’s also no ‘Next Time’ this time to spoil the cliffhanger — I like that.
But although playing The Lion Sleeps Tonight while people are being butchered into Cybermen might work if this were a Tarantino movie, it is less successful here. And I can understand why the Cybermen “delete” the President for refusing the “upgrade” (although it’s a shame because it robs us of the great Don Warrington after only a few scenes) but why do they go on a kill-crazy rampage at the Tylers’ party? Was that the plan all along? Was Lumic making some kind of statement to the world? Perhaps I missed something?
“Lumic must be stopped!” goes the claim in the Rise of the Cybermen‘s TARDISode. For all his wealth and years of planning, Lumic is ultimately taken down in one night by the Doctor. Not the first time that’s happened, but nevertheless a considerable show of power from the Doctor, especially considering he’s without a TARDIS (which almost dies in the journey to this parallel universe, although we never believe the Doctor’s doom and gloom in these situations, do we?).
“There’s nothing wrong with a van. I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck.”
Mickey, The Age of Steel
And despite its flaws, the story does have a surprisingly effective ending. After Jackie’s snobbish rudeness to Rose at the party, Pete’s rejection of his parallel universe daughter is a double gut-punch. (The Doctor did warn her not to look for them!) It soon becomes a triple blow when Mickey, who’s seen that he’ll always be a third wheel around Rose and the Doctor, decides to stay with his Gran in the parallel universe and travel the Earth in a van mopping up the rest of the Cybermen.
But despite the positives, despite the fact that this is a brand-new origin story for the Cybermen, I can’t help but feel that the story, as has so often been the case with Cybermen stories, is a bit of a letdown.
Rarely have the Cybermen had a story to match the brilliance of their concept (or indeed the relatively high quality of Dalek stories). Sadly Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel doesn’t change that.
These are my potential Target Library titles for Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel:
— Doctor Who and the Rise of the Cybermen
— Doctor Who and the Age of Steel
— Doctor Who and the Rise of the Age of the Cybermen of Steel
