Rise of the Cybermen

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.

Instead of Davros we get Lumic, who happens to creak about in a wheelchair (instead of the bottom of a Dalek casing), and has a tendency to rant meglomaniacally. It's ironic that in an episode which is unusually serious and generally well-acted by everyone (bar the excrutiatingly irritating Jackie) that the central villain is shamelessly hammed up by Roger Lloyd-Pack, delivering his lines in an even more mechanical way than the Cybermen themselves. A truly amateur performance; highly disappointing.

The rest of the cast however - yes, even that spike-haired Geordie from Children's BBC - act extremely well and quite believably, lending a certain credibility to the story.

The Cybermen are excellently portrayed and with their rather retro-designs (even down to having steel flares) and deeply mechanical monotones, are strongly reminiscent of the classic Troughton versions, by far the most successful and affecting; this episode at least pays respectful homage to the classic adversaries in a way far more interesting and convincing than the often very dull versions of the 1980s. These are brilliant realisations of the Cybermen - the voices are superbly inhuman, and the new topical catchphrases of 'delete, delete' and references to human 'upgrades' and so on is admittedly pretty inspired; so too is the obsessive motive of Lumic in creating the Cybermen: to prolong his life, which is rapidly deserting him. For the first time significantly, the truly disturbing sub-text to the Cyberman context is palpably examined, with its moral implications regarding the loss of emotion - such Nietzschean undertones only superficially touched on in the shambolic Silver Nemesis; there's a definite Dorian Gray sub-text here too, which of course ironically is paralleled in the Doctor's own seeming agelessness. It's a creepy concept, and in this unusually philosophical dissection of the Cyber psychology, Rise of the Cybermen is a lesser cousin to the classic Dalek of last year, an episode which sported the kind of sheer energy, tension and intensity that Graeme Harper twice exemplified in the classic series moreso than this, his belated return to the director's chair, demonstrates.

Nevertheless, Rise does display a certain directorial flare in places indicative of a true master Who director: the low-angle shots, the Camfield-esque pace and militaristic elements, the token motley group of mercernaries (cue Stotz's gang from Caves and Orcini and Bostock from Revelation) including one incongruously middle-aged, craggy, sexually indeterminate member (cue Tasambeker) and so on. This is a more seasoned Harper at work here, doing all he can to inject a dull and colourless script with all the energy, intensity and momentum that he possibly can. At certain moments Harper makes this story exciting genuinely, though the restrictions of the rather comic-strip style new Who frequently tug his efforts down. This episode so far does not indicate in any sense the kind of brilliance Harper achieved in particularly the magnificently dramatic Caves of Androzani. Rise simply isn't in the same league, though it is still one of the better directed and dramatic of the new cannon. Euros Lyn's direction of Dalek last year however is far more Graeme Harper than Harper's own Rise of the Cybermen is.

The story's basic ingredients make for very traditional Doctor Who, and the scenario of the story is strongly reminiscent of late Troughton stories such as Invasion and the earlier Pertwees circa Season 7 and 8. It's not, again, in the same league by any means, but at moments it does grab you. There is 'something' about this story so far; an intrinsic directorial confidence (down to Harper of course), and in places Tennant performs convincingly, especially when first confronting the Cybermen. His rather comical turn as a waiter is also amusing in a non-grating sense. Tennant is essentially a comedy actor, and so is much better at comedic moments than his far more intense predecessor Eccleston, who seemed very awkward when trying to portray eccentricity - this idiosyncracy didn't sit well on Eccleston at all. Where Tennant can be less convincing though is at times when required to demonstrate his timeless authority - in the scenes lamenting the seeming death of the TARDIS, he is fairly affecting, but one cannot help but think of how Tom Baker would have played these scenes, with his intrinsic gravitas of voice and manner, he would have acted this bit very gravely indeed no doubt, as at the beginning of Logopolis when he announces that the cloyster bell signifies that the TARDIS is being ominously summoned somewhere, 'wheezy as a grampus' - what a brilliant description of the TARDIS that was by the poetic Christopher H Bidmead.

Rarely do any of new Who's scripts deliver such timelessly evocative lines as were so frequent under the pens of the old writers. Reflective of the general blandness of contemporary television scripts, many of new Who's episodes tend to be fairly pedestrian in writing terms, lacking the literary colour of classic Who writers such as David Whitaker, Chris Boucher and of course Robert Holmes. Considering his young years then, Mr McRae can be forgiven for the mediocrity and simplicity of many of the lines he gives his characters; the script is mostly lifeless and routine, with very few flourishes of language, but is at least adequate. The neo-topical concepts injected into this story of a parallel Cybermen's rise, such as the - visually tacky - ear-pods, hollographic billboards and references to downloads and upgrades however are fairly inspired ideas which fit the steel skin of Cyber mythology very aptly.

So on a basic Who level, Rise of the Cybermen works well, promising nothing more than it can deliver, and overall, delivering it quite well. The zepellins are also a nice idea, as is the - not that obviously - art-decco elements to their interiors. Even the CGI is ok.

What's the bet Mickey gets the Adric-treatment next episode? It seems to be on the cards. That'll be 2-0 to the Cybermen then.

Not bad, but not classic material. I'll reserve final judgment after seeing Age of Steel.

6/10 for the first episode.