Rise of the Cybermen

Having almost wet myself at the trailers for this weekВ’s who-fest, I had a lot of expectation of the episode in hand, entitled В‘Rise of the CybermenВ’. 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 В‘debateВ’ 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, 10В…20 minutes. 29В… 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.

Rose then receives a mysterious text on her phone, regarding the reported ill health off John Lumic, who dismisses the speculation in the clip. She then spots above her head one of the marvellous zeppelins, which is quickly halted due to the DoctorВ’s arrival. This is a cue for more of unsung hero Noel ClarkeВ’s great performance of Mickey, who becomes upset as being regarded as the spare part. While he wanders off ready for an emotional appearance of his Gran, Rose does a runner into town, with the Doctor following swift. The following scenes are a bit dull, with the exception of the В‘Rose the Yorkshire terrierВ’ joke, which has you chuckling away at PeteВ’s В‘here we go againВ’ expression.

And then it reaches the interesting В‘child catcherВ’ scene, with the tramps being rounded up for experiments. They all go but for one, Jake Simmons, played by the former Byker Grove actor Andrew Hayden-Smith, who seems somewhat quiet in this episode. Anyway the tramps are rounded up into the van, screams of terror etcВ… And then for the nice little scene with The President and John Lumic. The debate is well executed, and you can see the true madness on LumicВ’ face when he is denied permission to carry out the upgrade. You feel a slight twinge of moral decline with Pete TylerВ’s optimism for Lumic, making it feel В‘Oh well you canВ’t destroy BritainВ’s population but thereВ’s always (New) GermanyВ’. The В‘New GermanyВ’ line as well as the technology used on the parallel world feels too much like В‘New EarthВ’, as if humanity has whizzed too far forward than the present. But as itВ’s a parallel world in a different dimension you can sort off let them go a bit, plus itВ’s the Cybermen.

Next comes the upgrade scene with the rounded up tramps, which sends a rare and welcome chill down the spine, with the pop music sounding strangely sinister along with the screaming and images of sharp pointy objects diving into the bodies of human beings. This is a rare scare, which disappointingly doesnВ’t occur too often in Series 2, but you can let them off given children are watching. Still, there maybe should have been blood on the medical objects.

And then for the ending, which can be summed up conveniently in six words. And no, they arenВ’t В‘DoesnВ’t the script look tiredВ’ (Ok, thatВ’s five, but itВ’s good enough for BBC Wales! HopefullyВ…) instead, it would be В‘I dub thee Sir Tom MacRaeВ’. Just when everything is chilled, calm, settled, relaxedВ…chilled turns to the other meaning. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch, Crunch And the silhouettes of an old enemy returns to haunt the Doctor once more. Out of the gloom comes the Cybermen, who return with a bang by smashing the windows into microscopic pieces. Obviously no one told them there was a door. They surround the Doc and co. until one of them finally decides to break the silence by killing the President of Great Britain. Not the easiest way to get power but there you go. Everyone starts screaming and legging it everywhere possible just to get away from the C3-PO look-a-likes, and the Doctor, Rose and parallel Pete run through a window just to escape from the party-gone-wrong. One corner- Cybermen! Another- Cybermen! Try another- Cybermen! They are finally trapped by the steel nemesis, and after the drastic and unsuccessful attempts to escape by volunteering for the upgrade, the all-too familiar stings rings out, leaving us with another long week of waiting and waiting. A great episode in all respects and could be wrapped up by a classic. Bring on The Age Of Steel. 8/10.