Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel

One thing the new Doctor Who can certainly hold claim to is its complete unpredictably.

Trying to guess whether a writer, actor or director will be good bad or indifferent is becoming ever harder. For every individual with a proven track record, often comes the huge crushing disappointment that they haven’t lived up to expectations. While on the other hand individuals with somewhat dubious credentials can often yield startling results. I would never have expected Paul Cornell’s story from last year to be my personal favourite, nor would I have thought that Russell T Davies scripts would be some of the worst, likewise I wasn’t prepared to be so completely bowled over by Billie Piper’s portrayal of Rose and at the same time so underwhelmed by Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor.

On the surface Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel had hit stamped all over it: a stellar cast, the return of one of the original series greatest directors, in Shaun Dingwall’s Pete one of the best actors from series 1 and last but not least the return of those silver giants. Quite how with so much going for it, this story could turn into such an underwhelming, flat and at times amateur affair is beyond me. Needless to say after a run of three enjoyable and well executed adventures (New Earth was a bit of a mixed bag, but it was only the first episode so I’ll let it off), much like series 1 the new series has again hit that mid season lull and produced yet another 2 part clunker.

Many fans have complained about the deficiencies in the 1 part 45 minute adventures, but I would say if anything the problem is with the two parters. With the exception of the 2 part Dalek finale from last year, all the 2 parters so far have been somewhat turgid and been amongst the worst structured and dull of the whole run (and yes I include fan favourite the Empty Child in this). That 2 weeks have been wasted on such a shallow piece of television let alone Doctor Who is a crying shame, when often more worthy ideas could be expanded way beyond their 45 minutes.

Okay this is going to be a bit of a whingeathon, so I’d better start giving some justification as to why I thought this story was so much of a damp squib.

In a nutshell, unfulfilled potential, all the elements for success were there but each one was so completely unexploited and lacking in execution that the result was just dull, dull, dull.

Firstly Tom Macrae’s script felt like a first draft and one that needed several rewrites to toughen it up, all the basic ideas for a good yarn were there, but as written very little in the way of drama, excitement or suspense was evident. Cliched charcters, twee plot revelations and a rather poor structure could have been ironed out if the desire had been there. Nevertheless some decent direction would have probably papered over the cracks and at least produced something superficially watchable.

Well welcome to some of the most leaden, uninspiring and at times almost fan film like direction since Keith Boak’s Aliens of London. That this story has come from Graeme Harper is frankly astonishing. As the director responsible for Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks, his work on these stories was revolutionary for the time. On an eighties hopelessly studio bound drama he introduced a kinetic energy into proceedings which was rarely seen on television, and there is no doubt that Caves of Androzani stands as the classic it is mainly due to his influence. One would have expected with the new series increased budget and all the tools now at his disposal, that Harper would have produced a televisual spectacle, dripping with grit, pace and atmosphere. Well unfortunately the years have not been kind to Harper and any flair or energy he may have had seems to have been slowly ebbed away by years of working on studio based talking heads shows (I last saw him credited on an episode of Coronation street). Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel felt lifeless and stilted and I would say that lays squarely at the door of the director. As a general at the top of a chain of command, the directors work can be seen reflected right down through the ranks with everyone from David Tennant to Murray Gold, producing work that is far below their usual standard.

In essence this story was the long awaited Genesis of the Cybermen, so if you’re going to try and give Davros a run for his money you might at least try and create something at least a fraction as memorable. In Roger Lloyd Pack’s John Lumic we got the most hammy, one note performance I think I have seen so far in the new Doctor Who. What could have been a memorable tortured genius, again compare with Chris Cable’s portrayal of Sharaz jek in Caves, ended up as a forgettable OTT turn from a respectable actor who obviously thinks Doctor Who is an opportunity to do a pantomime turn.

The only really memorable performance to come out of the story was Don Warrington as the president, who gave a dignified and studied performance and one the other cast members should have aspired to. Unfortunately all the performances were of such wildly differing tones that it often felt that the cast had wandered in from separate shows, Colin Spaull’s henchman was the CBBC version of a cockney gangster, Andrew Hayden Smith was the bland pretty boy, and amidst all this Shaun Dingwall’s Pete seemed lost and wondering what he was really doing there at all.

The main raison d etre of the story of course was to reintroduce the Cybermen, and a tough challenge it was. Lacking the simplicity of concept of the Daleks, and unfortunately with the baggage of a second hand idea, due to the very similar concept of the Borg used in Star Trek throughout the nineties, it was always going to be a tough cookie. The revised origin that the Cybermen were born not out of a need for survival, but the human races obsession with technological upgrades was a sound one, but as with so much of this story lacking in its relaisation While not an outright disaster the realisation of the creatures is only partially successful, and should maybe like their sixties forebears be considered a work in progress. The design itself has attracted controversy and is one of those things that looks good at certain angles or under particular lighting conditions. The Cybermen of old were quite obviously men in costumes, with the silver jumpsuit being the best that could be managed to suggest the creatures machine like nature, the new Cybermen are designed to look mechanised and the reasoning behind that is sound. Unfortunately the heftiness of the costumes makes movement in them look very awkward and they come across as somewhat clunky and ungainly, suffering from similar movement problems as the Slitheen costumes last year. Some shots particularly in part 2 of this story looked unintentionally comical. The rhythmic marching was also way overdone, it is not easy to put your finger on how they should have been done, but the whole approach had a hackneyed almost Bill Baggs video feel (Bill Baggs for those who don’t know makes commercially available Doctor Who fan films). Then of course was the voice, there seems to be a general belief among a certain contingent of fans, that the eighties Cybermen were a write off, and the sixties models were the true model that should be aspired to. With the reintroduction of the electric warbling tone and the tear drop, it is obvious the production teem felt this too. Unfortunately the choice of voice was poorly realised and rather than making the creatures sound sinister, it just added to the impression of a rather generic sci fi robot, sounding halfway between the Candyman and a Dalek.

Certain moments such as the Doctors voyage through the Cyberman lined corridor provided hints at what could have been, but as with most of the story there was so much unrealised potential. Where were the Cybermen’s feats of stength, why didn’t we see a conversion in progress. There could have been so much dramatic potential drawn from a slow rove around the Cyberfactory, with little hints as to what was going on. But as with so much about this story, the Cyber conversion was a pathetic CGI’d computer game effect totally lacking in any feeling, tension or drama.

I feel sorry that this was Noel Clarke’s last story as he deserved a much stronger exit, the reasons for Mickey staying were sound and his story has probably reached its natural end, but when a story is as bad as this it reflects on everyone.

I wont even go in to the stories complete lack of internal logic regarding the whole parallel universe scenario, surely Mickey staying would contravene some sort of law, and for such a universe shattering event the Doctor seems remarkably confident about getting back with no hassle whatsoever. Just as with so much I have outlined above, ideas that were ripe for exploitation are half developed then discarded. Imagine if we’d gone the whole story thinking the Tardis had died and everyone was stranded, wouldn’t that have been a lot more involving than a quick fix after five minutes.

So no I wasn’t impressed by this story at all, yes there have been worse Who stories and a lot worse stuff on television in general, but at a time when the new series has been on something of a roll, this story was a massive retrogade step. For all its surface gloss and CGI, it really was just a 2006 Battlefield, a story with big ideas and ambition, but saddled with a shoddily written script and clunky direction. I just hope that lessons were learnt on this and things will be ironed out for the 2 part Cybermen finale which Harper is helming.

Maybe time will be kinder on this story, once the weight of expectation has been lifted from its shoulders, but when the best thing about the episode is the next week trailer you know there’s something wrong. So Roll on Idiots Lantern, who would have thought that big quiffs and Maureen Lipman doing watch with mother,could look so much more exiting than Cybermen.