The Age of Steel

Yeah, well.

This one was BETTER, but not only is that not too much of an accomplishment but it's also not saying much. I gotta be frank here, a lot of the Cybermen bits were more or less rewrites of "The Parting of the Ways." Come to think of it, there was a lot of "Parting of the Ways" here. Lumic as the Emperor Dalek, the Cybermen as the Daleks, Mickey leaving instead of the Doctor...

And about that. Yeah, well, I guess we shoulda seen it coming. Mickey was gonna get a better shake in this universe than the "real" one anyway. And is it just me or is it the first time in a while that there was kind of an implicit "F-You" to the Doctor and Rose? Rose, for the obvious reason of, you know, breaking his heart and all that; but to the Doctor too, cuz, you know, he saved the world but blew up its essential Lumic-made infrastructure but off we go to points unknown toodlepip! Riiight... Although I wonder how long til we see Mickey/Jake slash eh.

It was good that they acknowledged that Rose had seen a Cyberman before, and that these ARE indeed a different version of the Cybermen than what we'd seen previous. So all you Continuity A-HOLES can now SHUT UP about how this doesn't fit in with the PRECIOUS AND AIRTIGHT Cybermen History or whatever. Oh yeah, and can we please quit with the "This rips off Spare Parts!" complaints now, Marc Platt only GOT A FREAKIN' CREDIT AND ALL.

When the Cybermen were suddenly realizing what they were, am I the only one who actually wanted to see one of them rip their own head off in horror? ... Yeah, thought so.

And who smiled just a little at seeing at least A Version of Jackie Tyler die a horribly violent death? C'mon, hands up, I know yer out there.

But maybe this is a good thing overall. Maybe Rose will grow up just a little bit more, realize she's not always going to be the center of the Doctor's universe. Realize her actions do indeed have consequences to those around her. Realize that Pete Tyler is dead, and needs to remain so, and quit trying to make it unhappen. Maybe.

You know, maybe this woulda been better overall without the Cybermen. Because there really was some good stuff here, but it's just...the Cybermen, yeah? Oh well. It's over now, and next week's looks pretty interesting. Yes.