The Age of Steel

Reading the reviews for last week's Rise of the Cybermen I could see I was not the only one who was disappointed and was looking to this second epsiode to really bring this two-parter home. So much of the first episode smacked of lazy script-writing, plot convenience and adventure by numbers that many of us assumed that the real meat was in episode two.

Shame there isn't an episode three then.

What a mess! The cliffhanger was resolved so ridiculously I felt cheated from the opening moments. Just so convenient for the little TARDIS circuit to be able to dispatch cyber death rays capable of taking out whole platoons in a single moment whilst still being safe to pop back in your pocket.

Lumic's plan for upgrading the whole of London turned the Cybermen concept into farce and that farcical nature was confirmed when the Cyber Lumic presented itself complete with Cyber wheelchair.

The Mickey / Ricky storyline was wasted with Ricky's death taking place in completely the wrong act of the script. Imagine how much more poignant it all could have been if Ricky died whilst helping to save London - maybe tying in more to Mickey's decision to stay (something I predicted last week - either Mickey was going to die or Ricky was going to die and Mickey replace him. Should have put money on it). Instead, Ricky dies in a throwaway scene where it seems the whole point of Mickey and Ricky seperating from the rest was for Ricky to get popped. Really sloppy writing.

As for the climax of how the Doctor and Mickey managed to signal to each other and crack the code - was anyone convinced by that? Mickey can now crack encrypted Cybermen emotion inhibitor circuits by typing random numbers into a closed circuit tv monitor? what software was he hacking? How did he know how many digits? How did he know anything in fact? And entering it onto your mobile makes it broadcastable when plugged into a handy mobile phone to Cyberman broadcast converter it seems...

Okay, I'm ranting. But when the quality of the series has been so exceptionally strong since it returned last year - with a distinct lack of the plot holes and embarrassing bits of business that did pop up in the old series (come on - admit it. You didn't really think it was quality drama when the old series Cybermen lost their invulnerabvility in favour of an aversion to gold that makes vampires seem like garlic lovers by comparison) it was painful to see so much care thrown out the window on these two episodes.

As we know, RT Davies gives the theme for each episode to the writers. ("Werewolf, kung-fu monks and Queen Victoria" famously being the brief for Tooth and Claw) so I did think these two episodes suffered more than most from trying to join the dots of the elements required. These episodes obviously had been briefed to include Cybermen, Pete Tyler, an alternative earth and Mickey's transition to hero before leaving the TARDIS. But whereas Tooth and Claw took the highly disparate elements and fused them together in a storyline that made them seem natural within that storyline, here these elements seemed forced and obvious and as a result the desired effect was lost. Pete Tyler's return packed not nearly as much whallop as I think the producers intended and Mickey's heroism was not as heroic or pronounced as I was expecting it to be, expecially after the script hammered home the notion of Mickey the idiot to the point that it was becoming incredibly laboured and obvious what was going to happen.

Sorry Tom McRae, but sadly as guest writers go, I'm afraid you came sandwiched between Stephen Moffatt and Mark Gattis - two of the finest - meaning your two episodes of simplistic and cynical pap will seem all the more disappointing for it.

Oh - apart from the bit with the dying Cyberman when the Doctor discovers the emotion inhibitor. That was quite a chilling and emotional scene - shame about everything else.