My enjoyment of this weekВ’s episode was spoilt somewhat by the editorial staff of The SunВ’s TV Mag on Saturday who printed the following plot giveaway: В“This episode could be MickeyВ’s last. When his double dies, heВ’s faced with a huge decisionВ” (ooh, what could that be?). Idiots.

Despite this spoiler I still managed to enjoy Age of Steel, probably more than its immediate predecessor, largely because of the stunning visuals. This one had probably the best effects weВ’ve seen so far since the series was brought back, the CGI work not letting it down as it did in New Earth, for instance.

That said, has anyone else noticed that the stairwells the Doctor, Rose and Pete climbed to escape from the burning building at the end bore a startling resemblance to ones seen in both New Earth and Rose? Perhaps stairwells are going to be to the new series what quarries were to the original show.

Anyway, getting back to the effects, I particularly liked the zeppelin-rescue that Mickey and that bloke from Blue Peter instigated at the end. I hate to think what was going through the minds of the production team when they read about the explosive finale in the script but they pulled off a blinder, creating a spectacle that would not look out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster.

Talking of the script, I noticed some reviewers making disparaging comments last week about writer Tom MacRaeВ’s relative youth but, in my opinion, commissioning a writer barely old enough to remember the Sylvester Mcoy era is no bad thing as it allows the series to be freshened up. So well done to Mr MacRae for being commissioned in the first place and for managing to offer a convincing new back story for the Cybermen.

That said, I did have a couple of problems with the script, not least that LumicВ’s motivations for creating the Cybermen seemed awfully similar to DavrosВ’s reasons for building the Daleks. Also, the resolution of last weekВ’s cliffhanger В– the Doctor using a spare piece of the TARDIS to wipe out the Cybermen in front of him В– was quite possibly the worst cop out in the entire history of the show.

There was also no element of black humour to match last weekВ’s moments where everyone downloaded their daily joke simultaneously and В‘got itВ’ at the same time (well it made me chuckle), and The Lion Sleeps Tonight was played to drown out the cries of people being В‘upgradedВ’. Instead, we had the realisation that Ricky was only В‘most wantedВ’ for parking offences, which was somewhat laboured to say the least.

But there was much more about the script to like than dislike, especially the Cybermen recovering their emotions and MickeyВ’s development from zero to hero (as DH Confidential put it). IВ’m a big fan of Noel Clarke in this show and donВ’t understand why some fans criticise him.

After all, the original idea of the companion was that he or she should be someone the viewer can identify with. The character of Mickey has developed so well because, as he is often excluded by the Doctor and Rose, he fulfils this role by default В– although I have to say it didnВ’t make much sense that he should aspire to be more like his mildly thuggish counterpart.

The parts where the Cybermen recovered their emotions, and were humanised once more, were brilliantly done. For me, Shaun Dingwall was the outstanding guest performer of last year and, while he has less to do this time, PeteВ’s horror at the discovery of a Cyberised Jackie, and his realisation that in another world he is a father, show what a great actor he is.

Unfortunately, some of the other guest actors were less impressive, due to simple mis-casting. Andrew Hayden Smith did his job well enough, and IВ’m sure the ladies loved him, but he looked and sounded more like a Big Brother contestant or a member of a boyband than a resistance fighter. I can understand that the Preachers were supposed to be a motley crew but Helen Griffin, as Mrs Moore, looked as out of place as Beryl Reid did in Earthshock, a Cybermen story from back in the day.

The biggest disappointment for me was Roger Lloyd-Pack, in a potentially great role as Lumic. He totally hammed it up to almost pantomime levels and, while IВ’m sure he is a great actor in serious roles, it didnВ’t help that, to me, he will always be dopey Trigger in Only Fools and Horses. Sadly, the transition from road sweeper to evil megalomaniac was not one I feel he handled well and his OTT performance undermined the sinister nature of the character.

It makes you wonder if the showВ’s makers are going to adopt the 80В’s teamВ’s approach of using well known but inappropriate people in guest slots (Reid, Bonnie Langford and the less funny one of the Likely Lads spring to mind).

As for the regulars, David Tennant is so well established in the role already that I really believe he can replace Tom Baker as Official Greatest Doctor. At the start of the season I found some of his mannerisms slightly annoying, such as his tendency to go high pitched for no apparent reason, but IВ’ve got used to it now. Indeed, his ability to switch from light-hearted to deadly serious so smoothly is what sets him apart from his predecessors.

Billie Piper, though, is another matter. There is something about her portrayal of Rose that I really donВ’t take to, dating back to Season One. Maybe itВ’s the way the production team continually indulge her so that everything is about Rose, and how events effect Rose В– witness, for instance, MickeyВ’s farewell scene and the cameras focussing on PiperВ’s, now familiar, blubbing face despite it being Noel ClarkeВ’s big moment. IВ’m sorry, Billie is a good actress but not good enough, in my opinion, to warrant such constant camera hogging.

MickeyВ’s decision to stay and help the Preachers in their worldwide resistance against the Cybermen made dramatic sense but made for a bittersweet ending. Unlike a lot of fans, IВ’ve always thought the Mickey character was extremely likable and of great benefit to the show.

Since he joined the TARDIS crew he has provided both comic relief and, as I mentioned before, he was a character for the audience to identify with.

I just hope that, with MickeyВ’s departure, we are not going to see more of those cheesy moments between the Doctor and Rose where they look into each otherВ’s eyes in that oh so meaningful way (theyВ’re fond of each other, we get it!).

Anyway, I digress. To sum up Age of Steel, I would say that it was the best looking episode of the new series so far and that it offered a fitting departure for one of the new seasonВ’s better regular characters. Who knows, maybe thereВ’s another spin-off on the horizon called Mickey Smith And Geordie Bloke Fight Cybermen In a Parallel World. In a van.

I hate it because all the mocking derision that IВ’ve spent the intervening week honing has to be junked and I am left with shamefaced admiration, guilty of second guessing BBC Wales and showing why they produce it and I, er, donВ’t.

For instance- the clankily butch cybermen of В‘RiseВ’. Oh, how we laughed. Just robots, surely? An absolute disgrace and an insult to 40 years of cyber-lore. Stomp stomp stomp they went- big clanky boots sounding like they were walking on biscuit tins. Empty biscuit tins, at that. What was laughable last week became a masterstroke of sound design and direction, this. The sheer tsunami of industrial noise that signalled the cybermen marching became their signature beat. Like a mechanised Fourth Reich- the dreams of wartime Germany writ large. Terrifying.

For instance- John Lumic, the В“Davros-lite mad scientistВ” behind these ramped-up monsters. But he wasnВ’t, was he? He wasnВ’t just another crippled genius with a grudge, he was a person. And in his death, his В‘upgradingВ’, we saw the real horror of what he had unleashedВ… but understood that he never once saw it too. He protested, yes, but after conversion- and with his personality still seemingly intact- he showed no bitter remorse at his fate. Quite the reverse. The cybermen gave their creator a nudge in the right direction after all, like good children should. Thinking it over - why shouldnВ’t he have maintained his personality? He built the cybermen to conform to his ideals. Part of his brain had already been upgradedВ… just by biology and philosophy, not cybernetics. Quite right that he should remain as the spokesman. Yes, the cybermen had become a brand- and every brand needs a brand manager.

For instance- the alternates of Jackie, Pete and Mickey. Hasn’t this story been done? Ah, but no. Pete rejected Rose, stumbling away to get on with his life, leaving her open mouthed with disappointment. A cursory dismissal- not what we were expecting. Jackie got upgraded (at last, spectacularly, putting to bed those sniggering queries about ‘cyberwomen’) and Mickey… well, that’s another story. If this year has a running theme, then there it is- loss and disappointment. How many times, over the past six episodes have we been shown characters in mourning- whether it be for a loved one or for the past? How many times have things gone awry, on a small, unexpected and personal level- providing little sharp shocks- like the exile at the end of ‘Tooth and Claw’? Like Rose being confronted with her own future, personified in Sarah Jane? Like Mickey realising he’s “the tin dog”? All of them serving to undermine the Doctor and Rose’s relationship. Last year they swanned around throughout time without a care in the world, having “the trip of a lifetime”… at least until the daleks came back. This year, the fun is over and life in the vortex isn’t just throwing monsters at them. Monsters and threats to the universe we can deal with in Doctor Who, but all this is new- and much, much more serious. This is going somewhere, mark my words. Someone is going to act upon the continual battering of disappointment they are receiving, and do something very silly indeed.

So maybe, this will be remembered as the one where Mickey left. It depends upon your take on this new Doctor Who, as to how you react to that. IВ’m very, very sorry to see Noel Clarke go- in fact, I was left at the end wishing we could follow MickeyВ’s adventures- cleaning the world of cybermen, rather than travel with this ever-so-slightly grating and annoyingly overconfident new Doctor. ThatВ’s no criticism of David Tennant- IВ’m positive the performance is expertly judged and is like this for a reason- and IВ’m sure that, by series end, weВ’ll all be agog at how marvellously it all becomes apparent. Maybe the show wonВ’t win quite so many awards next year from the Great Unwashed- but in our geeky fan hearts, weВ’ll love it even more than we did last time. Maybe, at the end of В‘The Age of SteelВ’ I wanted us to go with Mickey because his future looked positive and exciting and fun. Whereas I have a distinct feeling that life with the Doctor is about to get a lot darker and a lot more troubling.

В‘The Age of SteelВ’, as a second half, outshone its predecessor and whipped it soundly in the process. Everything that *seemed* dubious was given justification and became an important point in the bigger stories going on. Everything that *was* dubious last week- the pacing, some of the dialogue- was improved upon. Slick, action packed, and for only the second time this series- truly scary. The tunnel of В‘deactivatedВ’ cybermen, the many times they lurched unexpectedly into view, cyberJackie, the cyber-mincing-machine, all have the potential to be iconic bits of Who-horror. And to make it even better- it had its fair share of silliness as well: the comedy cyberdancing, exploding cyberhead, the controllerВ’s В“Nooooo!!В” and subsequent rope ladder escapade, all felt just ever so slightly wrong. And in the case of the extrasВ’ wibbly wobbly В“painВ” acting, made me spit out my coffee.

But- enough! These are small things. Easily the second best episode of the year so far, probably the best action adventure programme the BBC has ever made, and up there in the top few episodes of this whole marvellous revival.

Mickey, weВ’ll miss you. Lumic, I feel weВ’ll be meeting you- or something very like you- again very soon.

SO, to reprise my own question from my last review, did the second half of the CybermenВ’s return build on the promise of the previous weekВ’s episode? I would say it stayed on the same level, rather then went higher, but that made for another enjoyable romp, and was a pleasing conclusion to a well-rounded two-parter.

This was as close to a В“traditionalВ” Doctor Who as weВ’ve seen since the series returned В– and there were plenty of familiar ideas on display. I have no issue with that, so long as itВ’s done well. And this was a very slick production, which weВ’ve now come to expect.

There was a nice nod for continuity buffs in this episode В– with Rose mentioning the differently-designed Cybermen helmet in Dalek from last season, and The Doctor elaborating that these were В“parallel worldВ” Cybermen В– though budgetary concerns surely dictate that they will be В“this worldВ” Cybermen, too, if and when they return!

The Age Of Steel was a quicker pace than Rise Of The Cybermen as it built to the denouement. The marching Cybermen В– complete with В“crunchingВ” soundtrack В– did make an impressive sight. Filming at night certainly added to their menace. Had they been bounding along on a bright, summerВ’s day, I doubt it would have made the same impact. As with the Daleks in The Parting Of The Ways, there was a real impression of a Cyber army. If you recall the iconic Genesis Of The Daleks, there were very rarely more than three Daleks on the march, er, trundle. They might have taken some years to track you down in those corridors. Here, there appeared to be dozens of fast-moving Cybermen.

As I opined in my previous review, a major downside for me was the Cyber-voices. And I can only repeat what I said then, which was: В“I understood what was said because I strained my ears В– thereВ’s no way the mainstream audience would do that (nor should they have to) and I think theyВ’d have had a problem picking up all the Cyber dialogue. Obviously, Nicholas BriggsВ’ voice had to be radically different to his excellent Dalek interpretation, and that was certainly achieved. My problem isnВ’t actually with BriggsВ’ version of the Cyber voice В– more the electronic trickery applied to it. Sure, it was distinctive В– but no point in being distinctive if youВ’re alienating the viewer by making it difficult to hear whatВ’s being said. The Doctor Who production team make very few mistakes В– but I think this was one.В”

However, what they В– or, to be more specific, showrunner Russell T Davies В– got very right was the evolution and story arc of Mickey Smith. It was no great shock that the parallel Ricky was killed off quite early В– logistically, the dual role must have been difficult В– and it was an effective death scene. Quite a nice touch beforehand that Ricky was Most Wanted for parking tickets! And, of course, В“Mickey the idiotВ” saved the day В– again.

It was pretty standard sci-fi fare to make a three-pronged attack on the Cyber factory, to split all the main characters up, but it worked well, and there were plenty of good moments en route to the final clash, such as The Doctor and Mrs MooreВ’s discovery that a bride-to-beВ’s brain was still functioning inside the Cyberman, although technically that was a CyberWOMAN. As was poor old Jackie, and Pete and RoseВ’s hopelessness at discovering this and then being unable to pick her out was also a powerful scene. It was a good plot device that the alternate Pete Tyler was a double agent, and I doubt weВ’ve seen the last of him. His departure was somewhat abrupt В– and the temptation must be to reunite the parallel world Pete with Jackie in the other world. And we surely havenВ’t seen the last of Mickey В– the В“zero to heroВ” description has been well trotted out, but it is the most-applicable.

Having В– with The DoctorВ’s help В– killed off the Cybermen and rescued The Doctor and Rose, MickeyВ’s decision to stay behind was no great shock. Even without spoilers, the signs were there throughout the two episodes. Well-written, though, and another touching goodbye scene, well handled all round. HeВ’s been a star this season has Noel Clarke and, although it was a good - and appropriate - ending to his story, I want to see more of Mickey.

Rather like Aliens Of London/World War Three, the monsters were dispensed with well before the end of the story. From the В“fanboyВ” perspective, I would have liked to have seen another five minutes of Cybermen and chopped some of the В“soapВ” element from the end. However, I accept that is the way of 21st-century Who, and what is a key factor in the showВ’s mainstream popularity. And it will be interesting to see if Rose and The DoctorВ’s relationship changes again now that theyВ’re on their own.

Taking Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of Steel as a whole, it wasnВ’t the greatest Doctor Who story ever told, nor even the greatest Cybermen story ever told, but it was a very good story, very well told. There was little original on show В– or even a series of old ideas constructed in a particularly-original way. However, thatВ’s being super-critical, and it was a highly-enjoyable romp.

If, as is anticipated, the Cybermen do return in the season finale, Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of Steel may be more significant than first appeared, and itВ’ll certainly be interesting to view it again in one sitting in the context of the season as a whole.

My conscience is clear... but the Presidium will find my actions treasonable.

What is there to say about The Caves of Androzani that hasn't already been said at least a dozen times before? It's great, it's brilliant, it's dark, it's gritty, it managed to give Peter Davison cold feet about leaving Doctor Who and arguably was a factor behind his decision to go back for the Big Finish audios...

But I honestly don't look at Caves and think Doctor Who. I look at Caves and see a crossover between Doctor Who and Blake's 7. Of course, there was another one - The Sun Makers, also by Robert Holmes, but also made before the first episode of Blake's 7 was filmed, let alone screened.

Like Blake's 7, Caves shows a universe full of utter bastards with nice lines in wit who as likely to insult you as shoot you in the back. Androzani Minor could be any planet in B7, a barren quarry with caves filled with trigger-happy troopers, native monsters and amusing-looking androids. The army is fighting a small band of rebels lead by 'an evil renegade', and Sharaz Jek does kind of resemble a mixture of Roj Blake and Kerr Avon - a sinister bloke in black leather who obsesses about a woman he hardly knows and is fighting a wide-scale war against his society more out of revenge than ideology. Morgus resembles Servalan in many ways (bar, obviously, gender and fashion sense): a high-placed official in a plush office, already with great power over their world and prepared to kill and murder their way until they are more powerful than the President. And like Servalan, Morgus is deposed and left on the run trying to locate the key to restoring their position - in the former, it's the spaceship Liberator, in the latter, it's a stock of pure Spectrox. And like Blake's 7, the story ends with most of the guest cast dead and no interest in what will happen to society following this adventure. Androzani Major may flourish or collapse, and the regulars have no interest in it, either way.

But it is B7 with its small good humor ripped away. While Stotz and Krelper's bitching recalls the repartee between Avon and Vila, Stotz has no real camaraderie with Krelper, evidence by the loud and uncomfortable scene where he beats Krelper up, holds him over a cliff, slashes at his face with a knife and throws a cyanide capsule down his throat. The rebels in Blake's 7 were at least attempting to fight something more corrupt and evil than they were - on Androzani Minor, everyone is ironically on the same side, but still determined to wipe each other out. Morgus runs the army, Morgus runs Stotz and the gun runners, and Sharaz Jek is thus dependent on his hated enemy who has masterminded this entire war in order for him to stay rich and profitable.

Of course, it's around this point we say The Caves of Androzani is the fifth Doctor's finest hour. Well, it's true, isn't it? I believe Davison's Doctor has quite a few good hours, but this still beats out in quality. For the first episode or so, it's as though Davison is playing the fourth Doctor. You can easily imagine Tom Baker casually wandering through the caves, baiting Chellak, and all the while doing that wonderful expression of his grin collapsing into a grimace as he realizes what a horrible place this is. But the desperation the Doctor develops upon learning he is dead meat is definitely playing to Davison's strengths. The third episode cliffhanger with the Doctor simultaneously threatened by a bullet to the head, a fatal crash-landing and Spectrox Toxaemia is justly famous for its tension. But when seen in context, after the rest of the fifth Doctor's era, and the cliffhanger gets even better.

When I reviewed Planet of Fire I noticed that the new, tougher fifth Doctor has developed a 'I don't have time for this' attitude when it comes to his companions, enemies and the universe in general. Caves takes this and cranks this up to eleven. While the end of the first episode has the Doctor as usual trying to understand this situation and work out what's going on, by the end of the second he has no time for the politics of the Androzani twins. When he sees Morgus and realizes who is really in control of this 'pathetic local war', he loses all interest. He doesn't care, he's got Peri to worry about and he's not going to let juggling the big picture and the little picture lose him his friend.

It can't be argued the Doctor has not been that successful with his companions. Although Adric sacrificed himself nobly trying to save a world of people he'd never met (for a species he regularly found annoying), he ultimately died for nothing and the Doctor couldn't save him. When Nyssa left the Doctor, it wasn't because she had found a place she wanted to live and enjoy herself, it was because she was faced with a problem so big the Doctor wasn't prepared to hang around in fix so she refused to go with him. The Doctor could easily feel proud of Nyssa's compassion and bravery, it's not the happy ending she deserved and the Doctor obviously felt he should provide. Turlough seems to decide to quit the TARDIS the moment the Doctor snaps at him that he's had enough of the Trion's secrecy, and was prepared to face arrest, exile, maybe even execution rather continuing traveling with the Time Lord. Kamelion was killed by the Doctor himself, fatally wounding the android and then crushing the poor thing. And Tegan, of course, ran out on the Doctor when she saw him pick up a gun and prepare to commit cold-blooded murder - and ironically changed her mind at the last moment, even though she never found out the Doctor didn't kill Davros. Even in the comic strips, the Doctor was unlucky with friends. Sir Justin in The Tides of Time sacrifices himself for something, but the Doctor shouldn't have let it get that far. In The Moderator, Gus Goodman was killed defending the Doctor, and died with the miserable realization he'd never get home - all because the Doctor was sarky to a giant cane toad.

Ultimately, Big Finish's decision to put a whole season between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani is uncomfortable to put it mildly. Caves is clearly set a very short time after Planet and why not? Robert Holmes was hardly writing the scripts with the proviso in twenty years time missing audio adventures were being recorded. Also, just putting Erimem in there ruins the feel. Unless she also leaves the Doctor on bad terms, it shoots the whole point of Caves through the head. The Doctor HAS to save Peri because he has spectacularly failed to save any other companion. But if Erimem does suffer this fate, it makes the Doctor and Peri suspiciously cheerful at the start of this story. Damned either way, really, but the audios definitely remove the poignancy of the Doctor dying saving the life of someone he's only known for a few days.The Caves of Androzani also manages what Resurrection of the Daleks failed at - that is, it puts the Doctor on the sidelines of action but still makes him vital to the plot. This is one hell of a difficult trick, so there's no shame in failing at it. Shame in stupidly trying it again and again, though.

The Doctor manages to meet every character bar Timmin, and has a domino effect on those around him. If he didn't visit Androzani Minor, Stotz wouldn't have lost his consignment of arms, Sharaz Jek would never have seen Peri, Salateen wouldn't have been able to escape and thus the whole balance of power would have remained the same. Yet while the Doctor's mere presence (and that of Peri) causes the whole adventure to happen, no one's interested in him in anything other than target practice - they just have different reasons for doing so. Morgus wants the Doctor dead because he's probably a spy; Chellak wants the Doctor dead first because he's ordered and then because he thinks he's a traitor; Sharaz Jek wants the Doctor dead because he's annoying and irritating; Stotz wants the Doctor dead because he might be a scapegoat and the gun runner is something of a sadist; Krelper wants the Doctor dead because he likes killing people and the Doctor's survived so far; Salateen even goes so far as to defend the Doctor, but it's more because he's honest rather than he cares for the Time Lord's safety; even the Magma Beast wants the Doctor dead, but just because he's hungry. Tellingly, the Doctor barely glances at these characters when he passes their corpses.

On top of that, the Doctor's fate is continually being sealed by those around him, and ironically they seal their own fate as well. Chellak admits he believes that the Doctor and Peri are innocent, but can't be bothered to try and save their lives - and thus this leads to him being the last survivor of his army, drowned in boiling mud. Salateen abandons the Doctor but keeps Peri prisoner as insurance to help him - and ends up being the first shot dead by the androids. If Sharaz Jek had put his foot down and kept the Doctor on Androzani Minor, he would have discovered Peri's condition sooner and been in a better position to save her. Morgus' casual decision to order the time travelers shot is what ultimately leads to him facing Sharaz Jek face to face and paying the price. Every character is cruel, rude and callous - only Jek has any redeeming quality: he wants to keep Peri alive and safe, and although he's causing mass panic and confusion on Major, he'd happily hand over his Spectrox and save them as long as Morgus was dead. But he's still not a nice guy and he suffers the same fate as the others.

Only three characters survive this story - Peri, Timmin and the Doctor (and technically the Doctor doesn't), and this highlights the cold justice in this story. In this world, if you're nasty, you pay the price. The Doctor, like his third self, gets caught up in this through his own curiosity and by putting Peri in danger is ultimately doomed. But the Doctor gets a second chance because he plans to make amends, to save Peri's life whatever the cost. Peri never hurts or want to hurt anyone in the story, even trying to help Jek. Timmin is seemingly the exception, as she seizes control of Morgus' empire without a shot being fired and effectively wins. However, we know that the mud burst has wiped out all the supply of Spectrox and most likely the bats as well, so Timmin has just taken over a planet of people about to die of old age catching up. And how long before Timmin finds others conspiring to overthrow her? Timmin's nastiness is subtle and cunning, and the karma she's facing will be just as insidious.

Peri manages very well in this story, though like the Doctor, she's more a catalyst for change than a player in the story. Her relationship with the Doctor in part one is relaxed and friendly, and it's as though being around Peri allows the Doctor to assume a more 'Doctorish', absent-minded, curious quality, as if it's a fresh start. The situations they face show Peri to be a real person - she's slightly clumsy, scared of being arrested by people with guns and being lusted after disfigured self-proclaimed maniacs. Peri is able to cope with the events in her first story because they are easily compared to her old life - being unintentionally kidnapped by the Doctor and Turlough can be dealt with because she was planning to abscond with two strange men already; facing down the Master (and Kamelion) is easy because she has dealt with annoying arrogant men for most of her life; and travelling to Sarn is just Lanzarote with fewer cafes. But here she's been captured by soldiers, threatened with death by firing squad, feeling very ill and sick. If she has anything to compare it to, it's... being captured by soldiers, threatened with death by firing squad and feeling very ill and sick. She jumped into the TARDIS because she liked the Doctor and wanted to travel, but she didn't sign on for this and she's scared. Fair enough. But seeing the Doctor dying in front of her cracks her resolve which kept her going throughout the adventure. She doesn't sob because she wants to go home or is scared of being trapped in the TARDIS, it's because her friend is dying! Peri is reassuringly human, even if it's becoming clear she's not the perfect time traveling companion.

Ultimately, Caves is a story that should be a one-off. It throws the Doctor into the deep end specifically to make him sink, because it's ludicrous for him to swim. Caves wouldn't work if the Doctor survived the end, and if he kept trying to resolve the Spectrox war, it would be a completely different story - and not half as bleak and lethal as the one we see. Yes, Caves is brilliant but that's precisely because it's a story that can only be told once. Like Genesis of the Daleks - it'd be the height of stupidity to tell an identical story when the original did it so well. Yet, the production team decided to pop back to this dark, B7 universe where life is cheap, happy endings rare and nice people surviving are even rarer.

Like the Doctor's involvement, Caves had something of a chain reaction on Doctor Who itself. The following season was one long attempt to repeat Caves' atmosphere and success - a nice aim, but flawed from the outset. Apart from anything else, finding subterranean settings full of bastards and villains drooling over Peri got old very quickly. Caves ended the fifth Doctor's era and it's a sad but true fact that Doctor Who was on shaky ground ever since. From 1985 onwards it was on a precipice of cancellation, and it ultimately fell despite getting its act together at the last moment - quite like the Doctor here.

Another thing I noticed that Holmes was also responsible for The Brain of Morbius, in which we are shown the Doctor is in his twelfth body by the time he's Tom Baker, and The Deadly Assassin where we learn Time Lords only get thirteen bodies. It's hard not to see some significance in the dying Doctor's wondering if he will regenerate - as it is implied he's on his last life, and might explain why he's about to go through his most difficult regeneration so far. In any case, the idea that the Doctor goes through all he has to in Caves even though he knows he's really going to die this time, just makes him more of a hero.The Caves of Androzani is damn-near perfect.

But you knew that already, didn't you?

I've been going through a semi-orderly survey of Doctor Who stories – not perhaps the exhaustive chronological crawl that some other fans here have done, but rather a selective hunt and peck, targeting stories generally regarded as classics, as well as few I remember vividly from my childhood. In some cases, I've certainly been delighted to find stories worthier than I expected ('Death to the Daleks,' 'The Leisure Hive,' e.g.), but in others I've been disappointed by some that didn't, in my estimation, live up to their stellar reputations ('City of Death' and 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' were two particularly sad surprises, I thought).

So I wasn't sure what I would make of 'The Caves of Androzani,' a story about which I remembered little from my own first experience with it as a teenager. The story seems to be universally loved by fanboys, and yet it is also is a 'hard-edged' war story script-edited by Eric Saward, whose vision for the series is not one I always appreciate. Add to this the fact that the venerable 'Discontinuity Guide' calls it 'overrated,' and I was a little bit nervous. Then again, I've found Robert Holmes's reputation as the grand old man of Doctor Who scripts to be largely justified, and even when his stories are disappointing in some ways (as I found 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' to be), they usually provide some redeeming elements of characterization or humor.

And indeed, as I got into the first episode of 'The Caves of Androzani,' I found it to play like Holmes's homage to the Saward years. In fact, you could say the plot 'out-Sawards' Saward in its grittiness and its focus on militarism (there not much sci-fi or philosophy at work here). But it doesn't take long to see how Holmes's gift for dramatization is raising this story above superficially similar Saward efforts like 'Resurrection of the Daleks' and 'Earthshock.' The plot is economical, yet satisfyingly knotty, with a lot of social and political commentary lining its edges, and the characters, while perhaps simple, are overall as beautifully drawn as we might hope. 

The obvious place to begin is with Sharaz Jek, who is both the ostensible villain of the piece and its main 'monster.' The script makes him both convincingly mad and suitably menacing when torturing the Doctor or drooling over Peri, but, like Li H'sen Chang and other Holmes creations before him, Jek is made complex enough that we can't help sympathizing with him, at least somewhat. He is perhaps not the best fleshed-out of Holmes characters overall – we don't get much sense of what he was like before his betrayal and injury, despite his mentioning that he was also a doctor once - and one could argue that his Phantom of the Opera/Quasimodo-like obsession with beauty is a bit of a clichй. On the other hand, this association does nicely hearken back to the interest in classic literary monsters Holmes explored so often in his work with Philip Hinchcliffe in the early Tom Baker years, and it's true that Jek's actions towards Peri seem as (oddly) protective as they do predatory, which helps to humanize the character. Plus, an aesthetic bent helps explain the character's striking costume and mask, with its bright blue false eye. And Christopher Gable's performance is remarkable, ultimately sealing the deal as far as Jek's place in the pantheon of DW villains is concerned. He handles the dialogue with a nice combination of elegance and threat, but it's in his *physical* acting that this former dancer truly excels. He makes Jek particularly pitiable when he shows him crawling under the table and covering his scarred face in shame after Peri has seen it. (Although one suspects in reality it would take more than facial burns to make a war-hardened soldier like Chellak scream like a woman. But I digress . . . .)

But the *real* villain of the piece, of course, is not Jek at all, but rather his old friend and rival Morgus, and this is where Holmes's satire really comes into play. If anything, Morgus is an even flatter character than Jek, but Holmes's clear concept of him makes him believably awful, and even quietly frightening. (Compare the character to the buffoonish, bellowing Henry van Statten in 'Dalek,' and you tell me which is the better realization of a Super Capitalist as Villain.) Holmes's treatment of the character is enormously cynical, and the way in which Morgus tries to hitch his rapacious business interests to political ideals ("Patriotism is our only viewpoint") resonates just as well in the era of Halliburton as it must have in the Reagan/Thatcher-dominated 1980s. And of course, like many contemporary giants of commerce, Morgus is ultimately shown to have his fingers in too many pies at once, and given this fact it's probably a mercy that he meets a quick end at the hands of his archenemy rather than facing the legal and political annihilation that would wait for him if he survived. John Normington gives a much more contained performance than Christopher Gable here, but it's no less effective. He is steely and unblinking in the role, and while the character's asides to the camera are a bit stagey and strange (is Morgus the narrator?), the actor plays them so well that they never become a joke. 

And although the overall tone of the story is serious and dark, Holmes does find ways to slip in his trademark wit, however grimly. He does so in extremely subtle ways, tying the humor in to the subject matter to the point where it may not seem funny the first time (as when Peri jokes about her rash early on - "I don't expect we'll die of it within the next hour" - little realizing she actually *has* been infected with a lethal disease), but which improves with subsequent viewings. Morgus's conversations with the President provide some dry amusement too, with the politician cheerfully suggesting to the businessman that Jek's terms may have to be accepted (and Morgus's head sacrificed) if the situation is not resolved soon. And Episode Four in particular contains many darkly funny surprises, notably Stotz's smiling betrayal of his fellows (double-crosses like this are common in Doctor Who, but rarely do they feel so believable, or so shocking), and Krau Timmin's cool one of her master ("Are you sitting at my *desk*?" is a wonderful line, and John Normington delivers it with just the right combination of disbelief and dawning realization).

So, 'The Caves of Androzani' is well plotted and characterized. But it's the *emotional* content, unusually, that really raises this story above the competition. As with many Holmes scripts, the stakes here are relatively small – Jek simply wants revenge against a single man, and Morgus simply wants to continue his brutal commercial efforts – but that just adds to the realism, and makes it seem all the more important for the Doctor and Peri to get out of there as fast as they can before they die. (After all, they have no universe to save this time.) And the tone of the story is so serious, and the subject of the Doctor's and Peri's illness treated so realistically (if subtly), that even two decades down the road, it does still feels like they're *really going to die* - it's *very* unusual for this show to give the impression of such danger, even in good stories. This makes the *Doctor's* stakes both large and small at the same time – he doesn't care about the war or who wins it, he just wants to get his friend medicine, fast, and he abandons his concern for anything else in his focus. The cliffhanger to Episode Three is so beautifully played, with the Doctor half-laughing (!) as he crashes the spaceship, but it's only one example of the sense of inescapable doom about this story – things seem to be genuinely unraveling in a way they rarely do in these stories. This feeling of grim inevitability is in fact enhanced by our knowledge that this is Peter Davison's final story, and especially for those of us who love the Fifth Doctor. As I said, I've been going through a sampling of Doctor Who stories more or less in order, and watching 'Caves' I realized that this was the first time in my survey that I honestly wasn't ready to move along to a new era. As for Davison's acting, his Doctor is at his most sarcastic here – he seems like he's asking for a punch in the face with his goading of Chellak in Episode One and Jek and 'Stotzie' through much of the rest of the story. But he is also vulnerable and humane, two of the best qualities of this Doctor, and, as others have pointed out, when he says "Adric?" just before regenerating, it's as if he's aware of his own failings in his final moments – an extremely moving thing, and perfectly in character for this fallible, sympathetic incarnation.

After all this, it almost seems like an afterthought to go into specifics about the production aesthetics, so I'll only mention one: while in its design, the story is a typical studio-bound Davison story (notably, we only see the crashing spaceship from the *inside*!), the exterior shots at the beginning are pretty amazing. The one of the Doctor and Peri walking away from the TARDIS with mountains in the distance is one of the most frankly beautiful I can recall seeing in this series, and so it's fitting that it should introduce such a memorable story.

At Last! somthing a little bit closer to the spirit and excitement of last season's run. Okay, the plot was a little bit Sci-Fi by numbers, but "Rise of the Cyberman" more than made up for this by the quality of the script and by the performance of the majority of actors involved. So far in this series, the only real genuine scare factor was within the Werewolf episode, and all through the run it's lacked any real heart and soul (with the possible exception of the Doc playing the romantic hero in the last episode); this episode had a little bit of soul, but it wasn't as scary as it could have been.

It had a nice beginning, the Tardis dying, and a feeling of hopelesness. The next scene with Mickey discovering that the Tardis had landed in "London" would have been more effective if the trailers hadn't already given away that this was an alternative reality; thankyou BBC for spoiling the fun!

As alternative realities go this was nicely done, giving both Rose and Mickey a chance to explore the importance of their own earthbound relationships, thus injecting some much needed "soul" into this series, (sorry, I know I over use that phrase!). Mickey (Noel) was especially good, playing a dual role which gave him somthing to do for a change. And it was good to be grounded in somthing close to the real world, giving this episode a grittiness and an emotional depth which paid off, but was still oddly lacking.

The main problem, I'm afriaid, was Rodger Lioyd Pack's portrayal of the Cyber Men's creator John Lumic. Pack is a good comic actor, but he was just too "hammy" for this, a bit too "Ming the Merciless", as a result it became difficult to take the threat of the Cybermen particularly seriously. This was a shame, as the Cybermen were nicely designed, and the concept was both classic and scary.

As I said, a bit Sci-Fi by numbers, it lacked the depth of ideas which made last season so special. Good fun, and certainly a high point of the season thus far, but I'm afraid there is still somthing missing. Where are the ideas? Where is the soul? I think I may have said this before...