12x5. Revenge of the
Cybermen
Writer: Gerry Davis
Director: Michael E. Briant
Script Editor: Robert Holmes
Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe
Synopsis: The Doctor, Sarah,
and Harry return to Space Station Nerva, but in a time before the solar
flares when it was being used as a communications and docking outpost.
Most of the crew have succumbed to a "plague" that is actually the work
of the Cybermats, as the Cybermen have returned to attack the enemy
world of Voga (a small moon/planet abundant in gold that now orbits
Jupiter), while a double agent on board Nerva is secretly collaborating
with both the Vogans and the Cybermen.
Review: I'm not sure what
exactly "Revenge of the Cybermen" is trying to be, but whatever it is,
it fails. The characterization of the Doctor is sometimes unsettling in
a way that doesn't seem intentional, the portrayal of the Cybermen is
lacking in almost everything that has usually made them effective,
and even at the level of a passably entertaining romp with lots of
chases and explosions, it misfires because so much of the logic is so
glaringly flawed.
When the Cybermen first appeared, I found them interesting for their
dispassionate and weirdly amoral focus on survival. They didn't bear
any actual malice, and though they were capable of betrayal and
violence, they didn't seem to enjoy their victims' suffering or even to
use it as a strategy of intimidation; rather, they simply didn't care
one way or the other. (The very notion, in fact, that they would
take "revenge" on anything seems at odds with their original
characterization.) Their fixation on Earth, meanwhile, was explained by
the fact that it was once the "twin planet" of their home world. But
now they seem to have developed a sadistic edge ("You will have a much
closer view [of the crash]," the Cyberleader taunts Sarah when he
abandons her on the doomed station) that actually makes them less
frightening if only because it's so Saturday-morning-cartoonish. The
Doctor's characterization of them -- "pathetic tin soldiers" -- is
funny, but it's also disappointingly accurate, in that they do just
seem like random villains of the week. And yet, the music veers from
inappropriately light and almost upbeat, as the Doctor and his
companions first arrive and discover dead bodies all over Nerva, to
inappropriately weighty to herald the arrival of these sloppily
portrayed and easily defeated Cybermen. The idea that they've been
reduced to this sorry state because they've suffered defeats in the
"Cyber-Wars" is not bad, but it's telling when the most interesting
concept surrounding the return of some classic villains is something
that happened off-screen.
The situation between the Cybermen and Voga, on which the story hinges,
is another concept that sounds good in theory but in practice turns out
either illogical or just plain boring much of the time. I know every Doctor Who reviewer and their
mother has already pointed this out, but if the Cybermen and the Vogans
have such a long history, and if the Cybermen are so vulnerable to the
gold on Voga, then why the hell
didn't the Vogans make any ammunition out of gold? It just seems
utterly absurd that they have a history as enemies of the Cybermen and
yet, when the Cybermen actually invade their planet, they mostly just
stand around getting shot. The Cybermen, meanwhile, have their dense
moments as well in terms of plotting -- their plan to blow up Voga by
forcing the Doctor and two of the Nerva crew to carry bombs to the
center of the planet unsupervised is conveniently foiled by some
technobabble about how they lose the signal when the trio pass beyond a
certain depth. The fact that the Vogans are about to have a civil war
break out right as the Cybermen launch their attack helps to add some
variety to the plot, in that it's not just a simple case of the Doctor
getting involved in a dispute between two separate alien races of the
week, and the story does move at a brisk pace, but that's about all I
can say for it in terms of creative storytelling. The two characters
driving the conflict among the Vogans are yet another Cautious
Leader/Impulsive Subordinate duo, and they bring nothing to the formula
that we haven't seen before, aside from perhaps a curious fight scene
in a control room where everyone else just stands around watching idly
for some reason.
I've noted previously that the writers, as well as Tom Baker, seem to
be trying to make this new incarnation of the Doctor a little more
aloof and inscrutable, a little quicker to resort to violence, and a
little less . . . well, human. In principle I don't have a problem with
that, and in fact I think it's mostly worked rather well so far, but in
this serial it veers in the direction of making the character
unappealing. His quoting of Shakespeare over the dead Cybermen seems
more mean-spirited than loveably eccentric, for example. And while I
can accept his threat to blow up Nerva as a bluff meant to intimidate
the Cybermen into backing down (especially when one considers that he
knows, from the events in "The Ark in Space," that Nerva will not be
destroyed), the scene in which he threatens to turn the Cybermat loose
on Kellman if he doesn't explain his role in the murders makes me
decidedly uncomfortable. The goofy grin he sports as he makes the
threat suggests that it's probably just another bluff meant to force
someone's cooperation by appearing unhinged, but there's still
something creepy about the way the scene plays. Maybe that's the point,
and it would even be one thing if this were "Genesis of the Daleks" and
the script was actually exploring the Doctor's dilemma over when to use
violence, but it's not clear that "Revenge of the Cybermen" is
interested in any such character analysis. (Incidentally, the one
character I found kind of interesting, or at least different from most Who villains, was Kellman -- as a
double agent who seems to be in it just for the payoff, he reminded me
a bit of the character Eckersley seeemd to be for a while in "The
Monster of Peladon.")
The twelfth season is still a winner overall in my book, but
unfortunately it ends with a serial that takes everything that the
season had been doing right and does most of it either wrong or at
least sloppily. We had four serials of an interesting and appealing new
Doctor, tight and frequently very creative plotting, and memorable
appearances by two classic evil alien races -- capped off by
wrong-headed characterization of the Doctor, lazy and illogical
plotting, and a deeply disappointing return for a third classic evil
alien race. Fortunately, the pacing is decent and the action reasonably
staged, and as a four-parter it doesn't drag on long enough to turn
into a "Time Monster"-esque catastrophe, but it's still easily the
weakest installment in quite a while.
Rating: ** (out of four)
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