22x1. Attack of the Cybermen
Writer: Paula Moore
Director: Matthew Robinson
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The Doctor and Peri travel to
1985 London, where they discover a former adversary, the mercenary
leader Lytton who was last seen working with the Daleks, entangled in a
plan by time-traveling Cybermen to prevent their defeat at the Doctor's
hands the following year.
Review: While I offered some mild praise for the introduction of
a tense new dynamic between the Doctor and Peri in "The Twin Dilemma,"
I'm not feeling so generous towards "Attack of the Cybermen" even
though it continues down a similar path. By leaving it ambiguous as to
whether the Doctor is still suffering from post-regenerative
instability, the serial risks making him simply unlikeable as opposed
to unpredictable at times. A scene in which he orders Peri to shoot an
uncooperative police officer does neither of them any favors, as it's
not entirely clear if he's bluffing and Peri responds somewhat
anemically when I'd have preferred to see her stand up to him. He's
also noticeably more comfortable being surrounded by, and sometimes
participating in, lethal violence than his predecessor. By the end of
the serial, "Attack of the Cybermen" has come to resemble "Resurrection
of the Daleks," and not in a good way, namely by running up the body
count and the general level of mayhem as most of the guest characters
come to an unpleasant end. Still, there's something to be said for the
way the script ties into past Cybermen serials and for the notion that
the Time Lords actually want the Doctor to get involved to prevent the
Cybermen from changing history, and I might have rated it **1/2 if not
for two significant missteps towards the end. The first is the
introduction of the Cryons, who could have been interesting for their
stoic acceptance of their unhappy fate, but whose singsong voices and
exaggerated hand motions demonstrate that there can be a fine line
between appealingly strange and distractingly goofy when it comes to
the portrayal of aliens. The second is the Doctor's lament that he
supposedly never misjudged anyone as badly as Lytton, which it seems
we're meant to take at face value despite Lytton's ruthless behavior in
the first episode and the fact that he's presumably still picking up a
paycheck from the Cryons. I don't mean to judge the serial negatively
simply for being bleak - I loved "The Caves of Androzani," after all -
but while "Caves" drew out its bleakness through solid characterization
for both leads and guest characters, "Attack" just throws a lot of
action and gunplay at us and overreaches with its approach to Lytton
and the Doctor's reaction to him.
Rating: ** (out of four)
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