Which story should've been the Cybermen's last hurrah?

Similar to the Dalek story poll.

What Cyberman story do you think would've been the best story to be their 'farewell concert' before they started to become a shadow of their former selves, or before they were tarnished beyond repair?

I’ve gone for Attack. Although the Cybermen aren’t perfect in it (they display too much vulnerability early on and get shot up rather easily), it’s the last time they are presented as genuinely sadistic and menacing before being turned into an absolute joke. They’re crap in every story after that, save perhaps World Enough and Time (and even then, it’s so bound by the Missy rubbish and an admittedly lacklustre second part where they become laughable cannon fodder again).

Silver Nemesis is fun, but objectively rather crap (and one of the worst McCoys), and the Cybermen are bloody useless in it bar the action scene kicking off episode 2(although it is admittedly amusing that jazz music fucks them up). They are awful in every New Who appearance after that, bar the series 10 finale, and are cheapened into robotic parodies which either spout crap “delete” catchphrases, get blown up by the bloody power of love, start flying like fucking Iron Man whilst being enslaved by the parody Missy character by Death In Heaven, and with none of the eeriness, power, brutality or dignity of their former selves.

I agree with Bernard, Attack was the last time in the TV series that we saw the horror of the Cybermen with only Spare Parts after really capturing the proper feel (World Enough And Time personally felt quite tame in comparison).

Bernard Marx wrote:I’ve gone for Attack. Although the Cybermen aren’t perfect in it (they display too much vulnerability early on and get shot up rather easily), it’s the last time they are presented as genuinely sadistic and menacing before being turned into an absolute joke. They’re crap in every story after that, save perhaps World Enough and Time (and even then, it’s so bound by the Missy rubbish and an admittedly lacklustre second part where they become laughable cannon fodder again).

Silver Nemesis is fun, but objectively rather crap (and one of the worst McCoys), and the Cybermen are bloody useless in it bar the action scene kicking off episode 2(although it is admittedly amusing that jazz music fucks them up). They are awful in every New Who appearance after that, bar the series 10 finale, and are cheapened into robotic parodies which either spout crap “delete” catchphrases, get blown up by the bloody power of love, start flying like fucking Iron Man whilst being enslaved by the parody Missy character by Death In Heaven, and with none of the eeriness, power, brutality or dignity of their former selves.

Spot on. I can't really argue with any of that, except that I liked the Next Doctor. Its great fun, and one of Tennant's best performances in the role.

However the Cybermen are undermined in the final part by Miss Hartigan.

I went with Earthshock. I tend to think they just became too easy canon fodder after that.

Revenge.
The 80's Cybs lost all their character and became generic, fist-clenching villains.
Admittedly, it was Revenge that started the Cybermen down that road, but by Earhshock they might just as well've been the Sontarans or something.

If it came down to a choice between The Invasion or Revenge, I think of the two, The Invasion would've been the better swansong to go for. But I can somewhat see the appeal of treating Revenge as a keeper just to have there be one colour era reminder of the Cybermen having been part of the canon once, and Tom Baker getting his chance at a confrontation with them.

Good point. If I’m honest, it’s mostly personal nostalgia that’s keeping Revenge in there. It was my first Cyber story.
I think the Cybs in Revenge were a kind of halfway house between the 60’s Cybs and the 80’s Cybs. Robbie started the human like gestures, hand on hips etc.. and Banks brought even greater displays of emotion. Still, at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen, before they put them in those jump suits.

Nemesis. The destruction of their entire fleet certainly felt like a definitive end for them.

Ludders wrote:
at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen.

They looked like complete shite. Their voices were fucking awful too.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:
at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen, before they put them in those jump  suits.

They looked like complete shite. Their voices were fucking awful too.

They were essentially the same as the ones from The Invasion.
The voices weren't very good, and they set the tone for the voices in the '80s. A big mistake. They should've retained the flat, monotone voices from the '60s.

Ludders wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:
at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen, before they put them in those jump  suits.

They looked like complete shite. Their voices were fucking awful too.

They were essentially the same as the ones from The Invasion.

They screwed up the design by adding those ridiculous looking phone cord things to their helmet instead of retaining the ones from The Invasion. They turned a great helmet into a laughing stock.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:
at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen, before they put them in those jump  suits.

They looked like complete shite. Their voices were fucking awful too.

They were essentially the same as the ones from The Invasion.

They screwed up the design by adding those ridiculous looking phone cord things to their helmet instead of retaining the ones from The Invasion. They turned a great helmet into a laughing stock.

Methinks the lady doth protest too much for the sake of contrarianism.

Ludders wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:
at least the Revenge Cybs still looked more like Cybermen, before they put them in those jump  suits.

They looked like complete shite. Their voices were fucking awful too.

They were essentially the same as the ones from The Invasion.

They screwed up the design by adding those ridiculous looking phone cord things to their helmet instead of retaining the ones from The Invasion. They turned a great helmet into a laughing stock.

Methinks the lady doth protest too much for the sake of contrarianism.  

Indeed.

Silver Nemesis. I don't care for the story much but i see no reason to discount it.

In NuWho they should have stopped after Age of Steel as the rest have been awful. One caveat to that is that i did like Moffat's use of the Tenth Planet design in his last season.

Fans seem to be embarrassed by Silver Nemesis. Most of them lie and say that Remembrance was the official 25th Anniversary story when they know full well that it wasn't. I'm going to be equally as pathetic and say Mawdryn Undead was the real 20th Anniversary story because I like it more than The Five Doctors.