Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of Steel

The remake series attempt at re-launching the Cybermen in 2006 is often regarded as being a mixed bag but what is your stance on it?

Utter, utter tripe.

iank wrote:Utter, utter tripe.

Seconded. Appallingly acted, with some truly horrifically conceived and delivered dialogue (“And how would you do that from beyond the grave...”), a crude bastardisation of the Cybermen both in their nondescript robotic design and their utterly superfluous and moronic “Delete” catchphrase (at least “excellent” wasn’t a shit attempt at emulating the Daleks), a hopelessly bland performance from Tennant, Rose being characterised as increasingly selfish in the most self-congratulatory manner from RTD (such elements are clearly edited in by him- Macrae’s script for The Girl Who Waited showcases his genuine talent elsewhere), and staggeringly uninspired direction from Harper (it’s honestly hard to watch as a result of this, not to mention the dreadful lighting which dates it more than most 80s stories in terms of lighting with its cheaply rendered colour palette).

Truly rubbish, yet doesn’t stand out as such amongst the additional turds of series 2.

"Trust me on this."

It's shit.

I actually thought it was fairly good for its first half (I actually kind of liked Lumic's hamminess), but then turned into vulgar, bullying, sentimental trash in the end.

One of the very worst Cybermen stories and another low point in the decidedly bad Series 2.  Those awful, clunky, chunky, stompy, wind-up Cybusmen - and the silly Tyler family and their Yorkshire Terrier called 'Rose'.  Ghastly.

I must be alone in thinking it wasn't that bad?

I didn't like the change to the Cybermen's origins, but this story at least focused on what was scary about the Cybermen, the fact that they turn you into one of their own and the body horror aspects. In a lot of later Classic Who stories they tended to portray the Cybermen as generic robo killers. In say Earthshock you wouldn't even know they converted people.

With this story however the conversion was the focus and there were some terrifying moments like the Cyberman saying it was Jackie Tyler and then vanishing into the sea of Cybermen, or the Cyberman that had its emotions restored and was talking about how cold it felt. I also liked the fact that we saw women being converted. It reminded you of how horrifying it was the way everything about you does get taken away in the conversion process, age, gender etc.

Tennant and Piper I felt were fine in it. Tennant for the most part felt in character with the other Doctors as there was no moping, no self pitying, and no drooling over his companions. Granted I didn't like The Doctor picking favourites with his companions, but that's not just an issue for this story.

Noel Clarke meanwhile, an actor I normally like was terrible as Rickey. He sadly adopted the "I'm going to look hard by having a I smell shite expression on my face" style of acting. His performance as Mickey was good however, and thankfully Rickey was killed off quickly.

I thought it was okay. Nice take on the creation of the cybermen.

I generally agree with Burrunjor, especially re Mickey / Rickey. Clarke was fine when Mickey was a bit of a doofus. A sot of latter day Harry Sullivan although not as well written. But Ricky got on my verves. The tough guy act just didn't work. All the charm went out of the character.

The cyber conversion scenes were good in my view but slightly ruined by choice of music (e.g., the Lion Sleeps Tonight).

I don't remember this one being too sentimental. I thought Russell saved all that shit for Doomsday / Army of Ghosts. But I haven't watched in over 10 years and my memory may be a bit off.

I loved that they brought a multiverse concept into the show, again, another thing RTD was doing way before Marvel and DC began fully embracing the concept to maximise their profits in film and tv. Tennant suited the tux and I liked all the drama of Rose trying to get her mother to recognise her somehow and it backfiring on her.

I concur with the horrid way they portrayed Ricky, he didn't come across as likeable or tolerable, and you didn't even think his grandmother would have him about.

Also liked the Die Hard death scene for Lumic.

Zarius wrote:I loved that they brought a multiverse concept into the show, again, another thing RTD was doing way before Marvel and DC began fully embracing the concept to maximise their profits in film and tv. Tennant suited the tux and I liked all the drama of Rose trying to get her mother to recognise her somehow and it backfiring on her.

I concur with the horrid way they portrayed Ricky, he didn't come across as likeable or tolerable, and you didn't even think his grandmother would have him about.

Also liked the Die Hard death scene for Lumic.

Yes Lumic's death is a brilliant action moment for DW.

TBH I think people are being a bit biased against New Who in saying this is one of the worst Cybermen stories. Its clearly better than Silver Nemesis. Even just for the Cybermen's portrayal. In Silver Nemesis they are just robo killers, and total doofuses too. They fail to react even when the Doctor explans how he is going to kill them, they get tricked into shooting each other, unlike Davros the Doctor doesn't even have to trick them into taking the Nemesis statue.

He literally does just roll up and give it to them and they fall for it LOL.

Also they are too scared to fight Lady Painforte an old woman and her drunken sidekick despite being a fully armed platoon, because she has a few arrows, the Doctor and Ace literally play a game around them and their response is "GIVE US THE BOW!" and they get wiped out by a teenager with a sling shot! If you gave Bart Simpson a bag of gold rocks could he take them out?

The Tennant two parter obviously makes them more formidable, has them take over London, kill off supporting characters, plays up the horror of cyber conversion to the greatest extent since the 60s, and stopping them is not only more difficult, but more horrifying. The Doctor actually has to restore their humanity so that they literally kill themselves!

As an introduction for the Cybermen it was fine, but they were just let down in Doomsday. (The Next Doctor is a great story IMO, but after that its all downhill sadly for the Cybermen.)

Also quick correction, DC first used the multiverse back in the 50s for the earth 1/earth 2 formula which was great (and should be used for DW imo.)

Jesus Christ.

It's fucking awful on every level. Did I just wake up in Bizarro World this morning?

iank wrote:Jesus Christ.

It's fucking awful on every level. Did I just wake up in Bizarro World this morning?

We've been in Bizarro World all of 2019. Get with the times man!

Obviously it's NuWho, so it's never gonna be wonderful, but I remember this as being one of the less offensive stories of the RTD era. I seem to recall that even Tennant's usually wildly OTT portrayal is quite muted and more serious than it usually is.
Mind you, it's been a long time

burrunjor wrote:Also quick correction, DC first used the multiverse back in the 50s for the earth 1/earth 2 formula which was great (and should be used for DW imo.)

No correction neccersary. I knew that, I'm just saying from a FILM AND TELEVISION perspective it hadn't been done in the superhero adaptations...although even the 90s delved into with it with SLIDERS.

I'm quite keen on multiverse/parallel world stories but sorry folks, these two episodes were atrocious.  It's a good indication when Tennant wears a tuxedo that the episode will be crap (these two, The Voyage Of The Damned).

Painfully bad acting (Roger Lloyd Pack, Colin Spaull, Noel Clarke's Ricky) a bland, predictable story (like all the best alternate realities, Pete's World has airships instead of aircraft) with more plot holes than I could be bothered to count and poor Don Warrington stuck right in the middle of this mess. I think we saw more than enough of Pete Tyler's story in Father's Day the previous year, so I find it pretty pointless to return to it again.
It's all a matter of taste but I simply don't like those chunky Cybusmen designs or their silly catchphrase:"Delete!"

Remembering these stinkers only reminds me of how much I dislike Tennant and all that awful Series 2 Doctor/Rose loved-up nonsense.

Lloyd Pack was a bit weak for his role. I would have preferred Warrington in the creator role. He had more gravitas about him.