Attack of the Cybermen

“This is getting ridiculous!” - The Doctor

Attack of the Cybermen opened up season 22 with a new format of 45 minute episodes, something that would prove slightly unpopular and return to normal in the following season. However for now, the Doctor is back, and audiences are still uncertain about him following his various outbursts in The Twin Dilemma.

“Ungrateful wretch!”

Our fears of the Doctor’s mad new personality are still present in his return, and indeed this acerbic version of the Doctor makes plain that his personality is fully stable, despite Peri’s concerns. This episode then opens up the precedent for the argumentative relationship the Doctor and Peri would share throughout most of their screen time together, though after the BBC realised what a mistake had been made, they were keen to tone down the almost antagonistic relationship the two shared.

“She’s out of practice.”

This episode is the only example of the TARDIS chameleon circuit working in any shape or form, if not at least properly. This allows for some rather amusing scenes with the TARDIS again proving it’s old and unreliable, as Peri warns the Cryons when they consider moving the ship. As it is the ship changes from a blue police box for the first time into an ornamental stove, then later an organ, an ornamental gate and then finally back to how it was. No explanation is ever given as to why the TARDIS changes back into a police box, though the real reason was it was becoming too expensive to change the shape of the TARDIS all the time. The Eighth Doctor would later say he’d become fond of the Police Box disguise.

“Excellent”

The titular Cybermen make a badly characterised return in this episode. It almost seems as though Paula Woolsey forgot the origins of the Cybermen, as at one point Lytton is told to show respect, and in another instance the Doctor picks up on the Cyberman sounding ‘concerned’. Add to this the Cyber Leader’s constant use of ‘excellent’, a word I’m sure emotionless beings would have no concept of and the classic monsters really are starting to look flimsy around the edges. This serial is another good example of poor cliff-hanger writing as the Cyber Leader orders Peri killed for no reason whatsoever.

“Kill me!”

This serial in particular has been singled out for it’s high use of violence. In one of the interrogation scenes with Lytton for example his hands are broken by the Cybermen, leaving a lot of blood about the place. Naturally reaction to this scene was initially mixed. Parents thought it was disgraceful to let children be exposed to such scenes, and the kids thought it was awesome. This serial also holds one of the rare examples of the Doctor wielding a weapon, as he kills most of the Cybermen at the end of the serial, which also caused a furore at the characterisation of the Doctor.

The serial itself holds several unnerving scenes set in the sewers, pitch black and crawling with Cybermen seems to be the best way to set the tone for this one. To add to the fear is the ominous but decidedly useless policemen at the start of the first episode. The Cybermen themselves, whilst suffering from a bit of identity crisis are overall as menacing as ever, still cold and calculated with a couple of slips. One big criticism of the serial however is it’s reliance on a lot of Doctor Who’s past, some of which has no bearing to the actual story and is merely there for effect, as such any new viewers would have struggled to keep up with what was happening in this one.