Doctor Who 2.5: Rise of the Cybermen
May. 15th, 2006 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayDo you ever have days when you just can't find the update button even though LJ hasn't had any big upgrades over the last few weeks? And then it's sitting right there in front of you?
OK, it's just me then.
The episode title told us what to expect. That familiar shape and the clump of dozens of metal feet moving as one left us in no doubt.
It was still very cool when we finally got to see them :-)
The episode did a clever thing. Even though we knew what to expect and the Cybermen were a presence from the first scene, we didn't get to see the full Cybermen until the closing scenes. It left a bit of mystery - how will they be re-born this time? With Dalek last year there wasn't much they could do to change the essential look. The important part was that they made the Daleks scary and invincible again.
Cybermen have always evolved slightly with each appearance. Yes, I did giggle a little at the original Cybermen in the Confidential afterwards :-) But although certain elements - the handles on the heads and the metal - have stayed consistent, they've been upgraded each time so part of the interest in this episode was to see what they would look like this time.
For me, another part of the interest was how they would actually manage to bring them back with a coherent plot-line. I think every permutation of their ideas have been used in the original series, so I was stuck for how they could be inserted into the new series without re-treading old ground.
That's where the parallel Earth concept appears and it's remarkably well done. I loved the idea of everything still existing, just skewed fifteen degrees to the right. And I was pleased to hear the Doctor saying that alternate universes used to exist before the extinction of the Time Lords - to me it was a subtle reference to the episodes set in E-space in the early 80s.
I'm sure at some stage we'll be looking more closely at the exinction of the Time Lords.
For now, I found the ideas in this episode remarkably apt. The essential idea of the Cybermen - humans who have replaced their bodies with artificial constructs and removed emotions - is one of the sci-fi staples. RTD and co. used it to tell a very modern story while going back to the heart of one of Doctor Who's great villains. It both updates the Cyberman myth and returns to the core of it, while making some clever comments about our own obsession with technology and constant upgrades. Even the use of the word upgrade was a neat little twist on modern habits.
It's pretty darned obvious what will happen to Limec, but the actor is having terrific fun with the role of dastardly bad guy :-)
One of the strong elements in this story is the return of Pete Tyler. I knew that they were bringing him back at some stage this season, but I hadn't been able to work out how. Putting him in this story works surprisingly well - we get to see a slightly different Pete who still adds a heart to the story through his relationship with Rose.
And the two Mickeys is just fun. OK, so Noel is rather overplaying the grimacing of alternate!Mickey, but it's still real fun even though I have a kind of sinking feeling in my guts about these two.
Surprisingly, I have nothing new to add about Rose this week because she's fabulous as always. I think that I'll have more to say next week because her relationship with her father will probably be an important part of whatever happens.
The Doctor's expression of dawning horror at the appearance of the Cybermen was pitched just perfectly.
And was I the only person to think "hey, it's double-O Doctor!" when he appeared in the waiter's tux?
This episode had a lot of set-up to do, more than it usually would because it's a two parter, so I have a feeling that the really big pay-offs won't come until next week. It was still a thoroughly enjoyable episode with a few shiver moments and I can't wait to see next week's climax.
OK, it's just me then.
The episode title told us what to expect. That familiar shape and the clump of dozens of metal feet moving as one left us in no doubt.
It was still very cool when we finally got to see them :-)
The episode did a clever thing. Even though we knew what to expect and the Cybermen were a presence from the first scene, we didn't get to see the full Cybermen until the closing scenes. It left a bit of mystery - how will they be re-born this time? With Dalek last year there wasn't much they could do to change the essential look. The important part was that they made the Daleks scary and invincible again.
Cybermen have always evolved slightly with each appearance. Yes, I did giggle a little at the original Cybermen in the Confidential afterwards :-) But although certain elements - the handles on the heads and the metal - have stayed consistent, they've been upgraded each time so part of the interest in this episode was to see what they would look like this time.
For me, another part of the interest was how they would actually manage to bring them back with a coherent plot-line. I think every permutation of their ideas have been used in the original series, so I was stuck for how they could be inserted into the new series without re-treading old ground.
That's where the parallel Earth concept appears and it's remarkably well done. I loved the idea of everything still existing, just skewed fifteen degrees to the right. And I was pleased to hear the Doctor saying that alternate universes used to exist before the extinction of the Time Lords - to me it was a subtle reference to the episodes set in E-space in the early 80s.
I'm sure at some stage we'll be looking more closely at the exinction of the Time Lords.
For now, I found the ideas in this episode remarkably apt. The essential idea of the Cybermen - humans who have replaced their bodies with artificial constructs and removed emotions - is one of the sci-fi staples. RTD and co. used it to tell a very modern story while going back to the heart of one of Doctor Who's great villains. It both updates the Cyberman myth and returns to the core of it, while making some clever comments about our own obsession with technology and constant upgrades. Even the use of the word upgrade was a neat little twist on modern habits.
It's pretty darned obvious what will happen to Limec, but the actor is having terrific fun with the role of dastardly bad guy :-)
One of the strong elements in this story is the return of Pete Tyler. I knew that they were bringing him back at some stage this season, but I hadn't been able to work out how. Putting him in this story works surprisingly well - we get to see a slightly different Pete who still adds a heart to the story through his relationship with Rose.
And the two Mickeys is just fun. OK, so Noel is rather overplaying the grimacing of alternate!Mickey, but it's still real fun even though I have a kind of sinking feeling in my guts about these two.
Surprisingly, I have nothing new to add about Rose this week because she's fabulous as always. I think that I'll have more to say next week because her relationship with her father will probably be an important part of whatever happens.
The Doctor's expression of dawning horror at the appearance of the Cybermen was pitched just perfectly.
And was I the only person to think "hey, it's double-O Doctor!" when he appeared in the waiter's tux?
This episode had a lot of set-up to do, more than it usually would because it's a two parter, so I have a feeling that the really big pay-offs won't come until next week. It was still a thoroughly enjoyable episode with a few shiver moments and I can't wait to see next week's climax.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 07:43 pm (UTC)I'm adoring Ten. I like Nine a great deal, but Tennant was such terrific charisma, and he's so bouncy. And perky.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 09:22 am (UTC)Ten is wonderful :-) Nine was also wonderful, but in a different way. I think that Ten has more mileage as a character - more that they can potentially do with him - which makes me very happy that DT will be sticking around for a while.
And he's bouncey and perky, always a bonus :-)