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Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen (Review)

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the longest-running science-fiction show in the world, I’ll be taking weekly looks at some of my own personal favourite stories and arcs, from the old and new series, with a view to encapsulating the sublime, the clever and the fiendishly odd of the BBC’s Doctor Who.

Revenge of the Cybermen originally aired in 1975.

Then what is it? You’ve no home planet, no influence, nothing. You’re just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship.

– the Doctor pretty much sums it up

To be fair, the title should the first clue that something is not quite right here.

Tom Baker’s first season of Doctor Who contains two genuine classics in the form of Genesis of the Daleks and The Ark in Space, along with the quite good Sontaran Experiment, but it was bookended by two absolute clunkers. Indeed, Revenge of the Cybermen and Robot both feel like holdovers from the Barry Letts era of the show, and they’d both probably seem a whole lot more entertaining as vehicles for Jon Pertwee rather than Tom Baker.

Sadly, we’ve got what we’ve got, so let’s just try to work through this.

Sadly it’s A bomb, not THE bomb…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Ark in Space, bbc, BBC Archives, Cyberman, Cybermat, cybermen, Dalek, doctor, doctor who, DVD, Jon Pertwee, List of Doctor Who planets, Revenge Of The Cybermen, Tenth Planet, Time Lord, Tomb Of The Cybermen | Leave a comment »

Doctor Who: Real Time (Review)

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Darren

Real Time originally broadcast on the BBC website in 2002.

Why do you talk so much?

You never know who is listening.

– Cyberwoman Savage and the Doctor discover why he lends himself to audio

It’s remarkably how much energy went in to keeping Doctor Who alive for those years when it was off the air. There was, of course, the fiction produced outside the BBC. Virgin produced The New Adventures in book form, there were comics and various “spin-off” projects. However, these lacked the sort of gravitas that came from having an iconic performer in a classic role. So Big Finish began producing a range of audio adventures (“full cast dramas”) centred around the show. More than that, though, they actually managed to recruit some of the actors. Paul McGann, for example, has had a great run in audio despite only appearing in one televised adventure. Colin Baker has arguably reinvented his take on the Doctor, free from the dodgy writing and behind-the-scenes turmoil that rocked his two-season tenure.

At the same time, the BBC was trying to figure out what to do with the property. There had long been talk of resurrecting the Timelord, the failure of the television movie notwithstanding. BBCi had even produced an official webcast with Sylvester McCoy from writer-director Dan Freedman, named Death Comes to Time. However, while I’ll admit that Death Comes to Time has its strengths, there was something missing. When the time came to do a second webcast, BBCi teamed up with Big Finish, with Big Finish founder Gary Russell stepping up to write and direct an adventure especially for animation.

The result is Real Time. While it’s pretty far from perfect, it is intriguing, smart and fun. More than that, though, it supports the oft-heard argument that Colin Baker has been vindicated by his involvement in these projects. In fact, I didn’t want to strangle the Sixth Doctor once while listening to Real Time. It might even inspire me to check out some of the Big Finish range.