“The Rise Of The Cybermen”

The first two-part story of the season gave us the return of the Doctor’s second most memorable bad guys, the Cybermen. However, rather than trying to weave in some complicated back-story that gave the new viewers a brief history of Mondas and Telos and the why these silver giants were so upset in the first place, new Who writer, Tom MacRea set the story in that old sci-fi stalwart of a parallel world. This allowed a new, menacing design, and a new reason for taking over the world that really worked rather well and (if rumours are to be believed) set up some interesting story development for the series’ end. Legendary Doctor Who director, Graeme Harper, also returned and paced and structured these 90 minutes with aplomb. So why wasn’t this as good as it might have been?

Well, Roger Lloyd-Pack chewed up the scenery as the evil mastermind, John Lumic in a performance that brought back lots of memories of old Doctor Who for all the wrong reasons; the cliffhanger was resolved in a clever but oddly unsatisfactory way; and, in previous weeks, we had been treated to three of the greatest Who episodes I’ve ever seen and it was probably too much to ask for another. Despite the fact that there seems to have been another mid-season lull, these criticisms are really small beer… view the episode as a ninety minute movie and I promise you a thoroughly entertaining time. However, final word has to go to Noel Clarke, as Micky. Way back when “Rose” first aired, the guy took a lot of stick (even though we may try, how can we forget the wheelie bin scene?), but he’s come a long way and his performance
in this showed some real depth. If this is his final bow, I think I’m gonna miss him.

Tags: BBC1, Cyberman, Doctor Who, Mickey-Smith, noel-clarke, Rise-Of-The-Cybermen, Roger-Lloyd-Pack, Rose-Tyler, The-Age-Of-Steel

“The Girl In The Fireplace”…. on the wall

Episode 4 of this series sees the Doctor take a wander down the road less travelled, well at least as far as he’s concerned, and that is the road to love. This may not be the premise that would attract your “traditional” Doctor Who fan, but these days the traditional fans are hugely outnumbered by the nouveau Whovians, a fact to which the truly astonishing viewing figures would testify (7.9million tuned in to this). So, Mickey’s first trip aboard the TARDIS sees him and his two travelling companions land on a spaceship in the far future with the animosity of Rose, exhibited at the end of School Reunion, having strangely disappeared. A little investigation and the viewers find this sci-fi staple is not as simple as it first appears because the deserted spaceship is curiously juxtaposed against 18th century France, via a series of “holes punched in the universe”. It is through these “holes” that the Doctor first sees and then travels to meet a young Reinette, who will grow up to be Madame de Pompador. Trips back and forth see the Doctor appear at various stages of the courtisan’s life, and as the script cleverly points out, she takes the slow road through life as he spends no more than a day falling in love with her.

So, this 21st century Doctor feels a little love tug at the strings of his hearts, but the question is, “Does it work?”. Kind of depends who you listen to (especially if you are moved to read the ramblings of a few of those “traditional fans”) but as you’re reading this, I can tell you that the unequivocal answer is “Yes!”. Even if the love story was not to your taste, I haven’t even mentioned the beautiful clockwork droids that are the main villains of the piece, the witty yet moving script penned by the magnificent Stephen Moffatt, or the acting of Sophia Miles that was marvellous to behold. It wasn’t without its faults, of course, but then what is, and anything I mention here would only do a disservice to a great episode. Certainly vying with “Tooth and Claw” as the best of the series, even vying with “The Doctor Dances” as the best of the revised series and, just in case that’s all not quite enough, it has the best twist at the end I ever did see.

Tags: Doctor Who, Mickey-Smith, Rose-Tyler, Sophia-Miles, Stephen-Moffatt, TARDIS, The-Doctor, The-Doctor-Dances, The-Girl-In-The-Fireplace