Revenge of the Cybermen

Revenge of the Cybermen was the first Target novel I ever read. It was my first experience of Doctor Who after reading the 1966 Dr Who Annual (how weird is that as an introduction to Doctor Who?), before watching any televised stories. I immediately followed it by reading the novelisation of Moonbase, purchased at the Doctor Who Exhibition at Longleat Safari. A few months later, I watched Revenge of the Cybermen on VHS and loved it as much as I had loved the novel. Over thirty years later, I am confronted by the fact that fan orthodoxy holds this story to be rubbish.

It is interesting how this story has become the classic example of the rubbish returning monster story. Remarkably so, given how there seem to be far worse candidates, such as The Sontaran Experiment in the same season and Death to the Daleks in the previous season. Phil Sandifer offers the interesting notion that the story is meant to be rubbish, making way for the more original returning monster-free serials of the next season. Of course, I doubt fans watching it at the time saw it that way. I'm pretty sure most viewers enjoyed watching Dr Who do battle with the Cybermen again. I'm also pretty sure people watching the it when it was the first ever VHS release must have loved it too. When considering the faults, it is worthwhile considering the fact that the celebrated Hinchliffe era was perhaps not always as perfect as fans like to think. Every Hinchliffe story has problems and weaknesses, with the possible exception of Brain of Morbius, which is the closest the era came to perfection. Ark in Space has unconvincing monsters and lacks atmosphere due to an overlit set, Genesis of the Daleks is horribly padded, Terror of the Zygons is an unoriginal working of earlier stories, Planet of Evil has a terrible script, Pyramids of Mars has a dreadful final episode and The Android Invasion is unwatchable.

The Cybermen are probably not at their best here, but they are fun. While they suffer for being in colour for the first time, they look effective in the darkness of the cave scenes. Why complain about the Cybermen's apparent anger and hands on the hip gestures? The claim that the Cybermen have no emotion at all has always been a little dubious. The creation of yet another weakness for the Cybermen seems unnecessary, but it seems a small one. We have not yet reached the point where a gold coin will kill a Cyberman; the Vogans' presumably gold bullets just bounce off their armour.

The script for this story is weak, with some really awful lines ('I sometimes think your friend is not quite right in the head' Sometimes? He's only just met him!). Yet there are still things to like about Revenge of the Cybermen. The location shooting in the caves of Wookie Hole with the use of underground river is very effective. The set designs are fantastic too. The Beacon set looks great, as do the ornate chambers of the Vogans. The special effect of the Beacon hurtling toward Voga is not great by today's standards, but I was impressed when I saw it on video in 1990. The Cybermat is clumsy, but it looks more menacing than the original Cybermat in the Sixties. While there are things in the plot that do not make a lot of sense, this is a fast paced story with plenty of tension and excitement.

I love the Vogan designs. They look distinctly non-human, yet still capture individual personalities. Kevin Stoney and David Collings do a splendid job in their roles. Michael Wisher is also good, despite being underused. His use of an handkerchief is a very nice touch.

Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles say in About Time that Vorus and Tyrum are basically another version of the Nice Sensorite and the Nasty Sensorite, or the Old Silurian and Young Silurian. This is not really true, as they are much more complex than this. Tyrum is afraid of outsiders like the Nasty Sensorite, yet he is friendly to humans when he meets them and is appalled by Kellman's murders. Vorus wants to make alliances with the outside world, yet he is hostile to humans who do not fit into his plans and has no qualms about murdering them. These are characters who are not defined by their factional politics. Despite being non-human aliens from 'the planet Zog' they feel like real people. Kellman, the human double agent also makes a great villain. I love the way he smiles as Tyrum describes how wicked he is.

Tom Baker is still settling into his new role at this point. Once or twice here he comes across as though he is not taking the story seriously, something that would become a problem in later years. Thankfully, Hinchcliffe managed to keep Tom in check most of the time after this story.

You have to love Harry Sullivan. He is so at ease with everything. The way he says 'Steady on, old chap' as a Vogan manhandles him is infinitely lovable. As somebody afflicted with dyspraxia, I can't help thinking that Harry also has 'Clumsy Child Syndrome.' It is horrible to see the Doctor being so mean to him. Sarah Jane Smith is also pretty horrible to him too. Sarah is not at her best here, mostly being used as a damsel in distress, though she is pretty resourceful, crossing the underground river in the Vogan boat. She is wearing nice pink socks too.

Revenge of the Cybermen is not the greatest of Doctor Who stories, but it is not nearly as bad as some fans make out.

Genesis of the Daleks

My first experience of Genesis of the Daleks was listening to the audio recording. I was given the cassettes for Christmas in 1991, shortly before going on holiday to Cyprus. I was ten years old at the time. I later watched the repeat in 1993 and read the novelization again and again. The thing is, I loved Genesis of the Daleks not because I thought it was a great Doctor Who story (I have no idea what stories I considered to be great when I was ten or twelve; I probably did not think in those terms). The reason I liked Genesis was because it had lots of guns and Nazi-like uniforms. As a boy I loved guns and Nazi uniforms. I am one of those Englishmen who have a suspicious enthusiasm for Nazi uniforms. As an adult, I have rather fallen out of love with Genesis of the Daleks, even though I still quite like the look of Nazi uniforms.

I really do understand why people love this story so much. Great work from the regulars, an amazing performance from Michael Wisher as Davros, great direction, some nice designs and most of all, a sense of grand cosmic drama. Yet for all these strengths, quite a number of things really bother me about this story.

The biggest problem I have with this story is the basic premise. Dr Who is instructed by the Time Lord to prevent the creation of the Daleks. This seems to go against everything we know about these guardians of history. To eradicate the Daleks from history would surely completely disrupt the web of time, altering the very history of the universe. Yet Dr. Who says it is 'feasible.' Even though it would surely alter his own personal history? What would happen to Susan if there was no Dalek-ravaged earth for her to settle on? How would Ian and Barbara get back without the aid of the Dalek time machine? I understand the show has moved on from the sensible days when you couldn't change one line of history, but this is surely going a bit far. Maybe it was the Black Guardian in disguise, or Faction Paradox, or maybe the Time Lords were just having a laugh at the Doctor's expense. Perhaps they would have whisked the Doctor away if he had come close to actually destroying the Daleks. But that still doesen't explain how he thinks it is 'feasible.' You can try to retcon this and talk about the Time Lords foreseeing their own destruction in the Great Time War, but that is still a retcon at the end of the day. What we see in this story is at odds with everything that has gone before.

In general, I am not a big fan of origin stories. Sometimes they work, but they do run the risk of undermining their subjects. Sometimes an origin is best left to the imagination. We could never have a satisfactory origin story for Dr. Who himself. I do think that Genesis of the Daleks undermines the concept of the Daleks somewhat. In their debut serial, the Daleks were a kind of force of nature, a physical manifestation of the military devastation unleashed upon Skaro. Here they are reduced to the creation of yet another mad scientist. This is made worse by the return appearances made by Davros in future Dalek stories, overshadowing his creations.

I also dislike the crass literalism of this story. It has been obvious since the very second Doctor Who serial that the Daleks are supposed to be a bit like Nazis. Was it really necessary to make this obvious by making their forbears dress in fascistic uniforms and jackboots? The viewer is being treated like an idiot. This is the same kind of crass literalness that makes Azal look exactly like a traditional image of Satan, as if the viewer did not already get all the other Satanic references in The Daemons.

As with the Nazi uniforms, I think the serial goes a little too far in trying to capture the visual feel of the First World War. I really do appreciate the efforts to create the sense of a dark, brutal and hopeless environment. I also think the scene with the Thal soldier tormenting Sarah is essential. It shows that the Thals are just as bad as the Kaleds. In fact, they are probably the aggressors in this war, given that we are told in The Daleks that they were warriors, while the Daleks (Kaleds?) were philosophers and teachers. Yet I can't help thinking that the grim imagery is not how I like to see the Daleks. There is a definite sense of Sixties kitsch about the Daleks, that actually works well with their scariness. There is something comical about the Dalek appearance that makes them all the scarier and this does not work well with the darkness of the setting. I rather miss the original image of Skaro as a strange and exotic place. On this score, the origin story in TV21 fits the Daleks rather better.


It is often claimed that Genesis of the Daleks has a great moral depth. Moral depth my foot! Look at Dr. Who's famous 'Have I the right' speech. Prior to making this speech he had been quite happy to destroy the Daleks. Then as soon as he has made this speech, his Kaled allies tell him that will halt the Dalek production and presumably destroy the incubated Daleks. The Doctor is delighted. This makes him look like a moral coward who prefers others to do his dirty work. Then later he decides to blow up the incubator room. Finally, it turns out that destroying the incubator room won't stop the Daleks anyway. Can anybody see any meaningful contribution to ethical philosophy in all this?


In the end, Dr. Who claims that the Daleks have been set back a thousand years in their development. Really? Are the Daleks really unable to clear away a bit of rubble? The destruction of the incubator might seem more of a problem, but the Daleks don't seem worried about it, so they can probably breed some new embryos within a year or so. While the Discontinuity Guide absurdly claimed that Dalek history had been re-written after this story, Remembrance of the Daleks makes clear that the Dalek invasion of Earth happened on time. I think the events of Genesis change absolutely nothing. I think the Doctor is simply trying to make Sarah feel better.

It is rather hard to get past the absurdity of the idea that this is a war that has lasted thousands of years despite the fact that the Thal and Kaled cities are within walking distance of each other, especially given that weapons of mass destruction had originally been used to fight it. This is made even sillier when we find out that the Kaled have an hidden passage into the Thal city. This is a cardboard planet. When we first saw Skaro in The Daleks, it was a diverse place, with mountains, plateaus, petrified jungles and swamps. Now it is just a rocky battlefield (that looks like a quarry) and two cities. It is amazing how Skaro actually looked so much bigger in a television studio.

Just how rubbish is Davros' scientific elite? They have been in operation for fifty years (and not just working on Daleks), yet it is perfectly obvious that the Thals are technologically superior in every way. They have laser guns (courtesy of the Drahvins), they can build a rocket armed with distronic explosives and the Kaleds suspect them of using robots. You would think that somewhere along the line, the Kaled leaders would have asked Davros what he was doing with their funds.


Peter Miles has rightly been praised for his fantastic performance as Nyder. He really is a pleasure to watch in this story. Yet Miles' fantastic performance only draws attention to the lack of characterisation of Nyder. We are given no sense of Nyder's motivation. We want to know why Nyder is so fanatically loyal to Davros. It cannot be put down to blind fascistic loyalty, as Nyder has clearly made an active choice to give his loyalty to Davros over and above the Kaled government and military leadership.

One actor that deserves a bit of extra praise is Guy Siner as General Ravon. He's such a great character; I adore the way he can't deliver two sentences without launching into a speech. He's not altogether a bad guy, either, note his sympathy towards the Doctor in the Kaled city.


I don't deny that this production has it's strong points and is certainly enjoyable, yet it is a story I have major issues with and one that I do not care for. The Daleks was a much better story than this.

Robot

I really like Robot. It's actually my favorite story of Season 12 and my favorite pre-Graham Williams Tom Baker story. It has such an easygoing sense of fun that I find impossible not to adore.

One of the irritating and cliched traditions that this show has been saddled with is that the Doctor is unstable immediately after his regeneration. Hence, in new Doctor stories, we get several episodes (or twenty-five minutes in the BBC Wales series) where the Doctor does absolutely nothing. Castrovalva is among the most irritating of these offenders. Robot stands out considerably from this tendency, contrasting with Spearhead from Space before it. The newly regenerated Fourth Doctor is certainly chaotic and eccentric in his behaviour, but it does not stop him jumping into the action right away and proving himself a skillful detective.

It is often said that Robot could easily have been a Pertwee story. On the surface of it, this seems the case. We have the old UNIT team, crazy scientists and crazier science. Yet there is a really crucial difference. The difference is easily missed and it's the presence of an interesting and entertaining villain, Miss Winters. Try as I can, I just can't imagine Miss Winters fitting into a Jon Pertwee story. With the suave presence of Delgado's Master, it's easy not to notice the lack of memorable villains in the Petwee era. The Tom Baker era, in contrast, was rich in brilliant bad guys and girls.

Miss Winters is the very model of the Tom Baker villain. She is self-important and megalomaniac, but most important of all, she is utterly humourless in such a way that she actually becomes rather funny. This is brought out by her contrast with the clownish and shambolic Baker Doctor. The self-important Pertwee Doctor could never have made that contrast with Miss Winters.

Hilda Winters is of course a completely over the top character, with all subtexts blazing (some lucky guy was going to help her repopulate the Earth Day of the Triffids-style). She is adorable for it and in the end she is a figure of fun. I particularly like the fact that she survives the story, no doubt to receive an extended stay as a guest of Her Majesty. The Sarah Jane audio Mirror, Signal Maneuver reveals that she spent fifteen years in jail after Robot. Mirror, Signal, Maneuver unfortunately misunderstands her character. I really don't buy the idea of Miss Winters masterminding a further criminal plot years later. Her incompetence and silliness adds to her fun. I rather prefer to imagine her leaving prison to be some harmless crank who writes insane articles in Paranormal magazines, or something like that.


While nodding to the previous era, Robot certainly lays the groundwork for the new Hinchliffe era with its borrowing from classic films, in this case King Kong. Yet the light and easygoing nature of this story makes it stand out from the Hinchcliffe standard. There is so much sunshine in this serial. It very much has an holiday feel. That is why I love it.

Season 12

Tom Baker's first season! Tom Baker is recognisable to the world as THE Doctor, but he does not quite settle into the role until Genesis of the Daleks. Nevertheless, it is apparent from the start that he is a big improvement on Pertwee. What Baker had that Pertwee always lacked was a truly alien quality. The Third Doctor might tell us that he was from the planet Gallifrey, but this was just scripted dialogue. When the Baker Doctor revealed his alien nature, you really could believe that this man was from an alien planet!

Despite Pertwee's departure, Sarah Jane Smith remains in the role of companion. Elisabeth Sladen's performances are rather mixed in this season. She is strong in the first two stories of the season, but becomes a bit wet in the next three. Sarah is joined by the first male companion since Jamie, Harry Sullivan. Sullivan was definitely one of the most likable people to ever travel in the TARDIS. He was so at ease with himself and had such a pleasent manner. As somebody with Dyspraxia, also known as 'clumsy child syndrome, I can identify with his awkwardness and apparent stupidity.

Strangely, Barry Letts continued as producer for the first story. Hence, we begin with a very cosy story in the UNIT format, complete with a grumpy Brigadier. Nevertheless, in The Ark in Space, we get the new producer Phillip Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe's first season is a little more consistent than Graham Williams debut in Season 15. Graham Williams began his Doctor Who career with an odd mix of brilliant and poor stories; Hinchcliffe gave us a rather average bunch of serials in Season 12.

Hinchcliffe does not introduce his Hammer horror pony trick in this season, but his interest in horror comes out in The Ark in Space. His distasteful obsession with death, torture and violence comes out very strongly in The Sontaran Experiment and more unpleasant stuff would come in the next two seasons.

Season 12 is very much a returning monster season. This probably reflects the desire to reassure an uncertain audience that the new man really is the Doctor. While the public did take to Tom Baker, the use of returning monsters in this season is on the whole a failure. The Sontaran costume is wrong, the Cybermen are hilarious and the Daleks hardly appear in Genesis of the Daleks.


Robot- 8/10

An old-school UNIT story (just one more for old-times' sake) with a refreshing new Doctor. It's a bit childish, but it's fun.

The Ark in Space- 7/10

Remarkably prescient of the Ridley Scott's Alien movie. There is a strong sense of horror in this, but for me it loses impact with every viewing. The Wirrn costumes are poor and Kenton Moore's performance is not nearly as good as some people make out.

The Sontaran Experiment- 3/10

Mercifully short. This is a really stupid and pointless story. Our first taste of the Hinchcliffe era's morbid indulgence in violence.

The Genesis of the Daleks- 6/10

The story that so many fans and non-fans adore. Personally, I don't see the point of origin stories; you know how they will end and they take away room for imagination.

The notion that the Time Lords really would order the Doctor to alter history in this way is rather hard to swallow. Unsurprisingly, the Doctor fails and I have no truck with the idea that a new version of Dalek history results from this story.

Michael Wisher and Peter Miles are great as Davros and Nyder and there are a few moments of great dialogue, but this is otherwise a dull plodding escape and capture sequence. The Nazi visual references are rather banal too.

Revenge of the Cybermen- 6/10

I read the novelisation of this as a child, before I watched any videos or televised stories. It got me hooked on Doctor Who.

Revenge of the Cybermen is a bit weak on the whole. There is some good dialogue, however and the Vogans are a well designed and conceived alien race. The Cybermen are silly, but they are hilarious. I just love the way the Cyberleader puts his hands on his hips in a scornful gesture!

The Ark in Space

Ridley Scott's Alien movie- We got there first

Ark in Space is the first story of the Hinchcliffe era. The first story of Season 12 was produced by Barry Letts, the outgoing producer. The Hinchcliffe era is seen by many fans as a golden era of Doctor Who. I differ from most fans in not holding this period in high regard. I certainly think it is the most consistent period in the show. While it had a few disasters, most notably The Android Invasion, on the whole it maintained high standards. However, the Hinchcliffe was far from as perfect as many fans would have you believe. There was something of an overreliance on borrowing plots from horror movies. More controversially, I believe that Hinchcliffe allowed the violence to get a little out of hand. I think there is something of a sadistic tendency in his stories. They seem to indulge a morbid curiosity about pain and death. I think Ark in Space is a good start to this period and while including a powerful horror element, it avoids the excesses of some of his later serials, such as The Robots of Death and Pyramids of Mars (in my opinion the two most overrated Dr. Who stories ever).

Ark in Space introduces a powerful element of body horror; the terror of being transformed into something inhuman; the complete destruction of the personality. This theme would be repeated in the Seeds of Doom. The serial also plays considerably on childish fears, such as the fear of being eaten by monsters while one is asleep.

Doctor Who has made several attempts to create B-movie style giant insects, mostly unsuccessfully. One has to admire them for trying on a limited budget. The Wirrn are not an exception; they are a rather clumsy and very unconvincing creation. Probably, it was a mistake to show a dead Wirrn early in the story, thus reducing their later impact. The metamorphosis effect on 'Noah' is also rather poor; it is very obvious that his hand is covered in bubble wrap.

We are given a very bleak vision of the future. Not only has the earth been devastated by solar flairs and it's surviving population in hibernation, but society seems to have changed. The survivors on the Ark, with the strange exception of Rogin, are very cold and callous. We are given a fleeting glimpse of a very regimented society that looks down on outsiders as 'regressives.' They appear to regard those humans that have colonised other planets as having an almost subhuman status. It is clearly not a future we would relish. This effect is a little ruined by the character of Rogin (Richardson Morgan). His character and posture is just completely out of character with the society in which he is supposed to be living. He even makes a gag about a trade union. So are there trade unions in this apparently fascistic future society?

The musical score is very good and helps to enhance the overall sense of doom. At times the suggestion is made that the entire future of humanity rests with the survival of the Ark's inhabitants. While they might well feel so with their peculiar distrust of space colonists, it does not seem a correct assumption. The story acknowledges that there are human colonies on other worlds and this is supported by many other Dr. Who stories.

Wendy Williams is very good as Vira, showing at first a coolness towards the TARDIS crew, then an increasing warmth. Kenton Moore has often been praised for his performance as 'Noah,' but I am not very convinced. He seems a little awkward in the role and at times hams it up rather too much.

Tom Baker still seems a little uneasy in his role as the Doctor. It is probably only in Genesis of the Daleks that he really makes the part his own. Elisabeth Sladen gives her usual decent performance. It is Ian Marter who really shines as Harry Sullivan. Being a diagnosed Dyspraxic (clumsy child syndrome), I really identify with Harry's clumsiness and apparent stupidity. What is so delightful about Harry is that he takes his reputation for being a clumsy fool with such good grace. As a naval officer and a doctor, he has status in society and is perfectly at ease with himself. After his shoes are destroyed in the first episode, he spends the rest of the story in his stocking feet, which must have been rather comfy.

The similarities between this story and Ridley Scott's Alien movie have often been pointed out. It would be nice to think that this serial was an influence on the film. Nevertheless, it should never be thought that Ark in Space is better. Not only was Alien a landmark science fiction film, but it showed a much greater sophistication, playing on subconscious male fears about female genitalia, childbirth and breastfeeding.

While Ark in Space is not a story that gets me particularly excited, it is a great introduction to the Hinchcliffe era and a worthy second story for Tom Baker.

The Sontaran Experiment

On a desolated earth in the far future, the Fourth Doctor, Harry and Sarah bump into a Sontaran.

The best thing about this story is that it is so short. I can't believe the writers was so generous to us as to cut this story short. Just imagine how awful this story would be if it was stretched to four episodes. That would be real torture.

I am really not sure what the point of this story was. Did they just want to fill in a gap? Or were that desperate to bring back a Sontaran that they could not bother to write a decent story for one?

Followin the grand tradition of Terry Nation Dalek stories, the viewer is supposed to be surprised at the cliffhanger to see a Sontaran, despite the story being entitle The Sontaran Experiment. This does not make any sense, but neither does the central premise of the story. Why are the Sontarans wanting to experiment on humans when the earth is uninhabited? Why are they holding up their invasion fleet for the completion of a bunch of experiments that actually seem rather pointless? You might also think that Styre would look a bit like Linx if they were both clones too.

The fact that there is hardly any story just makes the rather horrible torture scenes unpleasent. If there was an exciting story going on, it would be rather more forgiveable. It is fun watching Styre shrivel up at the end, however.

Harry is great in this story. Sarah is a bit wet. Tom Baker is good, though the writer's don't quite seem sure of his personality at this point. The guest performances are not terribly interesting. It does not last long enough for one to generate much interest in them anyway.

You only need to watch this one if you are a true fan who watches every story.