Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 418: Revenge of the Cybermen, Episode Two

Dear diary,

For all my complaining about the way that the Cybermen are being treated in this story (and I’m still not keen. The Doctor muses that the Cybermen must be planning an attack on the planet of gold because they’re so allergic to it: it’s treated as a fact we should all know, but it’s news to anyone watching through in order like this!), it does have to be said that their appearance in the cliff hanger is very well done. They emerge from their own ship, board Nerva, and are instantly greeted with a hail of bullets from our human crew. They don’t even leave a scratch. In return, the Cyberleader fires three shots from the gun built into his head – and hits all three targets. It’s cold, and it’s by far the best moment we’ve had in this story so far.

It’s just a shame that this couldn’t have been their first appearance in the story! In my head, I’d prefer an Episode One where there’s a mysterious space ship just in range of Nerva’s scans, but it’s failing to answer any of their communications. The ship just sits there silently, while Nerva’s crew all fall victim to a horrible plague. As the Doctor investigates, he realises that they’re in orbit not far from Voga, the planet of gold. But how are the two connected? Could it be? As the episode rolls on, the ship finally starts to make its approach, docking with the beacon. The airlock opens... and then the cliff hanger plays out exactly as we’ve seen here. The Doctor makes his deduction that it must be Cybermen at the same moment they emerge from their ship, but it’s too late.

I think that’s what’s missing from this story for me – any real sense of tension. We know the Cybermen are involved from the title, but the story is treating it so matter-of-factly that there’s been very littleexcitement in there for me. I want the Cybermen to emerge triumphantly, not for us to occasionally cut back to them stood in their control room with their hands on their hips. Still, I am glad to have them back in the programme, and hopefully now that they’ve arrived properly and taken out the crew (I’m assuming they’ve simply stunned them all, or clipped them?) we can get down to some proper Cyberman action.

I rather like the design of the creatures seen in this story – they feel very much like a half-way house between the models from The Invasion and the ones that we’ll go on to have for Earthshock. The guns in the head is a fairly neat idea, and it does make sense for them to have some kind of built-in weaponry like this. We’ve also got the first appearance of the ‘black handlebar’ design to denote the Cyberman in charge, and that’s something I really like. It’s toned down by the time the Cybermen next pop up in the series, but I was really pleased to see it brought back again for The Next Doctor a few years ago.

Less effective for me is the Vogan prosthetics. I’ve never been a big fan of the design – it’s the ultimate example of ‘man in ill-fitting- rubber-mask’ for me, and I’m finding it quite hard to take them seriously. It’s a story of political power struggles, with factions developing different goals... but whereas a similar story about the established power being overthrown was presented as gripping and, in some ways, adult during Genesis of the Daleks, here the whole thing is failing to engage with me because I can’t stop looking at those masks!

There’s something else that’s drawing my eye, too, and it’s the Seal of Rassilon! Now, I know about many of the fan ‘workarounds’ for little continuity blips like this, but I don’t know of any which explain why the Vogans have adopted the Time Lord’s ceremonial symbol for their own design. It’s not even only slightly part of their culture – it’s on their walls, their tables, their robes... it’s a big part of this society. Now, obviously, I know that in reality, they’ll come to make The Deadly Assassin a couple of years from now and decide that they like this symbol and could re-use it, but when you look back on the series, knowing just how much this will become a part of Time Lord design does make it a bit jarring!