A Device of Death Earthshock The Invasion |
BBC Revenge of the Cybermen |
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| Episodes | 4 |  |
| Story No# | 79 | |
| Production Code | 4D | |
| Season | 12 | |
| Dates | Apr. 19, 1975 - May 10, 1975 |
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With Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter.
Written by Gerry Davis. Script-edited by Robert Holmes. Directed by Michael E. Briant. Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. |
| Synopsis: The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry attempt to avert a Cybermen plot to destroy Voga, the planet of gold. |
Rehash of the Cybermen? by David Masters 18/7/97
Without wanting to appear too glib, the success or failure of a particular period in Doctor Who's history tends to depend on the abilities of the script editor. Obviously, this is taking a deliberately simplistic stance -- the producer, the lead actor, and various levels of "showbiz chemistry" all come in to play. Nevertheless, we still break down the various Who eras according to either lead man or producer, but this seldom provides an effective guide to the various ups and downs in the quality of the output, often during the same producer's reign. The period of influence by a particular script editor (Whitaker, Bryant, Dicks and Holmes especially) tend to be better indicators of script quality than looking at who was either producer or actor.
I cite this in the introduction to the review of this story as Revenge of the Cybermen (or should that be Rehash of the Cybermen?) seems to stand out as a blot on editor Holmes' copybook. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the finished product is not highly regarded by the fans, being only average amongst a period of much vaunted classics and, secondly, because Holmes took it upon himself to re-write Gerry Davis original script.
Using the "adaptation" published by DWB some years ago as a guide (although I wouldn't necessarily suggest that this is entirely representative of GD's efforts) one can quickly see why Holmes thought the story needed re-writing, the original quite obviously being written in the style of an early Troughton, with all the minutiae of that production style factored into the script.
The problem it seems is these very amendments, as Holmes, apparently rather pushed for time, replaced what he saw as Davis' flaws with a number of stock characters and situations, such as Vorus the mad scientist and his rocket (coming rather too soon after Genesis of the Daleks).
Despite a number of flaws, I don't consider Rehash to be quite the dud it is often portrayed as. The story is well directed and although it never has one too near the edge of one's seat, it pretty much keeps ones attention. The major complaints tend to be "fan gripes" rather than anything else; over-emotional Cybermen, spaceship interiors that don't fare well under a second glance (and were never intended to). I also seem to remember many favourable reviews of the story during the mid-80s (around when it came out on video) before BBC Video had churned out most of the Holmes era -- lots of comments about the authentic-looking cavern scenes filmed at Wooky Hole. Well, these scenes still look good, even if much of the remainder has turned to dust.
A Review by Keith Bennett 26/5/98
With the Doctor, Sarah and Harry having just escaped the clutches of the Daleks in the classic Genesis Of The Daleks, they now find themselves at the mercy of the Cybermen, the first Cybermen story since The Invasion, but there are problems here.
The good points first: Voga is extremely well portrayed and, with the tunnels and underground rivers, very convincing, and the Vogans themselves are interesting to look at (with Michael Wisher covering himself in make-up again), if not interesting in character. The scenes on the golden astroid are the best ones in the story. Overall, the production values are fine -- but there are certain other factors that are less than convincing.
There are many questions that could be brought up (as The Discontinuity Guide points out: why the Vogans don't have golden bullets when everything else there seems to be made of gold?). But one question I would like to ask is how on Earth did Kellman kill 47 people with the cybermats without Stevenson, Lester and Warner realising what was going on?! And the Cyberleader himself is a bit of a curio to his race. Not only does he show obvious emotion and sarcasm, but he also has an accent which makes him sound like he's been invading Chicago recently. There are also some dumb lines, including "Who's the homicidal maniac?" and "I wonder if your Doctor's right in the head."
The Doctor, Sarah and Harry continue to be an enjoyable team and it's a pity Harry didn't stay longer with the crew. Ian Marter was reported as saying that he wasn't totally happy with Harry's clumsiness, but I think he's totally charming and endearing.
Overall, despite its faults, Revenge of the Cybermen is entertaining and not as bad as some people seem to think. 6/10
"Animal Organisms!" - a substandard close to Season 12 by Tom May Updated 24/5/03 (originally 6/6/98)
"You have the ferocity of a cringing mouse, Tyrum!"This review is based on a whimsical viewing of the edited, non-episodic BBC Video release of Revenge of the Cybermen that I retain. I was curious to see whether it was as horribly tacky and laughable as on the previous viewing; and indeed whether the critical consensus was correct.
Initially, you get a diluted aesthetic reading of The Ark In Space; within a far less dramatic science fiction narrative. It is apparent that the characterisation of every character is substandard -- even the regulars. Series veteran Gerry Davis' script is derivative, seemingly of such dire stories as The Colony in Space and The Wheel in Space, and is frankly so dull, that even script editor Robert Holmes cannot induce any life in it. The crew of four are a lamentable bunch of stiff-upper-lipped uniforms, speaking in a language of bland cliches -- examples of which are duly given in Keith Bennett's above review. The Warner chap looks like he's fittingly asleep; the scowling 'untrustworthy scientist' type Kelman is the most compelling of the four, which does not perhaps say an awful lot; while the other two are wooden beyond the need for comment.
As I can only make fairly accurate guesses at where the episodes begin and end, I'd say that things liven up in the second episode a little, but not by much. The Cybermen's appearance is a total anti-climax; with both the title giving this away, and also the immediate mediocrity of their use after the cliffhanger to Episode 1. The music is absurdly portentous for such a dramatically limpid story; and such an unimposing band of Cybermen. The costumes are reasonable, close at least to their fine appearance in The Invasion, but their handling in the script and the playing of the actors are shoddy. Perhaps it is that they never did work so well in colour as in black-and-white... the mystique and facelessness seems squandered, mostly due to the above factors, and also that Tom Baker's irreverant persona understandably can't seem to take them seriously. Which is a big contrast to Troughton's brilliantly acted fear of them - yet would it really have much improved things had Baker been more like this here? As the Cyber-leader is frankly an embarrassment to the art of the instilling of subtle fear, through the Cybermen's emotionlessness. Christopher Robbie's much maligned pantomime performance is clearly out of place and seems to have stepped forth from the pages of a bad comic strip. But I would say, grudgingly, that at least he has some character unlike his literally dumb and mute sidekicks, who convey just as little presence in the sense of fear. But of course; should a cyberman seem so emotive and prancing as Robbie's does? Not really in a story as deadly sober and 'serious' toned as this is... but really, the script writing and production are the main faults. Robbie's bizarre hands-on-hips stance, and the clear gloating, anger, stupidity and taunting traits of his character tend to completely overshadow the Cybermen's dull, insipid plan.
The Vogan scenario is a little more credible, but antisceptic. The voices of the Vogans are hilarious -- even stalwarts such as Kevin Stoney and Michael Wisher are reduced to the stock of laughter. The politics of Voga are not really worth mentioning, as Holmes gives, for once, little depth, drama or humour in his creation of the overempathised "Planet of Gold." Or should we say, he fails to add much to Davis' terrible script. One does presume though that Holmes, or perhaps even Tom Baker himself was responsible for the hilarious moment: "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile !!" And Harry's obsession with the gold is faintly amusing and refreshing. Tom Baker is generally amusing here, just about managing to make this watchable... Ian Marter is a fairly amusing, if unsubtle comic performer as the buffoonish Harry Sullivan. Lis Sladen is really very forgettable and struggles to create any impression here; one of her few 'phoned-in' performances. So, the main cast, while maybe below-par slightly, do provide what solace there is... but, make no mistake though, I laughed a lot while watching this story -- I laughed at it, not with it.
The first time you watch this, if you are a child, it might just pass for a passable romp - helped a bit by nice location work in some caves - but after that it gets worse each time you watch it. It could well be one of the worst stories of the Tom Baker era, as it is substandard in pretty much all areas. It is a disappointing close to a good, if very overrated first season for Tom Baker. Baker himself is wonderful during the season, but I would contend that the 'new style' is nowhere near fully developed. Save the refreshing spin on the Pertwee formula, Robot - with an immortally madcap Baker - and the thoughtful, compelling The Ark in Space, this season really lacks direction, and clings onto such pointless matters as "Time Rings" and returning old monsters. Don't get me wrong, Genesis of the Daleks is good, but this is largely due to a good production, Baker and Wisher. It is over-exposed and bearing far too many of the dull Terry Nation cliches to be a genuine classic. Anyway, whereas the majority of Season 12 is decent, and certainly a step in a better, if not entirely new direction, from the banality of Season 11; Revenge of the Cybermen remains a - thankfully one-off - disaster.
3/10
A Review by Dave Odgers 8/9/98
As a little lad, not so long ago, I bought Revenge of the Cybermen on video, and I loved it! It was brilliant! I couldn't get enough of the bugger. Yet, according to The Discontinuity Guide, it is "a contradictory, tedious, and unimaginative mess," summing it up with: "No time. No money. No mercy. Even the title's rubbish."
For a long time now, I have given in to the weight of peer pressure. I dismissed it and hadn't watched it for years, but last night all that collapsed. I watched it on a whim and, once again, I adored it. All it took was for one of the above criticisms to be false (and I'm afraid only one of them actually is) -- Revenge, I must now reveal, is not tedious, and surely that's the most important thing.
In The Doctors: Thirty Years in Time & Space, Peter Davison talks of an incident when, running out of time to shoot the final scene of the day, the director shoved everyone on set, told them to get on with it, say the lines, and edit as they went. Davison enthuses how the actors didn't know where to look, the cameramen didn't know where to point, plot explanation vanished in favour of TARDIS tittle-tattle, and everyone's adrenaline positively gushed as they got a real feeling of creative energy. He then goes on to state that, upon reflection, it was a load of crap because no-one knew what they were doing, but ignore that for the moment. It's that sort of spontaneous energy that makes Doctor Who what it is, both in the rushed acting and direction, in the wobbly sets, in the fizzes to which we're treated whenever there should be a bang and, most importantly, in the characters of the Doctor and his companions who are, with the occassional exception, amateurs improvising in an attempt to do the best they can with what they've got.
Doctor Who thrives on an abandonment of slick, sober, serious professionalism -- it's just another element of its anti-authority perspective on the world.
For example, in the fourth episode of Revenge, as the Cyberleader shakes the Doctor to the ground with a particularly ferocious Swedish massage, Tom Baker completely neglects to act pain, simply muttering the line: "We surrender," and then, as the Cyberleader fails to stop shaking him into the floorboards, repeating the cue louder. There's more errant silliness in Tom's sudden wail of: "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile," before a slapstck collapse, and Harry himself, the perfect companion, is utterly detached from the events about him, the absolute amateur in the fight against the Cybermen. Meanwhile, the American-accented Cybermen pose dominantly with hands on hips, using Cybermats and Cyberbombs -- they probably have a Cybership as well, but I missed that.
Skaro 7, in an article called "Feet of Tin," laments how Revenge should have been a classic. The combination of Hinchcliffe, Holmes and the Cybermen should have led to the ultimate in gruesome body horror. It's true, but all those gothic yarns are terribly... professional. This may be utterly uninspired and not in the least memorable, but while you're watching it it's a good laugh. So there you go -- watch it, re-evaluate it and, most importantly, forget it's in Season 12: it's just good clean family fun.
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 18/4/99
After six years away from the screens, it would be fair to expect a story that reintroduces the Cybermen to be reasonably entertaining. Unfortunately, Robert Holmes turns in a somewhat lacklustre and uninspiring script, resulting in an equally lacklustre tale.
That is not to say that Revenge of the Cybermen is not without it`s good points; just that they are few and far between. The Vogans are believable and nicely characterised, and their subplot works quite well; but it does tend to irritate after a while. The Cybermen are also nicely redesigned, complete with practical weapons in the form of head-guns, making them more of a threat. The filming in the caves at Wooky Hole and the ensuing gun battle between the Vogans also come across as realistic and lends an air of atmosphere to the proceedings.
Unfortunately there are some faults, notably with the Cybermen themselves. Their portrayal, complete with accents and hands on hips, is ludicrous and quite frankly laughable as they almost appear camp at times. The regulars are also less well characterised, and this is echoed in their performances, none of which carries the weight as in previous tales.
Revenge of the Cybermen could and should have been so much better than the end result, which is in itself painful to watch.
Cyberbums by Andrew Wixon 27/12/01
So near, and yet so far: cast your mind back to the very first official BBC DW video release. And what did the guys at merchandising go for? Well, a fourth Doctor story - great! A Hinchcliffe-produced story - great! One with a lot of Holmes input into the script - great! An old enemy - great! A season 12 story with a rocket in it - great! Revenge of the Cybermen - D'OH!!!!
Revenge of the Cybermen is, let's face it, the runt of Season 12's litter, which is interesting considering how much of it is recycled from other stories in the season in terms of sets and ideas. The script is fuelled by silly contrivances and plot devices (the transmat clearly shouldn't cure Sarah given its use in the story by the Doctor and Cybermen, and why don't the Vogans use gold on the Cybermen...?), the music score ranges from the mildly effective to the highly inappropriate, and the Cyberleader, in both script and performance, is an extremely dubious creation.
But it's not all bad. The location filming is good and there are some effective action sequences in the caves. The Vogans are visually unusual aliens, though they have a very simplistic culture and do look a bit like something out of Stingray. I might even go so far as to say that this would be an average story had it been part of the previous season, and the fact that it's not shows how rapidly the show had improved under Hinchcliffe's tenure. This is clearly a series no longer reliant on the same old monsters and storylines (though the Cyber-costumes aren't that bad). You might even consider this a low-key attempt to kill the Cybermen off forever (the script strongly implies this). It certainly harmed their image permanently - given their ridiculous vulnerability (mainly to gold) in the later 1980s stories. It almost seems that this story and Genesis were attempts to conclude business with the best known old enemies, allowing the show to move on to the remarkable new territory it would conquer over the rest of the 1970s. Not a terrible story, but hardly - what's the word? - excellent.
Flat Lemonade On A Cloudy Day by Matthew Harris 21/5/02
"Why's he got his hands on his hips?" asked my mother on one of her sporadic trips through the living room while I was watching Revenge. "Aren't Cyberpersons supposed to be emotionless?"
Usually when she makes commentary on Doctor Who I take her to one side and explain whatever it is she's failing - or pretending not - to understand. But this time I was a little stuck. I mean, I can cope with Welsh Cyberlieutenants, genuinely terrible Cybermats, and a convenient-to-the-point-of-actually-sporadically-ceasing-to-make-sense cure for the plague (which just happens to act as an excuse for Sarah Jane and Harry to go to Voga). But camp Cybermen?
And therein, and in there, lies the problem with Revenge Of The Cybermen. If the best episodes of Doctor Who are like sitting outside on a hot summer's day under a parasol with a bottle of cola and a bag of chipsticks, then Revenge is flat lemonade and a cloudy day. And no chipsticks. To cut through the belaboured metaphor: it's diluted. In The Tomb Of The Cybermen, or Earthshock, the shiny blokes were genuinely menacing. Here, there is no sense of menace whatsoever. This can be put down to two things, if you're feeling glib: the fact that the Cybermen don't turn up for two episodes, and the Cybermats. God, the Cybermats. My little metal namesakes are changed from being quite worrying little metal rats, to hulking great unweildy silverfish that move with all the grace of a concrete hippopotamus. That episode one cliffhanger... oh dear lord, that cliffhanger. The image of Lis Sladen desperately trying to look scared as a stagehand pokes a metal silverfish at her will haunt me forever.
There's a little more to it than that. When the Cybermen do appear they still aren't menacing enough, or at all. Christopher Robbie as mentioned before, makes a worryingly androgynous Cyberleader. But worse than this is the fact that the Cybermen don't actually "do" anything. At all. I mean, for a "revenge" it's not especially pro-active, is it? Just blow Voga up and have done with it. Oh, and the guns in the heads don't really work.
The Vogans aren't great either (and try to ignore the fact that they have the Seal of Rassilon everywhere or you'll get a big continuity headache. It was cheaper than drawing some new doodles, alright?). It's a neat idea, but I probably would have sympathised more with the original idea of some human miners, since they'd've been the same species as me. Michael Wisher's in it, but he's terribly, nay criminally underused (although I like the hanky he's always carrying), and it's not David Collings' best work either. Although... is it me, or does his Vorus make a better case than the self-righteous Tyrum?
That's not to say it's all bad, mind. It's not unexciting, and the start, with the bodies strewn in the corridor, is quite affecting. But it's just... not right. I find that my first impressions seem to be quite accurate. I got it at Christmas. The first time I viewed it the first two parts passed me by completely. And I only concentrated particularly hard on part three because it was the first time I'd seen Cybermen outside the 80's David Banks era. Not a particularly good sign, I'm sure you'll agree.
Basically Revenge can be summed up well by that bit at the end. As the Nerva Beacon rushes toward Voga, spelling certain destruction for the entire Vogan race, Tyrum says, "It's going to hit. It's going to hit." Not in panic, or in terror, or anything like that. Flatly, matter-of-factly, he says, "It's. Going. To. Hit." The apocalypse is upon us. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. 4 out of 10 for those of you who need numerical evidence to affirm their existence.
Long distance return by Tim Roll-Pickering 19/8/02
If The Sontaran Experiment proved to the viewer that Tom Baker's Doctor inhabited the same universe as Jon Pertwee's, then Revenge of the Cybermen proved that this was also the world of Patrick Troughton's Doctor by bringing back the Cybermen for the first time since The Invasion. Resurrecting a monster after no less than seven years had elapsed is a very risky strategy but it is one that brings a stir to the older viewer whilst for those who have not seen the Cybermen before they can fit in as a previously unmentioned race that the Doctor has heard of in the same vein as the Draconians in Frontier in Space. A key question in assessing this story is thus whether or not it was right to bring back the Cybermen.
Whilst the gold vulnerability is one that hasn't been heard of before, there is no reason for it to have arisen in previous stories. And it makes the Cybermen extremely logical in that they are seeking to destroy a potential threat before mounting a fresh assault upon the universe. It would have been possible to tell the story with another alien race but it would have been so clear that the Cybermen were meant to be in it that it is better that they are used after all. The Cybermen in this story are a great improvement upon many earlier portrayals with strong voices and no Cyber-Directors reducing them to mere slaves. Physically they are far more impressive than the rather skeletal look of many of the earlier designs, whilst their voices are strong even if they do have clear accents. The Cybermen may have gained an additional vulnerability in this story but they remain a strong and deadly threat and it is a welcome sight to have them back. Christopher Robbie deserves particular praise for his performance as the Cyberleader.
The Vogans are an interesting addition to the series' mythology and their society can be seen as an allegory of 1970s Britain - a power that was once great but has now fallen upon hard times and which is bitterly divided over how to exploit its remaining resources. The feud amongst the race and Vorus' plan comes across as natural and logical. Unfortunately the acting is weak in this part of the story, with only Kevin Stoney bringing anything great to Tyrum, who is a far cry from his previous roles in The Daleks' Master Plan and The Invasion. Otherwise the Vogans are either over the top (David Collings as Vorus) or appear far too little to make much of an impact (Michael Wisher as Magrik).
The decision to reuse the sets from The Ark in Space makes sense from a budgetary point of view but there's very little explanation at the start of the story as to why the time ring has taken the Doctor and his companions to the wrong part of the Beacon's history. It is also difficult to accept that the same Beacon would be used for centuries before becoming the last refuge of the human race. One benefit is that Revenge of the Cybermen focuses on very different parts of the Beacon from The Ark in Space and so the reuse isn't so obvious. None of the crewmembers make any particularly memorable impact on the story, but Jeremy Wilkin makes Kellman a convincing character who seems to be so obviously an agent of the Cybermen that the revelation that he is actually working for Vorus and the Vogans comes across as a genuine surprise.
Revenge of the Cybermen is by no means the greatest story ever shown and is undoubtedly pulled up quite a bit by having an old monster return but it is nevertheless a good story that holds together well and is only let down by some of the execution. 6/10
A Review by Terrence Keenan 1/12/02
Hello.
My name is Terrence Keenan, and I'm an unashamed Tom Baker
Fan.
What this means is that I will invariably find the good in any serial that Big Tommy B appeared in with his scarf and floppy hat.
Even in Revenge of the Cybermen.
Go ahead, laugh. Assume I'm on psychotropic drugs.
Yes, the plot is about as original as your typical fanfic. Yes, the gold allergy was horseshit. Yes, the acting by the guests left a little to be desired. Yes, a Cyberman with his hands on his hips is beyond stupid....
However....
There are so many little funny moments. I always crack up when at the beginning of episode 3, the Doc, Stevenson & Lester are doing See-No-Evil-Hear-No-Evil-Speak-No-Evil bit while the Cyberleader is ranting. Then there's Tom's Shakespearian soliloquy when he kills the Cyberman with a cybermat. ("Dusty death. Out, out!"). "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" Sarah's vanity moment -- "My ankles are not thick!" and many many more.
Also, as a straight-up action story, it works. Just don't think about things like plot. The location shooting is atmospheric, the caves of Wooky Hole adding to the alien ambience.
There, I feel better.
The worst Doctor Who story ever? by Joe Ford 27/9/03
I think most people would join me in saying the period of Doctor Who in which Philip Hinchcliffe produced and Robert Holmes script edited was easily the most popular and stable of the shows long history. Despite the Hammer horror steals the imagination, production values and acting were rarely better. The stories were packed with spoilers, great moments such as the mummies bearing down on Sarah in Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor assassinating the President in The Deadly Assasin and any scene with Davros from Genesis of the Daleks. There are so many more to mention. Tom Baker, Lis Sladen, Ian Marter and Louise Jameson saw the show through its coolest stories. They are justifiably praised. It was three seasons of brilliance.
So how on earth did this steaming pile of horseshit get made right in the heart of such talent? Beats me chief but it saddens me to say that very same team who gave us Robots of Death (same director, producer and script editor) offers up this, a story that lacks even the most basic competance in any part of the production. There are people out there that claim Revenge of the Cybermen is unfairly treated. It isn't, IT IS SHIT. One of only a rare few Doctor Who stories that I search in vain to find SOMETHING nice to say about it.
A poor script of course sabotages a story from day one. Why on earth call in that old hack Gerry Davis to write the Cyberman story? What were so great about The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase and Tomb of the Cybermen anyway? Revenge of the Cybermen is nothing but an almalgamtion of those stories and a re-run of the last story (Genesis). Crap Cybermen with stupid dialogue? Yep. A mysterious plague? Yep. A base under seige? Oh yes. There are just too many flaws in the script it would be absurd to list them all here but here are a few of my all time favourites...
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if the dialogue wasn't so awful as well. It really is cheesy and not in a "oh it was the seventies so never mind" kind of way. Sarah actually says "I know what this place isn't. It isn't uninhabited", perhaps her most stupid line ever (and that's some feat!!!). The story is chock a block full of cringe inducing lines that the actors do their very best to try and make work. Alas not many actors could pull off some of the Cyberleaders lines here and this could be the reason he is so universally maligned.
Maybe the design can help, one thing you can usually count on in a Hinchcliffe story is a rich look to the story. Erm, nope. The Beacon, so beautifully photographed in The Ark in Space is reduced to a cardboard nightmare, the walls painted a horrible shade of brown-grey. Honestly it loses its scope, it appears so much smaller without the cryogenic chamber and someone has undressed all the other sets. The surface of Voga is no better, aside from some impressive location work in Wookley Holes it is drab sets all the way, the gold on this planet sure looks dull because instead of glistening city it is a claustrophobic and grim looking. The primary colour is a sort of miserable brown and it does not appeal to the eye.
The Cybermen are almost at their most stupid (nothing could beat their cartoon antics in Silver Nemesis). It was watching this story again that I realised I don't much like the metal meanies. Oh the idea behind them is sound (and sometimes treated perfectly with Star Trek's The Borg) but more often than not the realisation of the creatures just sucks. Crap dialogue, stupid jug helmets and numerous mentions of how they have no emotions does not make a decent baddie. Let's see them actually DOING something evil like massacaring millions, tearing arms off, crushing peoples hands (ohh that comes later). Here they look ridiculous, they are so silver they glisten in the lights (showing up everything CSO for miles around), their stupid tubes and jug helmets are bigger than ever and their head guns are laughably inept. They look like the costumes are made from sponge! The Cybercontroller has an obvious Australian accent (casting error?) and struts around in a hysterically camp fashion giving the Doctor neck massages whenever he gets a bit rude. Not exactly fearsome are they. Only when they are on location do they look vaguely menacing but then they are trapped in a web of plotting problems mentioned earlier so I'm still annoyed.
Even Tom Baker seems awkward here, it's not first season blues by a long shot because he has already proved himself worthy of the central role in the past three stories. It's just the Doctor is a little surplus to requirement here, he crosses a wire, carries a bomb, insults Harry but he's not really essential to the story and that can never be a good sign. Baker is lumbered with most of the horrible dialogue and struggles to bring to life scenes such as the hostage scenario or the initial exploration of the deserted beacon.
Sarah Jane and Harry fare better simply because they have such good chemistry on screen it doesn't matter that their dialogue is trite. I love the bits with them rushing about the caves dodging bullets, about the only scenes with any kind of drama or excitement. Lis Sladen is so good she could bring alive an episode of Voyager and Angel (and that would be difficult) and Ian Marter is so lovable you would hug him despite his chaunism and goofiness.
Michael E Briant has the ability to shine on Doctor Who. He did so with Robots of Death, The Sea Devils (a seriously overated story but beautifully packaged), The Green Death, Death to the Daleks. He also had the ability to kill a story before the end of episode one (the atmosperic opener is usually always a winner despite the story) such as Colony in Space and this story. The lack of any kind of restraint in the direction is the final nail in the coffin for Revenge of the Cybermen. Sets are cramped and uncomfortable, the actors nervous, the villains are over exposed and the action scenes lack any of the vital spark to get them going. It's just a mess and all these things could have been recitified by the director.
And I have never, ever heard such an innapropriate musical score on any television serial before. Scrap Death to the Daleks (same composer no less!), The Sea Devils, Paradise Towers and Battlefield (even though they have similarly tension lacking scores) this horn blowing nonsense pervades the entire story. It is a four or five note piece and is played over every Cyberman scene... I half expected them to start dancing around the sets it is so jolly! It is a bizarre final touch to a desperately poor story.
I think I may gave stated before that this would be the only story I would give one out of ten to. Well I've changed my mind, the negatives are in such abundance here I can't even find it in my heart to give it that.
Zero out of ten. The worst story ever.
A Review by Ryan Thompson 14/6/04
The long anticipated return of the Cybermen is nothing short of dissapointing, easily the worst story in an otherwise strong season. Here we see the same beacon as before but poorly lit, dull, and colorless. The sets are accompanied by competently acted but poorly characterized humans, especially Kellman. They make the slightly wooden nature of Vira and company (from the absolute classic Ark in Space) appear virtually unnoticeable. I also find it unlikely that the Time Lords of all people would give the Doctor a faulty piece of equipment (which caused him to arrive on the beacon in the wrong time zone).
Harry was the largely ignored companion in Genesis of the Daleks. In this story it seems as though both Sarah and Harry are totally forgotten. There are some climactic scenes such as when the two companions inadvertently arrive on Voga, the gold planet or when the beacon is about to crashland, destroying the entire world. On the whole, most of the action centers around a re-creation of the Troughton base-under-siege type plot with lots of battles and corridor wandering (cue those cybermats!). Sarah being infected seems like another arbitrary excuse to write her out of a story, and stretch the second episode. The Cybermen's takeover also drags on far too long
The color does nothing to improve the Cybermen. As a matter of fact it shows the limitations in their design. Some of the greater moments in the story come when the Cybermen confront the Doctor face to face. "You have no home planet, no influence, nothing. You're just a bunch of pathetic tin soldiers skulking about the universe in an ancient spaceship". Still, even Tom himself cannot save this story from plunging into mediocrity. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a 4 part story with this much padding in it.
Positive elements like the episode 2 cliffhanger or the Cybermen's new ominous voices allow this story to retain a marginal below average grade. 4/10
A Review by Michael Creevey 11/3/05
Lately I have stumbled on this vast body of collected DW wisdom, The Doctor Who Ratings Guide. I have been enlightened, infuriated, entertained, and miffed at various times, but rarely bored. Such definitely applied in my reading of reviews of this particular story. I can understand that people have problems with this particular story -- let's face it, there are problems with the basic premise of the story, and continuity regarding Cybermen is further damaged (mind you, is a gold-allergy really all that much worse than a nail-varnish one?) and Tom Baker seems a little low key. Other than that, I have always found it an entertaining yarn, well structured and paced, logical yet not particularly predictable. It recreates a world (Voga) and its politics convincingly, with just a handful of Vogans (and hence little damage to the budget). And it has Cybermen in it (a great bonus in my view).
There are many quality reviewers who contribute to this site. One of them is Joe Ford, even if I don't always agree with his conclusions. His review above motivated me to provide a dissenting opinion -- and let's face it the claim "Revenge of the Cybermen is utter crap" is the majority viewpoint so it can hardly be said that his is a minority opinion.
To quote him:
So how on earth did this steaming pile of horseshit get made right in the heart of such talent? Beats me chief but it saddens me to say that very same team who gave us Robots of Death (same director, producer and script editor) offers up this, a story that lacks even the most basic competance in any part of the production.I personally cannot understand this kind of statement at all. The scenes on Voga actually have real caves in them. I personally love much of what this story does on Voga. The collapsing rocks actually look reasonably real. The scene in which Harry tries to remove the bomb harness has a palpable tension. And I always feel a sense of real hopelessnes as the Doctor and the two beacon crewmembers ploddingly pace their way to the centre of Voga. There are several other nice touches like this, for example the byplay between Vorus and Tyrum over the future of Voga, the young buck recklessly seeking to return to the surface with a suicidal plan, and the other content to leave his race as a bunch of sun-scared troglodytes for all eternity.
As far as embarassing grappling with Cybermats is concerned, which has been mentioned in several reviews of this story, is that really significant at all? I mean what is it, do we like DW for good stories, ideas, well acted, and applaud at the relatively few occasions when special effects are realized admirably considering the limited budget, or are we special effects freaks? Of course Lis is holding that cybermat to her neck. What would one expect? It's hardly an intrusive effect however. This smacks of clutching at straws, a necessity to follow the current 'received wisdom' on this particular story, and then saying, 'it has bad effects'. Oh please.
As far as the Cybermen itself are concerned, some find them disappointingly realized or even a fatally flawed concept. Some feel that in this story, they move too far from Cybermen as initially conceived by Kit Pedler, being emotionless. Some find the dialogue they use in this story bad, complain about them using Australian accents, etc.
Personally I think that the Cybermen as a concept, whilst obviously not 100% original, is terrific and echt-DW. They are an essential part of the fabric of the DW cosmos. I love them as originally conceived, but have no problem that they didn't maintain that weird electronic sing-song for their entire existence. Continuity for the sake of continuity, is pointless in my opinion. As an update on the 60's Cybermen, the RoTC model works just fine. They should have kept their weapon units in their heads, as later stories demonstrate. A hint of emotion, irony etc is also a perfectly valid take and really a subtle evolution of their character; truly soulless machines were terrifying in the Troughton era, but a smidgeon of personality is no problem. As I see it, each story needs to be internally consistent, and I have no problem with consistent continuity, however there is no reason to be slavishly obedient to it. If the basic problem with RoTC is that, 'Cybermen can't display a shred of emotion 'cause they didn't appear to in an era two Doctors previous' this is a very shallow premise indeed. Certainly to then label it the worst in the show's history. As far as the so-called ridiculous dialogue that the Cyberleader is given, I sense that this is essentially an argument along the lines of the above. It's hardly worse than uttering 'exterminate!' or 'answer!' or 'Do not move!' every five seconds.
Perhaps then I should mention the other 'big problem' with this story, the whole gold thing. I don't like the use of gold as an 'achilles heel' for the Cybermen, as a principle, but it works completely acceptably within the context of the story. It is difficult to explain on any kind of scientific basis, but in my opinion it isn't theoretically impossible. It is in any case, as I implied above, a lot less worthy of derision than having Cybermen with plastic chest apparatus being destroyed with nail varnish. Yet oddly this didn't really damage ,a href=moon.htm>The Moonbase for me either. It is true, though, that from this point on the Cybermen become progressively weaker, with Silver Nemesis taking the gold weakness to very silly extremes indeed. But this is not relevant to a consideration of this story as a story, because the gold weakness is not overexaggerated here. The point about Vogans impotently shooting rounds of gold bullets at cybermen without effect I thought was explained by the Doctor, in his mention of a glitter gun (which evidently was able to spray gold dust into cyber chest units) and his use of gold dust (ineffective as it turned out) rather than gold bullets, to attack the Cyberpersons.
Strangely, in the face of overwhelming and profoundly sage opinion, this story is and always has been one of my favourites. Unlike the fate of other stories, the revisionists have failed to alter my opinion of this one much at all. There are defects, but very few DW stories have no serious defects, and in any case the serious defects in this story have more to do with context and continuity than anything inherent in what we actually see on screen, if we see that without unecessary prejudgement. I loved this story as a child, and the cybermen were a very memorable image in my pre-teen imagination. I found them utterly chilling, with a very palbale sense of threat, far more than say the Wirrn, the Sontarans, Magnus Greel, the Taran Capel robots, or even the Daleks, even though all of these appeared in more critically favoured stories in the early Baker era. I believe that early fan responses to this serial were extremely favourable, and this gels with my first (and indeed last) viewing. I say, why not buck the trend and allow this much maligned classic of the Baker-Hinchcliffe-Holmes era to stand on its own merits. Even if the herd are all travelling in the opposite direction.
A Review by Thomas Cookson 21/1/06
The Cybermen were the second most popular of the Doctor Who villains after the Daleks - touted by Doctor Who fans as being easily in league with the Daleks' massive scare factor. The Cybermen have appeared in Doctor Who since the early years of the 1960s when the show was still in black & white, appearing in ten stories in total. In fact, the black & white Cybermen stories are considered the best of their adventures and the rest of the colour Cybermen adventures are often judged against them.
I bought a rare copy of Revenge of the Cybermen recently from the Doctor Who Exhibition in Blackpool (which is now closed for the season) partly because I remembered viewing it as a child, and also because I wanted to complete my Season 12 collection. I did not expect to enjoy this a lot, beyond a nostalgic tickle, but upon viewing, I did enjoy it quite a lot and am baffled as to why the story picks up such major flack.
Despite being the conclusion of the Nerva Space Station/Time Ring story arc running through Season 12, and being the first appearance of the Cybermen for over five years, the story leaps immediately into action without any ponderous exposition in sight. The time ring is simply a tool to get the Doctor into the setting, and the Cybermen are simply defined as "the enemy" who are simply metallic and hell bent on conquest.
So how does it fare as a Cyberman story? Well on the negative side of affairs, the Cybermen have seen better days. The Cybermen voices are probably at their weakest here, by which I mean they sound bland and lack edge. The distinctive psychology of the Cybermen is absent here; the focus is more on the action and the Cybermen are simply a two-dimensional opponent. In fact a lot of fans are of the opinion that the writer Gerry Davis had forgotten that the Cybermen are supposed to be emotionless whilst writing this script as we see a few scenes where the Cybermen seem to become angry and easily riled; but there again I think quite a few Cybermen episodes were guilty of that. Most of the Cybermen stories are exclusively about humans against the Cybermen and making a contrast of the two races, and one thing this episode does well is to emphasise some of the human elements that are alien to Cybermen, such as humour and nobility, which Tom Baker's Doctor as usual delivers in massive doses, as do his blundering companions. But part of the reason that I think the Cybermen aren't explored well as villains here is because the story makes the untypical move of introducing a third race of aliens into the mix in the form of the Vogons, the inhabitants of Voga, leaving no room for that villain's introspective or keeping the contrast balanced.
One thing that has only ever been achieved by the black and white Cybermen stories is a sense of technophobia. Taking place in futuristic settings with a lot of focus on technology and computers and spaceships, the black and white film footage made it all seem ominous, it made the technology as threatening and malevolent as the Cybermen themselves. As this is filmed in colour, of course that atmosphere is missing here.
On the positive side, what this story has over the later Cybermen stories of the 80s is that it treats the Cybermen as a threat that's very hard to kill. Apart from Earthshock, the Cybermen stories of the 80s that follow on from this see the Cybermen suddenly being very easy to kill and becoming cannon fodder and dropping like flies. Here we only have a small band of Cybermen here as opposed to armies (which in a way makes the final victory rather more plausible than usual), but they are tough as nails and can easily scatter the Vogon soldiers like sticks. The Cybermen themselves are impervious to bullets and can only be killed by the most sudden and concentrated violence. They also are allergic to gold, but to kill a Cyberman with gold you have to break down the gold into dust, get very close and embed the gold dust into their chest plate, and given the strength of a Cyberman, you'll have one hell of a struggle on your hands. In fact it is very likely that the Cyberman would rip your arms out of your sockets before you got the chance, or they'd blow your head off with their inbuilt cannon above their head. We see a few scenes of physical combat that are actually very well choreographed and directed, with plenty of point of view shots to give it that up close and personal intensity and threat - and that's something exceptional for Doctor Who.
Another thing it has over the 80s stories is that it maintains its settings well. Its locations are the space station and the underground caverns of Voga and it sticks to them rather than abandon one for the other halfway through. In that way the setting and atmosphere is invested in, and that's why for me it has more staying power than Earthshock or Attack of the Cybermen where we keep jumping ship. The space station is the least fun of the settings it must be said, very bland and lacking the ominousness that the set conveyed in The Ark in Space, but in that way it works as a safe location under siege. The dark caverns on the other hand give the episode some bare bones, icy and gritty atmosphere. But together they make me appreciate the story as a whole well. And I think that's an opportune moment to get into the story's thematic content.
Doctor Who has a reputation for being morally challenging, but to be honest most of the series was very much black & white, good versus evil sci-fi pulp. Those were the roots of the series and that was how it was played in its formative first two decades of the 60s and 70s. But the series was also one that occasionally experimented with more morally challenging ideas. That's how we got thought provoking moral tales like The Sea Devils and Genesis of the Daleks, which were the exception to the rule that marked the highlights that the show became remembered for, and which were often homaged when Doctor Who expanded beyond the formative period into its post-modern era in the 80s and which continue to be homaged in the show's revival today.
This story and its morality is pretty much as pulp as they come and I suppose that's true of most of the Cybermen stories, because at their root, Cybermen stories bear a lot in common with zombie tales and body horror, which is all very pulp. We see here all the manly heroism conventions where men like the Doctor and Harry and the crewmen of the space station (who have noblely accepted a life in quarantine amidst the deadly plague to safeguard the rest of the solar system) are brave and have fighting spirit against all the odds, who never break a sweat or a tear as their comrades die around them, who never co-operate with the enemy when under their captivity, who gladly sacrifice their own lives for the greater good. Whereas the more cowardly or duplicitous men meet sorry fates indeed. I can't deny that the knighthood chivalry and fighting spirit is something I find myself lapping up enormously here - the sense of making a stand and making a difference.
The sense of fighting spirit even sees Harry, the Doctor's bumbling companion, get to be more heroic than usual. Throughout Season 12, Harry had started as a comic relief buffoonish character. But in the latter end of the season he had managed to become more of an actioneering hero, and here he engages in a few fights, escapes and danger dareings. But of course he is still very much the comic relief and is often belittled by the Doctor for his clumsiness. Harry had a great rapport with the characters of the Doctor and Sarah, a well-meaning and good-natured idiot who we could perhaps identify with for his fallibility, and very well performed by the late Ian Marter. For me it was a shame that Harry had such a short run as a companion to the Doctor; he'd had his season in the limelight and would only appear in two more stories, but to be fair that was probably because Doctor Who was moving into the kind of subversive stories and serious, mature territory where Harry's comic relief character would be obsolete.
The content of this episode is certainly not amongst Doctor Who's most intelligent or thought provoking, but its dialogue is still very eloquent and really makes the story a galvanising one; concerning the discussions between the Vogon leaders of opposing political parties who live underground on the planet Voga. Since the Vogons have long been menaced by the Cybermen, they have had to retreat underground and have lived this way for centuries; now the Cybermen have returned to the solar system and Vorus plans to finally fight back using human mercenaries to lay a trap for the Cybermen. The leader of the Vogons however objects to Vorus' risky plans, believing it would expose them all to the Cybermen. The result of this disagreement sees the Vogons descend into civil war over the episodes. With the Doctor's intervention, their people and their planet are saved and the Cybermen are defeated. The Doctor finally brings hope and victory to a surrendered people, which is especially reassuring given how the previous story Genesis of the Daleks saw the Doctor fail in his mission to stop the relentless, all-destroying expansion of the Dalek menace. You win some, you lose some.
Now, my reasons for choosing this story to review are because the coming next year, the new Doctor Who series will enter into its second season, and I can tell you now that among the things to look forward to in the coming season, will be the return of the Cybermen, and not only that, but the return of the Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith as well. The latter point I am really looking forward to as Sarah was one of the great companions of the old series. She had many great moments in the old series, very outspoken, very spirited and confident and intelligent as well.
Not only am I looking forward to seeing the Doctor and Sarah reminisce on times past and what's happened in their respective lives since their parting, but I'm especially looking forward to seeing what kind of rapport Sarah will have with the current companion, Rose (played by Billie Piper). Sarah being a mature woman whilst Rose is a teenager, Sarah being fiercely independent whilst Rose is still reliant on her family roots, Sarah being middle class and fond of the rural life, whilst Rose is as urban as they come, Sarah being very intelligent whilst Rose is streetwise - not well educated but she puts the knowledge she does have to good use. To be frank, I'm mainly looking forward to Sarah's return because I think Rose as a character has frequently been milked for her strengths too excessively too quickly and I foresee the character drying up very soon, whereas to me, Sarah as a character is a fountain of refreshment to the series.
When looking for Sarah's great moments of being outspoken, budding well with others and even challenging the Doctor's actions, you're looking at episodes like her debut, The Time Warrior, at most episodes of season 13 - Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars, Brain of Morbius, Seeds of Doom - and I'd also say Genesis of the Daleks is an important Sarah episode on the pretext that the undisputedly great and famous "Do I have the right?" scene in the story belongs just as much to Sarah as it does to the Doctor.
This is perhaps not Sarah's strongest material as the character is relegated to the role of the damsel in distress, in keeping with the pulp conventions. Her few outspoken moments see her complaining at the ineptness of her companion Harry at trying to rescue her, and in doing so she comes across as simply bossy and at her most bitchy. Then again she does bitchy so well, and for all sorts of reasons, her smile and the confidence of her voice and the adventurer's twinkle in the eye, she is such a delight to the episode, bringing a natural spirit to the role that's so comforting.
She also does the damsel in distress wonderfully in the moment where she is struck down by the plague that the Cybermen have created. We watch her limp and dying in Harry's arms, breathing hoarsely and sweating, with her curves well displayed, looking so helpless and vulnerable and it's exciting: at once harrowing and somewhat sexy too, and it's wonderful to imagine yourself as the manly hero who's going to save her life and how romantic it could be. And that's another thing: the writers pull out all the stops to really make that moment suspenseful. They even have a scene where the teleporter that is supposed to transport Sarah quickly to treatment fails to work because of sabotage, and so the Doctor has to repair it whilst all the time Sarah is dying. It's great suspense and yet fans still write this story off as a dud.
Well, that said, the story is not without its faults and some of the criticisms are justified. There is no escaping the fact that this was basically a cheap story run on a budget at its most shoestring, since it was the season closer. That is why the space station setting from Ark in Space is recycled here. The most disappointing special effects are towards the episode's end where we see rockets being launched with very obvious use of stock footage from NASA, and we see the surface of the planet Voga up close and it looks very plastic and the horizons don't match at all; very unconvincing. The makeup on the Vogons is also obviously made of masks but this didn't bother me as much. Also towards the end the episode's events became very routine and predictable with obvious plot devices to bring about the climactic victory, and yet I still enjoyed it. Oh and there's a lovely continuity error whereby the Vogon's parliamentary hall bears the Seal of Rasillon (or something that happens to mlook exactly like it), a Gallifreyan insignia which doesn't belong with such a primitive people. The thing is of course, us Doctor Who fans can generally chill out about such continuity errors in a way that your Star Trek/Star Wars/Buffy fans often couldn't.
One fan criticism that I refute concerns the Vogon soldiers battling the Cybermen. The planet Voga is rich in gold and the Cybermen have an allergy to gold and yet the way the Cybermen wade through the bullets suggests that the Vogons were either too stupid to load their guns with gold bullets or they were collectively all very lousy shots. At least that's the official fandom view, which seems to overlook the fact that the Doctor stresses in this episode that gold is only effective as a weapon if it's broken down to the size of small gravel and embedded into a Cyberman's chest unit where the gold dust acts like a spanner in the works since it is an uncorrodeable metal. Therefore gold bullets would have no effect, only the unseen "glitter gun" that the Doctor refers to would work. And for the record I really like the way they make the Cybermen appear invincible here.
I couldn't pretend that this was one of the highlights of Doctor Who. I couldn't honestly say that every minute of it was sheer bliss, but then again there are only five Doctor Who stories that I actually could say that about, which would be The War Games, Genesis of the Daleks, Seeds of Doom, Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock. And it's not a story I watch often but it's one I do find entertaining and motivating when I put it on.
So there you have it, Cybermen and Sarah Jane Smith - and we don't have long to wait before they return to our screens again.