Revenge of the Cybermen

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · I am playing the video game version. Much better

pic.twitter.com/P7eNx49T8G

 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Not the Weetabix cardboard figures version, then...? Mine was brilliant...!

Tranmere Steve @Tranmeresteve · This story's surrounded by classics... Genesis, Ark, Sontaran...

Forgot this story starts with floating arses.

The Doctor, Sarah & Harry make it back to the where they were headed before being so rudely interrupted when the Time Lords intercepted them and sent them to Skaro. 

Something's not right, though, they've arrived far too early... 

Harry fancies the Doctor's ring... 

...but it belongs to the Time Lords.

...and there's dead bodies everywhere. 

Jason McLaughlin @jangomac72 · Or it looks like there's been a clear out of mannequins from a department store  

The radio operator from The Sea Devils gets typecast... 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris ·  I always liked the way he said “Plootoo” 

The surviving crew are holed up in the medical bay keeping up the pretense that the beacon still functions.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · It's all terribly "British" of them... Jack Hawkins and little Johnny Mills would have been in the movie version... 

Jeremy Wilkin as Kellman is great; continuing season 12's trend for much more grounded, real performances.

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · I loved Jeremy Wilkin as an actor. He always had that slightly other-world quality



He stitches Blake up in the first episode of Blake's 7.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  Ep 1 is wonderfully atmospheric... Always thought that... and this particular TARDIS team is rather wonderful... 

Yes, for any perceived story weaknesses, the team are uniformly perfect all season long.

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris ·I particularly like the interplay between The Doctor and Harry - a dynamic we’d never seen before 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · You can actually imagine them as being drinking buddies... off down the pub with the Brigadier...

50dw50 @50dw50 · if they were going to reuse a set thank goodness its a good one! 

The Doctor comes across a locked door, and goes at it with what appears to be a normal screwdriver, when he's got a sonic one in his pocket. 

Down Wookie Hole, one of the locals sends an SOS... and gets shot for his trouble. 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  That location film work does look good though...

Warner logs the call, much to Kellman's annoyance. He's up to no good, mark my words.

The Doctor nearly loses an arm breaking through the bulkhead door... 

Luckily Harry's there to blame.

50dw50 @50dw50 · he could regrow a fighting hand...

These Wookies aren't as hairy as they should be. Nor as intelligible... The Vogans are an odd bunch. And retcon it how you like, that was not a Time Lord symbol at this stage. 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "We want you to go back in time, Doctor, and prevent an infringement of our copyright..."

That giant cybermat's on the loose, and it leaps up and bites Warner.

Kellman destroys the log... 

It's not long before the TARDIS crew are at gunpoint & being blamed for Warner's "disease".

The Doctor volunteers Harry's services.

The beacon's crew think it's a plague. The Doctor disagrees. 

Slinking off to his room, Kellman whips out his replica Bond spy brush to eavesdrop... 

Jason McLaughlin @jangomac72 · Nice to know Universal Exports is still going .

Warner's burning up, the crew think there's no hope... 

The Doctor's suspicious of a virus that can eat tape and is straight on to Kellman...

...especially when he learns they're orbiting Voga, the planet of Gold. That can mean only one thing...

...they're up against the Cybermen, who have never had a problem with gold till this story! 

Sure enough Kellman starts tapping morse code to a ship full of new look Cybermen... 

Always hated the way Sarah said "scented a rat" when Tom said "smell". Little things. 

The Doctor decides to go rummaging through Kellman's undies. 

Kellman has gold, so must be in league with the Cybermen who are vulnerable to gold. Yeah... 

The Doctor hides under the bed; Kellman suspects so does some stuff that makes the floor smoke. Er...

What's the deal with that spark between the Doctor's toes? Is his Time-Lord sense tingling? 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · disappointed that the smoking floor and grubby wardrobes haven’t been brought in post-2005 

Warner didn't make it. Sarah tries to take her mind of it with some space documentaries. Is that an episode of The Sky at Night? Wonder where they unearthed that... 

Tranmere Steve @Tranmeresteve · love Tom's wardrobe swing round! 

Tom has to resort to the sonic screwdriver when it seems Bob Holmes is outside with his pipe. 

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · AND HIS CRACKPIPE WHEN HE IS BACK IN THE STUDIO WRITING UP NEW ADVENTURES... #capslockgremlinalert

Uh-oh, that giant cyber snake is creeping up on Sarah!

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek ·  So not a penis substitute. This is Doctor Who not Doctor Freud! 

50dw50 @50dw50 · sometimes a Cybermat is just a Cybermat 

The giant cyber snake leaps up and tries to bite Sarah's neck!

Argh! End of part 1! 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · this was a good cliffhanger - the VHS version didn’t bother with such things (if I recall correctly?)

The original release edited the episodes together to make a movie-length "omnibus" of sorts, yeah.

The Doctor escapes Kellman's smoking room and kills the Cybermat with the gold he pinched from his drawers. 

Sarah's got the lurgy so the Doctor needs to process her through the transmat to get the toxin out... 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Eleven year old me thought that was SOOOO clever...  

But Kellman's knackered the transmat, and gone into hiding. 

The Doctor needs a temporary solution... 

The Vogans are preparing a rocket to fire at the Cybermen. They don't like it up 'em! 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris ·  A huge, one-off rocket (that might miss) to deal with five Cybermen?

The Doctor lashes up a repair and gets Sarah and Harry down to the planet... 

When I was young and watched the VHS, I thought when Tom covered his face in that mini explosion that he was going to regenerate! Partly the transmat sound FX too, I think. 

50dw50 @50dw50 ·  love the cave scenes, one of the few times they got into real caves rather than sets 

50dw50 @50dw50 ·  do we like the vogan masks? 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris ·  I must confess, I love all things Vogan (even their plodding theme music) those masks are fab! That’s an amazing thing about this first Tom Baker series. Each story feels/looks totally different from the others

The design is decent but somehow the execution is ill-fitting. Distinctive, though. 

50dw50 @50dw50 ·  i think they are fine, much maligned, its like a world of old men, but as you say some could have fit better.


Harry's dreams of solid gold stethoscopes are dealt a blow by some locals in a dodgem. 

Kellman is trapped in a classic pincer movement... 

...but under interrogation he stalls as the Cybermen approach...

50dw50 @50dw50 ·  like most cybermen stories they are hardly in it! 

16 minutes till arrival, so the Cyberleader orders the boarding party to the hatch. Keen. 

Vorus, leader of the alien Vogans interrogates Sarah then gets Skyped by wierdy beardy. 

Kellman thinks he can wait it out, but the Doctor has found the remote for his cybermat... 

 Is he a good man, this new Doctor? 

Not everyone on Voga is on Vorus's side. He's into internal discipline apparently. 

The real shame here is that we don't get to see those fine actors beneath the Vogan masks. 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · Agreed! David Collings in particular is one of my very favourite actors and always gives great performances

50dw50 @50dw50 · that Tobias Vaughn has let himself go

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek ·  Don't you think he looks tired?

50dw50 @50dw50 · Kevin Stoney must have thought that Cybermen were the only monsters in Who or would only appear in their stories!

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Mavic Chen...?

50dw50 @50dw50 · bollocks, i never thought of that!

Harry tells Sarah she has ankles like Fetlocks then invites her to have a go at his. 

The cyber ship blanks the beacon's new resident DJ. 

Sarah & Harry are on the loose but they've been clocked & the Vogans fire their soft gold bullets at them. 

50dw50 @50dw50 · if they have gold bullets how come the Cybermen are not shot down later?

They were trained by stormtroopers.

Vorus' men are captured by the Vogan militia; time for Sarah & Harry to play another game of Q&A.

The Cybermen arrive... 

They take out Lester and the Commander with guns in their heads...

...and though the Doctor tries to slink away, he's shot down too! 

"All resistance overcome! The beacon is ours! Commence victory dance!" End of part 2!

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "The age of the human is over... the age of disco has begun!"

50dw50 @50dw50 · love the headguns, all Cybermen should have head guns!!!

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris ·  I’m right with you on this - head guns actually make sense for Cybermen, it’s just the type of upgrade they would do

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Another episode ending that had me leaping for my RT Tenth Anniversary Special, back in the day...

It's okay, everyone's only stunned. 

Kellman decides there might be something in the Doctor's pockets that might tell them a bit about who he is. 

He's not wrong! 

"I am Tyrum, chief councillor of Voga!" What do you want, a medal? A gold medal? Hmm? 

Kellman and the Cyberleader prepare their plan of attack... Seems there were always supposed to be 3 survivors. 

Vorus is a rubbish leader of the Guardians. Should've got Rocket & Groot in to sort out the Cybermen ages ago

50dw50 @50dw50 · the civil war scenes are depressingly topical 

The Vogans are a people divided by a history dominated by the Cybermen.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · On a planet of gold, a gold medal might be worthless... that old aluminium beer can, however, is priceless...

The Cyber-bombs are prepared as Kellman is dispatched to Voga.

50dw50 @50dw50 · love the Cyber-banter with the Doctor. 

"You're just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers, with comedy flares and daft voices!" 

"I will have my revenge, Dak-tar!" chuckled the Cyberleader, without emotion, as he strutted victoriously. 

"Oh, there is to be a second campaign, is there? Doctor in Distress 2, is it?" 

He manages to goad the Cyberleader into attacking him... 

...which gives him the opportunity to grab one of the bombs. 

The Cyberleader activates a silent alarm though... 

...so one of his troops sneaks up to take the Doctor from behind. 

So the Cyberleader will have his Tom-bomb after all. 

Kellman's made it to Voga, and demands to see Vorus. 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Always a difficult life if you're a quintuple agent...

"Cybermen do not subscribe to any theory of morality in war; we subscribe to Fragmentizers' Wives." 

The Cybermen strap ruddy great bombs to the Doctor, Lester & Stevenson to send them to Voga. 

If they muck about with the buckles they'll be blown to bits. 

Love how the Doctor plays with his yo-yo, here... 

...and how it carries on to the arrival on Voga. 

The Cybermen arrive and start massacring the Vogans. Good. 

Kellman is a double triple dip agent or something. He's *really* working for Vorus for the gold. 

50dw50 @50dw50 · i love the Cybermen blasting down Vogons on film, i could watch it for hours, which is just as well really.... 

Sarah's legged it in the confusion; but if she gets to the beacon & mentions the rocket the Cybermen might set off the Tom Bomb early! 

Sarah makes a getaway in a deadly motorboat...

Then she transmats up to the beacon... 

...where the Cybermen have switched on some cool blue mood lighting. 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Cyberdisco chill out room. 

50dw50 @50dw50 · i used to draw Cybermen with blue crayons as a child i expect that lighting was the influence

Phil Creighton @phil_creighton · I love these Cybermen. The design is a mash of Invasion and Moonbase, works well for me. Last great Cyber costume.

It's only really the flares that don't work, sort the boots out and it's a brilliant design. The heads are great.
Phil Creighton @phil_creighton ·NuWho heads are too complex to really work. Lack of chest unit also sucks. Idea of artificial lungs etc gone.

Yes, I dislike the SIM card concept & the overly robotic bodies. Lost the idea that they're technological mummies.

Harry starts to get things done, reasoning there must be another way down to intercept the Tom Bomb. 

A rockfall kills Kellman and knocks the Doctor unconscious. 

Harry's going to blow the Doctor up. Is he some kind of imbecile? 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · All together now... ;-) 

BRITAIN, BRITAIN, BRITAIN, HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE! 

"The other lot.. Cybermen, yes, terribly bad on names." Oh, give over. 

In 8 minutes the accursed Planet of Gold will be utterly destroyed, annihilated, vapourised, fragmentized, obliterated, banjaxed, buggered, knackered, twatted. It is good. 

The Doctor plans to clog up the Cybermen's chest units with gold dust. 

Lester sacrifices himself by interfering with his buckle in front of the Cybermen. 

The Doctor and Harry need to get deeper so that they can remove the buckles when the Cybermen's signal is too weak. 

Sarah jumps out when the Cybermen try to detonate their Tom Bomb but nothing happens.

"It has failed!" exclaimed the Cyberleader, emotionlessly. "Shit." 

The Doctor and Harry can remove the bombs safely now. 

As it's the same actor, it's too easy to picture the Karkus (from the Mind Robber) wrapped in foil.

"We must evacuate the beacon... in 3 minutes. Chillax till then, dudes. Take 5, let it all hang out. 

Now the transmat's working again, the Doctor can go back up to the beacon to save Sarah. 

Lovely little interplay between Tom & Lis as the Doctor frees Sarah. 

The Cybermen prepare plan B: load the Ark with bombs and crash into the planet below. 

The Doctor makes good use of the things that he finds - the knackered Cybermat and Kellman's gold dust. 

The Cyberleader has one last check around to make sure he's not left anything before he leaves the house: spectacles, testacles, wallet...

Having filled it full of gold, the Doctor uses the Cybermat to polish off one of its masters... 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "Hoist by your own pet's gold..."

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · nice that the Doctor actually improvises to deal with the threat though
MAW Holmes @MAW_H · (Holds up hand) How does the cybermat still function when it's full of gold...?

50dw50 @50dw50 · space magic

Vorus is shot in the back but not before he launches his rocket at the beacon...

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "My stock footage! My glory!"

When the Doctor and Sarah try the Cyber-mat trick again they're outnumbered. 

The Cyberleader gives it some outrageous hands-on-hips strutting as they leave the Doctor and Sarah heading for the biggest bang in history... 

The Doctor manages to talk Harry through steering the rocket to miss them... 

Luckily the rocket collides with the cybership, so that's the end of the cyber threat. 

Tom pulls off a nifty piece of piloting... 

...and just as the day is saved, the TARDIS finally turns up. 

Harry beams up, and the Doctor's already got 1 foot in the next adventure! 

The Brigadier's used the space-time telegraph the Doctor left him, and they're needed in Loch Ness! 

That old BBC Video logo/fanfare is magical, isn't it! 

Ah, well, at least the Cybermen's trip to Voga wasn't completely a wasted journey! 

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon: The Mind Robber