Revenge of the Cybermen Part Four

The one where the Doctor turns the Cybermats on their masters...

I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I love Harry Sullivan. How can you not love the bumbling old fool, played so perfectly by Ian Marter? At the start of this episode, he's basically responsible for nearly killing the Doctor twice over. "Harry, were you trying to undo this?" asks the Doctor of the explosive bomb buckle. "Well, naturally," Harry innocently replies. "Did you make the rocks fall, Harry?" adds the Doctor, to which Harry responds: "Er, well, I suppose I must have done, yes."

"HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE!" hollers the Doctor, creating one of the most memorable moments involving Tom Baker and Ian Marter. The following scene is wonderful too, all down to Marter's spot-on performance and characterisation. Harry's rambling summation of events to the Doctor is hilarious. The way he casually mentions Kellman's death as an aside, forgets what the Cybermen are called ("Terribly bad on names") and sums everything up with the beautifully understated: "Things have gone a bit wrong." It's Marter at full throttle, totally in control of his character, and that's why I love him.

Less well characterised are the Cybermen, who continue to talk as if they are not Cybermen at all. The Cyberleader expresses so many different emotions and moods that he's barely a Cyberman at all. He refers to Voga as "the accursed planet of gold", he refers to the annihilation of Voga as something that is "good", and he even has a sense of self when he refers to "my plan" being thwarted by the Doctor. In some ways I find the idea of humanised Cybermen fascinating, and a really interesting progression for the creatures. Despite their quest to destroy human emotions and the weaknesses they perceive comes with them, the deep-seated humanity within them cannot be fully quashed, and the emotions still push through. This isn't something that was really touched upon in the TV series until the 21st century reboot (the emotional inhibitor in The Age of Steel springs to mind), but the idea that these Cybermen think they're free of emotion, when they're actually dripping with revenge, greed, hatred, pride etc is an interesting idea. The fact it's not intentional in the narrative is a shame.

Something else that bugs me is Tyrum, he of the Father Christmas beard and muffled diction. I don't understand why the Vogans don't know that the Cybermen are vulnerable to gold. Tyrum refers to the Cybermen as genocidal, but doesn't he wonder why they want to destroy Voga? It seems that throughout the entire four-part adventure, the Vogans never come to the realisation that gold harms their enemy. The Doctor asks Tyrum for a bag of gold dust in part 4 (which the old buffer seems to produce from between his legs!), but still, he doesn't wonder why? In essence, the Vogans are blissfully unaware that their greatest asset - their planet of gold - is their greatest weapon against their greatest enemy. Oh, the irony...

The Doctor and Harry's assault on the Cybermen on Voga is excitingly staged, and the struggle convincingly desperate, with Cybermen flailing about, and at times director Michael Briant has their emotionless helmets lurch right up close to camera, which is spooky. What doesn't work for me is the sudden self-sacrifice by Lester, who unbuckles his bomb to set it off and destroy the silver giants. There's absolutely nothing in the writing or performance leading up to this to suggest this is something Lester would do, it just comes out of the blue to serve the story, rather than the character. Having said that, characters aren't really Revenge of the Cybermen's focus. Both Stevenson and Lester are hollow, two-dimensional ciphers, and you'd be hard pressed to describe the personality of either. But still, Lester's sudden and, to be honest unnecessary, suicide is unconvincing. I'm not a fan of it.

Up on the beacon, silly Sarah gives away the Vogans' entire plan to the Cybermen, which is another example of poor writing. Sarah could quite easily have lied about the plan, said anything to the Cyberleader to put him off the scent, but instead she resigns herself to telling the truth. What sort of journalist does she think she is?

The Cyberleader takes some pleasure in telling Sarah that she will witness the destruction of Voga first-hand, then pops off into another room, leaving me to wonder where he's going and why? Does he need the loo? Is he updating his diary? Why do Cybermen leave the room? It sounds like a joke that has no punchline. Still, the Cybermen look glorious lit in midnight blue by the ever-reliable Derek Slee.

The Doctor returns to Nerva to rescue Sarah (their whistling communication is delightful), and then proceeds to rewire a Cybermat to attack the Cybermen with gold dust as its poison. A genius idea, to be honest, and the best use of the otherwise rubbish little scamps in this story. Interestingly, the Cyberman wails in pain when bitten, something else reminiscent of the tortured way most 1980s Cybermen die.

The climax has a good old countdown to ramp up the tension, with the Vogans' rocket hurtling towards Nerva, and Nerva hurtling towards Voga. Which will hit which first? The Doctor had asked for 15 minutes on Nerva to rescue Sarah before the Skystriker was launched, but power-hungry Vorus can't wait (despite having waited years for the rocket to become operational) and launches it with two minutes to go. In a surprise move, Tyrum shoots both Magrik and Vorus down in cold blood, something unexpected for the otherwise rather sedentary pacifist. It seems somewhat overzealous to kill them both, and killing sniffy Magrik in particular means they've lost the means to control the rocket in flight.

Nevertheless, the Doctor manages to instruct Stevenson how to direct the rocket into the Cyber-ship, and then himself manages to pull the tumbling beacon clear of the surface of Voga. The effect of the rotating planet surface to represent the proximity of the beacon to Voga is a good idea, but doesn't quite pay off because the spinning cylinder doesn't have a wide enough circumference.

The end of the story is rather rushed, as Harry beams back up to Nerva, the TARDIS finally arrives (what excellent timing it has too!) and our heroes are off in haste to answer a Space-Time Telegraph call from the Brigadier back on Earth. No thank yous or cheerios, just back into the box and on to the next adventure. It's a blunt way to end the season, but viewers didn't have very long to wait for the next adventure. Season 13 began just over three months later, after the shortest gap between series since 1968. In fact, the year 1975 can boast one of the greatest number of Doctor Who stories shown in one calendar year (nine - I'm ignoring Robot part 1!).

Revenge of the Cybermen is definitely the weakest story of Season 12, but it still has plenty to offer, including the atmospheric location shoot at Wookey Hole, the impressive physical presence of the Cybermen (hands on hips aside), and some great incidental music by Carey Blyton. However, the bad outweighs the good - the lack of characterisation, the depiction of the Cybermen themselves, the terribly slow start to the story which keeps the Cybermen sidelined, the rubbish Cybermats.

But I know that there are people who adore this story, and I have to admit I can see why. Nostalgia plays a part: it saw the return of the Cybermen after more than six years away, and it was the first Doctor Who story released on home video. But in the cold light of day, with rose-tinted glasses removed, it's hard to dispute that the story is something of a disappointment after the preceding few stories.

Doctor Who was off air for three and a half months, and its slot was filled by such diverse shows as Sing a Song of Emu, a showcase for the Harlem Globetrotters, magic show For My Next Trick, and the dreaded Jim'll Fix It. Now then, now then...

First broadcast: May 10th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Ian Marter is splendidly eccentric as Harry. I love Harry.
The Bad: The pointless self-sacrifice of Lester. And that awful, silly, almost embarrassing Cyber-massage the Leader gives the Doctor.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (story average: 5.25 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Terror of the Zygons...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/revenge-of-cybermen.html

Revenge of the Cybermen is available on BBC DVD (alongside Silver Nemesis). Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Revenge-Cybermen-Nemesis/dp/B003QP2TPA