'Doctor Who: Attack Of The Cybermen' (1985)

Well, today was going to be a 'Book Haul' post but I had a lazy morning watching more 'Doctor Who' and thought to myself, lets have another 'Doctor Who' post instead... ;o) Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor doesn't get nearly enough time on here but I managed to come across a copy of 'Attack of the Cybermen' yesterday so that's what I watched today and...

The TARDIS is lured to Earth, London, 1985 by an alien distress signal. Investigating, the Doctor and Peri stumble upon an attempted bank robbery staged through the London sewers by a familiar foe – ex-Dalek agent Lytton. But who is he working for this time?

They soon discover that there is something far nastier lurking in the sewers – Cybermen.

Why do these silver giants need a time machine? What is their devastating plan of attack? And what does it have to do with a catastrophic event that happened long ago in the Doctor's past...?

One of the reasons why I settled on 'Attack of the Cybermen', today, was that it's only two episodes long; my focus is normally shot to hell come the weekend so two episodes worth of story sounded about what I could handle. Getting into it though, these two episodes were both forty five minutes each which did leave me wondering why they didn't just make it four regular sized episodes instead. I'm sure they had their reasons, I guess...

Whatever the length of the episodes, there is a lot going here and a lot to stay on top off with Lytton in particular double crossing pretty much everyone that he comes across . I like Lytton, not only does he keep things fresh but he is not phased by the Doctor at all and I think that's what this particular Doctor needs, someone who is a check to what is sometimes a massively rampaging ego. Don't get me wrong though, the more I see of Colin Baker's Doctor the more I like it these days. I like the way that his regeneration hasn't quite worked and he's still trying to work it through. Underneath that is the Doctor that we all know though, a man who wants to do the right thing and take a stand against all that is wrong with the universe. It's just that while he's doing this, Colin Baker's Doctor is buying into his own reputation just a little bit too much... And that's where someone like Lytton makes for a refreshing change. Peri is too overawed to make a real difference, I wonder what Lytton would have been like as a full time companion? We'll never know.

But I got away from myself a little bit there. 'Attack of the Cybermen' gives itself a lot to get done but manages to stay on top of it all and deliver a story that walks down a familiar path (aliens wanting to destroy the Earth) but with enough changes to the scenery to keep things relatively fresh and engaging. There's a lot of continuity for the more casual Doctor Who fan to get their head round but it's worth it in terms of seeing what the cold, logical Cybermen are able to come up with this time. And I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure that Halley's Comet was in the sky around the time of broadcast...

'Attack of the Cybermen' is more overtly violent than normal though with events ranging from Cryons dying agonising deaths, at room temperature, to Lytton being crippled before undergoing part transformation into a Cyberman. Even the Doctor proves that he's quick on the draw when he has a gun in his hand. I don't mind it personally, there's room in this universe for darker stuff to take place and it's good to see that the Doctor can adapt to that. If that's not your thing though, just be aware that this story has it's moments...

So... Plenty to get your teeth into and accompanied by a streak of darker moments running through it (the 'cyber transformations' here and that lady becoming a cyborg in 'Superman 3' scared the life out of me as a kid...), 'Attack of the Cybermen' has a fair bit to recommend it. A quick look at Wikipedia and it looks like it's only me who holds this opinion. Oh well, I liked it :o)