Written by Brian T. McNamara
I love the Cybermen, they’re my favorite Doctor monster and have probably the best track record of stories out of all the villains across 53 years of appearances. I was interested in what this story would serve up from last week’s hook.
‘Ascension of the Cybermen’ is an action thriller from the jump. The Doctor and company arrive at the last human settlement on Earth where they encounter the last seven survivors. They quickly put safeguards against Cybermen in place before they’re ambushed by Cyber-Drones – flying Cybermen heads that shoot lasers from their eyes with a sort of TIE Fighter sound. Their defenses instantly taken down, The Doctor tells her companions to run for their lives. Only Graham and Yas are separated from Ryan and are whisked off into space. The Doctor confronts the Lone Cybermen – not so alone anymore – but makes a run for with Ryan and the last survivor.
The episode is intercut with a Superman-esque story of Brendan, a mysteriously orphaned child, as he grows up and joins the police in Ireland. It seems at odds with the main plot until the very end when an older Brendan is taken into the rear office of the police station on his retirement day and put in what appears to be a rudimentary Chameleon Arch.
The main thrust of the plot of the Cybermen story is pretty standard fare but very well done. It harkens back to the Borg stories of Next Generation and Voyager without necessarily retreading those. That said, the general sweep of the story is somewhat odd. The Doctor and crew go to Earth only to leave Earth on two separate ships but arrive at the same place. It begs the question of why not just keep everyone together? That the whole plot feels very similar to the Tennant era’s “Utopia” – last survivors looking for a way to escape the terror wiping them out with a strange old man on a far off world – works against us.
The Cybermen feel appropriately scary and the rusted-out Lone Cybermen is a compelling villain. There are also some great shots that play on his half-masked visage. The moment when he says he’s at war with himself is a fantastic moment. The new Cyber Warriors, who visually harken back to the “The Invasion”-era ’60s Cybermen are fantastic and I can’t wait to see more of them next week.
Graham and Yas are given a nice light in this episode as they “fill-in” for The Doctor. It goes a long way to showing how much they’ve grown in their time with her, but it does feel like this season has seen them all separated a lot and leaves some of those connections for the audience to make without necessarily seeing it play out. Ryan seems sidelined this outing and even to a degree, the Doctor.
‘Ascension of the Cybermen’ also feels choppy – like information was missing or left out of the mix. It’s not like the episode can’t stand on its own, but it does feel lighter than normal, as if scenes were excised to make room for the Brendan subplot.
The final revelation of the episode is somewhat obvious, but offers tantalizing ideas about the next episode. This season has been very neatly tied together and I hope the revelations about the Timeless Child will offer.
Rating: 7/10
Comments are closed.