Days 722 to 723 - Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of Steel

The Cybermen are back! And what's more they have been "upgraded" for the 21st century series. See what I did there?

These aren't the Cybermen from the old series however, which to be honest is a bit annoying. The TARDIS crashes through a hole in the universe and the Doctor, Rose and Micky find themselves in a parallel world. In this world Rose's father Pete Tyler is still alive and is a successful businessman.

Unfortunately the more than slightly insane John Lumic has designed a way to prolong human life (motivated by the fact that he himself is dying) by placing the brain in a metal shell. The new Cybermen are born. To build up his own private army of Cybermen he sends trucks round to gather up homeless "volunteers" by tempting them in with the promise of a free meal. Brilliantly these lorries are all labelled with the name of a dummy company called International Electromatics, which just happens to the the company run by Tobias Vaughn in the second Doctor Cyberman story, Invasion.

Some stand out moments include the scene when a Cyberman is knocked down by one of the freedom fighters the Doctor has teamed up with, the Cyberman's emotional inhibitor is broken and it begins to speak like a normal, albeit confused, human. The twist that this particular Cyberman was a woman really hammers home the point of the horrific nature Lumic is making everyone all uniform and the same. This is used again when Jackie Tyler is revealed to have been converted into a Cyberman. 

This story also signals a goodbye, at least for now, of Micky. With this world having lost its version of him to the Cybermen her feels it is his place to stay and help in the fight. When the Doctor explains that travel between parallel worlds is practically impossible, Rose realises that she will never see him again. Micky and Rose have had a bit of an odd relationship. Poor Micky hasn't really known where he stands with her but it seems here he is finally making his decision. He knows he has lost her to the Doctor and in this world his gran is still alive so he decides to stay behind after an emotional goodbye.

I've always thought the Cybermen were more frightening than the Daleks. They have that creepy thing of looking kind if human but with that blank expression. These new Cybermen are certainly a more impressive threat than some of their predecessors, but they don't half make a racket when they walk! They couldn't exactly sneak up on you!