The first proper Colin Baker season begins with the return of the Cybermen!
Also this feels like the moment where the success of the challenge stands in the balance. This season is made up completely of 45 minute stories instead of the more traditional 25 minutes. That extra 20 minutes a day makes a whole lot of difference believe me! At least it will be practise for when I reach the new series!
To fully understand this story you unfortunately need to be familiar with several previous Cybermen stories going right the way back to their first appearance in The Tenth Planet. Luckily the Doctor gives us a potted history of events to remind us just what the hell is supposed to be going on.
The events of The Tenth Planet (the final story of the first Doctor) revolved around the Cybermens planet of Mondas approaching Earth and draining it of it's energy. Fortunately the Doctor was around to save the day as usual. The Tenth Planet was broadcast in 1966 but the events were set in 1985 which just happened to be the present day when Attack Of The Cybermen was broadcast. Therefore we see a return to this plot with the Cybermen having access to a time machine which they hope to use in order destroy the Earth before the Earth has a chance to destroy Mondas..clear??
As well as a return to the events of The Tenth Planet we also have a return to the events of the second Doctor story, Tomb Of The Cybemen! As if things weren't confusing enough! Tomb Of The Cybemen takes place on the planet Telos where the Cybermen have frozen themselves in order to preserve their energy. In Attack Of The Cybermen we return to Telos.
I love Tomb Of The Cybermen and I think it's a real shame that they didn't try to match the sets more here as the original tombs were amazing! In a bizarre decision we also get the Cyber Controller played in this story by the same actor who played him in Tomb Of The Cybermen. I mean what the hell is the point of that?? The actor has clearly put on weight so we get a rather strange looking Cyberman and there just wasn't any need to have the same actor play him! We can't see him and his voice is changed by the synthesiser so it's just completely unnecessary
The Doctor is still acting pretty erratic and poor Peri is doing her best to put up with him. I think the idea of having a Doctor like this is good but I think the reason it may fail (as some people claimed it did) is that I think they should have brought in another companion too. This way Peri and the new companion would at least have had each other for support and Peri could have someone to talk to about the Doctor. As it stands at the moment I'm just left wondering why she puts up with him!
The Doctor also temporarily fixes the chameleon circuit of the TARDIS allowing it to change its form once again to blend in to its surroundings albeit with limited success! This was a tease on the behalf of the producer who had jokingly threatened to change the look of the TARDIS from a police box to something else. By the end of the story though the TARDIS is back to it's old look.
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