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DOCTOR WHO SERIES TWO
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APRIL-JULY 2006
(aka DOCTOR WHO SEASON 28)
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DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN
05 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN (Photos below)
 
"...The most precious thing on the Earth is
the human brain.
yet we allow it to die..."

PLOTLINE

The TARDIS is trapped on a parallel Earth.

The planet is under threat from the surgically augmented Cyberman. Second only to the Daleks, this race of emotionless creatures (with origins on Earth) is unforgiving.

For the Doctor and Rose this is there most challenging adventure yet, but they have some familiar friends to help them along the way.

Anyone for Vitex?

EPISODE FIVE REVIEW Pending

Watching this two parter back-to-back, I realised that it was essentially a 90-minute movie cut in half: the first episode serves as the build-up, ending on a cliff-hanger that once again felt worryingly like JNT-era stuff (where was the over-extended cry, "Noooo!") and the second episode (THE AGE OF STEEL) was the cluttered pay-off.

This story is the SERIES 2's equivalent to SERIES 1's DALEK - a classic DOCTOR WHO baddie is reinvented for the 21st century - but this lacks the flair and originality which flavoured that story: whereas DALEK felt like a chamber piece, this Cyberman story was an epic that suffered from too much plot and flawed structure, which is all the more surprising because the story had two parts across which to spread itself out and yet feels cramped.

Still, like all RDT-influenced material, it has some splendid moments but not enough to make this a bona fide classic.

The terms under which we are reintroduced to the Cybermen may be tiresomely familiar to sci-fi fans - the parallel universe shtick has been done to death in every major science fiction TV show, I believe - but I liked this cheeky touch because it means we have not met the Cybermen of 'our' universe but rather a version of them (and so RDT can reintroduce them all over again at some point!).

The new costumes are splendid, the silver-painted suits and cheap boots consigned to the dustbin of low-budget history, replaced by a costume that looks solid and heavy: the sound effects which accompany them when they walk now make them sound like what they are supposed to me, animated suits of armour. The voices are another neat tweak: they have electronic, sexless, monotones, reminiscent of the Sixties Cybermen (but not the dire sing-song voices of their first appearance, thank God). And we at last see large groups of (large) Cybermen, marching in robotic lock-step: excellent! If you were of a cynical bent, you might feel that their movement is reminiscent of the Tin Man's dance in THE WIZARD OF OZ but let's move on...

Another good move is that (as in DALEK) we get a strong sense of the beings inside the suits: when the Doctor 'wakes up' the Cybermen, his encounter with the converted Jackie is shocking and moving but this is unfortunately undercut when he goes through essentially the same scene with another downed Cyberman who, it turns out, was a bride-to-be.

The conversion process is a suitably nasty visual - saw blades repeatedly darting down towards the camera in POV mode as the victims scream in terror and agony - backed by the tune, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". What were they thinking?? Beats me, but it works! The words used to characterise the conversion process are also amusing choices: murder (if you are "incompatible") is "delete" and butcher (what else do you call removing someone's' brain against their will??) is "upgrade".

Lumic is a Davros-wanna-be all right ("I have a species of my own"), but the character is another study in missed opportunities. Roger Lloyd-Pack - JNT-style LE ('light entertainment') casting, on the face of it (Lloyd-Pack is best known as Trigger in ONLY FALLS AND HORSES) - does his best in a painfully under-written part, which is a crime if you consider that Lumic is the prime mover of this story. He has one great throw-away line, "Where's my Zeppelin?" And in THE AGE OF STEEL he is replaced by the Cyber Controller suit: how impressive would Michael Wisher's performance have been if by episode three of GENESIS OF THE DALEKS he had been buried inside a Dalek prop? The visual is fab, granted, but did he have to be seated with all those cables, because the image is not so far removed from the Emperor Dalek in the first season. And it may be just me but seeing the Cyber Controller hanging from a rope ladder before plummeting to his doom seemed a little...silly.

I remember smiling when Ricky's henchman breathlessly mentioned the "hundreds of cybermen, all down the Thames" - which we never get to actually see - and I experienced another JNT bargain basement era flashback. But there is no avoiding the fact that while this was acceptable (droll) when the show was being made on a shoestring, the RTD era is a different animal - its Special FX are often very special indeed - and so when one expects a key visual (to be specific, the depiction of the progress of the cyber-occupation of recognisable London landmarks. which was a feature of THE INVASION ) and this is dodged with a quip, amusing or not, it leaves a sour after-taste. And, yes, I appreciate that Battersea Power Station is a familiar London landmark but, good grief, it's not much of one, is it!?

And that's the real problem, for me : this story is so very much like THE INVASION in feel (not style or look) that I cannot get past my impression that it does not transcend its faults to attain the status of a landmark story, in comparison with the dated Who tale that, while hamstrung by its low budget, is still an important marker in the shows history because it tried to take the show outside its 'studio-bound', low-budget-look 'box'. This story underlines the view that giving DOCTOR WHO a big budget was only half the battle. It is not a new take on telling an otherwise familiar DOCTOR WHO story (merging GENESIS OF THE DALEKS and THE INVASION is not a bold move): it resembles an old story given a fresh coat of paint.

The written characterisations ( not the performances: the actors do the best they can with what's on the page) seem designed merely to serve the plot and the visuals. Tennant and Piper show up and deliver their lines briskly as they rush from one scene to the next. My favourite Tennant moment is this exchange with Mickey:

MICKEY SMITH: You're making this up as go along!

THE DOCTOR: Yes, but I do it brilliantly.

But the Troughton-esque quip, "I'd call you a genius, but I'm in the room" is a very close second. And the moment where Rose tells her dad that she is the daughter he never had followed by his rejection of her, should have been a show-stopper, but it is not because the moment is swept aside in a rushed denouement.

The human heart of the story should have included Rose - her relationship with the parallel universe version of her dad, and the fate of her parallel mum - and Mickey - his realisation that he might have a better life on this parallel Earth (which raises the question just how bad was life on the old one?) - but clumsy writing (poor pacing and plotting) does not permit the Rose moments to bloom (ahem) and so it is Mickey and his encounter with his parallel self, Ricky, that really shines. Ricky has the best comedy line ("I'm London's most wanted - for parking tickets" ) and the shame-faced line reading is spot-on. And I doubt very much if Mickey's cry, "Hold on, Rose, I'm coming to get you!" was an unconscious nod to Eccleston.

Ricky's death is a genuine surprise and a good twist because it provides convincing motivation, inspiring Mickey to take the road not traveled: Ricky was the strong man Mickey realises he can and should be, and this self-awareness is underlined to harsh effect when he tells Rose, "It's just you and him [the Doctor]". And we know that he is right. Mickey's departure is all the more poignant because the character finally came into his own only to be written out (and where have we seen that before?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXTRA
 
 
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Jackie Tyler's new ear-rings
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Jackie Tyler's new ear-rings
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The Doctor and Rose go undercover
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The Doctor and Rose go undercover
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Mickey Smith is taken hostage by Rickey Smith
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Mickey Smith is taken hostage by Rickey Smith
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The President is
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The President is murdered
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The Doctor surrenders
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - The Doctor surrenders
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Rose with Mickey and Rickey
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Rose with Mickey and Rickey
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Lumic orders a Cyberman to kill his Head Scientist
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Lumic orders a Cyberman to kill his Head Scientist
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - TARDIS in flight and in trouble
DOCTOR WHO - DAVID TENNANT - SERIES 2 - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - TARDIS in flight and in trouble
Review - Simon Cunnington
EOH RATING

5/5 PLUS

DOCTOR WHO - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Tom McRae
DOCTOR WHO - RISE OF THE CYBERMEN - Graeme Harper
CAST
THE DOCTOR
David Tennant
ROSE TYLER
Billie Piper
MICKEY SMITH
Noel Clarke
JACKIE TYLER
Camille Coduri
JOHN LUMIC
Roger Lloyd-Pack
CYBER-LEADER
Paul Kasey
JAKE SIMMONDS
  Andrew Hayden-Smith
CYBER-VOICES
  Nicholas Briggs
CYBER-LEADER
  Paul Kasey
THE PRESIDENT OF UNITED KINGDOM
  Don Warrington
RITA-ANNE
  Mona Hammond
MRS MOORE
  Helen Griffin
MR CRANE
  Colin Spaull
DR KENDRICK
  Paul Anthony-Barber
MORRIS
  Adam Shaw
SOLDIER
  Andrew Ufondo
NEWSREADER
  Duncan Duff
 
Cyberman originally created by
Kit Pedler and Gerry Davies
PRODUCTION CREW
 
1st ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Clare Nicholson
2nd ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Steffan Morris
3rd ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Lynsey Muir
LOCATION MANAGERS
Lowri Thomas
Gareth Skelding
UNIT MANAGER
Justin Gyphion
PROD.
CO-ORDINATOR
Jess van Niekerk
PRODUCTION / SCRIPT SECRETARY
Claire Roberts
PRODUCTION RUNNERS
Victoria Wheel
A/PROD. ACCOUNTANTS
Debi Griffiths
Kath Blackman
Bonnie Clissold
CONTINUITY
Nan Eleri Hughes
SCRIPT EDITOR
Helen Raynor
CAMERA OPERATOR
Roger Pearce
FOCUS PULLERS
Terry Bartlett
GRIP
John Robinson
BOOM OPERATOR
  Jeff Welch
Bryn Thomas
GAFFER
  Mark Hutchings
BEST BOY
  Peter Chester
ELECTRICIANS
  Chris Davies
Clive Johnson
CHOREOGRAHPER
  Ailsa Berk
STUNT
CO-ORDINATOR
  Abbi Colins
STUNT PERFORMERS
  James O'Dee
SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR
  Stephen Nicholas
ART DEPT PRODUCTION MANAGER
  Jonathgan Marquand Allison
STAND-BY ART DIRECTOR
  Nick Burnell
ASST SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR
  James North
DESIGN ASSISTANTS
  Matthew Savage
Peter McKinstry
Rob Dicks
Al Roberts
STANDBY PROPS
  Phil Shellard
Trystan Howell
STANDBY CARPENTER
  Silas Williams
STANDY SCENIC ARTIST
  Louise Bahling
SET DECORATOR
  Julian Luxton
PROPERTY MASTER
  Adrian Anscombe
PRODUCTION BUYER
  Catherine Samuel
PROPS STOREMAN
  Stuart Wooddisse
PROPS CHARGEHAND
  Paul Aitken
SPECIALIST PROP MAKER
  Mark Cordory
FORWARD DRESSER
  Matthew North
PRACTICAL ELECTRICIAN
  Albert James
STORYBOARD ARTIST
  Shaun Williams
ART DEPT. DRIVER
  Patrick Deacy
SET DECORATOR
  Julian Luxton
PROPERTY MASTER
  Adrian Anscombe
PRODUCTION BUYER
  Catherine Samuel
PROPS STOREMAN
  Stuart Wooddisse
SPECIALIST PROP MAKER
  Mark Cordory
PROP MAKER
  Penny Howarth
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
  Matthew Hywel-Davies
GRAPHICS
  BBC Wales Graphics
COSTUME SUPERVISOR
  Marnie Ormiston
COSTUME ASSISTANT
  Lindsay Bonaccorsi
Barbara Harrington
MAKE-UP ARTISTS
  Anwen Davies
Steve Smith
Moira Thomson
CASTING ASSOCIATE
  Andy Brierley
ASSISTANT EDITOR
  Ceres Doyle
PROSETHETICS SUPERVISOR
  Rob Mayor
PROSTHETICA TECHNICIANS
 

Jo Glover
Martin Rezurd

SPECIAL EFFECTS CO-ORDINATOR
  Ben Ashmore
SPECIAL EFFECTS SUPERVISORS
  Paul Kelly
Mike Corwley
SPECIAL EFFECTS TECHNICIANS
  Danny Hargreaves
Richard Magrin
ASSISTANT EDITOR
  Ceres Doyle
POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
  Chris Blatchford
Samantha Hall
POST PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR
  Marie Brown
ON LINE EDITOR
  Matthew Clarke
POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
  Chris Blatchford
Samantha Hall
POST PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR
  Marie Brown
ON LINE EDITOR
  Matthew Clarke
COLOURIST
  Mick Vincent
3D VFX ARTISTS
  Chris Petts
Paul Burton
Jean-Claude Deguara
Nicolas Herhandez
Andy Howell
Matthew McKinney
Neil Roche
Chris Tucker
Mark Wallman
Nicj Webber
2D VFX ARTISTS
  Sara Bennett
David Bowman
Melissa Butler-Adams
Joseph Courtis
Bronwyn Edwards
Michael Harrison
Simon C Holden
Russell Horth
DIGITAL MATT PAINTER
  Alex Fort
VISUAL EFFECTS CO-ORDINATOR
  Kim Phelan
DUBBING MIXER
  Tim Ricketts
SOUND EDITORS
  Paul McFadden
Doug Sinclair
SOUND FX EDITOR
  Paul Jefferies
     
With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
   
ORIGINAL THEME MUSIC
  Ron Grainer
CASTING DIRECTOR
  Andy Pryor CDG
PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT
  Endaf Emry Williams
SOUND RECORDIST
  Simon Fraser
COSTUME DESIGNER
  Louise Page
MAKE-UP DESIGNER
  Sheelagh Wells
MUSIC
  Murray Gold
VISUAL EFFECTS
  THE MILL
VISUAL FX PRODUCER
  Will Cohen
VISUAL FX SUPERVISOR
  Dave Houghton
SPECIAL EFFECTS
  ANY EFFECTS
PROSTHETICS
  Neill Gorton and Millennium Effects
EDITOR
  Llana del Giudice
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
  Edward Thomas
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
  Ernie Vincze BSC
PRODUCTION MANAGER
  Tracie Simpson
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
  Helen Vallis
   
PRODUCER
  Phil Collinson
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
  Mal Young
Julie Gardner
Russell T Davies
DIRECTOR
  Graeme Harper
  Produced by
BBC WALES
WRITER
  Tom MacRae
     
INFORMATION
BROADCAST DATE
13 May 2006
 
REPEATED DATE
  14 May 2006
     
FIRST RUN UK RATINGS (millions)
9.22 million (peak: 9.5)
 
DVD RELEASE
July 2006 (SERIES 2 VOLUME 3)

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