Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Cybermen (Story
No. 79/BBC DVD)
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: A+ Episodes: B+
How do you bring a relatively newly minted
Doctor more firmly into his role? Make
him face an enfilade of some of his deadliest enemies! The story preceding this one matched the
Doctor against the Daleks (in the classic Genesis
of the Daleks). Writers Gerry Davis
and Robert Holmes were keen to continue this trend by next matching the doctor
against another of his most dangerous and implacable enemies, the
Cybermen!
The Doctor and companions Sarah Jane Smith
(Elisabeth Slayden) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) arrive on a deserted space
station some 1,000 years in the past from their previous position. Still far in “our” Earth’s future, the trio
discover that the advanced station is beset by a seeming plague that spells
doom for any who contact it. Of course,
nothing is what it seems, and Tom Baker’s Doctor thrusts himself into the thick
of the action to get to the bottom of things.
Soon it’s revealed that the alien Vogons maintain a refuge on a nearby
asteroid, and that the plague deaths are actually killings perpetrated by a
strange mechanical snake. And how does a
human traitor figure into all of this?
And when do the Cybermen themselves enter the fray?
Once Sarah Jane suffers an attack at the
hands of the cybernetic serpent, the action kicks into high gear. This story occurs early on in Mr. Baker’s run
in the role, and he is still a bit raw, but his frenetic energy shows through
in nearly every scene. Once the action
shifts down to the asteroid, the BBC crew treats the audience to some excellent
location shots courtesy of a local network of British caves. Mr. Baker seems quite at home mucking about
on the cave floor and leaping from walls in ambush. The makeup and effects work represent yeoman
efforts from the perpetually overworked and understaffed BBC crew. The Vogon projectile weapons, though sounding
a bit like cap guns, look especially convincing, but ultimately prove useless
against a small cadre of invading Cybermen.
The return of the Cybermen to the show
after a long hiatus sees them receive a much needed makeover. Although unable to match the menace conveyed
by the modern Doctor’s version of his metallic foes, these Cybermen still look
scary enough to send British children to seek cover behind the couch
pillows. This incarnation still features
a curious weakness to all things gold, providing the Doctor with the ideal
means to engineer their undoing!
This disc contains the normal bevy of
excellent extras, including commentaries from cast and crew, a great
documentary on shooting in the misadventures and hazards of shooting in the
cave complex, and the jewel of the entire disc, a feature called Checks,
Lies and Videotape. This amazing
documentary details the trials and tribulations of videotape-seeking Doctor Who
fans during an era when copies of the show were neither cheap nor widely
available. Through a host of interviews
and firsthand accounts, the feature shows the lengths Who fans were willing to
go to watch their beloved show. It also
tracks the development of business end of the Who empire, as it slowly dawns on
the BBC higher-ups that fans really do want to watch and own older shows--who
would have thought it?
Despite some uneven spots in plot and action, Revenge of the Cybermen builds nicely
on the momentum of the previous story’s Dalek tale, re-establishing an
important who foe in the Cybermen, and re-visiting a lesser light in the
Vogons. Baker fans will not be
disappointed by his frenetic performance, but even if the episodes fall a bit
short for some, the extras alone are worth the price of this disc.
-
Scott Pyle
