Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Action and humour nicely combined., 16 Mar 2009
Be aware that this is a single disc release not 2 as stated in the description but there are still plenty extras included here, enough for most tastes.
The story has quite a few strands working together the Cybermen trying to use Halley's comet to destroy the Earth, prisoners on Telos trying to steal a ship to escape, a fake bank robbery and Telos' original inhabitants the Cryons seeking revenge on the Cybermen. Not all of these work to the same standard and the first episode is generally viewed as being the better of the two.
Like many people I did not take to the Cryons at all, that might have changed if they were filmed as they were originally conceived but to me they just look silly but the chunky Cyber-controller makes up for some of that disappointment.
With decent actors like Maurice Colbourne and a nice vein of humour largely focused through Brian Glover, both of whom are now sadly deceased, oh and Peri's pink outfit which is fairly well discussed in the very interesting commentary by Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy and Sarah Berger who reveal many things including that there was an underwear thief at the BBC at that time.
The extras include a documentary about the making of the show which highlights the disagreements over several plot areas. It was meant to be slightly more violent, the Cryons were written as males, there's even dispute over who was responsible for coming up with the actual plot itself.
There's a nice look at the history of the Cybermen that examines how the design has changed over the years as budgets increased and a brief look at the possible future of cybernetic implants in humans.
As a whole it's a pretty decent package and one that I will be watching fairly often.
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!, 6 Feb 2009
Attack of the Cybermen kick starts Season 23 in a huge way.
The damb squib that was The Twin Dilemma ended Season 22 and was Bakers first full story, in which the producers unwisely gave us a Doctor no-one really liked who tried to throttle his companion and then left us with this thought for a year.
Whether the return to Saturdays was an attempt to mitigate this disaster is unknown but suddenly the show was back with a bang.
This story should have been Bakers first one, and should have started his tenure as Doctor without the twin Dilemma complicating things.
In this we soon like the Sixth Doctor and suddenly he IS the Doctor by the end of the first episode. It is a real shame Colin Baker didn't get more of an innings.
We have the following good points;
1; The powerful return of the Cybermen in very effective mood.
2; The return of the CyberController played by the same actor who played him in the Tomb Of The Cybermen way back in the 60's.
3; Some very cool Cybermen kitted out in black instead of silver.
4 Brian Glover who adds a note of ordinary humanity.
5; The return of Lytton, a brill villain who should have been in more stories.
6; The TARDIS gets to change its shape, and in typical fashion, doesn't do it very well.
7;An Ingenious plot idea, the attempt to change history and save Mondas etc. (One thing i would have liked to see but was not done was the inclusion of some footage from 'the Tenth Planet' with Hartnell or a first generation Cyberman somewhere along the way, but never mind.
8 Peri, (what a babe!)
9; The actor normally behind a Davros mask (Terry Molloy) gets to show his face.
10; The present day setting for the early part of the tale adds a real touch of class a la Third Doctor type stories.
11; There are some brilliant continuity references going right back to the first episode.
12; the 45 minute episodes in my opinion, really work well and allow the action to be paced better.
13; Violence. Yes, it should be here in Doctor Who. The Cybermen torture Lytton and at one point crush his hands to a bloody pulp; with their silver fists!! Excellent, brutal and exactly as Cybermen should be.
And the following bad points;
1; The Cryons are a bit, well, naff, and have silly voices (why do they sound like camp Cybermen; shouldn't they have normal voices? The modulatory thingy gets used too much again!)and wavy-abouty- hands and are just a little annoying.
2: The storyline loses it a bit into the second part, becoming a bit meandering, mostly due to the aforementioned Cryons.
3; The Doctor's costume. Well, never mind.
4; The tombs bear no relation to those seen in Tomb of The Cybermen, and look like left over bits from Focus or MFI.
5; No Cybermats. You would expect there to be some on Telos. When is someone going to bring these brilliant creations back?
So, this one has a lot going for it and is great fun. One of the better Baker stories, (there aren't that many bad ones actually) and a definite high point of Doctor Who before the downhill slide that would begin the following year.
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25 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Controller, I have a Cunning Plan!", 12 Jan 2009
Very fun story, often for the right reasons and quite often for the wrong ones.
Uncle Colin has hit his stride now whether venting his spleen at the Timelords, bluffing Peri will shoot someone or berating his own misjudgement. It's more a middling story for Peri but she gets some good moments and their relationship is working with only a few signs of the Margaret and Victor Meldrew set up that would come later.
There is a good guest cast with top marks for Maurice Colbourne, wonderfully charistmatic as returning mercenary Lytton (from Resurrection of the Daleks). Lytton has become a gangster to get where he wants to be and even gets a theme which is crying out for Dennis Waterman vocals. Watch for comedy favourite Brian Glover and Davros sans mask as Terry Molloy plays Russell.
New aliens the cryons leave a lot to be desired. Poor costumes, facial expression obscuring masks & a sing song voice-it's hard to tell them apart!
There is some great location work for gritty London (backed up by great sewer sets) and the surface of Telos. It is the same location as Tomb of The Cybermen but it looks more alien this time. Sadly the cyber complex set looks dreadful. It's so gameshow that you expect a Cyber-Brucie to turn up! At least the entrance to the complex is good, quite faithfully recreated from Tomb of the Cybermen.
There is some good direction and music especially the musical cues for Halley's Comet & the Steptoe cues for a junkyard.(*1)
The Cybermen are physically as they were in Earthshock & 5 Doctors. although Michael Kilgarrif recreates (*2)his Tomb of The Cybermen role as the Cyber Controller, he has a pot belly and an easter egg on his head.
1 Cyberman is dispatched by a bullet. Possibly it's meant to be a lucky shot through the mouthpiece but it still makes them look too vulnerable.
The Cybermen in this story have very odd ideas that seem for from logical. 1) Lock up your prisoners with the explosives. Yes I have heard the excuses that vastile explosive has to be kept below freezing and so do Cryon prisoners but are the ICE tombs of Telos really likely to be that short of cold rooms?
2) This concerns the main thrust of the plot. The cybermen have apparently all sat around and concluded that the destruction of original home Mondas (in Hartnell's last story "The 10th Planet")is where it all started to go wrong and plan to use a knocked off time machine to use Halley's comet to destroy Earth 1 year before it meets Mondas. There's enough info to gather this if you are not a long term fan and it's better that way because in 10th Planet an exhausted Mondas returns to the solar system to renew itself by draining energy from Earth and absorbs too much too quickly and is destroyed. Having them turn up and find the cupboard bare seems unlikely to be helpful.
This is an absolutely mad script that's been very well made. There's an odd moment of continuity as a junkyard from the very first story is located. Quite a bit is made of this with no explanation. Presumably proprietor I.M Foreman waited a chunk of 1963 for that creepy old boy and young child to vacate his junkyard and then just carried on trading.
This is a very fun story but scatalogical and if you're a fan of Colin and/or the Cybermen you will probably enjoy it. With an artfully written line like the following explaining why the Cybermen don't just kill some troublesome humans;
"There may be scientific value in studying how they attempt to evade their destruction"
You've just got to admire the bare faced cheek!
4/5 for the extras including;
A great commentary with Colin, Nicola, Terry Molloy and Cryon actress Sarah Berger. Colin agrees with some of the fan criticisms of the story "The more observant among you may have noticed the Cybermen are not the full shilling!" He also muses on the possibility of becoming a professional wrestler and is generally great fun.
"The Cold war" is an excellent making of documentary covering the disputed authorship of the story, an attempt by co-Cyberman creator Gerry Davies to sell a storyline, the story's position within Colin's 1st season and the level of violence.
"The Cyber-story" is an enjoyable but short history of Cybermen cleverly utilising soundbites from the Cybermen-The Early Years video. Detail on the 1st 3 stories and then it peters out until Earthshock with brief mentions of stories in between. Full marks for the interview with Sandra Reid the 1st Cyberman costume designer. There's a flash animation recreation of the destruction of Mondas from 10th Planet part 4, animation tests?
"Human Cyborg" is an interview with Professor Kevin Warwick an authority on cybernetics who has had minor implants which enable him to operate computers and so on. He's interesting but a bit worrying and well- best not leave him alone with your photocopier!
He's also in a lame Easter egg that has him trying to convince us he has an autonomous Dalek but as his acting's rather cybernetic-he won't scare your kids!
A very good package
(*1) For younger customers Steptoe & Son is a legendary junkyard based sitcom of the 60's & 70's and the music for the junkyard scene is very like the theme tune.
(*2) Michael Kilgarrif did voice work for a company where my mum worked and gave her an autograph for me and told her he was offered a second Troughton story as the Controller but was not available.
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