CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE STATE OF FLUX - PART THREE: THE REST OF 'EM!

And so we move into an unexpected third part to this essay. I really did think I could get it done in just two chapters but there was so much more stuff involving Daleks than I'd originally realized!   

Just in case you missed the earlier segments, here are links to them. It would help if you read them first: 

Part One:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/02/chronologies-and-timelines-state-of.html

Part Two:  

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/02/chronologies-and-timelines-state-of_19.html 

And now, Part Three...

As we move into our final chapter of STATE OF FLUX, we are going to mainly deal with one particular species. Like the Daleks, I am certain these are time travellers rather than creatures from the Present Day. While I'm quite sure the Sontarans and Weeping Angels were contemporary, these infamous cyborgs hail from the future. 

Once we have determined which era they are from, I want to explore a theory as to why they and the Daleks have come back in time the way they have. It's a bit of a complicated idea, but it could make sense of things. 

Before we finally wrap up this exploration of the Flux, there is still one more creature that we have seen before on the show that we need to put in a timeline of some sort. We don't see much of him, but he's there! 

STILL IN THE NURSERY 

In case you haven't guessed, we're going to be trying to figure out when exactly the Cybermen that we see in Flux come from. As was clearly established right in Halloween Apocalypse, the events of that particular cosmic disaster take place in 2021. But we do not see any Cybermen from that particular period. I believe the Cybermen that do show up in the story come from the distant future. 

Like the Daleks, I'm basing my opinion mainly on aesthetics. If we were seeing Contemporary Cybermen in Once, Upon Time and The Vanquishers, they would not appear the way they did. More than likely, they would resemble the model we saw in The Invasion. Or, quite possibly, the ones from The Moonbase. Those are the types of Cybermen that were around during that particular period (I'm ruling out Mondasian Cybermen as they do seem to get completely decimated when Mondas burns out during The Tenth Planet in 1986). There are a few other versions that we see here and there during the 20th and 21st Century (Neomorphs in Attack of the Cybermen and Silver Nemesis, Cybus Cybermen in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and Nightmare-Style Cybermen in Dark Water/Death in Heaven), but they are not what I would call "locals". They are time travellers or intruders from another reality or a specially-designed version by Missy. So we'd be less likely to see those particular kinds of Cybermen during the Flux as they only pop up incidentally in that era. Invasion and Moonbase Cybermen would be in greater proliferation. So those should be the ones being featured.**

But we see neither of these two models in Flux. Instead, it's the warrior-class Cybermen from Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children. This type would have fought during what I labelled the Second Great Cyber War that took place sometime around the 31st Century (for more details on this era, read here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/06/chronologies-and-timelines-appendixes.html). These Cybermen were capable of time travel. The Lone Cybermen does, after all, go into the past to recover the Cyberium. So it is possible for them to be able to make such a journey to the time of the Flux. 

How there is another army of this particular model might be a bit more difficult to explain. A troop carrier of them is discovered during Ascension but appears to get wiped out during Children when their ship is blown up. My guess would be that there were still other Cybermen of this nature out in space in ships that had been abandoned during battle. One of these groups of hibernators was, somehow, awakened. They probably caused some trouble in their own time zone but, eventually, went into the past. Where they then pop up for two episodes of Flux. 

Like the Gunmetal Grey Daleks that we also should have seen, I'm guessing the Contemporary Cybermen models were, more-or-less, destroyed fairly early on as the Flux spread across the Universe. Only the temporally-displaced Cybermen really remain. 

** To better understand the different models of Cybermen, check out this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/03/special-glossary-models-of-cybermen.html

BUT WHY ARE THEY THERE, ROB? 

Okay, so we've worked out where this particular batch of Cybermen comes from. We've also done the same for the Daleks in the previous entry. When discussing the Daleks, I claim they were time travelling to accomplish some sort of secret mission and just happen to get caught up in the events of the Flux. 

Should we say the same sort of thing just happened to be going on with this army of Cybermen? Were they, too, on some sort of unrelated expedition into the past and got swept up in events? Admittedly, it does seem like a bit too much of a coincidence. 

It might make more sense if we just assumed that these Daleks and Cybermen from the future actually came back in time to investigate the Flux. It's entirely possible that the two armies were trying to save their own timelines because the catastrophe was powerful enough to re-write the future. That, indeed, the Universe was going to get totally destroyed by the Flux and the Daleks and Cybermen were trying to prevent this from happening before they became an aborted timeline. 

I'm likening the whole thing to that experience the Doctor has with the Ood at the beginning of The End of Time. Where they actually explain to him that "events of the past are affecting the present" (or words to that effect). The Oods' psychic ability enabled them to see a divergence in the timeline that was about to happen that would erase them from existence and enlisted the Doctor's help to stop it from happening. 

While Daleks and Cybermen don't have psychic abilities (it is kinda cool that Sontarans have developed a special psychic division, though) they are both proficient at time travel. That proficiency caused them to create some sort of technology that allowed them to view the causal nexus and see that what was happening in 2021 would change the future and wipe them out. 

As usual, the two races applied brute force to solve the problem. Sure that a gigantic army could fix anything, they sent a huge force back to 2021 to take care of things. Once there, they saw that even their great numbers were useless against such a disaster. But they could not escape back to the future. That timeline was now gone and wouldn't return unless someone could stop the Flux. 

All that's left for these time-travelling Daleks and Cybermen is to consolidate their losses. They try to occupy what little of time and space is left. Eventually, they get lured into a trap by the Sontarans. The events of The Vanquishers happen here.   

Clearly, there are still some Daleks and Cybermen around after the Sontarans spring their trap. Either some escaped when they realized they'd been betrayed or there are some Daleks and Cybermen in the future that still exists because the Flux didn't completely destroy the Universe. Whatever the case, we have already seen the post-Flux Daleks harassing the Doctor. No doubt, Cybermen will come along too.   

JUST ONE LAST THING.... 

Okay then, the Daleks, Sontarans, Weeping Angels and Cybermen all seem to be taken care of. We're done, right?    

Not quite. 

I almost don't think about that nice little Ood we saw in Survivors of the Flux and The Vanquishers because he isn't actually a baddie. But I did create a timeline for the Ood a while back (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/02/chronologies-and-timelines-odd-history.html) so I should give these two episodes a place in their history. 

No doubt, Tecteun has the ability to pluck the Ood from anywhere in time and space. But, once more, we're going to let aesthetics have a role to play in things. The Ood does have a translation device so we're going to say he was taken from some time during the Halpern Family's occupation of the Ood Sphere (some time between the 40th and 42nd Century). I'm guessing Tecteun just time scooped one of them out of the warehouse and everyone chalked up the sudden disappearance of livestock to a glitch in the inventory program! 

Clearly, snatching the Ood took place before the events of Planet of the Ood. Yes, there were Oods that still had translation devices after they were liberated, but I doubt they would still be all that subservient. And Tecteun would have wanted an obedient slave. Although, we could argue that the Doctor gets the Ood to help her as much as it did because it is one that has been freed. But I'm more inclined to think that the Ood just saw the sheer magnitude of what its master was commanding it to do and broke its conditioning. It just couldn't do what was being asked of it. 

We could really nitpick and try to decide whether or not this Ood hails from before Impossible Planet/Satan Pit or after but I don't think we really need to be all that precise. I'm fine with just saying it comes from somewhere within those two centuries when the Halpern Family ruled the planet. 

There we go, we've now taken care of everything that happened during The Flux (and a little bit before and after if we're counting some of the Dalek stuff!). Everything has been neatly arranged into the various timelines that I've conjured up over the years. 

No doubt, I'll be adding an Appendix soon to my CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES essay about Homo-Reptilia. In the meantime, I'll write about some other stuff. Easter is still a long enough way off!   

 

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE STATE OF FLUX - PART TWO: THE DALEKS!!

My vain efforts to create coherent timelines for all the returning baddies that showed up in Flux continues. I thought I could tackle this in two parts. It looks like it might take more...

DALEK STUFF - MORE THAN I REALIZE!   

Ironically, the recurring foe that we saw the least in Flux will probably take up the most amount of space to discuss. At first, I thought I would just be dealing with the brief cameos the Daleks make in Once, Upon Time and The Vanquishers and be done with it. But then I made an important realisation: 

"Hey Rob," it dawned upon me as I attempted the mental gymnastics of placing the Daleks from Flux in a timeline of some sort, "There are two other Dalek stories that have come out over the last year or so that you still haven't reconciled!"

"Oh yeah!" I said back to myself in sudden surprise, "I should take care of them too!" 

I have these sort of conversations with myself quite frequently. Sometimes, I'm just crossing my own timeline while still in the same incarnation. On other occasions, it's a full-on multi-incarnation adventure!    

RESOLVING THE REVOLUTION

Shortly after it was transmitted, I went to the trouble of figuring out where the very fun and exciting Resolution fits within the Dalek Timescale. You can read the full entry here if you so desire: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html. 

I actually made a very bold claim about the tale. I believe that this is the first story in the New Series that uses a Dalek from before the Time Wars. It is my theory that this Recon Dalek was sent to Earth sometime after the events of The Daleks but before Power of the Daleks. 

I find this to be a rare occurrence with how the Doctor has been dealing with the Daleks since the Time Wars. For the most part, Dalek stories have been happening in a fairly linear fashion. I have even postulated that the Daleks might be operating on the equivalent of a Gallifreyan Mean Time. Admittedly, this might not actually be the case. Such rules may not exist for the Daleks. But I do think the Doctor might be making a concerted effort to keep his relationship with his greatest foes as orderly as possible. He tries his best to meet them chronologically. And he is making a concerted effort to avoid dealing with Daleks from before the Time Wars for fear that he might accidentally give them a "sneak preview" of things to come.

Resolution, then, is a bit of an oddity. Clearly, Daleks from after the Time Wars would have no need to send a Recon Dalek to Earth in the 1700s to investigate it. By this point in their history, they know Earth quite well, already. So this has to be a Dalek who comes from that specific time who is scouting the Earth. The battle that splits the Kaled Mutant into three parts represents the very first contact Daleks have with humans. 

It stands to reason, then, that the Recon Kaled Mutant that is re-created by Leo Rugazzi from the remains found in the "junkyard chic" Dalek casing left behind in Resolution also hails from the same time period. Chibnall provides us with a very clear narration that this Recon Dalek has come back to make more trouble. That the Kaled Mutant originally comes from the 1700s and re-assembled itself in 2019. A clone of it was then made about a year later. From there, it creates an army that it intends to use to take over the Earth and establish a power base from which it can begin a campaign of galactic conquest. 

This Recon Dalek has no idea of the contrived future that its race has forged for itself that we have already seen. It does not know of the other attempts to conquer the Earth that will happen in adventures like The Dalek Invasion of Earth or Frontier in Space. Nor is it aware that its people will eventually wage war against the Time Lords in stories like Day of the Doctor. It does not know, either, that survivors of that Great War will come back to plague the Earth in the early 21st Century in episodes like Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End (to make this things even more convoluted, those particular episodes all take place prior to Resolution and Revolution of the Daleks if we are viewing them from the perspective of Earth's timeline!).

While the Recon Dalek is oblivious to all this, it will still be influenced by these events as Daleks from its own far-flung future will come back and complicate things. 

ESTABLISHING A SECOND DALEK TIMELINE 

So, it seems pretty clear where and when the Recon Dalek and his army come from in Revolution of the Daleks - but that doesn't mean we're done sorting out the timelines for this story. There is a second group of Daleks that we also need to address. I'm speaking, of course, of the Death Squad Daleks. Or the SAS Daleks - as they are nicknamed.

Because of their bronze livery, it's clear to me that these are Post-Time-War Daleks. Sometime after their battles with Gallifrey, they have intentionally placed themselves in the Time Vortex so that they can easily go to any period in history and wipe out Daleks that they deem impure. The Question is: where do they fit in the Dalek Timeline before they entered into  the Vortex? 

My guess would be that they come from some time shortly after the events of Victory of the Daleks. One of the main elements of that particular story's plot involves Daleks having to prove to the Progenitor's computer that they are "true Daleks" even though they are showing signs of genetic deviation. It would seem to me that, after such an incident, the Daleks would want to create a more concrete solution for the problem of other impure strains that might be out in the Univere. We see by Assylum of the Daleks (a story that takes place a short while later in that particular part of their chronology) that they have become a mighty army, again. They can afford to allocate a small force to the Time Vortex to manage the problem. Their great numbers would also mean that they have no need of these impure Daleks to increase their size. They are just fine with having the rogue Daleks exterminated. 

For me, then, the Death Squad Daleks come from some time between Victory of the Daleks and The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang. Or, quite possibly, shortly after Pandorica Opens/Big Bang and Assylum of the Daleks. Dealing with the Cracks in Time the Doctor's exploding TARDIS caused might have been a higher priority than creating a Death Squad. It all depends on just how much time actually passes between Vicotry and Pandorica/Bang. If the Cracks In Time Crisis happens almost immediately after Victory then forming the Death Squad might have taken a bit longer. If it took a while for the disaster to occur, the Death Squad might have come along first. But all three stories, I feel, happen quite close together. I do think the Death Squad would hail from sometime around this period. 

If you want a better look at that particular period of their history, here is the entry that covers it: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/4155651475182736486?blogID=4155651475182736486.

AT LAST, WE GET TO THE FLUX 

Finally, we've reached the Daleks that we see in Flux. While we clearly established in Part One of this little dissertation that the Flux is taking place in late 2021, I don't believe the Daleks that we see during the event are from that particular time period. These are, in fact, Daleks from the far-flung future that have travelled back in time and gotten trapped in this period as the Universe seems to be ending. 

As usual, I'm going with my philosophy of: "If it's a bronze-liveried Dalek - it's from after the Time Wars." Which is exactly the sort of Dalek we see in both Once, Upon Time and The Vanquishers. Had it actually been Daleks that existed around that era, they would have been more of a gunmetal grey. It's entirely possible, of course, there were some contemporary Daleks roaming about as the Disaster unfolded. We just don't see any of them. More than likely, the Flux wiped them out fairly quickly and these time travelling Daleks were all that remained. 

We could easily say that these Daleks came from any period after the Time Wars. Their presence in Flux is so fleeting that we can't really get any kind of clear idea of their true place in the timeline. At no point do we hear a Dalek proclaim: "We have just survived our battle with the Cybermen at Canary Wharf!" or "We just defeated the revolting sewers of Skaro!" or anything like that. Absolutely no clear point of reference is given. 

Just to make things simple, though, I'm going to say this is a very recent form of Post-Time-War Dalek. These are Daleks from shortly after their cameo in The Pilot but before their appearance in Twice Upon a Time. Like the Sontarans and Weeping Angels that we spoke of in Part One, there is a huge gap of time that takes place between the two stories I just mentioned. No doubt, more adventures from this era will eventually be made. To get a clearer idea of when these stories take place, you can check out this entry: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/03/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html. 

There is one big question that still needs to be addressed: What are Daleks from somewhere near the 50th Century suddenly doing in the 21st? The simplest guess would be that an army had been sent into the past on a mission of some sort. Perhaps the Daleks were actually attempting to meddle in time. As they were trying to alter history, the Flux began and they were caught up in it. Gunmetal Grey Contemporary Daleks were destroyed by the Flux but the time-travelling Bronze Time War Survivors were escaping the peril for as long as they could. 

I do have a more elaborate theory as to why the Daleks went into the past to encounter the Flux but I'll get into it in the next part of the essay. There is another group of recurring foes that are also doing some time travelling (Hint: their name rhymes with Ryberpen). As I place them in their timeline, I will also divulge my Daleks and Cybermen From the Future Have Purposely Sought out the Flux Hypothesis. 

EVE

And now, all that's left is to figure out where Eve of the Daleks fits into all of this. A snippet of dialogue within the story makes it all quite easy. At one point during all those time loops, the Daleks explain that they are a special hit squad dispatched to take out the Doctor as an act of revenge for what she did to their forces in the Flux. The Doctor explains, of course, that she wasn't the one who did it. It was the Sontarans. The Daleks don't care and just want to kill her, anyway. 

This means that the hit squad has also travelled from the future. Like the army before them, they would come from some time after The Pilot but before Twice Upon a Time. The large group of Daleks from this period goes back in time first and is wiped out by the Sontaran double-cross. A short while later, the team we see in Eve of the Daleks makes a similar trip to eliminate the Doctor, Yaz and Dan. They also fail. 

THAT'S IT FOR DALEKS

With this latest appendix, we are now up-to-date with the chronologies of all the latest Dalek stories and cameos. Revolution of the Daleks. Once, Upon Time, The Vanquishers and Eve of the Daleks now fit into the neat little timeline I've made for them. No doubt, there will be more adventures for me to arrange soon enough. 

I will bother to note that at this current place in their timeline (between The Pilot and Twice Upon a Time) the Daleks do seem weak. Pilot indicates that they are, once more, at war with the Movellans. Perhaps, just like last time, the Movellans got in a good shot at them and there's not many Daleks left. On top of the Second Movellan War, they also lost large numbers in the Flux. These losses have greatly damaged their campaign to conquer the Universe. Which is why they would go to the trouble of hunting the Doctor down and trying to eliminate her once and for all. They really want to make sure she will no longer interfere as they attempt to re-build their numbers. 

And so ends our second chapter. We still have two more creatures to place in their proper timeline. We will tackle them in Part Three...

 

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE STATE OF FLUX (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!) - PART ONE: THE CONTEMPORARIES

After a crapload of BOOK OF LISTS entries, it's time to change gears. Thankfully, we've just had a season full of recurring foes whose histories I have chronicled in previous essays that now need to be properly placed in the timelines I've created. 

 

I'm guessing that, by this point, anyone who hates Chris Chibnall has stopped reading this blog. I've taken a ridiculously strong pro-Chibnall stance on here. Not just because I think a lot of the persecution he's suffered was completely unfounded, but I also feel he's actually doing legitimately great things with the show. So much so, that I may just consider him to be the best Showrunner since Doctor Who returned to the air in 2005! 

Flux, for me, has greatly re-enforced this notion. I do feel it's something of a masterpiece. Six glorious episodes that linked together beautifully and told a continuously compelling story that was richly-layered and brilliantly-conceived. A really amazing piece of television that actually had a lot of the Chibnall-naysayers (not all of you, of course, some will never convert!) having to finally admit defeat and agree that he did something really good. Although, I'd say it was more than just really good. In fact, I'd say it was amazing. 

Quite simply, Flux kicked ass. 

As the whole season played out, I appreciated more and more what Chibnall had been doing all along. Series Eleven gave us no recurring foes and a very "light" Doctor. Series Twelve started bringing some villains back and the Doctor went to some darker places. Thirteen was steeped in Lore and recurring monsters and showed a Doctor that was being pushed beyond all her limits. I absolutely loved the way he arced things across the last few years. To me, it shows off just how good of a writer he truly is by having the skills to plan things out so far ahead. I know many will be happy to see the back of him as RTD steps in for 2023, but I won't be one of them. I loved Chibnall's work and will miss him dearly. 

NICE REVIEW, ROB - NOW GET TO THE POINT! 

All right, that little review was largely unnecessary. This is supposed to be a CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES essay. But I still wanted to voice my opinion just a little bit in the intro before getting to the real meat of the essay. Flux rocked and I felt that needed to be stated clearly for all the world (or, at least, those who read this blog) to see. 

Besides being awesome, something else that Flux did to make me happy was to feature sooo many recurring creatures whose timelines I have already pieced together into something linear and mildly cohesive. The inclusion of these various races throughout the season now means I get to do a nice, gigantic two-part Appendix where I can figure out where these latest appearances will fit in to the histories I have established. This, of course, makes me very happy! 

It's my theory that some of the returning aliens that we saw this season came from another time while others hail from the present. Part One of this Appendix will focus on the ones that come from our current time period. I will not just point out which races are in the present tense but I will try to provide evidence to support my views. 

Part Two of the Appendix, of course, will look at the time travellers who I feel came from another era to investigate the Flux. I will also try to present evidence to substantiate those claims. 

But we'll get to that later. Let's focus on the Now. 

SETTING A DATE

The Halloween Apocalypse very quickly establishes a date for when the Flux Disaster starts. It seems to begin on October 31st, 2021. Or, at the vary latest, November 1st, 2021. It seems pretty late in the night when the story starts. Due to a slight time distortion, Karvanista arrives on Earth ahead of the rest of the Lupari fleet. So the Event probably did start later in the night but then Karvanista accidentally slips back in time to rescue Dan. So when Vinder sees the Flux advancing towards Observation Outpost Rose, a few hours may have elapsed since the start of the adventure. Which means we might be past midnight, by this point. So, if we want to be super-pedantic, the Flux may have started on November 1st.   

Whether this all begins October 31st or November 1st is not all that relevant. The most important fact is that providing a date in Halloween Apocalypse does make it clear that we are not in the future or the past. This is a present-day experience. 

It stands to reason, then, that several of the returning aliens that we see during the season would also be from the present. I would think this would especially be the case with anyone that appears in Halloween Apocalypse. This is a story with a very specific date and the creatures that cameo in the tale are, very much, reacting to the current events of the Flux. 

This leads me to believe, then, that Commander Ritskaw and his forthcoming Sontaran invasion force all hail from the Modern Day. When they make their bid to conquer the Earth by slipping in just before the Lupari shield forms, they have only travelled in Space - not in Time.

PRESENT-DAY INTERLOPERS - PART ONE

War of the Sontarans may cause a bit of confusion about what period these Sontarans come from since most of it does seem to take place during the Crimean War. But, as the story progresses, we learn that the Sontarans established an original foothold on Earth during late 2021 and are using time travel technology to go back into the past and pervert the course of human history (they tend to like to do that!). So these are still Sontarans from current times - they're just time travelling a bit once they make it onto our world. 

Thanks to the intervention of the Doctor, their original plan to conquer the Earth fails. But this doesn't stop the Sontarans from hatching a second, more subtle plan. In this scenario, the Grand Serpent is recruited to their cause to interfere with the formation of UNIT and make the Earth vulnerable to another invasion from the Sontarans. 

While this does seem to be a different battalion (led by a Commander Stenck, this time), these are still Sontarans from the present. Just like the other Sontaran invaders, they are desperate to use Earth as a means of protection from the Flux. And, at the same time, they are planning to eliminate the two other major races that are competing with them to dominate what's left of the Universe. While they have probably given the Grand Serpent some time travel technology so that he can influence UNIT over the years, the scheme is still initially-hatched in late 2021 as the Flux is sweeping across the cosmos. 

WHERE DOES IT FIT? 

All that's left, now, is to go back to my original entry on Sontaran History (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/04/chronologies-and-timelines-probable.html) and place it somewhere in the timeline I established, there. The Halloween Apocalypse, War of the Sontarans, Survivors of the Flux and The Vanquishors takes place between the events of Sontaran Strategem/Poison Sky and The Sontaran Experiment. There is, of course, a sizeable gap of time between those two stories. I wouldn't be surprised if more Sontaran adventures eventually appear in this period in future episodes. 

About the only other thing that needs to be brought up about all this is the fact that the Sontarans in 2021 look radically-different from the ones in 2008(ish). How do we account for such a big difference of appearance in only a handful of years? Especially from what is meant to be a clone species?!

If you do bother to go back and read my initial essay on the matter, I theorise that the Sontarans are similar to us in that different regions of the planet produced different races. Those races then started cloning themselves as the Sontarans began fighting the Rutans all those many years ago. This explains why clones can look so different from each other during certain stories. Basically, we are seeing different races from the same species. 

PRESENT-DAY INTERLOPERS: PART TWO 

The other Big Nasty that we need to deal with in this entry are the Weeping Angels. I'm convinced that they also hail from the Present Day. But, just like the Sontarans, things can get a bit confusing as they do a fair amount of travelling back and forth in time. Their initial entry point onto Earth, however, is late 2021. 

The first Weeping Angel that we see in the season is the one that abducts Claire in Halloween Apocalypse. Which, as we've already established, is taking place on October 31st/November 1st, 2021. So we can safely assume that this is where (or, more accurately,when) the Angel comes from. In some ways, it's a bit difficult to be certain of this since we have no clear idea of how Weeping Angels get around. They can transport people into the past but they don't seem capable of actually time travelling, themselves. Since moving through time doesn't seem possible for them, I'm inclined to believe this Angel is from the present. I don't believe the Angel could attack Claire in 2021 if it didn't come from that time period.  

As we go into Village of the Angels, things become tricky. We see Weeping Angels in 1967 and then in 1901. These are Angels working as an extraction team that are trying to capture an agent that wants to leave Division. The rogue agent, of course, is the same Angel we saw attacking Claire in Halloween Apocalypse. What about the rest of them? What time period are they from? 1967? 1901? 

It's my belief that, like the fugitive Angel they were chasing, the extraction team are originally from current times. Division has granted them the ability to travel through time so they can set up the quantum extraction. I believe this because the Angels bring the Doctor back to the Present to meet Tecteun in Survivors of the Flux. This leads me to think that Tecteun put together a team from a contemporary position on the timeline and sent them back in time to get the fleeing agent and the Doctor. 

PROPERLY PLACING THE ANGELS AND DEALING WITH A TRICKY BIT

Just as we did with the Sontarans, we need to place Halloween Apocalypse/Once, Upon Time/Village of the Angels and Survivors of the Flux in a timeline I have already established for the Weeping Angels. Should you wish to take a full look at it, I tried to piece their history together in this entry: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/06/chronologies-and-timelines-brief.html . 

Chronologically, all the episodes from Flux that involve Weeping Angels take place between Blink and The Time of the Angles/Flesh and Stone. We could be nitpicky and try to fit things in a bit better by dealing with their brief cameo in The God Complex, but let's not sweat that too much. Those particular Angels, after all, were just an illusion. 

The Flux episodes that involve Weeping Angels fit into a pretty big gap of time between Blink and Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone (just like the Sontaran episodes did). More than likely, there will probably be other Weeping Angel stories that will get made someday that we can also slot into this particular part of their timescale.  

There is one more issue to deal with that might be a bit tricky to reconcile. During Once, Upon Time we see a Weeping Angel appearing to Yaz during certain scenes that take place in her past. This is happening so that  the Angel can, ultimately, leap out from Yaz's memories and into the TARDIS to commandeer it. I have asserted that all Weeping Angels in Flux are from the Present. I also believe that the species is capable of temporally displacing their victims but cannot travel in time, themselves (the very fact that an Angel needs to steal the TARDIS to go back to 1967 helps to re-enforce this). So the Big Question is: how was this Weeping Angel able to slip into Yaz's past? 

My guess would be that Yaz is having a very unique relationship with Time during that particular episode. And, while an Angel cannot actually travel in time, it can still manipulate it. Those two elements working together enabled the Weeping Angel to briefly reach into Yaz's past and make some appearances in her memory. She is now retaining the image of an Angel, which enables the creature to leap out into the TARDIS at the opportune moment. But a Weeping Angel would never be able to do this sort of thing under normal circumstances. Yaz needed to be zipping around in her own timeline like she was for the Angel to accomplish such a trick. 

THUS ENDETH PART ONE

We have, now, "properly" chronicled the recurring baddies that hail from the Modern Day. There are, of course, a few other creatures that appeared in Flux that I have chronicled over the years that were not brought up in this particular installment. This is because I don't believe they actually came from our Time Zone so I am going to give them a special entry of their own. As we move into Part Two, I'll explain why I believe them to be time travellers who are visiting this period from another era and try to present evidence to support my ideas. 

See you then.... 

SPECIAL NOTE: 

Just wanted to offer a bit of an apology for not posting so much in January. I had intended to put up a few entries for the month but then a personal tragedy came into my life that was clearly a bigger priority. After a very brief battle with cancer, my father passed. Grieving him was more important than blogging about Doctor Who so I took a little break from here. 

While I will never totally recover from such a loss, I am starting to feel well enough to get back into my passion for blogging about Doctor Who. So the entries should start coming out fairly regularly, again. 

Thanks to all of you who have been patient with me while I was away and I appreciate the great support you show me now that I am starting to write in here, again. 

 

Just in case you don't feel like scrolling up to find the link, here are the full histories of the two monsters we covered in this entry:

Sontarans: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/04/chronologies-and-timelines-probable.html

Weeping Angels: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/06/chronologies-and-timelines-brief.html

BOOK OF LISTS: TOP FIVE CYBERMEN STORIES - NUMBER ONE

At last, we reach Number One...

The Best Cybermen Story ever... Could it be anything else?! 

So much has been said about Earthshock in this blog already. It made it into my Top Ten Favorite Doctor Who Stories Ever (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-4.html). Part One is one of my All-Time Favorite Episodes of Doctor Who (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/01/book-of-lists-top-six-best-episodes.html). I even go on in one entry about how much I love one of its Cliffhangers (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/06/book-of-lists-ten-amazing-cliffhangers.htm)). So my biggest challenge with writing this will be to try not to repeat myself too much. Since there are still so many good things to say about this story, I think I can manage it! 

One thing that I have brought up a bit in my other essays about this story (and needs to be re-stated because of its relevance) is that it is the first time I ever saw the Cybermen. For this reason, that Cliffhanger to Part One resonated quite oddly with me. I didn't know why seeing these strange robotic-looking beings in the final seconds of the episode was so important. But I had a feeling I would, ultimately, be impressed by the whole moment once I understood more. 

How right I was! 

Now, before I go on too much, I should address an important point: I did just admit this was the first Cybermen story I'd ever seen.  So you might be thinking that nostalgia could be coloring my opinion. You might even be right! But I prefer to see this as experiencing all the things a Cybermen tale needs to truly excel. And that, any time since that first encounter, all other Cybermen stories just weren't quite able to meet the same standards. Some were like The Invasion and still came quite close. Others, like The Next Doctor, came nowhere near! 

Having said all that, however, I'm still willing to admit that nostalgia could be clouding my judgement! 

I'll let you decide for yourself... 

THAT BIG 'OLE REVEAL

80s Who tended to love inserting a recurring foe into the plot in an interesting manner. Concealing the villain/monster from the audience until a well-placed moment was a particular speciality of the JNT Era. My first and second favorite Master Stories both hail from that period and do an excellent job of accomplishing this (many other Master stories from that time that didn't make it onto the list also do it quite well - Time Flight was really the only one that was a bit of a misfire). But no Reveal is as great as the one that happens in Earthshock! 

Using androids to do all the violence a Cyberman could've committed was arranged to keep their identity a secret until the big Cliffhanger at the end of Part One. A clever move in and of itself. But here's what I really love about the idea: What could have been just 23 minutes of stalling for a Reveal (something the show has done on any number of other occasions) turns into some of the most eerie and suspenseful drama the show ever gave us. We were just fine without the Cybermen as we watched the dome-headed, unitard-wearing monsters shoot bullets from their palms and turn people into piles of smoldering goo. It was an absolutely gripping first episode. 

The Reveal of the Cybermen's involvement at the end of the episode was, essentially, icing on the cake. As if the whole story was saying: "Yes, this was an awesome 23 minutes of entertainment - but things are about to get even better!". I got this sense from the moment even on my first viewing when I still had no idea who the Cybermen were. It was a great way to close out Part One that made me eager to see more. I can only imagine what it must have been like for fans who knew the show and had been missing these baddies since their last appearance in the mid-70s. 

THE FLASHBACKS

Part Two has many great points to it. The android fight and bomb diffusion keeps that breakneck pace going for a bit longer. And everyone making their way onto the freighter gives us a really nice change in tone for a bit. 

But the true highpoint of Episode Two is that gorgeous little scene where the Cyberleader and Cyberlieutenant enjoy the edited highlights of the Doctor's exploits against the Cyber-Race. I can't, for the life of me, pinpoint the exact reason why I enjoy this moment so much. But I just love it. If we return, once more, to my first viewing, it really helped to explain to me who the Cybermen were. That they had this extended history with the Doctor. It also gave me some nice glimpses into the past of a show I was only starting to discover. So it was tremendously helpful, in that sense. 

But there really is something great with how the old clips are put on display. The whole thing is really well-written. The Cyberleader gives a quick, concise synopsis of a previous story. And then the perfect excerpt from that story seems to have been chosen to represent it. To me, the whole thing is ridiculously iconic. Every time I watch it, it's almost like I'm participating in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I'll speak in perfect synchronicity with what's being said onscreen. Doing imitations of the Cyberleader and the various previous incarnations of the Doctor that are appearing in the holograms. I absolutely adore this scene. 

I remember reading an interview with RTD during the most early days of New Who. He cites this moment as "the beginning of the end" for the Classic Series. That he felt the show was now starting to rely too much on nostalgia by having scenes like these. In some ways, he may have had a point. But, in so many other ways, I just wanted to find RTD and give him a good piece of my mind! That flashback sequence is one of my favorite moments of the whole show. To me, it pays tribute to the show's past without wallowing in it for too long. It's also a bit ironic that RTD complains about this in Earthshock but creates a similar effect in The Next Doctor! 

CYBERLEADER LOVE

I have gone on about my Cyberleader mancrush a bit, already, when I was reviewing The Haunting of Villa Diodati/Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children, but it deserves to be expanded upon, here. David Banks really kicks ass in his first portrayal of the character. He will be great every time he returns in the role, of course. But he's just extra-special in Earthshock. 

Perhaps it is because this is his first time in the role so he really kills himself to get it right. This might be the case, but I also think it has a lot to do with how the character is written. Even though the author would get a chance to write the Cyberleader again, he gives a superior treatment in this particular script. It really does feel like both the actor and the writer are giving it their absolute best shot. Which, in turn, gives us one of the best villains the show ever created. We relish it every time the Cyberleader proclaims: "Excellent". It's another piece of dialogue that I tend to say at the same time that it's being spoken by the actor (while we're at it, "So, Doctor, we meet again." is also one of those lines!).    

Of course, there's a huge debate that fans love to indulge in when they want to negate the effectiveness of this character (and I'm not sure why they would even want to do this). The very fact that the Cyberleader says things like: "Excellent" indicates that he has emotions. A true Cybermen might approve of a situation but would not choose such an emotive word. He would say something far more logical like: "The circumstances appear favorable towards the advancement of our plans." Or something equally bland. But he certainly shouldn't be saying something like "Excellent". That does sound vaguely like an expression of joy. 

I find it odd that people don't tend to present this argument about the Cyberleader until Earthshock. Truthfully, this is a characterisation that we first saw at work in the Cyberleader from Revenge of the Cybermen. Earthshock Cyberleader is certainly an improvement upon Revenge - but it's still based upon something we already saw. Revenge Cyberleader shows arrogance, aggressiveness and even a bit of hubris. Earthshock Cyberleader displays those traits, too - but does it better. But it's still, very much, the same character. So it's weird that the debate doesn't really arise sooner. 

If we really want to nitpick, the Cyber Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen has quite the domineering attitude at certain times. Even the Cybermen in The Moonbase occasionally hurl insults at the people manning the weather control station. These are even more human traits in a race of beings that are meant to be completely emotionless. 

If we do want to come up with a better explanation than: "It looks pretty cool." for why Cybermen seem to display a certain amount of emotion, sometimes, then we can create a bit of headcannon. I suggest that the Cybermen evolved to a point where they understood that those that were in a position of authority would need certain instincts that humans possessed. So they were allowed to have access to them in order to make them more effective leaders. So that the Cybermen would not fall into the same sort of logic traps that other races like Daleks and Movellans could get entangled in. 

But you don't really need to take this sort of thing to such great lengths. You could just acknowledge that the Cyberleader in Earthshock is just really friggin' awesome and not really question it much beyond that! I still love how, after one of the best speeches the Fifth Doctor ever delivers, the Cyberleader shows the Doctor how wrong he is to have emotions. That, in his eyes, they are an obvious weakness. The fact that he still seems to possess certain feelings makes the whole demonstration all-the-more ironic. 

THE DEADLINESS OF THE CYBERMEN

As is often the case in a good Cybermen story, we get some decent action sequences. But what I really like about Earthshock is how good of a job it does to re-enforce the invulnerability of the race. Part Three contains a great moment where the humans onboard the freighter are trying to contain the Cybermen in the storage hold. While there have been scenes of this nature that were a bit better shot, this one still looks pretty damned good. 

What I like more about this scene is how uselessly the lazers fired from the humans bounce off the armor of the Cybermen. Whereas lazerfire from the Cybermen is quite efficiently lethal. This is the sort of thing I like to see from the more dangerous races in the Whoniverse: They are not easy to kill. A few seasons later, we would get Attack of the Cybermen. It's a fairly decent story but sneezing too hard effectively kills, at least, three Cybermen! 

Showing a natural immunity to whatever firepower the Good Guys have to offer always creates a far better sense of menace in a monster. Earthshock does a great job in achieving this. Yes, Lieutenant Scott and his troops have a bit more success in dealing with them. But that is mainly due to the helpful advice the Doctor gives them to concentrate their fire. Even then, the strategy only works so well. Using the Cybermen's own rifles against them works much better. Which Scott very quickly figures out and uses to his advantage. 

There is, of course, the one Cyberman who attacks Adric while he's trying to solve the Logic Code. He does seem to die from just tripping badly. I don't really have an explanation for that one! 

FINAL VERDICT

Ultimately, what makes Earthshock so successful is the incredible sense of tension that hangs over the entire story. It's a strange uncomfortable feeling that, somehow, keeps us riveted to the screen. We need to keep watching. Perhaps in hope that, eventually, the terrible suspense will end. 

Beautifully enough, it never does. We're left at the end of the tale with a sense of being truly disturbed by it all. The Doctor does ruin the latest sinister plot of the Cybermen. But at a tremendous cost. 

Certain naysayers may argue: "Okay, Rob. What you're describing does make a great Doctor Who Story. But is it also a great Cybermen Story?!" 

Admittedly, up until halfway through Part Two - those Negative Nancies could be right. That gorgeous tension that I described is created more by those sinister androids. But then things shift to the Cybermen controlling everything that is menacing about the adventure. And, when they do take over as the central peril of the tale, the threat level increases exponentially. 

The best example of this, oddly enough, is in a very simple throwaway scene. While roaming through the freighter, Tegan has been separated from the rest of the party she's with and is trying to elude capture from a recently re-awakened batch of Cybermen. The whole sequence is shot in such a horrific claustrophobic way that it would actually give me nightmares for years to come. That, my friends, is extremely effective use of a monster in Doctor Who! 

Earthshock is a great story. But its success depends greatly upon the fact that it has Cybermen in it. 

There we go. Countdown complete. It looks like I'm not going to quite get this all done in 2021 as I had initially planned. But I almost made it! 

Forget the fact that I was also hoping to do a Top Five Dalek Story Countdown before the year was over!!! 

The other Parts of the Countdown: 

Part Five: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories.html

Part Four:

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories_15.html 

Part Three: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories_21.html

Part Two: 

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-of-lists-top-five-cybermen-stories_28.html

 

BOOK OF LISTS: TOP FIVE CYBERMEN STORIES - NUMBER TWO

For Number Two, we go back to the 60s....

The Invasion, I'm sure, makes it onto most peoples' list of Top Five Cybermen Stories. I almost feel like a cliche for including it in mine. But it really deserves to be here. And, impressively enough, it made it up to the Number Two ranking. 

Two things about this story really stand out for me: 

1) This is an eight part long Monster! When a story has that many episodes, it should drag somewhere. Even the Great Inferno - which runs at 7 parts - has a bit of a sag in a later episode. There's a solid handful of minutes that could be completely taken out and it wouldn't affect the story in the slightest. Naturally, because they are still there, it drags things down for a bit. Really obvious filler has a tendency of doing that. 

Inferno is one of my all-time favorite stories. It almost, but doesn't quite, make it into my Top Ten Favorite Stories Ever. But I get why it has the problems it has. Seven episodes is a lot of content to create! 

The Invasion is one episode longer. That should mean more blatant filler that bores the Hell out of us, right? And yet, somehow, this doesn't happen. Every minute of this story is completely engaging. Even Part One - where a whole lot of nothing happens - still keeps me captivated. 

2) The Invasion was made in 1969. The older Who gets, the more it has to be "viewed contextually". We have to understand that TV, back then, was made in an entirely different way. It was meant to entertain a very different kind of audience. These factors can make a story from this period legitimately difficult to stay with. A modern day audience will just find the pace of things too different from the way TV now flows. 

I do sincerely feel that Invasion, for the most part, transcends its years. That, no matter what generation looks at it, they will be hooked. Again, it's just so damned engaging! 

The long running time and outdated nature of this tale should be huge obstacles that cause the story to fail. And yet, somehow, the story overcomes this. It is an absolutely wonderful adventure full of all sorts of great moments. 

On top of that, though, the Cybermen are really awesome in it!  

A WHOLE HALF OF THE STORY WITHOUT THEM

Probably the biggest thing that works to the detriment of this being a good Cybermen story is their lack of presence in the first half of the adventure. The production team was trying to create that same effect that I discussed in the reviews of so many stories involving the Master. They wanted to insert the monsters into the plot at a very succinct moment and create a huge Reveal. 

While this does give us a marvellous Cliffhanger at the end of Part Four, it also creates a problem. It means we get an entire four episodes of a Cybermen Story without any actual Cybermen! Sure, there's all kinds of great stuff with Tobias Vaughn and UNIT and even some fun with Zoe and Isobel (so much pantie flashing!).  But it's still a hard sell to call this a great Cybermen Story when they are absent from the plot for so much time. 

Fans are quick to point this sort of thing out, of course. "How can we truly call this a Cybermen Story?!" some will claim, "When the Cybermen take so long to finally join the story?!" 

Admittedly, they have a bit of a point. But, as if often the case with Fan Opinion, things get a little exaggerated. There is a big 'ole Cyber Planner who gets scenes regularly with Kevin Stoney. He is, essentially, a Cyber Controller who can't get around. The production team was smart enough to make sure he didn't resemble the Cyber Planner from Wheel in Space too much so that the audience wouldn't guess that the Cybermen were behind the whole plot. But the Cyber Planner is a Cyberman. He's  more logical and strategic and doesn't actually have a real body to speak of. But a Cyberman, nonetheless. 

It should also be noted that there are all kinds of dormant Cybermen lying around all over International Electromatics' property. Jamie has a bit of a close encounter with one of them at the end of Part Two. And it would seem that some of the employees of the company are partially converted Cybermen since they seem capable of incredible feats of strength. 

Finally, on a more abstract note: Packer and Vaughn really start talking about "their allies" just a short while before we get their Reveal at the end of Part Four. This helps to establish more and more that this isn't just some great plot by International Electormatics. There is a deeper, more sinister force lurking behind the company.Which establishes a foothold in the story for the Cybermen so that, when they start emerging from cocoons, this doesn't seem to come from nowhere.

Which means that - to me, at least - the Cybermen have a presence in those first four parts. It's a very stealthy one so that we can still have that big Reveal at the end of Part Four (a Reveal worthy of any of the awesome ones I described during my Top Five Master Story Countdown) but they are still there. Skulking about in the shadows (or, more appropriately, in the sewers). This is still, very much, a Cybermen Story through all of those first four episodes. We just don't realize it on the first watch. 

THE OTHER HALF

Of course, once the Cybermen do come into the story, some great awesomeness ensues! 

Vaughn's counterplot with the Cerebron Mentor creates an extremely cool concept that we hadn't really seen up until that point in the show: We get an insane Cybermen. It's actually quite terrifying. He gives us a great Cliffhanger when he re-appears later in the story 

Those sewer scenes are some more really great action sequences. I tend to sing high praises for Cybermen fight scenes. They are, quite frequently, very well-executed. For some reason, they are best the monsters for this sort of thing. When violence is inflicted against them, it's not too disturbing for family viewing. We detach from it enough because they're so mechanistic. But they can still writhe in pain in all kinds of gratuitous ways that a Dalek can't because they're just not as flexible! 

Even a modern day audience can look at that battle in the sewers and be quite enthralled by it. Overall, it still looks really good. It's equally impressive when the Doctor and Tobias Vaughn are running around taking out Cybermen with the Cerebron Mentor in the final episode. Things really heat up as UNIT arrives with bazookas blazing, The fights all look amazing. 

And then, of course, there's the truly iconic moments. People becoming zombified as Cybermen emerge from the sewers at the end of Part Six looks incredible. It's a moment that I had thought for sure was being overhyped by the fans. But as I watched the full sequence for the first time, I could see why it gets talked about so much. It really does contain some great imagery. 

Even if we want to say that the Cybermen weren't truly present during the first half of the story, I find that those latter four parts have so many great moments involving them that it compensates for their absence. What truly amazes me, though, is how awesome all of it looks. Even if it was all shot way back in the 60s, suspending one's disbelief really isn't all that difficult most of the time. 

THE MAIN SOURCE OF GREATNESS 

There are several factors that really help to make this story shine. Kevin Stoney is probably a big one. He is an absolutely wonderful villain to watch (here's how much I love him: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/04/book-of-lists-top-5-one-time-only_23.html). Everyone else is putting in a great performance, too. Nicholas Courtney is definitely earning his way into the recurring character status that he will get for the rest of Classic Series. The TARDIS crew are all doing a stellar job, too. I do think Jamie and Zoe were the best companions for Two. 

It is a very well-written story, too. It really does manage to fill those eight episodes with drama that remains gripping the whole time. Even very deliberate attempts to mark time are still enjoyable. Jamie and the Doctor trying to escape through the elevator shaft is a great example of this. It's done clearly as a digression from the main plot to pad things out a bit. One might even call it a capture-and-escape. But it's still quite the exciting sequence to watch. 

I would even go so far to say that the actual design of this model of Cybermen has a bearing on the story's success. These are some of the best costumes ever made for them. It's the first time we see an "earmuff version" and they look really good.

But the strongest accolades must go to the director. Many who worked with Douglas Camfield on Doctor Who speak of how amazing he was. They say, with great fondness, how he was incredible with the way he handled any project that came his way. How, because of his background as a soldier, he treated any production he was assigned to as if it were a military operation. This seemed to get him great results. 

Classic Who was often shot on a very rigorously short schedule. Which meant many stories were made with a bit of a "just get it in the can" attitude. Even in its last few seasons, we see instances where a scene really needed an extra take to get it to look better. But there was just no time to do it.  

We don't really see this sort of thing from Camfield. His military efficiency seems to have really paid off. Many of the shots in Invasion are extremely well-composed. Some of his location work looks like something you might find in a feature film rather than a low-budget sci fi TV series. 

There are all kinds of talented people involved in this story but it's Camfield that brings it all together and really gets it to fire on all cylinders. He was perfectly-suited to take on such a massive story. After all, he'd handled a tale that was four episodes longer only a few seasons previously (and used Kevin Stoney in that one too!). 

But I do really believe that Invasion remains as engaging as it is because of the way Camfield cosntructs it and makes it all so watchable. I'm particularly impressed with how well he handles things in the later episodes. A good chunk of Parts Seven and Eight are just shots of actors pretending to be officers shouting excitedly from various bases as stock footage of missiles and rockets are interspersed between their scenes. This all could have finished up very static and boring. But Camfield gets it to work. In fact, it's just as gripping as the fight sequences that are going on at the same time at the Guiness factory. 

LONG-LASTING IMPACT

Perhaps one of the strongest testaments to the success of The Invasion is how often it gets referenced in future stories. The image of Cybermen stomping around in the sewers of London made such a strong impression that the effect is re-created during Part One of Attack of the Cybermen. International Electromatics gets mentioned a handful of times during Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel. And, of course, the Cybermen are seen marching out in front of St. Paul's Cathedral once again during Dark Water/Death in Heaven. 

While Easter Eggs were, at one point, starting to happen a little too frequently during the New Series - I can understand why they're hard to resist.  Particularly when they involve a truly great story like The Invasion.

I have mentioned before how some like to refer to me as The Great Contrarion. I do love to contradict Popular Fan Opinion on many issues. But you'll get no argument from me when you discuss the merits of The Invasion. It is an absolute masterpiece that deserves all the respect and fondness that it receives.

And, as 2021 reaches its conclusion, we arrive at the Number One Cybermen Story. Hopefully, I'll get that last entry in before the year is over. 

 

  

BOOK OF LISTS: TOP FIVE CYBERMEN STORIES - NUMBER THREE

The Countdown continues! This one is another New Who Tale....

During my Top Five Master Stories Countdown, I mentioned how New Who has not been particularly kind to most returning villains/monsters that originated from the Classic Series. For the first few times that we see them, they're usually poorly-written. It takes a while before they start getting some fairly decent stories. 

The Cybermen are probably one of the best examples of this. I'm guessing RTD felt that their history was too convoluted to introduce to a new audience (was it, though? They came from Mondas. They moved to Telos. They have a fleet - doesn't seem that complicated to me!). So he came up with this whole "Parallel Universe Cybermen" concept. He was certain that this would make these monsters more accessible to 21st Century fandom. But it really just turned into a bad origin story with a poor season finale follow-up. Then we got The Next Doctor a few seasons later. Which I still consider one of the worst stories ever made in the Modern Series (those dreadful Cyber Shades!). 

We do see some improvement as Moff takes over. Closing Time, Nightmare in Silver and Dark Water/Death In Heaven are all fairly passable. Some do better than others - if I'm to be totally honest! But, at least, we are no longer dealing with Cybermen from another Universe who are trying to develop their own exterminate-style catchphrase. They're more like the Cybermen I remember from the good 'ole days. 

It isn't really til Series 10 that an adventure featuring the Cybermen comes along that really gets our jaw to drop. That's a long time to wait for a strong representation of a much-loved monster. Better late than never, though! 

Fortunately, the trend continues with the next time the Cybermen make a return. And we get the most excellent  The Haunting of Villa Diodati/Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children. 

Which is, of course, our Third Place Winner. 

VILLA DIODATI 

Before we can even get into this three-part masterpiece (I consider it three parts, at least - some may break it down differently - you can  read about the Great Three Parter Debate here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/09/points-of-debate-what-constitutes-three.html), we need to examine something that Chibnall did earlier in the season to help get us more excited for this story. One of the many twists and turns that he threw into Fugitive of the Judoon was a surprise appearance by Captain Jack Harkness. But just bringing the character back wasn't enough. Jack's also responsible for a major piece of foreshadowing: 

"Beware the Lone Cyberman." he warns, "Do not give him what he wants." 

"Who is this Lone Cybermen?!" we all ask back, "Why is he alone? What is it that he wants?! Why can't we give it to him?! What actually is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? Monty Python never did tell us!" 

And so on... 

That little bit of a tease gets us all so much more interested in this approaching storyline. It was a great move on Chibnall's behalf to get a decent arc going midway through the season. It truly is a riveting moment as the Lone Cybermen does finally arrive in The Haunting of Villa Diodati. 

The Lone Cybermen is a huge contributor to my love of this three-parter. He is an excellent concept. A man who actually liked the idea of being a Cyberman. But, through some great twist of irony, the cybernisation process didn't work for him. It's utterly brilliant. He believes in the whole mentality of the race, but can't truly practise it because he still has emotions. 

His design is also awesome. Not just the whole half-man/half-robot aesthetic. But also the fact that he seems to look like about three different models mashed together. The look alone begs for a backstory. How exactly did he end up appearing that way?   

My enjoyment of the Lone Cybermen is so strong that I must actually admit that I like him as much as the Cyberleader in Earthshock. I never thought there would ever be another character from the Cyber-Race that I would enjoy as much as the Cyberleader in that story (other Cyberleaders that we have met were okay - but none were as great as him. Even though it was often the same actor in the suit!). But the Lone Cybermen is just as fun to watch onscreen. The actor plays the role to perfection. And he's excellently-written. Which are the same two components that made the Cyberleader in Earthshock so engaging.  

The fact that the Doctor does, ultimately, give the Lone Cybermen what he wants makes us dying to see what will come next.

ASCENSION 

One of the things I love most about Ascension of the Cybermen is that it finally offers a legitimate glimpse into one of the Great Cyber Wars. They get mentioned so much in other Cybermen stories but we never actually see any of the fighting. Although the whole conflict is drawing to a close, it's still great to witness some events on the battlefield. 

It is near the beginning of this particular episode that one of my few issues with this whole story is on display. The concept of Cyber-drones is a great idea. Visually, however, I found they didn't work too well. For a moment, it seemed more like we were watching a Doctor Who video game rather than an actual TV show! 

The perfect uniformity in which the drones move is a big contributor to why the sequence looks so bad. Which does lead me to a big gripe I've been meaning to go on about for some time. Why is the New Series so obsessed with Cybermen acting in unison all the time?! It was never a big priority for them in Classic Who. I even quite liked the fact that they moved independently of each other so much. It helped indicate that they weren't merely robots. Whereas now they must stomp around all the time with their timing and stance in perfect synchronicity. It's not a visual I'm enjoying that much. Please, Production Team, bring back Free-Flowing Cybermen! 

Okay, that's out of my system. Back to the good stuff. Another great trait about this episode is how "stripped down" it feels. It's not a particularly complex plot. The few remaining Cybermen from the war are trying to hunt down the few remaining humans. At the core of it all, that's all the story is really about. A few other developments are occurring that will only get fleshed out in the final part. 

Keeping things so simple in this middle section makes the whole tale massively compelling. To just suddenly let the story turn into an intense chase for an hour was a great change of pace. And, though some love to pick apart Chibnall's writing, he does an amazing job at structuring the whole ongoing pursuit. It's a white knuckle ride the whole way through. The Cybermen come across as so ruthless and determined. Easily, the most menacing they've been since the show returned. 

Again, there might not be much to the plot of Ascension of the Cybermen - but what is there is some of the most gripping television I've seen. The continuous element of danger that the Cybermen provide really does keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. 

TIMELESS CHILDREN

We have another Elephant in the Room that needs to be addressed: The Timeless Children is a highly divisive episode. Many fans were outraged by the fact that it messes a bit with the main lore of the show (it doesn't really, though. I address the whole idea quite thoroughly here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/05/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-silliness.html). There are probably any number of fans who would look at this entry and say something to the nature of: "How can you give a favorable review to anything involving The Timeless Children?! It is sacrilege!!!"  

First off, I could easily write a good review for this episode because I actually love the concept of the Timeless Child. It's just the sort of thing the show needed to take it in an interesting new direction. In my eyes, it's a great story arc that I have been enjoying enormously. Those of you who think a showrunner should not mess with the established lore of the show and are extra mad at Chibnall because you believe him to be the first one to ever do it really haven't been watching Doctor Who! The truth is: Important Established Continuity gets altered on a fairly regular basis.** 

I could take the time to argue more thoroughly about the merits of the Timeless Child arc (and I, sort of, do in some footnotes at the end of the entry!). But the whole point is, essentially, moot. We are examining this as a Cybermen story. And, in that respect, the third part of this tale continues to do a great job of representing them. 

I complained ever-so-slightly in my last entry about how the Cybermen do feel just a little sidelined during The Doctor Falls. The Timeless Children is in a similar predicament. The Master is involved in this story, too. And there's a huge info-dump that goes on about Ancient Gallifrey. But those nasty cyborgs don't get pushed aside, this time. Two very strong plot threads involving them that first started in Ascension continue. And now a third one develops as the Master makes contact with the Lone Cyberman. Definitely no Cyber-neglect going on, this time! 

The Lone Cyberman continues to shine, here. I feel I must give him just a little bit more praise and adoration. I love how his own personal flaws end up saving the lives of a few important human characters. The Cyber-carrier's defense system detects a disturbance on one of the troop storage levels. A technician even offers to just activate some dormant Cybermen in the chamber to investigate. But the Lone Cybermen, creature of impulse that he is, decides he must go look for himself. There is a gorgeous moment of tension as he starts peering into the cryo-units that the humans are hiding in. And then, the half-converted tyrant is distracted by an important development and returns to the Bridge. Had it not been for the fact that the Lone Cyberman still has the potential to act illogically, Yaz, Graham and the others would have been done for. I love how Chibnall genuinely makes use of the nature of this character to propel certain plot points. In a less skilled pair of hands, the Lone Cyberman would have just been a cheap gimmick. Here, he is used brilliantly all the way through the three parts.  

I do actually almost tear up a bit when the Master finally takes the Lone Cyberman down. I loved him so much and wanted to see more of him. As far as I'm concerned, he could have returned to the show on a regular basis. Like Davros does during Dalek stories. That would have been an absolute delight. Sadly, though, he's been disposed of. But, again, Chibnall uses this turn of events in a useful manner that will serve the conclusion of the story well. He doesn't just pluck him out of the story because he's a baddie and it's always nice to kill off villains towards the end of a story!

Still, I wish that Lone Cyberman hadn't died. I loved him!   

The battle Ryan is forced into during this episode is one of the best action sequences involving Cybermen that's ever been done. Ace fighting with a slingshot and gold coins during Silver Nemesis might be the only one that beats this out (complain all you want about the 25th Anniversary Tale, this is still an awesome moment!). I like that the humans do have some weaponry that is effective against their foe. But, ultimately, the might and sheer number of the Cybermen is defeating them. In the end, it's only luck that seems to save them. 

There is a problem that can occur with stories involving returning monsters. It's always fun to watch them get destroyed. Because of this, they can be a bit too easy to defeat, sometimes. Which can really ruin their sense of menace. This doesn't happen, here. The Cybermen do truly seem deadly.  

Finally, we have the Cyber-Masters. How fannish these creatures could have been had they not been handled properly! Instead, they are brilliant. It would have been nice if they had figured more prominently in the plot. But it also made sense to make them so short-lived. The threat a hybridised race of Cybermen and Time Lords pose to the Universe was just too great. They needed to be taken down quickly. 

Of course, it is hinted that they might not have been completely wiped out. The Master has, most likely, escaped Gallifrey before the Death Particle went off and may have taken a few with him   His return was just heavily foreshadowed during The Vanquishers. So it's possible that there will be some Cyber-Masters with him. We'll have to wait and see...

CLOSING REMARKS

So, aside from those Cyber-drones that looked like something out of a cheap video game, I'm pretty damned happy with this story. The fact that it beats out an actual origins story that was also well-made speaks volumes of its quality. 

It certainly backs up the Popular Fan Opinion that has been spreading, of late, about Chibnall. A lot of his critics are forced to admit that he handles recurring villains quite well. I would go so far to say that, of all the Head Writers for New Who (thus far, at least), he has done the best job with them. He seems to understand what it is that we enjoyed about these characters in their previous appearances and displays those traits prominently in his own plots. He also does an excellent job of introducing new aspects to the cultures of returning monsters. The Recon Dalek, for instance, was a great concept. But it doesn't have to be something big like that, every time. Sometimes, it's more subtle. I found it fascinating, for instance, to discover that the Sontarans have a Psychic Division during Flux. 

Chibnall's skills with returning foes is why he has gotten a story in both of these countdowns (mind you, Moffat made it into both, also - but it was with the same story!). If I were doing Top Story Countdowns with Sontarans and Weeping Angels, his scripts involving them would probably also make it in. In fact, I'd go so far to say that Village of the Angels might actually be better than Blink. 

How's that for heresy?! 

Anyhow, this is not meant to be a review of Chibnall - this is supposed to be a Top Five Cybermen Story Countdown. So I'll end my digression and get back to my real point: The Haunting of Villa Diodati/Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children is the best Cybermen story New Who has to offer. Even if you don't like all the actual Timeless Child stuff, the content involving Cybermen is excellent. Moff did, at least, really get the Cybermen right in his last story. But it was nice to see them get improved upon as his successor took over.  

This is the way the Cybermen were always meant to be. It just took a while for us to finally get there. Thank God we made it, though. Alternative Reality Cybermen just weren't really working!  

...And that wraps things up for Number Three! We'll be returning to the Classic Series for Two. And we're going quite a ways back! 

 

** I just want create this footnote to back up the idea that production teams frequently mess with the show's lore. I didn't want to clutter up the main point of that particular section, however. So that's why I'm doing this in a footnote! 

Here are several examples of how previous production teams altered core continuity issues: 

1) The origin story the Second Doctor gives in The War Games heavily contradicts the one he told in An Unearthly Child. The First Doctor claims to be an exile forcibly cut off from his people who is striving to one day return home. Doctor Two says he's a renegade who chose to leave his homeworld and has no desire to go back to it. 

2) After clearly establishing for a number of years that the first incarnation of the Doctor was played by William Hartnell, the production team starts teasing out the idea during Seasons 13 and 14 that there may be incarnations that existed before him. (Not just the faces we see in the mind bending tournament in Brain of Morbius, but the Doctor looks at a costume in the old console room in Masque of Mandragora that doesn't really resemble anything Doctors One to Three ever wore). 

3) For the first six seasons of the show, we are under the impression that the Doctors did not interact with the Time Lords until The War Games. But then The Two Doctors and Five Doctors both make implications that the Second Doctor had quite a few dealings with them. 

4) In the final two seasons of the show, we see the development of The Cartmel Masterplan. An ongoing arc that, had it been allowed to be completed, would have revealed that the Doctor had a whole different life before the Hartnell incarnation that had a strong link to Ancient Gallifrey. His experiences during that life, however, were erased from his memory. Is it just me or does this sound familiar?! 

5) The Doctor clearly states in Time and the Rani that he is 954. But he is, somehow, younger than he was in the Classic Series as Doctor Who revives! 

If you want to object to what Chibnall did to the Doctor's origins - that's fine. Just make sure your objections are well-founded! 

BOOK OF LISTS: TOP FIVE CYBERMEN STORIES - NUMBER FOUR

The Countdown continues....

DOUBLE WINNER

Believe it or not, we have a story that won in both categories. World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls was not only an excellent Master Story (as you can see, here, in this review: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/11/book-of-lists-top-five-master-stories_19.html), but it also did a damned fine job of representing those Metal Meanies from Mondas. Clearly, I was very impressed with these two episodes! 

Some fans even seem to wish that this was Moffat and Capaldi's final story and that Twice Upon a Time had never been made. After all, the Doctor is in the process of holding back a regeneration throughout the entire second half. He could have, easily, just done his big "Doctor, I let you go..." speech at the end and finally allowed the regeneration to happen. An era would have been brought to an end on a much less divisive note than it was.  

Bringing up the regeneration, however, gets us to ponder a heavy point. These two episodes not only featured a multi-incarnation Master Story and the origins of the Cybermen - they also began the process of writing out the Twelfth Doctor. That's a lot of stuff to handle! Some fans love to point out how Planet of Fire had to feature the Master, write out Turlough, kill off Kamelion and introduce Peri. I would say World Enough/Doctor Falls carried just as heavy of a load. Maybe it didn't have quite as many strands to take care of, but the plot threads it does handle are a bit larger in scale. 

I am always very impressed with a Who Story that has to resolve multiple ongoing continuity issues at once and still tell a good story.  World/Falls does this magnificently. It really is an impressive two episodes. 

For now, though, we will focus in on how it handles the Cybermen. 

AN ORIGINS STORY? 

Probably one of the best things this story does for the Cybermen is give them their own version of a Genesis of the Daleks adventure. Although - and this will sound horrendously blasphemous - I think I like this way better than the Dalek origins tale. There aren't endless captures-and-escapes to mark time or awful cliffhangers where people appear to be falling to their death but aren't, really. Instead, we get a really great sci fi concept involving black holes and how they can affect the flow of time. Which, apparently, was even scientifically accurate! 

Watching the gradual evolution of the Cybermen throughout the first part is probably one of the cooler aspects of the whole story. I love the way they look more like hospital patients at the beginning. But, at the same time, you can still see the "Cyberman-to-be". It had been made pretty clear in promotional material that Series 10 would finish with Peter Capaldi getting his wish fulfilled to fight "Mondasian Cybermen". So there was no need for subtlety. We knew what these strange creatures in hospital gowns and IV drips were going to become. It was great fun to watch the transformation gradually happen over the length of the episode. 

The fact that Bill becomes one of - if not - the first "True Cyberman" is massively cool. At the same time, it's quite devastating. I'd become quite attached to her by this point and didn't want to see this happen to her. The fact that cybernisation seems to be irreversible made her fate all-the-more painful to watch. I've spoken before of the potency of that cliffhanger (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/06/book-of-lists-ten-amazing-cliffhangers.html). It's a gorgeous "double-whammy". Not only must we watch the Doctor's close friend become a Cyberman, but the Doctor also comes to terms with the fact that he's dealing with two incarnations of his greatest rival at once. So it's an excellent moment for both the Master and the Cybermen. But it's an especially important moment since it is the final stage of an evolution that we've been watching. 

The Cybermen are born. It's particularly mortifying that they were born through Poor Bill! 

There is one neat thing that Moff does during the second half of the tale that works as a sort of escape clause if one wants it to be. The Doctor delivers his speech about parallel evolution. He claims that most species, at some point, try to convert themselves to Cybermen. This allows what we're seeing on this colony ship to Mondas to be subjective. I like to think that the ship makes its way to its destination and converts the Mondasian population. That this is the true origins of the Cyber-race. But, if you so desire, you can view this as a completely separate tale that has no bearing on what we will eventually see in The Tenth Planet. That those Cybermen have a completely different backstory. It's another gorgeous example of the ambiguity Steven Moffat has woven into the script. 

THE HORROR! 

One of the other really outstanding elements of this tale that involved Cybermen was something that is commonly referred to as "body horror". I actually find this to be one of the most disturbing forms of the genre. There are all kinds of terrifying things you can do to characters in a plot. But when you start actually changing their physical form and the very nature of who they are, it really gets under my skin. 

I find that Who actually needs to be careful with this style of horror. As it really can become too disturbing for a family audience. In the past, we've had stories like Ark in Space, where Noah transforms into a Wirrn. We're not really all that mortified by the scene, though, because the effect was done with bubble wrap (the performance of the actor, though, as he struggles through the transformation was brilliant)!  But now, the show has a real budget. They could really make some stomachs turn if they wanted to. 

But the whole thing is pitched quite magnificently. We know there's some gruesome surgery going on but it's only vaguely alluded to. We can't help but notice, for instance, that the new head apparatus that the surgeon is showing Bill at the end of the episode has a nasty spike in it that will, very obviously, penetrate the skull of its wearer. We don't actually witness the process going on, though. It's left to our imagination. Which will do a far better job than a graphic visual ever could. 

There's also a far stronger emphasis on the psychological damage that occurs during Body Horror. Which is safer to portray in a PG format but, ironically, can be far more difficult to watch. Bill waking up from her operation and wandering into a room full of Patients begging to be killed is, in many ways, one of the most memorable moments in the whole episode. And it sticks with us so well because it is just so dark and morbid. It's a truly brilliant scene. 

CONVERSION

As we discuss the various virtues of Body Horror, it leads us to another point about this story that I really enjoy. A core element of the terror a Cybermen inspires is the fact that they are the sci fi equivalent of a zombie. Rather than just kill you - they go one step further. They turn you into them. You become the Walking Dead. Every story involving them mentions, at least, in passing that Cybermen convert humans. 

And yet, we rarely get to see the actual process. The first time we see any real hint of it is in Attack of the Cybermen: a story that takes place nearly 20 years after the monsters were first introduced. For nearly two decades we hear things like: "If the Cybermen catch you, they turn you into them!" But we never actually get to see how that's done. 

New Who stories like Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel and Closing Time also show a little bit of the process. In some ways, not letting see us see much of it is part of that less is more approach that I described a bit, already, in the last section. But, after so many years of not ever really witnessing much of the procedure, I really wanted a story that focused in on it a bit more. 

In World/Falls, we finally get to see that. It's a very primitive form of conversion. No doubt, future Cybermen come up with much more efficient ways to transform humans into their kind. But it's quite nice to see such low-tech methods.  It makes it more horrifying, of course. But also allows us to really see and understand what goes into the process of making an actual Cyberman.  I found it most interesting to see the whole thing displayed in such great detail. Now we can go back to putting Maurice Colbourne or Jame Corden in partial Cybermen outfits!    

DRAWBACKS...

This story ranks Fourth Place in my Cybermen Story Countdown. While I have a lot of great things to say about it, it must also have some weak points. Otherwise, it would be at the top, right? 

I have to say: my qualms with the tale are negligible. For the most part, I adore it. 

However...

It made sense that we might eventually see the Cybermen evolve into a more efficient model. So I didn't mind the Nightmare In Silver Version suddenly appearing and kinda taking things over. They would look more intimidating for a final conflict. This was also the latest costume that the production team was using so that worked, too. The fresher the look, the better.   

I'm not sure if we needed the Cybus-Style Cybermen in there, too. It seemed a bit unnecessary. Seeing multiple versions of Daleks in Asylum of the Daleks was cool. Any other attempts to cram in as many different past models of an evil cyborg seemed a little too fan-pleasing. In this case, it even seemed a little half-assed. They, more-or-less, re-created the Mondasion style Cybermen and then just dug out the suits they still had lying around. If they really wanted to show an evolution of some sort, we should have gotten a few more re-creations of classic costumes. Maybe one more version from the 60s and then the totally awesome 80s look. 

As I've mentioned, World/Falls is a bit like Planet of Fire. It has a lot to take care of. Because of this, the Cybermen do feel ever-so-slightly sidelined during the second episode. Technically, there is a Cyberman accompanying everyone as we deal with the multi-Master drama and the Doctor trying to halt his regeneration. But, most of the time, she appears as Bill. Only once in a while are we reminded that it's no longer really her. So the Cybermen's presence is a bit weak for a while. Especially with all the build-up we get in Part One. It does feel a bit like they've just been, suddenly, pushed to the side after Nardole rescues everyone from the rooftop. It's not a huge failing. But it would have been nice to see more of what was going on in the Cyber Factory during The Doctor Falls. How cool would it have been, for instance, to have a scene where that creepy surgeon is, at last, betrayed by his creation and forced to become a Cyberman? And then some other scenes where we just watch the Mondasian Cybermen completely take over operations and make improved models of themselves? It just seemed like a plot thread that should have kept getting explored in the second half. Instead, it's a bit of a wasted opportunity. It does work to leave the goings-on in the Engine Level mysterious now that the protagonists have left it. But it also feels a bit "off" that we abandon the setting so suddenly and only return to it to watch Cybermen activate their jet boots!

FINAL VERDICT

My objections, as you can see, are pretty minor. In terms of how this adventure treats both the Master(s) and the Cybermen, it does a pretty damned solid job. It begins Twelve's final journey quite well, too! Overall, it was a great way to finish out the season. Probably one of the best season finales of the New Series.   

It is important to note, however, that there is one sequence towards the end of the whole adventure that gets me to forget about any problem I may have with these two episodes. I'm speaking of that glorious moment where the Doctor is running through the solar farm setting off explosions with his sonic screwdriver and shouting out every victory he's ever had over this particular foe. It's an utterly brilliant scene that, for me, captures the true spirit of the Doctor. He knows his life will be over soon, but he still defiantly celebrates all the times he has won against the monsters that are about to end him. I find the whole thing genuinely inspiring, really. No matter how many times I watch it, it stirs up something in me. I'm always moved by it. 

That scene, alone, gives this story a special place in my heart. It helps, of course, that the rest of tale is very well put-together, too.   

Number Four Cybermen story has been covered. We'll keep moving on....