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!