Is The Honeymoon Period Over?

[RitaLittlewood]

Yesterday the Daily Mail's Peter Paterson said he was disappointed with the new Cybermen, how they remided him of the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz and were about as terrifying. Today Jim Shelley of the Mirror writes:

DODGY DOCTOR
THE much-publicised Cybermen episode of Dr Who was a disappointment because, for the most part, it didn't have any Cybermen. The sight of Billie Piper in a maid's uniform was only scant consolation.

Dr Who has the same dodgy formula every week now - a bumpy ride through time, a quirky cameo from some semi famous face like Trigger from Only Fools And Horses, a few crappy (not-very) special effects and some strangely muted zaniness from David Tennant.

The cybermen were fine but nothing we haven't seen in several dozen Pet Shop Boys' videos.

But the wait was stultifying - yet another story about genetic engineering and 1984 - esque brain-washing ("TV down-loaded straight into their heads").

The Cybermen's mantra, "You will be deleted", was rather too close to "you will be exterminated".

So much for Russell T Davies's radical re-styling.

[BillyNiblick]

Well, I thought the cybermen were wrong. The original cybermen were not the choreographed clumpers marching around in ranks like tin soldiers we saw here, but were altogether more sinister - creeping and stealthy, breathy in a Darth Vader style, threatening and quite, quite, terrifying. These cybermen were about as terrifying as the despatch depot at the tuna canning factory. Or maybe it's just that I'm older now.

Also, I'm afraid I just couldn't take Trigger from Fools & Horses as a power-crazed megalomaniac villain seriously at all - I kept sniggering at his voice. Roger Lloyd Pack put in a deliberately over-the-top, camp as Christmas performance, and fair play to him, but it was such a giggle.

[Mrs Demigod]

to be fair I found I had a bit of a lump in my throat when that cyber"man" said it was a woman who was waiting to get married and she felt cold, and the doctor deactivated her. That was kind of touching. It was kind of touching in a way really.

[sootycat]

But, you can't have Cybermen with feelings. They are supposed to be killing machines like Daleks

[RitaLittlewood]

Exactly. In The Invasion (a far superior piece of story telling even with 2 episodes missing) Tobias Vaughn introduced fear to one of them and it went berserk, attacking everything in sight. This isn't Dr Who but a soap opera! Ratings are falling and I would be surprised if it lasted 5 years.

Patsy

[eithne]

giantlady said:

to be fair I found I had a bit of a lump in my throat when that cyber"man" said it was a woman who was waiting to get married and she felt cold, and the doctor deactivated her. That was kind of touching. It was kind of touching in a way really.

Totally agree with you there Mrs DG. That was probably the best part of the episode for me - even if it does go against all the old Doctor Who that we hear so much about.

[RitaLittlewood]

There's a scene in Attack of the Cybermen where Lytton is being converted to a Cyberman and he begs the Doctor to kill him. There's also one in Revelation of the Daleks where this woman and her friend find her father is being converted into a Dalek and he does the same. So it's nothing new really having emotion except it should be in context. That wasn't. It tried to make it mushy.

Patsy