Ascension of the Cybermen – Review & Thoughts
“Love, pride, hate, fear… have you no emotions, sir?” enquired the First Doctor (William Hartnell) to the Cybermen, way back in his 1966 swan song, The Tenth Planet. In last week’s episode, The Haunting of Aston Villa (I still can’t remember its actual title), we met the lone Cyberman, Ashad (Patrick O’Kane), who indeed does seem to possess all these emotions (and then some). In fact, in a cruel twist of irony, this Cyberman seems to have more emotional range than the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) herself these days, who seems to have her own emotional inhibitor chip firmly in place. When we last saw him, Ashad had been victorious, and had escaped with his coveted prize the Cyberium – the Cyber equivalent of Wikipedia – the repository of all Cybermen knowledge. The Doctor had potentially sacrificed billions of future lives in order to save Shelley (Lewis Rainer). Now she has to go back to the future to undo the mess she’s created before it’s too late.
Things begin in unpredictable fashion, in rural Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century (the exact date or location isn’t confirmed but judging from their accents and clothes, it seems a good guess!). On a country road, a kindly couple discover an abandoned baby and pledge to raise the boy as their own. As time passes, and the police fail to identify who his parents were, the two legally adopt their ‘carrot-topped’ child, whom they have christened Brendan.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has followed the breadcrumb trail of coordinates she obtained last week from Shelley, leading to the location of the Cyber-fleet. The ‘fam’, are trudging behind, lugging equipment from the TARDIS which the Doctor has parked (for narrative conveniences – more on this later), away from the action. They are on an alien planet in the far future, in the aftermath of the Cyber war (everything interesting takes place off screen this series), where mankind has been hunted to near extinction. In the nearby town are seven ‘magnificent’ survivors of the human race, who are bracing themselves for future attacks. The Doctor and ‘fam’ arrive, just as Cyber warships are heard overhead, and volunteer to help. The townsfolk (there’s no point talking about individual names here – they’re all so generic that it scarcely matters) are told to stay indoors whilst the Doctor erects her home-made defences in preparation of the Cyber-attack. So far, so Kurosawa.
A terrible roaring sound from the sky announces the arrival of a wave of Cyber-drones, ‘imaginatively’ shaped like Cybermen helmets. The drones swoop down and easily knock out all of the Doctor’s defences, killing some of the fleeing villagers for good measure. The Doctor orders the remaining survivors to run; return to the spaceship which brought them to this world. She orders the ‘fam’ to go with them, as the TARDIS is parked too far away for them to survive the trip back (remember when it was strange the TARDIS was parked so far away – it was to facilitate this plot ‘development’). The Doctor will stay behind and buy them some time, so they can escape.
As the ‘fam’ scuttle off, the lone Cyberman Ashad comes out to play, stalking menacingly onto the battlefield. It seems like his holiday in Lake Geneva hasn’t improved his mood at all, and he promptly orders an attack by his two Cyber-mates. In the confusion (some of it intentional by the writer, no doubt), Ryan (Tosin Cole) gets separated from the others whilst Graham (Bradley Walsh) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) make it to the spaceship, just as more Cyber-drones attack. The humans’ ship takes off leaving behind Ryan and the Doctor on the planet to fend for themselves. They meet up with Ethan (Matt Carver), the last surviving human on the planet, who helps them steal a Cybershuttle to escape (“Cyber-shuttle theft in progress, leader” – actual dialogue, sadly).
On the human’s ship, the survivors reveal they’re heading somewhere called “Ko Sharmus”, where “the boundary” exists – a gateway to a random part of the universe. An escape route from the Cybermen. Meanwhile on the Cyber ship, Ethan tells Doctor she should also aim for Ko Sharmus, where they will arrive first, as they’re travelling at warp speed. Interrupting their conversation is the menacing visage of Ashad, who appears for a hologrammatic Skype call. He goads the Doctor, enigmatically teasing that, “The Death of everything lies within me.” As the tenth Doctor would no doubt have said, “textbook enigmatic”.
Meanwhile, time has passed back in Ballykissangel – Brendan (Evan McCabe) has grown up and is working as a policeman. He’s in hot pursuit of an escaped criminal and they’re both hurtling towards a literal cliffhanger – a cliff edge! The suspect points a gun at Brendan and pulls the trigger, sending the Gard tumbling in slow motion to the rocks below. At the foot of the cliffs, Brendan’s seemingly lifeless body is discovered by his sergeant (Coalyn Byrne); what the gunshot had started, the fall surely finished. To his surprise though, Brendan’s eyes snap open – he’s miraculously alive!
Meanwhile, things are perilous back with Yaz and Graham on the humans’ spaceship. They’re conserving what little energy remains by operating on low power. Drawn to the ship’s window by the sound of banging outside, Yaz sees the remains of Cybermen clanking off the hull of the ship. Cyber corpses are floating in space – the remains of the war. As their ship turns they see out of the window the remains of a giant Cyber-cruiser. Channelling all their remaining energy to the ship’s thrusters they make one last desperate attempt to reach the comparative safety of the cyber ship, before their oxygen supply runs out. With its last drop of power the ship crashes through the open doors of the docking bay and onto the floor of the Cyber ship. They’re safe… for now!
Exploring their new surroundings, Yaz, Graham and the others ponder what this “Cyber-carrier” could have been, er, carrying (hmmmmm, I wonder…). Whilst wooing one of the survivors with a spot of cockney rhyming slang, Graham discovers that, surprise surprise, the ship was a troop carrier and contains thousands of “warrior-class” soldiers in hibernation. Meanwhile in another part of the ship, Ashad appears with his two cyber-chums, wittering on about the Cyberium.
On the boundary planet, the Doctor meets Ko Shamus (Ian McElhinney – yes, another surprise – Ko Sharmus is a person, not a planet. A surprise that nobody saw coming because its so unimportant) who shows her around his makeshift settlement. He’s been helping the last survivors of humanity escape through the boundary, remaining behind on this side, in case others come seeking salvation. The Doctor goes to investigate this boundary, which is located on the banks of the sea surrounding Ko Sharmus’s island getway. As she approaches the shoreline, waves of pink energy surge upwards and the mysterious gateway opens up, revealing itself (“Good, isn’t it?” offers Ko Sharmus).
Back in Ireland, Brendan is an old man now. We witness his last day with the police force, as he receives a gold carriage clock as his retirement gift. As he exits the police station, and walks down its steps for the last time, he sees a familiar face waiting for him – his adoptive father. But something is wrong – he looks identical to when we first saw him; unchanged by the passage of time. Brendan’s former sergeant is also there and together they take him through to the back office where they strap him to a chair and place a device over his head. They thank him for his service but lament he won’t remember any of it. Electricity surges down the cables of the headset and into Brendan, who writhes in agony whilst his ‘father’ looks on.
Meanwhile, the Cybermen begin to wake up as the carrier approaches the boundary planet. One by one the new Cyberman emerge from their metallic coffins like the vampires they are, whilst Ashad watches on, ever the proud father. He taunts Yaz and the others over the ship’s intercom system, saying that his warriors are coming for them, ready or not (is the cliffhanger to this episode really going to be a game of Cyber-Acky 123?). Yaz manages to get a message to the Doctor, warning her of what’s on its way. Just as the message comes through, the boundary shifts again and the Doctor stares through the swirling energy portal. On the other side, she can see the smashed dome of the ruined citadel of Gallifrey; the boundary leads to her own planet! Just then a figure leaps through the gateway and out onto the shingle beach of Ko Sharmus’ retreat – it’s the Master (Sacha Dhawan)! He tells the Doctor to be afraid because everything is about to change forever.
Previously this series, the Master warned the Doctor (and the more militant portion of fandom at home) that “Everything you know is a lie”. As fans, what we thought we knew was that there are 13 Doctors, starting with the Hartnell Doctor. But since Doctor Ruth’s appearance in Fugitive of the Judoon, it was clear that this isn’t the case any more; potentially there are additional lives we know nothing about. The subplot of Brendan this week taps into this. In many ways its a retelling of the Superman mythos – an abandoned child (from another world?) rescued by a kindly couple, who discover the child’s powers and raise him as their own. Early on its ceded that Brendan could be another hitherto unmentioned version of the Doctor. Possibly even the ‘new’ first Doctor – the Timeless Child. Like the Doctor he possesses the power to heal himself and he’s drawn to a life of helping others in the police force, just as the Doctor travels through time and space righting wrongs in a Police Box. Brendan’s story also culminates in erased memories, adding further fuel to the fire in the wake of Doctor Ruth’s arrival. Is he the Doctor, the Timeless Child or even Ashad the lone Cyberman? Time will tell.
Once again this series, the use of the TARDIS leaves much to be desired. These days, with the Doctor’s mastery of the TARDIS at its zenith, its logical to separate her from her “frankly magnificent timeship”. It makes complete narrative sense because with it, she can solve any problem with a flick of a switch (see Spyfall for details). With this in mind, there are two ways a story can reasonably achieve this. Firstly, the Doctor could land on a planet purely by accident, and get separated from the TARDIS as she decides to explore. The other way is more contrived and involves the Doctor landing somewhere specific but the TARDIS becomes inaccessible/stolen/broken as a consequence of the plot. The last two episodes have fallen into the latter category except the narrative doesn’t isolate her from the TARDIS – she does this herself! The Doctor knew where she was going in both episodes but got separated from her ship simply through lousy parking, and not because of circumstance forced upon her. In last week’s episode, this was surely to create the ‘hilarious’ opening scene of the Doctor and ‘fam’ getting soaked in the rain en route to Aston Villa (still can’t remember its name), although funnily enough the episode organically separates her from the TARDIS anyway, as the mysterious Cyberium seals all the exits to the house. In this week’s story though, the Doctor has precise coordinates locating the Cyber fleet, so why park so dangerously far away from the action? The obvious answer to this is for narrative convenience. If she lands in the human settlement then Chibnall wouldn’t have the excuse to split up the group, leaving Yaz and Graham to board the human ship together. However, not content with treating his audience like idiots once, Chibnall does it again a few minutes later, trying to pointlessly wring drama out of the Doctor being ‘forced’ to pilot the Cyber-ship to Ko Sharmus, whilst completely overlooking the presence of the TARDIS. In reality, all she needed to do was fly the Cyber-ship to the TARDIS, rescue Yaz, Graham from the human ship, fly to Ko Sharmus and take them all somewhere random. But Chibnall writes the episode as if we’ve all just forgotten about the TARDIS. This is a series where a TARDIS is used to solve the entire story in the first episode. Seriously, as stupid as it would have been, it would have made more sense for the Doctor to have said she can’t use the TARDIS because she’s lost the key, instead of just glossing over its existence.
As previously mentioned, this episode also sees the return of Ashad, although this ‘lone’ Cyberman’s USP is dented by the presence of his two Cyber chums. Speaking of USPs, these days its difficult to tell what’s unique about the Cybermen. The episode hints at it, with the Doctor fretting that the Cybermen would upgrade her companions to a Cyber-fam, given half the chance (I’m not sure I’d notice it, if Ryan suddenly lost all his emotions. All 2 of them). There was even talk of their famous Achilles heel – gold – although it was described more as an “allergy” than their version of kryptonite, suggesting that an instant death could be counteracted by downing a couple of Benadryl. For all this ‘telling’ though, there’s no ‘showing’ again. Its a shame really because the Cybermen’s weakness to gold always helped to underline that they belonged in the Hammer horror pantheon of monsters. An allergy to precious metal is straight out of the werewolf playbook and makes the Cybermen seem more supernatural than science fiction. Whilst the Daleks and their fascistic inspiration (thankfully) feels less relevant with each passing year, the Cybermen with their constant pursuit of the perfect upgrade, have never felt more pertinent. A generation of a tech-obsessed people, stomping around whilst permanently wearing headphones – sounds a bit like Chibnall’s new target demograph.
The history of the Cybermen, particularly in the modern incarnation of the show, has been a tangled mess ever since Russell T Davies established a parallel universe origin for them on Earth. The aesthetic of the Cyber costumes this series is very inconsistent – partly by design, but also one suspects because nobody would know the difference anyway. Ashad, the lone Cyberman looks Borg-like in concept (Star Trek, not Bjorn); all wires poking from his body and his damaged mask making him look like Doctor Who’s equivalent of the Batman villain Two Face. However his two ‘assistants’ in the episode (who I’m choosing to call Claude and Karen, purely for my own amusement) are repurposed ‘Cybusmen’ from the David Tennant years. This episode even throws another version into the mix – a new ‘warrior’ class of Cybermen (aren’t they all ‘warrior’ class though?? What exactly were the ‘Cybus’ ones supposed to be then – dinner ladies?). Visually these ‘new’ Cybermen are actually a hotchpotch of different looks. A cross between the costumes used in the Steven Moffat years, but with the addition of an ‘80s Cyberman mask on top (and shoulder pads reminiscent of legendary ’80s wrestling tag team Legion of Doom). This ‘new’ design isn’t the only nod to the decade that fashion forgot though, as the story borrows a lot of its Cybermen imagery from Earthshock, a story that no doubt had a profound effect on a pubescent Christopher Chibnall back in 1982. However Earthshock, despite being 40 years old is the pacier of the tales, with better imagery, snappier dialogue (not usually a strength of Doctor Who at that time) and a more surprising story (it truly earned the “shock” part of its title). It even dared to do the ‘unthinkable’ by killing off one of the main companions, something this episode flirts with like Bradley Walsh chatting up an earth colonist. Speaking of Earthshock, the character of Ethan feels like another throwback to that episode. He’s like a proto-Adric; all brains and artful dodger street smarts – a dead companion in the making. It makes me fearful for his wellbeing going into next week’s episode.
Aside from Ethan, the rest of the guest cast are a very uninspiring bunch. When we are first introduced to the human survivors, we learn that there are just 7 remaining from the Cyber War. A magnificent seven if you will, defending a small town from Ashad’s Calvera-like Cyber-bandits. Unlike Sturges’ 1960 classic western though, with its fantastic script that sketches out seven distinct personalities, the humans in this episode are simply too generic to distinguish from each other. This shouldn’t be a surprise to us though because on a week-to-week basis Chibnall struggles with his scripts to differentiate between three companions, who are different ages, sexes and ethnic backgrounds.
VERDICT
Cyber Drone
Another week and another episode less interested in telling a story from A to B, and more in forshadowing things to come. The subplot of the mysterious Brendan was interesting though – more so than the main story it was supporting. Given that this episode was all set up, next week’s conclusion is going to have to hit the ground running to tie it all together. Be afraid – everything will change.
7/10
Film Thought 