Attack of the Cybermen

-You are a Time Lord?
-Yes. And at the moment, a rather angry one!

Attack of the Cybermen is a mixed bag as it is a good story but also a warning not to get too invested in your own mythology.

The story opens with what looks like a bank robbery. If you were familiar with Resurrection of the Daleks, you would recognize one of the robbers as Lytton. If you hadn't (as I hadn't) it would have been lost on you. The robbers are led by Lytton off their route where they are captured by a band of Cybermen. Meanwhile, two prisoners escape from a work detail on the planet of Telos (reference to Tomb of the Cybermen). The Doctor and Peri discover the thieves have activated the Cybermen and flee back to the TARDIS. However, the Cybermen ambush them and take the TARDIS back to Telos.

On Telos, Peri, Lytton and the other thief Griffiths escape the Cybermen. Peri is taken by the Cryons (the natives of Telos), who had hired Lytton to help destroy the Cybermen. Lytton, Griffiths and the two prisoners from before band together to recapture a time ship the Cybermen had taken. Meanwhile the Doctor is imprisoned with the Cryon leader. Lytton is captured in the assault on the time ship and the other three are killed. The Doctor breaks out after setting up a bomb with the Cryon leader. He and Peri escape in the ensuing battle at Cyber Control and mercifully kill Lytton who had been partially converted. The bomb explodes, killing the Cyron leader but also destroying the Cyber-tombs.

This is an extremely complicated story. It calls back to so much of past Doctor Who that it actually suffers for it. If you weren't aware of the history of the Cybermen, going all the way back to the destruction of Mondas in 1986 (The Tenth Planet) the story would have made zero sense as there was no rehash of backstory given except for a very condensed conversation at the start of episode two.

Even knowing the history, the story moves on at a great pace, which is nice for a change but I wouldn't want this in every story. Most of the pacing issues come from involving too many plot threads. The two escaped prisoners, Bates and Stratton, serve no purpose other than a little comic relief. Their expedition to recapture the time ship and subsequent death does nothing in regards to the overall plot other than kill time. If that time had been added to explaining what was going on to the rest of the audience, it might have felt smoother and a little less rushed.

The other thing that is a bit buggy about this story is the Cryons themselves. They are hastily introduced in episode two and their look is a rather bad Eighties level of cheap. They also seem to suffer from wandering hands syndrome which is extremely distracting when trying to listen to their sing-song dialogue. Half the time I thought they were trying to feel Peri up.

Despite all of this, it does draw you in. Once you know of the history, it removes much of the confusion and your interest picks up significantly, especially in episode one. But the Cryons and the rushed feel drag things down in episode two, which leaves it as an middling affair overall.

Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5