The original cybermen were just plain silly. They sounded like Charles Hawtrey speaking into a vocoder and looked about as menacing. During the 60s, they got more menacing and their greatest moment was bursting out of the London sewers and taking on a terrified London. All this was only known to me through the novelisations, of course, and so the televised Tom Baker era "Revenge of ..." was one of my most eagerly awaited Who adventures ever. And I was feeling much the same way in the run-up to Saturday's outing.
It's a very sad feeling to have eager anticipation drain away out of the soles of your feet, when you so badly want to like it ..
I have a suspicion they're trying to do a "Genesis of the Daleks" for the cybes, giving us a good creation story that (somewhat) supplants established canon. But what made "Genesis of the Daleks" effective was Davros - endlessly malevolent, hideous, deformed, yet able to charm, play off one side against the other, and all the while be the loathsome xenocidal maniac who created the pepperpots.
Saturday gave us the metal jugheads' equivalent - Trigger's evil twin, chewing up the scenery but not remotely threatening.
I hope for better next week. If the cybermen discover their own independence and turn on their creator, I shall be ... well, not disappointed because that's exactly what I expect them to do. Meanwhile, Rose's parents have become a subplot, like those episodes of Friends where everyone plays themselves but slightly different just because they can. And are we honestly expected to believe those earpods will ever be fashionable?
But the cybermen themselves ... now, they were good. Emotionless, ruthless, single-minded - just what the doctor ordered, as it were. That stomping march was reminiscent of the good old days when actors dressed in silver-sprayed wetsuits terrorised the tourist trail. All that was needed was the marching theme that we haven't heard properly since the Troughton days.I wonder how many of today's young generation of viewers think they were inspired by the Borg?
Although you have to consider the possibility that an awful lot of the younger generation would say, "Borg who?"
ReplyDeleteYou're both talking about Bjorn Borg, right?
ReplyDeleteActually his younger brother, Cy.
ReplyDeleteAt least finally a two part Doctor Who! I remember in the old days when a story went over five episodes, it really builds up the storyline much more. Still I guess you can't keep viewers interested in a story over 5 weeks anymore (bob)
ReplyDeleteIndeed. And in those days there was no BBC3 and very few VCRs, so if you missed it then it stayed missed for the next 20 years when it finally came out on video. And if there was a plot point in part 1 that only became significant in part 4 then you were expected to remember it over the intervening weeks.
ReplyDeleteWould geekdom have arisen if a whole generation hadn't been required to have to have such prodigious memories?