Revenge Of The Cybermen: Doctor Who: Season 12

SYNOPSIS

DETAILS

CAST & CREW

REVIEWS

Goldby

Grob

Long

Revenge Of The Cybermen SYNOPSIS:

Revenge Of the Cybermen features the merciless cybermen are out to destroy Voga - planet of Gold.

The Time ring returns the Tardis crew to wrong time zone when when they arrive back on Nerva Beacon. Nerva Beacon is yet again seemingly deserted. The trio come across dozens of dead bodies sealed off from the rest of the station and four remaining crew members, one of whom has just contracted the plague that killed the others. The Doctor suspects foul play from the surly Kellman, the crew's surveyor of the newly discovered planet Nerva currently orbits around. Kellman is secretly in contact with a cyberman ship in deep space and has stolen secret transmissions coming from the planet's surface.

A cybermat, the source of the "plague" killing the crew, attacks Sarah and the Doctor transmats her and Harry to Voga to disperse the poison in Sarah's system. There they are both taken prisoner by the vogans and are interrogated by the Guardian leader Vorus who believes them to be spies. On Nerva the Doctor finds the cybermat controls and uses the creature to get Kellman to confess his treachery. The Doctor tells the Commander Stevenson and Lester they are orbiting Voga the lost planet of gold and Kellman is working for the cybermen but they are too late to prevent the cybermen from boarding and taking over Nerva.

Sarah and Harry escape Vorus execution squad and are recaptured by Vorus political opponent Tyrum. To prevent further fighting between his Guardians and the Vogan city militia Vorus is forced to reveal to Tyrum he wants the travellers killed believing they know of his Sky striker rocket that he and his agent aboard Nerva Beacon are planning to use against the cybermen. The Cybermen have planted bombs on the Doctor, Stevenson and Lester and beam them to Voga planning to detonate them once the three men are guided to the core of Voga. Two cybermen accompany to hold off Vogan resistance.

Kellman is the double agent working for the vogans and luring his supposed allies the cybermen into a trap. He is killed attempting to intercept the Doctor's party with Harry. Lester then sacrifices himself destroying their cyberguards and the Doctor defuses the bombs. Realizing the plan has failed the Cyberleader decides to crash Nerva Beacon into Voga once packed with cyber bombs. Sarah and the Doctor beam back to stop the Cyber LEader but are captured. Harry, Tyrum and Stevenson are left to prevent Vorus from firing his rocket at the beacon and killing their friends and the cybermen manage to set Nerva in motion before leaving.

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Revenge Of The Cybermen SERIAL DETAILS:

Episode	Broadcast	Run Time	Viewership (In Millions)
Part One	19-Apr-75	24:19	9.5
Part Two	26-Apr-75	24:24	8.3
Part Three	3-May-75	24:32	8.9
Part Four	10-May-75	23:21	9.4

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Revenge Of The Cybermen CAST & CREW

Stars:
The Doctor:
Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions:
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan)

Guest Stars:
Ronald Leigh-Hunt — Commander Stevenson
Jeremy Wilkin — Kellman
William Marlowe — Lester
Alec Wallis — Warner
Michael Wisher — Magrik
Kevin Stoney — Tyrum
David Collings — Vorus
Brian Grellis — Sheprah
Christopher Robbie — Cyber Leader
Melville Jones — Cyberman

Production Staff for Serial 4D:
Writer - Gerry Davis, Robert Holmes (uncredited)
Director - Michael E. Briant
Script editor - Robert Holmes
Producer - Philip Hinchcliffe

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Revenge Of The Cybermen REVIEWS

Goldby

Revenge Of The Cybermen sees the return of the killer cyborgs after a 7 year absence.
Like another earlier cyberman story, funny how Revenge of the cybermen involves another Space Station shaped like a Wheel. Yeah there's a few things wrong with this one but really it's a lotta fun! Again it's got atmosphere, tension and mystery. Plus the cave locations give a sense of it being set on another planet, in this case Voga. The continuing story arc is good, given that the time ring has delivered them all back to the Ark as it was supposed too, allowing the slightly altered sets to be re-used. Not sure why the beam didn't remove Sarah's clothes As well as the poison, maybe that's the function of the time ring as it did seem to make Tom's hat and overcoat disappear during the trip back from Skaro.
The cybermen are top notch and remember being totally frightened of them as a kid with their imposing stature, blank faces and empty voices. It's the first time we get a bona fide Cyber leader too with a black helmet and so what if he puts his hands on his hips and gets annoyed occasionally. Not knowing the back story of these guys back then I thought they were robots who imitated men hence the name. Well it was a kid's logic and it doesn't really affect the story which is all about the revenge of the cybermen, logically removing the biggest threat to this remaining rag tag bunch at that time - Gold as it could be used as a source of the gold dust that's lethal to them. The acting is also as top notch, keeping up the standard for the whole season from the perfectly slimy Kellman to the desperate commander and on the vogan side is Vorus, and the old councillor which turns out to be Kevin Stoney of Tobias Vaughn fame. under a mask. The vogan's are particularly well realized alien race and the return of Carey Blyton with her stripped down music gives this a haunted quality, especially in the cave scenes. The fact it only takes two cybermen to mow down an army was a good showing of them being formidable beings. Tardis trio are still solid and good to see the relationship between Sarah and Harry expanded a bit more here
Thought the cybermat was nasty too, although these days the CSO rather lets it down and yes Grob with you on the spinning barrel planet - shoddy, they obviously had only ten pounds left in the kitty. Yep there's a few chinks in logic but hey look at the even bigger gaffs picked up in the new series and it's still enjoyable. Good to see the cybermen back pity they disappear for another 7 years. Plus who doesn't love the line "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" For the nostalgia factor am giving Revenge Of The Cybermen 9/10.

Grob

Revenge of the cybermen??Is "revenge" an emotion??? I remember this being a pretty fucked up plot too and only three cybermen in it - one of whom is the leader who likes to stride about with his hands on his hips and crack the shits with people. He is played by Christopher Robbie ( who later went down with Alice.) However, its a cost-cutting episode from which they re-used the Ark sets which is a pretty good idea from Phil and Bob. Actually the whole story was going to be set on board the Ark and the Voga scenes were added on later to liven it up.
Speaking of Voga, those interior cave scenes look great and they really sound like you are in a cave too instead of a studio (well, duh. They actually FILMED in a cave!!) but we get lots of Vogan / cybermen action and little power boat action and miniature train action and girl on girl action. Okay, I made that up. The location of Wookey Hole does look really good and the production team milk it for all its worth. Sadly locations and sets don't a good Doctor Who story make and the thing that lets the whole thing down is the cybermen themselves.
Yeah they look nice and solid and very fetching in their flared pants but.......seriously can anyone write a plot that will make the damn things work???? This is also the starting point for that whole "gold dust allergy thing" So if its gold dust that is the problem, why is Voga that is made of solid gold a problem? You can't inhale solid gold. Unless you turn it into gold DUST and then you're fucked. So what does the cyber controller do? Yeah; he sends down his only two cybermen to a gold planet. Nice move. Idiot. Two other things that bothered my tiny little fan brain; if the only way to separate the poison from Sarah was to beam her down to Voga, how come her clothes don't get separated from her as well? Also, if unbuckling the bombs will set them off, why don't they cut through the straps once they all get to Voga? Revenge of the cybermen didn't cut the mustard.2/10 from me.
Oh; that footage of Voga when the beacon is going to crash into it. A spinning barrel with craters on it. For fuck's sake!

Long

Revenge Of the cybermen gets the thumbs down from Who Community:Back in the early/mid 90s when I started reading "fan" stuff like DWM and Sonic screwdriver, there were two episodes that I was surprised to see that fans, as a general rule, hated. Both were Cybermen episodes. This was one of them. Look, it's got it's flaws - but there are some really strong moments in it. The best of which is the Cybermen. As Goldby said, as kids, this was the only evidence of Cybermen that we really had till Earthshock, save for a second of footage in Carnival of Monsters. Yet they still were slotted in as the number 2 greatest enemy. The strength of them in this story must be testament to this rating. As a kid, I was scared shitless of the cybermats. Sure, now they look a bit pissy, but the way they attacked Sarah at the end of episode one was terrifying... and the glowing veins, even more so!
And the Cyber plan does hold up - especially when you don't know that is the first time that we know that gold is their downfall. But even if we did know that it always had been their downfall, the plot explains that it was this revelation that ended the Cyberwars... that makes sense to me! Although I guess it does belittle the Cybermen a bit having such a major weakness... like the Sontarans and their big target on their back... and the Slitheen with vinegar... ok, so it wasn't the vinegar that made them shit!
The stuff on Voga, particularly the Vogans and the caves, look great. But it's the sub plot here that kind of goes a little bit awry for me. As soon as someone mentions "trade" in Dr Who, my interest always goes down a bit... so they want to become a trading power with something or other something or other... and then the Cybermen want to blow up the planet so nobody else can have gold... now that bit I like! I also remember wondering at the time why they didn't just cut the straps on the bombs... but you know... that's pretty minor. Although promising Keller "control of the universe"... come on, surely we don't need another one of those! I assume that was a part of the original script.
Anyway, yeah, Revenge Of the Cybermen is underrated, but not without flaws. 7/10BTW - are the Ark in Space crew of the Nerva still hanging around waiting for the Doctor to give them the all clear on the transmat?

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