Doctor Who - Age of Steel Season 2 #6 (spoilers)

[sniffles]

Despite a couple of minor cheesy moments (how the Doctor overpowered the Cybermen at the beginning, and how he defeated them at Battersea), I liked it. The episode seemed to go by really fast. I didn't feel like I'd been watching for 45 minutes.

I knew Mrs. Moore was doomed as soon as she told the Doctor her real name.

I suspected Mickey might make that choice, but I was still surprised that it actually happened.

I liked what occurred between Rose and the alternate Pete Tyler. It drove home what the Doctor had been trying to tell her throughout this episode and "Rise of the Cybermen". It was a nice touch to have her run home to Mum for solace. The character development in the new series continues to be great.

 

[Felon]

Well-said. The doctor actually used his head this episode rather than thinking he could just stare the bad guys down.

I got a real thrill out of watching Ricky getting fried--thinking it was Micky, of course. But they actually worked out a coda for the character that would satisty the more soft-hearted fans. We shall never, ever, ever, never, ever, EVER see Mick again.

 

[LrdApoc]

I guess I called the whole Micky thing in the last episode. Though I wondered if they'd do a bait-and-switch with Micky/Ricky before the end. In many ways it seems they are falling into a formula with secondary companions - two to three episodes and they get left behind.

Not a bad thing in this case. The dynamic really is all about Rose and The Doctor. I thought they did a good job making Micky more likable in the end than they had the previous season and a half. Though I still don't get the feeling Rose and Micky had any real chemistry.. I didn't buy that part at all from episode 1 of the last series on.

 

[Brakkart]

I did like this episode. It was nice to see the Doctor having to figure out how to beat the Cybermen and there is no way in hell you'd have gotten me walking down a corridor of sleeping Cybermen!

I loved the image when Mickey watches Ricky get fried and fall from the fence, and he is looking at himself (essentially) dead at the feet of a half dozen or so Cybermen, who just stare silently at him. To see yourself dead at the hands of creatures who don't even care that they just killed you... that's pretty cold. Just that one scene sent a chill down my spine.

Rose and Pete running into the Cyberman who used to be Jackie was a nice scene too, as was Rose all but throwing herself into her Mum's arms on her return to our Earth.

Next week: Killer televisions... oookay!

 

[Viking Bastard]

The next episode is written by League of Gentlemen genius Mark Gatiss.

 

[sniffles]

I did like this episode. It was nice to see the Doctor having to figure out how to beat the Cybermen and there is no way in hell you'd have gotten me walking down a corridor of sleeping Cybermen!

I loved the image when Mickey watches Ricky get fried and fall from the fence, and he is looking at himself (essentially) dead at the feet of a half dozen or so Cybermen, who just stare silently at him. To see yourself dead at the hands of creatures who don't even care that they just killed you... that's pretty cold. Just that one scene sent a chill down my spine.

Rose and Pete running into the Cyberman who used to be Jackie was a nice scene too, as was Rose all but throwing herself into her Mum's arms on her return to our Earth.

Next week: Killer televisions... oookay!

In the 'Confidential', Russell T. Davies says that scene of the Cybermen looking through the fence at Mickey was really chilling to him, too.

I don't think Mickey and Rose really had a deep relationship going on - at least not from Rose's end - but she did see him as a sort of security blanket. They've known each other since they were children - remember seeing Mickey as a child in "Father's Day"? I used to find Mickey sort of annoying because I wished he'd get a clue and stop being such a doormat for Rose, but now I'm sorry to see him go.

The "Killer televisions" episode looks weird, but as Viking Bastard points out, it's written by Mark Gatiss, so it should be interesting. He wrote "The Unquiet Dead", the episode with Charles Dickens. He's also written several Doctor Who novels. And he narrates all the "Doctor Who Confidentials".

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I didn't really like this episode myself. Pretty much the same reason as for not liking the last episode much- the Cybermen were a bland foe, not at all the Cybermen of old. These were just mindless automatons- in fact, if you'd used the Autons or the clockwork robots from "The Girl in the Fireplace," it probably wouldn't have been a terribly noticeable difference. I did like the bit with the Cyberman whose emotion chip was broken- that was kind of a cool bit, as was the Doctor's dilemma about wiping out the controls of the emotion chips. Otherwise, Lumic was still over the top, and little more than a poor man's Davros.

My favorite parts of the whole episode- Mickey. He finally got some good moments, and I think they were well in keeping with the character development he's gone through both on and off-screen (on the Who is Doctor Who? website). His leaving was pretty much telegraphed, even if you hadn't read the reports of him leaving, but I found myself hoping they were wrong, and that he'd stick around a bit longer. Even if he weren't to become a companion, I wouldn't mind seeing him pop up again from time to time... now all we have to look forward to on return trips is Rose's mom. Ugh. Jackie Tyler really bugs me for some reason.

There were also some really silly parts in this episode- one, anyway. How the heck does a Cyberman sneak up on you? Every time we see those things, they're clanking away. Apparently they do that deliberately, for intimidation effect. I also didn't like the way they were all moving in exaggerated synch with one another- I had flashbacks to "the Robot" dance from the 80s.

I understand the Cybermen are supposed to turn up again by season's end- I'm hoping we get "real" Cybermen this time around, and not these wind-up versions.

So aside from Mickey, what else did I think worked? I actually liked Rose and Mickey's goodbye at the end. I wish they hadn't started this episode with Rose and the Doctor best chums again, and instead had played off of "TGitF"- I think that after Rose had to face a permanent separation from someone she cared deeply about, that would have really played along well with the themes of abandonment and solitude that have been kind of running in at least a couple of episodes so far this season (TGitF and School Reunion), and would have served as a good bridge for reconciliation between Rose and the Doctor as she begins to understand how he must feel at always going on and having to leave others behind.

Next week's episode looks... weird. I get "The Empty Child" vibes off of it from the trailer, but I really couldn't tell a whole lot about it. I'll be glued to the television for it, though. Heh. (Get it? Because the people were getting stuck to the... never mind.)

 

[Staffan]

I wish they hadn't started this episode with Rose and the Doctor best chums again, and instead had played off of "TGitF"

As I understand it, the writer of the Cybermen episodes was only vaguely aware of what was going on in TGITF.

 

[MonsterMash]

I thought that this was ok as a too parter, probably about a 5/10 for the first part and 6/10 for the second, I think that continuity between episodes is a little handwaved by the references to what the Tardis crew have been doing between times (which just happen to be published in novels by BBC books).

I thought that there were too many Davros parallels with Lumic, but the fitting of the earpieces and contrast with mobile phones in current UK culture (upgrading, deletion) was a nice touch. Still missed there being any cybermen saying resistance is useless. Probably the best Mickey episodes ever though and gave Noel Clarke something more to do than being the tin dog.

I think next episode with Mark Gattiss writing could be intriguing.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I loved the 'earpod' as a contemporary joke at the eye-pod (ipod)...