Who Review: Revenge of the Cybermen (Revisited)

The time ring takes our heroes back to the Nerva space station, but they arrive thousands of years before it became an Ark for the cream of humanity. At this point in time, Nerva is a beacon, alerting ships to uncharted moons and planets so they don’t crash into them, like a deep space lighthouse. The planet under Nerva’s watch is the newly-discovered planet of Voga, the so-called “planet of gold.” But all is not well on Nerva. A strange virus is wiping out the crew, causing the beacon to be quarantined. The Doctor isn’t convinced it’s a virus, and the name “Voga” tells him what he needs to know: the Cybermen are involved. And that means even bigger trouble for Nerva. Meanwhile on Voga, there is violent dissension over the future of the planet. One faction wants Voga and its inhabitants to keep to itself, fearing attack from the Cybermen. The other wants to emerge from the shadows, become a great trading planet again, and fight off the Cybermen once and for all. This political and military fighting only complicates things for the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry, who find themselves caught up in the struggle, which turns out to be a fight for their lives and the lives of everyone on Voga…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

I wrote a review of this story about five years ago, but since I recently re-watched it, I thought I’d revisit the review.

Continuing the storyline that began with “The Ark in Space” (which really just continued directly on from the previous story, “Robot”), “Revenge of the Cybermen” saw the return of the tin men for the first time since 1968. The Third Doctor didn’t have an encounter with the Cybermen because, frankly, Terrance Dicks, the script editor during the Third Doctor era, didn’t like them. However, with a new production team coming in, and a new Doctor to get used to, it was decided to put some old favorites in the season line-up to make sure people kept watching. Hence the previous story featuring the Daleks, and this Cyberman story.

Written by Cyberman co-creator, Gerry Davis (with some strong influence from then-script editor Robert Holmes), it’s not a bad story. In fact, there’s no padding at all, which is one of the advantages of four-part stories. The Cybermen costumes get a much-needed overhaul, though not all the visual effects work. We have warring factions on Voga, and a double-agent on Nerva, all of which make for depth and interest in the plot.

Sadly, though, the story is plagued with inconsistencies and plot holes. Here are some that particularly struck, and in some cases bothered, me:

• How did the Cybermen transmat onto the planet? The Doctor used the transmat to cure Sarah of the “plague” since its beams disperse human molecules, separating them from the virus. So how did the non-human Cybermen make it onto Voga?
• How could the Cybermen survive on Voga? If gold is now deadly to their systems, surely the “gold planet” would have gold dust in the air? Surrounded with so much lethal gold, the Cybermen would surely suffer, perhaps even die.
• Why did the Vogans continue shooting at the Cybermen when it was obvious their guns had no effect, and they were simply committing suicide? They mentioned once having used a scatter gun to drive the Cybermen away with gold. Why not use that? Or at least throw gold rocks at them–that would have been much more effective. Indeed, why did the Doctor and Harry attack with gold dust? Why not big chunks of gold that could be thrown and less easily shaken off?

The whole gold allergy thing with the Cybermen was introduced in this story, and persisted through the rest of the Classic era. While it provides a weakness that sort-of fits with the plot, it undermines their menace. Indeed, the only time gold is used as a weapon in the New Series is in the Eleventh Doctor’s last encounter with them, “Nightmare in Silver.” When the Doctor uses gold against a Cyberman in that story, they all download an upgrade that “fixes” the problem. This underscores how lame a weakness it truly was.

Oh, and then there’s the sassy Cyber Leader with his hands on his hips. I don’t know what’s up with that, but it is funny.

The story ends with the TARDIS catching up with the Doctor on Nerva, and the Brigadier summoning him back to Earth. This leads into the next story, “Terror of the Zygons,” which was originally supposed to be the last story in this season, but was held over to start the next.

To sum up, “Revenge of the Cybermen” is a solid, no-padding story, and it sort-of works if you don’t think about it too hard. The performances are great, especially from the leads, so if you like watching the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane at their best, then definitely give this one your attention. It’s also worthwhile to continue the Nerva space station story. But aside from that, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. In fact, the best thing on the DVD release is the extra, “Checks, Lies, and Videotape,” a 30 minute documentary on the history of Doctor Who on videotape, going back to the days when fans would tape the show from television and buy pirate copies of old stories, through to the release of “Revenge of the Cybermen” on video in 1983–the first Doctor Who story to get a commercial release.