Revenge Of The Cybermen (1975) Review

"Oooohhh, yesss... I'd take a Cyberman over a massage chair any day."

Revenge Of The Cybermen is fairly mediocre, but has some very decent moments in it.

PLOT

The TARDIS crew arrive on Nerva, a few thousand years early just in time for a Cyber-invasion of the place. The Cybermen intend to destroy Voga - the planet of gold that stopped them from beating the human race in the Cyber War(see: Nightmare In Silver).

ANALYSIS

I'm honestly surprised that this is the best Gerry Davis could come up with. Sure, most of his Cyberstories relied more on good directors than good writing, but at least they were always interesting. This was only four parts long and I felt like it went on forever. If that doesn't convince you, then know that Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM was in this one and if he can't at least entertain, your story's doomed.

Urgh. The sets were all dirty dank caves or more of Nerva, which we've already seen to death. At the hands of a better director in a much better story.

The few moments that are good usually involve Tom Baker, who defied the odds and managed to stay awake despite being a zombie in most of Genesis Of The Daleks. Does worser story = better performance when it comes to him?

CHARACTERS

As I just said, Tom Baker's really fun in this one, constantly teasing the Cybermen and enjoying the action. He keeps the snarkiness to a minimum, which is always nice.

Sarah Jane gives a great performance as always, managing to balance every aspect of a great companion: the screaming, the bantering and the sexiness. She's terrific.

Poor Harry. Everyone hates him in this story. I don't. Leave Harry alone.

Kellman is one sneaky creep. Just look at his hair! He's like Banik from The Enemy Of The World, born to be evil. Even if he turns out to be good, which I didn't entirely understand.

The commander and his lackey both play their roles fairly well. Same goes for the Vogans. I'd like to mention Kevin Stoney, just so I can say Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM again. Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE- okay, I'll stop.

This is the only Cyberman story made in the 1970s and it shows. They have some of the emotion that will become their trademark in the 80s("Excellent!" makes its first appereance), but they are still reminiscent of their counterparts in The Invasion.

Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN... okay, fine! It's not my fault it was a great performance!!

NOTES

*Oh my god, the part where the Cyberleader shakes Tom Baker... has there been a camper moment in Doctor Who? I think not.

*The one really great thing about this story is the music. The Cyber theme is fantastic.

*Why does the Doctor say that the Cybermen are only beaten by gold? Let's see what's beaten them in his past stories: 1) Their homeworld being destroyed made them melt. 2) Vacuum of outer space. 3) Being deprived of energy. 4) Some kind of sonic thingamajig the Doctor made up...? I barely remember that one, it was a recon. 5) Bullets.
Add to that a cocktail of cleaning fluids which melted their armor and their own guns.

*How does Sarah Jane know about the Cybermen? Did the info get out in The Invasion? Wouldn't the people have known about it in The Tenth Planet, then? Great, I just got finished with my Dalek Timeline, now I have to worry about this one too!

*Why does the Time Ring(given to the Doctor by people who are supposed to know how this stuff works) send the TARDIS crew into the wrong time period? And what makes the TARDIS appear at the end? Is it the Time Lords' way of saying "oops, we sent them into the past. Well, better throw their time machine after them."

*When did the Doctor give the Brigadier a time telegraph? I suppose the Third Doctor could've done that at some point, but surely the Brigadier would've seen fit to use it more than once instead of go "oh, there he goes off again right when I walk in. Well, better go tell miss Smith some national secrets."

*The Cyber-mats look even worse than they did in the 60s.

*Transmats cure people now!

*Why don't the Cybermen just blow up Voga by sending their Cybership loaded with bombs at it?

BEST QUOTE

"Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!!!!" - It's very mean to Harry, but this was hilarious.

CONCLUSION

Oh god, the freakin' Zygons are next? And we're losing Harry?!