‘ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Cold War with Cybermen and Cryons on Telos with the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Lytton

It’s time for Colin Baker’s first full-on season of ‘Doctor Who’ in 1985! 🙂

I always get a buzz when a new Blu-ray box set of a classic ‘Doctor Who’ season is announced via the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel. This is especially the case when the Blu-ray trailer entitled ‘The Eternal Mystery’, starring Nicola Bryant as Peri, was released on YouTube back in January 2022.

This was of course to promote Season 22 of ‘Doctor Who’ on Blu-ray with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri. There’s also Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie, who guest star in ‘The Two Doctors’. We’ll discuss more about them another time.

It was nice to see Nicola Bryant reprise Peri as an older person, following the events of ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ where presumably she managed to cheat death. Mind you, I’m not sure which one of these Peris this is supposed to be. There’s like five Peris established in ‘Peri and the Piscon Paradox’.

It was also lovely to see Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison and Janet Fielding joining the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items for Season 22, according to the trailer. I check out these ‘Collection’ Blu-ray box sets even if Sarah’s not in all of them, but it’s always a great pleasure to see her in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items. 🙂

There are also some other brand-new items in the Season 22 Blu-ray box set to check out, including some Matthew Sweet conversations with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as well as one with Michael Grade, the man responsible for cancelling ‘Doctor Who’ initial Season 23 in 1985. Wow! Astounding!

There’s also a new making-of documentary for ‘The Two Doctors’. I’m pleased ‘The Two Doctors’ has the making-of documentary on Blu-ray. I’m disappointed it wasn’t on the DVD. ‘A Fix with Sontarans’ with the Sixth Doctor, Tegan and Gareth Jenkins is also on Blu-ray, but that’s for another occasion. 🙂

The Blu-ray box set of Season 22 of ‘Doctor Who’ is an 8-disc set. The six stories of Season 22 are ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, ‘Vengeance on Varos’, ‘The Mark of the Rani’, ‘The Two Doctors’, ‘Timelash’ and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’. ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and ‘The Two Doctors’ get the 2-disc treatment. 🙂

Season 22 of ‘Doctor Who’ is a…fascinating season to say the least. Not only was this the first ‘Doctor Who’ season to feature Colin Baker’s Doctor on TV, it was also a season that received a lot of scrutiny, both from the BBC as well as the general public, considering the violent content that it had.

This is something we’ll explore further as we go through each story of the season, but dare I say it, Season 22 of ‘Doctor Who’ was pretty bold in depicting some pretty graphic and violent imagery in certain scenes of each story. ‘Timelash’ is not such a huge issue, but most of the other stories are. 😐

All of this was mainly down to how the producer John Nathan-Turner and (in particular) script-editor Eric Saward handled Season 22. They were attempting to make the show darker, violent and unpleasant. It was something that the BBC and certain members of the public strongly objected to. 😦

The result of this was that the BBC decided to postpone ‘Doctor Who’s following season – Season 23 – for 18 months. The negative reaction to this decision was very hot. Fans protested against the BBC for making such a decision. Nevertheless, with the decision made, ‘Doctor Who’ was put on hiatus. 😦

Whether you agree or disagree with the criticisms made against the TV show at the time by the BBC and the general public is entirely up to you. But make no mistake. ‘Doctor Who’ found itself in jeopardy. Season 22 is a season that could’ve easily killed the series if the BBC went to that extreme.

I’ve no objection to Season 22 overall. I enjoyed it for the most part and Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are highlights as the Sixth Doctor and Peri throughout each story. The Sixth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ has a place in many people’s hearts and no doubt they’re more positive than negative.

But there’s no denying that the bombastic approach to making these ‘Doctor Who’ stories, especially with the violent imagery and Colin’s Doctor often coming across as brash and unlikeable, makes Season 22 debatable as to whether it’s great or not. There are flaws as well as positives throughout.

It’s also interesting to note that Colin Baker’s Doctor doesn’t actually start in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, the first story of Season 22. Colin’s Doctor actually began in ‘The Twin Dilemma’, the very last story of Season 21, which is Peter Davison’s third and final season as the Fifth Doctor on TV.

Hmm. Interesting that Colin’s Doctor actually began at the end of Peter Davison’s final season on TV as opposed to the beginning of his first TV season. I’m currently curious on what the Season 21 Blu-ray box set cover of ‘Doctor Who’ will look like. Will it have both Peter Davison and Colin Baker on it?

Regardless, Colin Baker’s first full season of ‘Doctor Who’ was transmitted from January to March 1985 on BBC TV. And it was shown on Saturdays as opposed to the weekdays which Peter Davison’s seasons of ‘Doctor Who’ were transmitted on. So, how much good is there than bad in Season 22? 😐

Well, let’s find out! As established, the season begins with ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, a two-part 45-minute episode story. Yes, the episode format changed for this particular ‘Doctor Who’ season. Usually, ‘Doctor Who’ stories were four or six-parters with each episode about 25 minutes in length.

Here in Season 22, it was decided to change the episode lengths to 45 minutes instead. So, what would’ve been the first two episodes of a four-part story is now combined as ‘Part One’. And the last two episodes of a four-part story is combined as ‘Part Two’. Some prefer the episodes as 45 minutes.

I know Eric Saward prefers the episodes being 45 minutes instead of 25 minutes. There are advantages to having the episodes to 45 minutes, as it gives you more breathing space to develop the story and the characters. You’re not restricted to having each episode conclude on a cliffhanger.

There’s like only one cliffhanger to worry about in a two-part 45-minute episode story as opposed to worrying about three cliffhangers in a traditional four-part 25-minute episode story. The 45-minute episode length has been carried through into the new ‘Doctor Who’ series from 2005 to present day.

I don’t have an objection to the 45-minute episode length, as any episode length is fine for a ‘Doctor Who’ story. Mind you, I find the pacing in the 45-minute episodes of the Colin Baker era to be less pacy compared to how pacier the episodes of the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant eras are.

I also enjoy it when you have more cliffhangers in ‘Doctor Who’ so you can worry about your main characters. The jeopardy factor isn’t as important when you’re watching a two-part 45-minute story, unless you’ve combined all the three cliffhangers for the end of one episode as opposed to three. 😀

As established earlier, Season 22 of ‘Doctor Who’ was shown on Saturdays from January to March in 1985 as opposed to Mondays and Tuesdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Thursdays and Fridays for the Peter Davison era. I like the ‘Doctor Who’ episodes shown on Saturdays instead of weekdays.

I have enjoyed Jodie Whittaker’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ being shown on the Sundays, but Saturday is like the traditional day to show a ‘Doctor Who’ episode at teatime. I’m currently wondering whether Russell T. Davies will have his neo-‘Doctor Who’ era shown on the Saturdays as with his previous era.

As well as featuring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri, ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ of course features the return of one of the Doctor’s oldest foes – the Cybermen. Clearly, the surprise factor is instantly gone with audiences knowing what monsters they’re going to expect.

Then again, it’s always a challenge to repeat the surprise factor in a ‘Doctor Who’ story like ‘Earthshock’. And of course, it’s the 1980s ‘Earthshock’ Cybermen that Colin Baker’s Doctor has to deal with, including David Banks as the Cyber Leader, but not Mark Hardy as the Cyber Lieutenant. 😐

Brian Orrell plays the Cyber Lieutenant instead and there’s also John Ainley, who I think plays a ‘wobbly’ Cyberman at Cyber Control on Telos. 😀 And there’s Michael Kilgariff who returns as the Cyber Controller from ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’. I’ll talk about more about the Cybermen later. 🙂

Again, this is Colin Baker’s second ‘Doctor Who’ story in his tenure of the TV show, following his rocky start in ‘The Twin Dilemma’. I can imagine some audience members found it a challenge to get used to Colin Baker’s Doctor, since he came across as brash and unlikeable in ‘The Twin Dilemma’. 😐

As I’ve been able to gather, Colin Baker’s Doctor was meant to start off like that before he gradually became nicer as the series went on. This is certainly demonstrated in ‘Terror of the Vervoids’ in ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ before the BBC curtailed his era abruptly. It’s also in his Big Finish audio stories.

I’ve had my DVD cover of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ signed by Colin Baker at the ‘Regenerations 2016’ convention in Swansea, September 2016. When I asked him whether he preferred Cybermen or Daleks, he couldn’t decide. Of course, he’d say Daleks whenever Terry Molly is at a convention. 😀

Mind you, Colin Baker did say that the Daleks used to frighten him when he watched ‘Doctor Who’ back in the 1960s and that Jacqueline Pearce is a terrifying ‘monster’, when he was interviewed for ‘Saturday Superstore’ back in January 1985. 😀 I enjoyed the ‘Saturday Superstore’ interview on Blu-ray.

I quite like it that for the opening story of Season 22, the production team decided to have Colin Baker’s Doctor fight against the Cybermen. It provided a great start to the new season at the time in 1985, especially since it compensated for audiences getting used to Colin’s brash, aggressive Doctor.

Mind you, things could have turned out differently if the story didn’t end up becoming so violent as Eric Saward had written it in the scripts. It was Eric’s way of trying to emulate the Philip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes era from the 1970s. That can often be too much of a bad or a good thing.

Speaking of which; there has been a debate about who the author of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is. The story is credited to Paula Moore, who provides her only contribution to the series. Paula Moore is actually a pseudonym, as Eric Saward actually wrote the scripts with some help from other people.

The name Paula Moore is based on an ex-girlfriend Eric Saward had, whose actual name was Paul Woolsey. Honestly, I don’t know why the pseudonym ‘David Agnew’ wasn’t used for this story. Or did people actually find out by then that ‘David Agnew’ didn’t exist at all in behind-the-scenes terms.

There’s also been an argument that the unofficial continuity advisor on the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series named Ian Levine contributed as a writer to the story. Eric Saward denies this and says Ian Levine only contributed certain story ideas, including having the Cyber Controller and the Tombs of Telos. 🙂

Honestly, the identity of who authored ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ has been muddy-watered over the years. I’m willing to trust that Eric Saward is the actual author of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, since a lot of the writing feels like it’s him and it’s made clear that Eric is a huge fan of the Cybermen anyway. 🙂

In the story itself, the Doctor and Peri are in the TARDIS when they detect a strange alien signal emanating from the planet Earth. They track the signal to London, 1985. Soon, the Doctor and Peri arrive in an urban setting, as the TARDIS ends up in 76 Totter’s Lane. A place familiar to the Doctor. 🙂

As well as having links to previous Cybermen stories, there’s a nice link to ‘An Unearthly Child’ when the Doctor, Peri and the TARDIS return to 76 Totter’s Lane. Mind you, it’s better when the Doctor later returned to Shoreditch, London in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, as the location would be well-utilised.

In terms of other links to previous Cybermen stories, as well as ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ and ‘Earthshock’, there are links to ‘The Tenth Planet’, the first ‘Doctor Who’ story with the Cybermen. There’s also a link to ‘The Invasion’, when the Cybermen are walking about in the sewers of London.

Whilst these links to the previous Cybermen stories are nice enough, it doesn’t help to make the Cybermen’s history in ‘Doctor Who’ any clearer. You may have noticed that my Cybermen timeline on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ isn’t as up-to-date as I would like it to be with lots of Cyber history going on.

There have been many versions of the Cybermen’s origins as well as in ‘Spare Parts’, including a version in the ‘Doctor Who’ comics where the Cybermen and the Voord from ‘The Keys of Marinus’ are connected to each other. I find that a big revelation to swallow, since not everything is added up.

‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is also a sequel to ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’, since it features the return of Maurice Colbourne as Lytton, a mercenary who worked for the Daleks. This adds to my belief that Eric Saward penned ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ himself, since he initially created Lytton’s character. 🙂

This story also happens to be directed by Matthew Robinson, who previously directed ‘Resurrection’. Matthew is clearly an action director and I’m pleased he returned to direct another ‘Doctor Who’ story with Cybermen in the TV series. He’s directed both the Daleks and the Cybermen in his career.

Back to the story, the Doctor and Peri end up going down into the London sewers where the Cybermen lurk. They soon get caught by Cybermen in the TARDIS and they’re taken to Cyber Control on Telos where the revived Cyber Controller is waiting for them and where the Cryons happen to be.

In general, I found ‘Attack of the Cybermen’…okay. It’s not one of my standout favourites from classic ‘Doctor Who’. There is merit to be found in the story, but it doesn’t always deliver what it promises. As established, there are continuity elements and plot threads to wrap your head around.

Having watched the story recently and with the new 5.1 surround sound audio option on Blu-ray, I’ve been able to gain more insight into what’s going on, especially after watching it on DVD more than once. But it’s likely to confuse a viewer who may not be very familiar with ‘Doctor Who’ as I am.

And as I keep reiterating, the violence issues featured in this ‘Doctor Who’ story are debatable, especially as the series was going for a more adult atmosphere by this point. Whilst I’m okay with the series being more grown-up, there’s a fine line that needs to be drawn concerning the violence.

The story’s continuity elements might be obvious to hardcore ‘Doctor Who’ fans, but I don’t think the general public would have got them. Some of the story’s continuity elements can be hard to follow. These are nice touches of continuity for the fans by Eric Saward, but it doesn’t feel satisfying.

It’s like too many toppings on a pizza you’ve ordered from Domino’s. Speaking of which, my parents and I purchased a Domino’s pizza takeaway meal from our new local store, which we had whilst revisiting ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ on Blu-ray. It was nice to do, especially on a pretty hot sunny day.

There also needs to be more variety in a season of ‘Doctor Who’. You can go from a light-hearted adventure to a darker and violent story before going back to a light-hearted adventure again. Having most of the stories featuring violent elements one after the other doesn’t provide that much variety.

In terms of the cast, Colin Baker delivers a marvellous performance as the Sixth Doctor. He continues to be the brash and abrasive Doctor from ‘The Twin Dilemma’, but he’s clearly able to find his feet. It’s incredible how Colin is able to express such enthusiasm into a character he clearly enjoys playing.

I enjoyed the Doctor’s relationship with Peri, although they tend to bicker a lot in the TARDIS. I wondered how Peri was able to put up with the Doctor, as often, he wasn’t very nice to her compared to Peter Davison’s Doctor. But it’s clearly indicated that the two seem fond of each other.

It was nice when the Doctor realised that he misjudged Lytton, as he didn’t know he was working for the Cryons and not the Cybermen. This is emphasised when he sees Lytton partly converted into a Cyberman and when he shares a scene with Peri in the TARDIS, as he reflects on misjudging Lytton. 🙂

Mind you, it’s odd that Colin Baker’s Doctor would know who Lytton is in ‘Doctor Who’, since Peter Davison’s Doctor didn’t have many scenes with Lytton or share lines of dialogue with him in ‘Resurrection’. Then again, it’s established more clearly regarding the Doctor and Lytton’s relationship in the ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ novelization.

Nicola Bryant is lovely as Peri. I liked it when Peri showed concern for the Doctor, as she’s finding him to be ‘unstable’ following his regeneration. This is something that the Doctor categorically denies, especially when he goes “Unstable? Unstable?! UNSTABLE?!!!!!” and with ‘a very loud voice’.

The Colin Baker Doctor repeating Peri’s words three times is a sort-of common thing in Season 22. 😀 I really liked it when Peri showed concern for the Doctor towards the end when he was emotionally drained and reflecting on misjudging Peri. It’s not always arguments between the two. 🙂

Whilst Nicola Bryant as Peri is a sexy lady – she looks very glamourous in that sexy pink outfit she’s wearing as well as the red outfit he wears to keep warm on Telos – I question why she would run around in high heels. Surely, it’d better to run in trainers rather than in high heels in an adventure. 😐

It was interesting to see Peri interact with the Cryons when they rescued her from a rogue Cybermen breaking out of its tomb on Telos. Peri easily makes fun of the Doctor, especially when he’s wearing the multi-coloured coat and when the TARDIS doesn’t quite work with its ‘refitted’ chameleon circuit.

Oh yeah, that’s a new thing the producer John Nathan-Turner tried to go for in this story. The Doctor manages to fix the TARDIS’ chameleon circuit in the story, compared to when he had difficulty in getting it fixed and he had ‘to go to Logopolis to sort it out once and for all’. Even that failed at that time.

The TARDIS gets to change into a painted French dresser as well as an organ in the story. There was an outcry from the general public about the TARDIS ridding its blue police box exterior. A campaign was made to stop it from happening. Thankfully, JNT didn’t go to that extreme regarding the TARDIS.

It was clearly a set-up ruse to promote publicity in the newspaper tabloids when ‘Doctor Who’ was being made in the 1980s. You can’t really get rid of the blue police box exterior of the TARDIS, as that’s like an icon and has remained with the series ever since it first began back in November 1963.

I found Maurice Colbourne great as Lytton in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’. He continues to be tough as ever following ‘Resurrection’, but he isn’t the bad guy as we assumed he’d be. Initially, the story leads you to think he’s working with the Cybermen. But it’s developed later on that he isn’t with them.

He’s actually working for the Cryons. I like how this story provides more depth to Lytton compared to how he was presented in ‘Resurrection’. Had Lytton survived the events of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, he could’ve had an encounter with the Seventh Doctor with perhaps say…the Master? 😀

The story also features Terry Molloy as Russell, an undercover policeman who works for Lytton during a robbery heist. Terry Molloy is well-known for playing Davros in ‘Doctor Who’. In fact, he previously played the character of Davros in ‘Resurrection’, which was the first time he played him. 🙂

It was surreal to see Terry Molloy in the flesh and playing a human character in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’. He looks young and less menacing compared to his Davros performance in ‘Resurrection’. It was nice to see him as a different character and have scenes with Colin and Nicola.

The rest of the guest cast includes Brian Glover as Griffiths, who’s also one of Lytton’s mob. Brian Glover would later play Magersfontein Lugg in the TV series ‘Campion’ with Peter Davison. Griffiths is quite a down-to-Earth Yorkshireman, who’s quite out of his depth once Cybermen are involved. 😀

There’s James Beckett as Payne, who gets killed early on in ‘Part One’. There’s also Michael Attwell as Bates, an angry half-human, half-cyborg on the planet Telos. Michael Attwell also played Bill Sykes in the 1985 BBC TV production of ‘Oliver Twist’. Terry Molloy also starred in that BBC TV production.

Joining Michael Atwell as Bates is Jonathan David as the well-mannered Stratton. I felt sorry for Stratton when he was forced by Bates to wear a Cyberman’s helmet, which they beheaded in order to get into Cyber Control to pilot a spaceship. Stratton distracting a Cybermen on patrol was funny to see.

As established, the Cybermen in this ‘Doctor Who’ story are the ones from ‘Earthshock’. They’ve also appeared in ‘The Five Doctors’. If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you know that these Cybermen aren’t really my favourites, as I find them pathetic-looking and often acting less robotic. 😐

I appreciate there are ‘Doctor Who’ fans who are fans of these 1980s Cybermen in the TV series, but I can’t get over the Cyber Leader saying “Excellent!” a lot in his ‘Doctor Who’ appearances in the 1980s. Nothing against David Bank’s performances, but the way that he says “Excellent!” is a misstep.

It doesn’t make the Cybermen very threatening when you watch them in the TV series, especially when you can clearly see that they’re men in suits and not men in robotic armour, despite the impressive robotic heads they have. I prefer the ‘chunkier’ Cybermen in the new ‘Doctor Who’ series.

And then there’s Michael Kilgarriff as the Cyber Controller. (sighs) I’ll just say it, the Cyber Controller looked more impressive in ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ than in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’. I wish the production team didn’t bring back the Cyber Controller. I don’t mean to disrespect Michael Kilgarriff.

I’m sure it was nice for him to say the lines of dialogue rather than have Peter Hawkins voice over his dialogue as in ‘Tomb’ (although I prefer that really), but Michael Kilgarriff looks rather chubby in his Cyber Controller suit. Also, the Cyber Controller is rather underused as a villain throughout this story.

Eric Saward shared his reservations about this too in ‘The Cyber Story’ featurette, both on DVD and Blu-ray, as he felt there were too many talking heads with the Cyber Controller and the Cyber Leader in competition with each other. Honestly, I enjoyed Michael Kilgariff far more in ‘The Moon Stallion’.

And there are the Cryons! Oh boy! The Cryons! I found the Cryons rather disappointing quite frankly. These were the original inhabitants of the planet Telos before the Cybermen took over. It’s a nice idea, but the Cryons didn’t convince me as being worthy opponents for the Cybermen in this story. 😦

Yes, the fact the Cryons have to live in sub-zero temperatures is sound enough, but their costumes and makeup (If it was make-up. Or maybe they were masks) looked daft and silly. The Cryons also seem to be female with twirly moustaches and long fingernails. It looked embarrassing once you see them.

The Cryons are played by four ladies – comedienne Faith Brown as Flast, presenter Sarah Greene as Varne, Sarah Berger as Rost and Esther Freud as Threst. Honestly, with the Cryons looking so alike, I couldn’t tell which was who. They only appeared in ‘Part Two’ of the story, making them forgettable.

At the beginning of the story, there are two workmen in the London sewers before they get killed off by a black Cyberman. They’re Stephen Churchett as Bill and Stephen Wale as David. Fun fact: Stephen Churchett would go on to play Councillor Druggett in ‘The Brittas Empire’. Extraordinary! 😀

As reiterated, the issues of violence and death is debatable, especially in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Eric Saward didn’t back down from killing characters and having scenes of violence in the stories he wrote and script-edited. This included Bates, Stratton and Griffiths getting killed off in the TV story. 😦

This is especially when after all the effort they put into getting into the spaceship, they’re thwarted by a bobby-trap and a Cyberman that kills them. There’s also the scene where Lytton has his hands being crushed by Cybermen and they bleed, which was so disturbing to watch on DVD and Blu-ray. 😐

I honestly feel this is the wrong way to do things in ‘Doctor Who’. Action and fight scenes in ‘Doctor Who’ is fine, but it mustn’t be too gory. Lytton having his hands bleeding by Cybermen is near the knuckle. I’m really surprised that ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ wasn’t rated 15 instead of PG or 12 here.

In fact, when ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ was released on DVD in 2009, it was given a U rating. U! How could the DVD producers muck that up? Was Lytton’s bleeding hands okay for kids to watch, according to the DVD producers? I’m glad the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ Blu-ray disc has at least a 12 rating to it. 🙂

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was a mono sound audio mix option for the story and an audio commentary with Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy (‘Part One’ only) and Sarah Berger (‘Part Two’ only). There was also an isolated music option by Malcolm Clarke to enjoy and an info-text commentary option to enjoy. There was a making-of documentary called ‘The Cold War’, featuring behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There was ‘The Cyber Story’ featurette, which is a brief history of the Cybermen in the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. There was also ‘Human Cyborg’, featuring cybernetics scientist Professor Kevin Warwick. There was a photo gallery of the story and ‘The Cyber Generations’ photo gallery. There were BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story; and PDF materials, including ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDFs of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ and ‘The Invasion’ (which wasn’t on ‘The Invasion’ 2-disc DVD set for some reason 😐 ), and a 1969 article from ‘The Listener’ magazine by Cybermen co-creator Kit Pedler. There was also a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘Image of the Fendahl’, starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and K-9 (now included on Disc 2 of the Season 15 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, containing ‘The Invisible Enemy’). And there was an Easter Egg to look out for on the DVD, which happens to be Professor Kevin Warwick’s ‘Cybernetic Autonomous Dalek’.

On Disc 1 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 22’ Blu-ray, the mono sound audio mix option, the DVD audio commentary, the isolated music option, ‘The Cold War’ making-of documentary, ‘The Cyber Story’ featurette and ‘The Cyber-Generations’ photo gallery can be found on there. The info-text commentary option, the photo gallery and the BBC trailers and continuity announcements for ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ have been updated for 2022 on the Blu-ray. ‘Human Cyborg’ and the ‘Cybernetic Autonomous Dalek’ Easter Egg are combined as one on the Blu-ray.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ with Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri) and Terry Molloy (Davros) as well as Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) and Wendy Padbury (Zoe). There’s the ‘Colin Baker: In Conversation’ interview conducted by Matthew Sweet, a ‘Breakfast Time’ item with Faith Brown, a ‘Saturday Superstore’ item with Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Mary Tamm, Jacqueline Pearce, Sarah Greene and producer John Nathan-Turner, and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘Vengeance on Varos’, starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant (taken from the ‘Planet of Giants’ DVD). There’s also a 5.1 surround sound audio option for the story to enjoy.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, there are production documents; scripts for the story, including two rehearsal scripts, two camera scripts and the script for ‘Cold War’ (not sure if ‘Cold War’ was the original working title for ‘Attack of the Cybermen’); the BBC Audience Research Report for Season 22 and the 1986 ‘Doctor Who Annual’. The ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of ‘The Invasion’ and the 1969 article from ‘The Listener’ magazine by Cybermen co-creator Kit Pedler aren’t included on the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ Blu-ray disc.

‘Attack of the Cybermen’ isn’t great, but I found it enjoyable enough with the Cybermen in it. I’ve mixed feelings about this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are great as the Sixth Doctor and Peri, though the story depends on other ‘Doctor Who’ stories that have gone before it. 😐

This includes ‘The Tenth Planet’ and ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’. Despite the convoluted nature of the story, it does make for a good season opener to Colin Baker’s first full season as the Sixth Doctor. The story opens Season 22 with bang and I can readily appreciate it, despite the flaws it has throughout.

‘Attack of the Cybermen’ rating – 7/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN’ (BOOK)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

A Close Encounter of a Very Nasty Kind

The Target novelization/audiobook has been a different experience from the TV story! 🙂

‘Attack of the Cybermen’, as a ‘Doctor Who’ story, is one that I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it’s a story that has a good first episode and there are fascinating concepts going for it, including Telos and introducing the original inhabitants, the Cryons.

However, this story suffers in terms of its overdose of continuity references and there are the issues concerning the level of violence featured in the tale. There’s also the reintroduction of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, who made his debut in ‘The Twin Dilemma’.

‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is the season opener for Season 22 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, and viewers weren’t keen about the notion of the Sixth Doctor being brash and unlikeable, as he was introduced in ‘The Twin Dilemma’. Perhaps he should’ve been nicer.

All these elements didn’t bode well for an opening story that’s meant to hook viewers in. I’m sure many viewers, including fans, were excited by what Season 22 had to offer, but it isn’t reflected in the long run, since the TV show was sadly put on hiatus for 18 months. 😐

Now that’s not to say ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is bad through and through. Quite the contrary. I’m sure with tightening the scripts in terms of dialogue and exposition, ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ could have been an excellent classic TV story for viewers to take away with.

The emotional depth of the characterisation is also an issue for me, since a lot of the guest cast tended to be quite angry and violent. Then again, this is a story that deals with some perilous situations concerning the Cybermen, who are very lethal, so there you go.

I think it’s the balance of light-heartedness, the in-depth character study and interaction between characters that’s lacking in the story. This is something I’ve noticed particularly in my revisit of the story when reading and listening to the Target novelization/audiobook.

I’ve greatly enjoyed checking out the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization/audiobook by Eric Saward. It’s fitting that he should be the author of the novelization, since he himself penned the TV story, despite going under the pseudonym ‘Paula Moore’ when it came out.

I’m convinced that Ian Levine, the TV show’s unofficial continuity adviser, didn’t have any authorship to claim for ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, since the story is in keeping with Eric Saward’s writing and I’ve not come across many ‘Doctor Who’ tales penned by Ian Levine.

Yes, he might have contributed the ideas for ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, but in terms of the writing, I’m sure it’s mostly Eric Saward. This debate has been ongoing. Eric’s then girlfriend ‘Paula Woolsey’ is claimed to have penned some script elements, but it’s neither here nor there.

My experience of ‘Doctor Who’ novelizations by Eric Saward has been limited so far. I’ve certainly checked out ‘The Visitation’ novelization as well as the novelizations for ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’, which I’ve found very good.

I’ve yet to check two more of Eric Saward’s novelizations, including ‘The Twin Dilemma’ and ‘Slipback’. In total, Eric has written six ‘Doctor Who’ novelizations. Not as plentiful as Terrance Dicks’ novelizations, but the ones that he has written have been very enjoyable.

The ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization was published in 1989, the year when the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV show was cancelled. To be fair, the book was published in April of that year. Eight months before the last TV episode of ‘Survival’ was shown in December.

I purchased the Target novelization in February 2024, hoping to check it out sooner than I intended. I also purchased the unabridged audiobook read by David Banks via Audible. David Banks, of course, played the Cyber Leader in the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ TV story.

It makes sense for David Banks to read the story for audio compared to Geoffrey Beevers who’s read the audiobooks of the ‘Arc of Infinity’ and ‘Snakedance’ novelizations and wasn’t in the stories himself. I’m pleased that David Banks read ‘Attack of the Cybermen’.

I know I’ve been critical about the ‘Earthshock’ Cybermen and the way David Banks plays the Cyber Leader in the 1980s ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring the Cybermen. I was hoping that Nicholas Briggs would have provided the Cybermen’s voices instead of David Banks.

Like he did for the audiobook of the ‘Earthshock’ novelization by Ian Marter. But from checking out the audiobook for the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization, when David Banks read the Cybermen’s dialogue, including the Cyber Leader, I didn’t find it very bad. 🙂

The voices sound mechanical and are less campy. Even when David Banks says “Excellent!” as the Cyber Leader, it isn’t done in that sort-of comedic way I was expecting it to sound. I know there are fans of the ‘Earthshock’ Cybermen, and I don’t mean to be mean.

I met David Banks once at ‘The Capitol II’ convention at the Arora Hotel in Gatwick in May 2017 and I had a pleasant encounter with him. When the Cybermen are voiced right in the mechanical way I expect them to be and not sound emotional, I’m glad about that.

Even the writing by Eric Saward is improved in terms of the Cybermen’s dialogue. Trust me, Cybermen dialogue can be tricky to write, which I’m working on in my ‘Neptune Connect’ story. In the TV version of the story, there’s a point where the Cyber Leader says,

Cyber Leader: There is…logic…in what he says.

That’s used as a joke by Linkara in some of his ‘Atop the Fourth Wall’ reviews. In the novelization however, the Cyber Leader says, “There is logic in your statement”. That, for me, is a lot more convincing as Cybermen dialogue in the book compared to the TV story.

Going back to the audiobook, I enjoyed David Banks’ voices for the Sixth Doctor and Peri. Whilst not sounding exactly like Nicola Bryant with the American accent, there’s a sense of Colin Baker’s voice coming through when David is voicing the Sixth Doctor in the story.

In terms of the book, the story is divided into 10 chapters. Again, not matching with a Terrance Dicks-structure of a ‘Doctor Who’ novelization, especially with the chapters being chunky. The chapters would have been 12 instead of 10 if written by Terrance Dicks.

I know ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is a 2 by 45 minute-episode story instead of a four-part story with the episodes being 25 minutes. But the story structure would still match to a 12-chapter amount, whether it’d be a four-part story or a two-part 45 minute-episode tale. 🙂

Interestingly, ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is structured very differently in the narrative in book form compared to the TV story. It’s not a linear structure and we don’t go through the chapters ‘scene-by-scene’ as it was in the TV story. It’s not a note-for-note translation.

In Chapters 1 and 2, we go on the journey of Charlie Griffiths when he’s about to do the bank heist with Lytton, Payne and Russell before coming across the Cybermen in the London sewers. Griffiths is often named ‘Charlie’ whilst reading and hearing the story. 😀

In Chapters 3 and 4, we go on the Sixth Doctor and Peri’s journey when they’re first in the TARDIS before ending up in 76 Totter’s Lane and eventually going into the London sewers.  Eric clearly isn’t a fan of cutting between many scenes whilst reading this novelization. 🙂

He likes to focus on one set of characters in one chapter before moving on to the next chapter. A thing I noticed about this novelization is the lack of Stratton and Banes on Telos. Their presence in the novelization is not big compared to seeing them in the TV tale.

A thing to note is that ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is the first ‘Doctor Who’ story where Eric Saward has written Gustav Lytton in novelization form. He wrote Lytton in ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ first before writing him in ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ in novelization terms. 🙂

It’s quite astonishing that Eric didn’t write ‘Resurrection’ first before doing ‘Attack’ in order to maintain the consistency of these Target novelizations. It’s not a big deal, but I wonder if many people knew who Lytton was without having had to read him in ‘Resurrection’ first.

Then again, I updated my review on ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ first based on the Season 22 Blu-ray box set and I’ve yet to update my review on ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ once the Season 21 Blu-ray box set comes out. Intriguing how that parallels to Eric’s novelizations.

As I’ve established in my review of the ‘Resurrection’ novelization, Lytton knew who the Doctor was already in that adventure and the same for the Doctor knowing Lytton. I don’t think the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization contradicted anything with regards to that.

But then, in terms of reading and hearing the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization/audiobook, the realisation of the Doctor knowing Lytton is more gradual, especially as he’s still recovering from his regeneration and is still remembering things. 😐

I’ve not read ‘The Twin Dilemma’ novelization yet and I know Eric Saward wrote that in 1986 before writing the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ novelization in 1989. I assume the Doctor having sort-of amnesia in ‘Attack’ follows up to what happened in ‘Twin Dilemma’.

One of the saving graces of the Target novelization is the fact the cliffhanger ending for ‘Part One’ is omitted. Therefore, we don’t have Peri screaming her head off when she’s about to be killed by a Cyberman. Instead, Peri mourns for Russell, who gets killed in the tale. 🙂

It’s astonishing that Russell wasn’t mourned for following his death in ‘Part One’ once we get to ‘Part Two’ of the TV story. Then again, it might have required giving Terry Molloy another episode fee and character-driven elements weren’t a priority in the TV show then.

As well as the first scenes on Telos moved immediately to the ‘Part Two’ section instead of being in the ‘Part One’ section of the story, the opening scene featuring sewer workers Bill and David is omitted. Granted, Bill and David served a minor part in the TV adventure.

But it illustrates how Eric Saward doesn’t abide by how things turn out in the TV story, and he goes for a different structure in the novelization. Terrance Dicks would have included Bill and David in the novelization of the tale, matching to how the TV scripts turned out. 😐

It’s interesting that Charlie Griffiths – full name: Charles Windsor Griffiths – was named after Prince Charles and he’s given more background as a character compared to how he’s presented in the TV story. Even Charlie’s mum makes a brief appearance in the story.

The two Telos prisoners Bates and Stratton are given first names in the Target novelization. Bates has the first name Eregous and Stratton has the first Lintus. Also, apparently, their personalities are swapped in the novelization. Not that I noticed that so much in the book.

Mainly because Bates and Stratton don’t stand out for me in the novelization/audiobook compared to the TV story. The Cryon that happens to be Lytton’s contact in the story is renamed Thrust instead of Threst as in the TV story. Again, I quite didn’t notice that detail.

Payne is given the first name Joe whilst Russell is given the first name Vincent. Payne also happens to be a smoker, which wasn’t depicted in the TV story. When he bluffs that someone is following his gang in the tunnel, he secretly hides away to light up a cigarette.

This is an interesting aspect of Payne’s character, although he didn’t really do that much in the TV story as he was killed off by the first half of ‘Part One’. I don’t think that would be considered appropriate for a family TV show and it’s so fascinating it ends up in the book.

Apparently, Lytton and Griffiths are aware that Russell is an undercover policeman. This makes me wonder why they didn’t expose him swiftly when they did, but then, Lytton wasn’t planning to do the bank heist anyway and he wanted to get to Telos for the Cryons.

In the sewers, Griffiths kills a Cyberman with a machine gun instead of pistol. Not that’s a major difference in the story, but having Charlie Griffiths use a machine gun instead of a pistol is more elaborate and less subtle. I think using the pistol on a Cybermen is better.

The Doctor, in the Target novelization, is less abrasive as he was in the TV story. He’s softened more and he reassures Peri that he’s aware of his instability, but won’t let it cloud his judgement. I find this a better progression of his character than how he is on TV.

It’s interesting that the novelization states Peri spends her time in the TARDIS studying, just in case she returns to college on Earth in her own time. She also demands that she and the Doctor discuss terms for her remaining aboard the TARDIS whilst he’s ‘unstable’.

Doctor: UNSTABLE?!!!!!

And yes, the Doctor does repeat that three times in the novelization/audiobook as he did in the TV story. It’s interesting to explore the Doctor and Peri’s relationship by this point in their TARDIS travels, especially following from ‘The Twin Dilemma’ where he regenerated.

When Peri uses weapons like the stolen revolver on Russell, it’s revealed that she was taught how to use guns by her father, though she dislikes handling them. That’s quite an intriguing revelation regarding Peri’s character, especially as guns are thing in America. 😐

I like that the Doctor blowing up a Cyberman in the London sewers with the sonic lance is the result of a miscalculation rather than deliberately engineering its demise. Apparently, he had set the sonic lance too high and caused a massive fire in its chest unit.

This miscalculation makes up for what could be considered a violent act by the Doctor, as it’s clear in the TV story that he meant to kill him in the sewers. A shame the Doctor didn’t show regret for killing the Cyberman when showing that scene in the TV adventure.

I like that the novelization has the Doctor briefly recall Adric. As Eric Saward wrote ‘Earthshock’, it makes sense for the Doctor to recall Adric being killed because of the Cyberman. This is especially since the Sixth Doctor didn’t mention Adric in his TV tenure.

Another thing to add when Peri mourns the loss of Russell is that the Doctor blames himself for his death. It’s also interesting Russell was killed in an ambush and not directly. It still doesn’t explain how the Cybermen managed to get into the TARDIS in the first place.

Mind you, I might provide a sort-of answer to that in ‘Neptune Connect’. 😀 I like how Peri being attacked by the malfunctioning Cyberman in the tombs of Telos is expanded upon, especially as she’s about to die from hypothermia once a Cyberman from a tomb seizes her.

A fascinating aspect of the novelization is that the Cyber Controller doesn’t appear until he meets up with Lytton. Clearly Eric Saward wasn’t keen on including the Cyber Controller in the TV story, as it’s clear his ‘Part One’ scenes are omitted in the novelization.

In the torture scenes for Lytton, he struggles to tell the Cyber Controller anything before it becomes too much for him and he reveals the planned heist for the time vessel. Had this been included and made very clear in the TV tale, it would’ve been fascinating to see.

It’s established in the novelization that the Cryons have been poisoning the hibernation units, causing the possibility of the Cybermen to be on the brink of extinction. It explains why the Cyber Controller wants history to be changed so that Mondas can’t be destroyed.

Once Flast, the Cyron that the Doctor interacts with mostly in the ‘Part Two’ section of the story, is killed, the Cyber Leader kills the Cyberman that didn’t search the Doctor thoroughly on his initial capture in the TARDIS once he had the sonic lance. A bit harsh. 😐

I mean, I know the Cybermen should have searched the Doctor thoroughly in order to prevent him spoiling their plans, but there’s no need for the Cyber Leader to kill off the Cyberman for failing to do its job. Then again, these are cold-hearted emotionless beings.

Whilst reading and hearing the Cryons in the novelization/audiobook, it’s easier to identify them by their names compared to seeing them on the TV screen. But I wouldn’t say the Cryons are standout characters apart from being female and freedom fighter-like.

I like it when Charlie Griffths gets killed off along with Statton and Bates, Charlie had a wry smile on his face from the near-successful capture of the time vessel. At least one of the characters’ reactions in being killed off is explored. I’m glad Charlie was given that. 🙂

By the end of the story – Chapter 10 is a very short chapter – Peri points out to the Doctor that Lytton had ample opportunity to tell him about his work for the Cryons. However, the Doctor tells Peri that he suspects Lytton didn’t tell him because he wouldn’t be believed.

This is new dialogue that’s included in the last scene of ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, as I recall the Doctor had two lines and Peri had one line in the TV version. I’m pleased more dialogue was given to the Doctor and Peri in that last scene, as it made it more meaningful.

It’s explicitly revealed that the Cryons survived the explosion of Cyber Control once the Doctor’s sonic lance did its work on the vastial deep down on Telos. It’s also mentioned that the Cryons were eager to rebuild their world. I wonder if they did that beyond this story. 😐

‘Attack of the Cybermen’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelization/audiobook has been a very enjoyable one. I can’t say it’s entirely satisfying, since not everything matches from the TV story in the novelization. But Eric Saward did provide some enjoyable and nice additions.

This is especially in the Doctor and Peri’s character building as well as the guest characters like Lytton, Charlie Griffiths, etc. The audiobook reading by David Banks has also been very good. I’m glad he was the one who read ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ on audio.

‘Doctor Who – Attack of the Cybermen’ (Book) rating – 8/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN’ (AUDIO)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Another Close Encounter of a Very Nasty Kind in Audio

So, here we are again with another look at ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ in audio form. 🙂

After enjoying the abridged audiobooks of ‘The Curse of Peladon’ and ‘Kinda’ novelizations read by Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison respectively, I was keen to check out the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobook read by Colin Baker. It was enlightening!

I listened to the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobook in ‘Tales From the TARDIS: Volume One’. I make it an unofficial rule to hear the unabridged audiobooks first when checking out a Target novelization of ‘Doctor Who’, whether it’s the classic or new series.

It’s astonishing that abridged audiobooks of the Target novelizations were made around the 1990s on cassette tape and I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it was experimenting with the cassette tape format, and they couldn’t afford unabridged audiobook readings back then.

The ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobook was released in August 1995. I enjoyed Colin Baker’s reading of the story and he’s so into the characters that appear in the story, including the Doctor. Colin’s voice also sounds younger compared to nowadays on audio.

The structure of the abridged audiobook follows the same pattern as the Target novelization and the unabridged audiobook read by David Banks. It starts with focusing on Griffiths, Lytton, Payne and Russell for a bit before the story gets onto the Sixth Doctor and Peri.

As with ‘The Curse of Peladon’ and ‘Kinda’ abridged audiobook, there are two sides to ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ – Side A and Side B. Side A mostly covers the ‘Part One’ aspects of the story whilst Side B covers ‘Part Two’, which makes sense when you think about it. 🙂

It makes me wonder whether ‘Part One’ should have ended with the Doctor being forced by the Cybermen to pilot the TARDIS to Telos instead of ending on the cliffhanger where Peri screamed as she was about to be killed by the Cybermen. The tale itself is also of two halves.

As discussed with Wolfie in the comments’ section, ‘Part One’ has an ‘Invasion’ style to it whilst ‘Part Two’ has a ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’ style to it. I wonder if that’s what Eric Saward was going for when he first wrote ‘Attack of the Cybermen’. That would’ve been better.

Instead of having Bates and Stratton appear in ‘Parts One and Two’ of the story, they could only appear in ‘Part Two’. That way, the story would feel less clunky, and the audience could focus mostly on London in ‘Part One’ before we get to focus on Telos in ‘Part Two’.

The story could’ve also had more focus on the Doctor and heroes trying to prevent the Cybermen from changing history with the time ship they’ve acquired. That way, the story’s links to ‘The Tenth Planet’ with the Cybermen invading Earth in 1986 could’ve been stronger.

The original Delia Derbyshire theme music is used to open Side A of the story, then it’s used again to open Side B, and the Peter Howell theme music is used to close off the story. This approach had been done for ‘The Curse of Peladon’ and ‘Kinda’ abridged audiobooks.

Colin Baker does fine with voicing the Cybermen in the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobook, in terms of saying their dialogue in an emotionless and robotic way. Although I wish his voice was given an electronic sound effect to it, since he didn’t sound like the Cybermen.

For the most part, the abridged audiobook follows how the unabridged audiobook played out in keeping to the Target novelization’s structure. Mind you, I was disappointed we didn’t have the final extended scene between the Doctor and Peri in the abridged audiobook.

Plus, we don’t have the Doctor saying “Unstable? Unstable?! UNSTABLE?!!!!!” to Peri like he did in the TV story and the unabridged audiobook. At least the Cyber Leader get to say, “There is logic in your statement”, as in the Target novelization and the unabridged audiobook.

Another notable absence in the abridged audiobook is that Adric doesn’t get mentioned, which is a shame. I’ve picked up from checking out the abridged audiobook on how the Metropolitan police tracked Lytton’s movements and how they got Russell on the job to joining him. 🙂

The ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobook has been very enjoyable to check out. Colin Baker is excellent in reading the story and whilst the voices he provides for the Cybermen aren’t electronically treated, at least he reads them in a menacing and robotic way.

I’m very pleased I’ve checked out ‘The Curse of Peladon’, ‘Kinda’ and ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ abridged audiobooks in the ‘Tales From The TARDIS: Volume One’ on Audible. They’ve been fascinating audiobook versions of the Target novelizations of the TV stories. 🙂

‘Doctor Who – Attack of the Cybermen’ (Audio) rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Sixth Doctor was ‘The Twin Dilemma’ (TV) For Peri was ‘The Twin Dilemma’ (TV)	The next story For the Sixth Doctor is ‘House’ (ST) For Peri is ‘House’ (ST)
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