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The Doctor’s old foes, the Cybermen, are back.

Rise of the Cybermen by Tom MacRae is the first of a two-part adventure that concludes next week. It details the origins of the Cybermen. The origins of the Cybermen has already been fouled up enough in the past, with the whole what planet do they come from? Telos or Mondas?

The episode appears to answer the question firmly with: neither. They come into existence on good old planet Earth. (Although there’s still next week to try to tie it all up neatly. They’ve never actually called it Earth, it is set in London.) Despite this apparent gross continuity gaff, they’ve taken an extra precaution: This episode takes place in a parallel universe that the TARDIS has been stranded in.

In this universe, an insane genius wants to “upgrade” humanity to the next level: emotionless brains encased in metal bodies.

Meanwhile, Rose, who apparently a lot dumber than previously thought, just has to go see her father, who is still alive and very wealthy in this universe, and her mother, a bitchy rich woman with a dog named Rose instead of a daughter. The character of Rose has been really annoying this season (except for last week’s episode) and she’s staying true to form in this one.

Meanwhile Mickey has begun to develop a personality. Honestly, that’s bad for him. A tried and true crutch that writers use (some would say, “abuse”) is to take a secondary character and try to flesh him out a bit – just before you kill him off. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mickey’s days are numbered. Not only do we get to meet his dead (in our universe) grandmother, but we get two for the price of one. He exists in this universe, too, only he’s named Ricky. (Could it be the Doctor knew about this in advance somehow?) Ricky is the country’s #1 most wanted criminal, a rebel fighting against the evil genius.

Not a lot happens in this episode, but that’s a good thing. The 45 minute format really stinks for Doctor Who, with the villains usually being relegated to an afterthought and a momentary slight of hand for the Doctor to dispose of when time runs out. The two episode formats gives them enough time to set the stage and build some menace, allowing the second episode to run full tilt towards the windmills.

The new Cybermen costumes are pretty impressive. They’ve been given a brushed metal Art Deco look and they’ve built enough costumes to convincingly portray a small army. Earlier Doctor Who episodes suffered from three-costume-itis, where you could see obviously only 3 on screen at any given time.

Old series Doctor Who director Graeme Harper directs this two-parter along with a couple more episodes later this season.

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The Girl In The Fireplace
by Steven Moffat

(Definitely spoilers in this one)

So what happens when you take one of Britain’s finest writers of romantic farce and let him loose of Doctor Who?

Well if it’s like last year, you get the stand out episode(s) of the season, with the two-parter, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”. While probably the tightest scripted and best-paced episode of last season, it also had the most sex – or at least sexual goings on – that’s ever been in Doctor Who. Captain Jack comes along and makes some overtures (not unwanted) towards Rose, the Doctor gets jealous, the romantic triangle builds. What else would we expect from the creative genius behind the series “Coupling”.

However, it was completely out of place in Doctor Who, but the rest of the story compensated for it.

Similarly, this year’s “The Girl In The Fireplace” puts the Doctor in a romantic situation with Madame de Pompadour, who, through a convoluted plot device has been visited by the Doctor throughout her life and comes to love him as she has no other man. The Doctor, too, seems quite smitten, and later heart(s)broken by the arrangement. Meanwhile Rose watches with jealousy and Mickey, on his inaugural trip aboard the TARDIS says, “I told you so.”

Anyone like Moffat who can write romantic farce has to be able to tie a script up into a nice, neat package and he delivers here. Even though it is an implausible situation, it’s by far the tightest and well-written script of the season, but, once again, just a little out of kilter with the rest of the series. It’s an interesting change of pace, and not as jarring as last season’s episodes.

3000 years in the future the repair robots aboard a crippled spacecraft feel they need Madame de Pompadour’s brain to complete their repairs. To effect that, they create multiple time portals back to her life on Earth, searching for the right moment in time when she’ll be ready to complete their ship.

Into this, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey arrive aboard the spacecraft. By stepping through the portals, the Doctor comes in contact again and again with Madame de Pompadour throughout her life. He arrives, and in typical fashion, saves the day, again and again. She comes to love him and it would appear he comes to love her.

When the time comes for the clockwork robots to harvest her, the Doctor gives up his freedom to travel in space and time to come charging in on a white horse and save her, leaving Mickey and Rose stranded on the spacecraft.

Clearly the writers are continuing a setup, driving a wedge between the Doctor and Rose, who, like in last week’s episode with Sarah Jane Smith, is getting a feel for what it means to be in love with the Doctor. Where they plan that to lead to, I do not know yet. It could be leading to Rose’s departure, or perhaps something that will make Rose all the more determined to be more to the Doctor – but she’d need to become a Time Lord to overcome the whole age thing, wouldn’t she?

Time, and further episodes will tell.

Next week: The Cybermen are back!

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