The return of the Cybermen after nearly 10 years is weak and dragged out affair, closing a great debut season of the Fourth Doctor.
Story: 6
Revenge of the Cybermen not only brings back the cyborg foes for the first time since The Invasion (1968) but also returns the Doctor and friends to Nerva Beacon, thereby effectively ending a season-long arc. It gives this story a fascinating sense of continuity, while still making things interesting by setting the story at an earlier point in time than The Ark in Space.
The plot bears many similarities with the Moonbase, down to the crew dropping like flies from a strange space virus and the base-under-siege type of story. It feels less exciting and original this time around.
Revenge of the Cybermen has some problems with characterisation. The people on Nerva are all stereotypical space station personnel, while the Vogans remain underdeveloped despite their given screentime and despite the sufficiently fascinating world and people. The Cybermen barely appear until the third episode and their plan certainly doesn't seem very effective at all.
Acting: 6
Ronald Leigh-Hunt returns from The Seeds of Death in a similar, yet somewhat less intense role. Harry Marlowe, who briefly turned up in The Mind of Evil, is also less memorable in his second and last appearance.
Christopher Robbie plays the Cyber-Leader with uncharacteristic emotion. The problem with the new Cyberman voices is that they allow the actors to soak emotionally rather than with monotone, cold voices. Robbie's Cyber-Leader speaks with a staccato rhythm, but with a hard and, arguably, temperamental tone.
The Doctor: 7
Tom Baker seems very bored throughout the story, which also translates to his Doctor. He just doesn't come across as the alien he is in his best stories.
The Companions: 6
Sarah and Harry engage in some typical companion-action, getting separated from the Doctor early on and spending a majority of the story being captured, escaping and getting captured again.
The Monster/Villain: 5
Here we see the Cybermen in their most famous design. It's not as creepy as the early Troughton era design, and I don't like the rather characters voices, but the design is their coolest one yet. As to their plans and actions, they are pretty ineffective and dull, far from the brilliance in their 60s appearances.
Kellner is a stereotypical henchman, working for the main villain, but lacking the personality of the best such people, like Tobias Vaughn or Benik. Jeremy Wilkin even plays him as such, not trying to make anything interesting with the part.
Production: 7
The sets are mostly the same used in The Ark in Space, which is fine because they look gorgeous. I don't know if I like the Vogan designs it not; they look realistic and scary, but also somewhat silly. The sets in Voga looks quite bad.
Pacing: 6
A four-part adventure featuring the Cybermen shouldn't feel as sluggish as this story does, but as it happens, the lack of tension and interesting story elements makes the serial pretty slow.
Atmosphere: 6
There's a lack of tension in the proceedings, even after the Cybermen enter and start their pointless butchering of the Vogans or when the Doctor is forced in his lengthy trek into the middle of Voga carrying a bomb on his back.
The climactic sequence, in which the Doctor steers the Beacon away from its crash course with Viga, doesn't carry as much excitement and tension as it probably did back in 1975. Nevertheless, it's a memorable Fourth Doctor scene.
Impact: 4
Gerry Davis didn't revitalize the Cybermen, who wouldn't show up again until Earthshock in 1982. This story is only memorable due to it being a part of a highly regarded season featuring popular aliens and a popular TARDIS team.
Replay Value: 5
Despite the return of Cybermen and one of the better TARDIS teams in action, this isn't a very entertaining story and therefore doesnät stand to be replayed more than a couple of times.
Random Observations:
The Vogans look like a race of stolen ideas. Their designs look like something taken from Star Trek while their symbol is suspiciously similar to the Seal of Rassilon, first seen The Deadly Assassin.
In a piece of Doctor Who world-building that kind of ruins the Cybermen in future stories: the Cybermen are now suddenly weak to gold, which is why they want to destroy Voga.
First Doctor actor William Hartnell passed away between the broadcast of parts one and two of this story. Part three, in turn, is the 400th episode of the show.
Here we get another pretty horrific death scene, with Lester sacrificing himself by blowing himself up.
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParent2020-06-22T15:03:12Z
The return of the Cybermen after nearly 10 years is weak and dragged out affair, closing a great debut season of the Fourth Doctor.
Story: 6
Revenge of the Cybermen not only brings back the cyborg foes for the first time since The Invasion (1968) but also returns the Doctor and friends to Nerva Beacon, thereby effectively ending a season-long arc. It gives this story a fascinating sense of continuity, while still making things interesting by setting the story at an earlier point in time than The Ark in Space.
The plot bears many similarities with the Moonbase, down to the crew dropping like flies from a strange space virus and the base-under-siege type of story. It feels less exciting and original this time around.
Revenge of the Cybermen has some problems with characterisation. The people on Nerva are all stereotypical space station personnel, while the Vogans remain underdeveloped despite their given screentime and despite the sufficiently fascinating world and people. The Cybermen barely appear until the third episode and their plan certainly doesn't seem very effective at all.
Acting: 6
Ronald Leigh-Hunt returns from The Seeds of Death in a similar, yet somewhat less intense role. Harry Marlowe, who briefly turned up in The Mind of Evil, is also less memorable in his second and last appearance.
Christopher Robbie plays the Cyber-Leader with uncharacteristic emotion. The problem with the new Cyberman voices is that they allow the actors to soak emotionally rather than with monotone, cold voices. Robbie's Cyber-Leader speaks with a staccato rhythm, but with a hard and, arguably, temperamental tone.
The Doctor: 7
Tom Baker seems very bored throughout the story, which also translates to his Doctor. He just doesn't come across as the alien he is in his best stories.
The Companions: 6
Sarah and Harry engage in some typical companion-action, getting separated from the Doctor early on and spending a majority of the story being captured, escaping and getting captured again.
The Monster/Villain: 5
Here we see the Cybermen in their most famous design. It's not as creepy as the early Troughton era design, and I don't like the rather characters voices, but the design is their coolest one yet. As to their plans and actions, they are pretty ineffective and dull, far from the brilliance in their 60s appearances.
Kellner is a stereotypical henchman, working for the main villain, but lacking the personality of the best such people, like Tobias Vaughn or Benik. Jeremy Wilkin even plays him as such, not trying to make anything interesting with the part.
Production: 7
The sets are mostly the same used in The Ark in Space, which is fine because they look gorgeous. I don't know if I like the Vogan designs it not; they look realistic and scary, but also somewhat silly. The sets in Voga looks quite bad.
Pacing: 6
A four-part adventure featuring the Cybermen shouldn't feel as sluggish as this story does, but as it happens, the lack of tension and interesting story elements makes the serial pretty slow.
Atmosphere: 6
There's a lack of tension in the proceedings, even after the Cybermen enter and start their pointless butchering of the Vogans or when the Doctor is forced in his lengthy trek into the middle of Voga carrying a bomb on his back.
The climactic sequence, in which the Doctor steers the Beacon away from its crash course with Viga, doesn't carry as much excitement and tension as it probably did back in 1975. Nevertheless, it's a memorable Fourth Doctor scene.
Impact: 4
Gerry Davis didn't revitalize the Cybermen, who wouldn't show up again until Earthshock in 1982. This story is only memorable due to it being a part of a highly regarded season featuring popular aliens and a popular TARDIS team.
Replay Value: 5
Despite the return of Cybermen and one of the better TARDIS teams in action, this isn't a very entertaining story and therefore doesnät stand to be replayed more than a couple of times.
Random Observations:
The Vogans look like a race of stolen ideas. Their designs look like something taken from Star Trek while their symbol is suspiciously similar to the Seal of Rassilon, first seen
The Deadly Assassin.
In a piece of Doctor Who world-building that kind of ruins the Cybermen in future stories: the Cybermen are now suddenly weak to gold, which is why they want to destroy Voga.
First Doctor actor William Hartnell passed away between the broadcast of parts one and two of this story. Part three, in turn, is the 400th episode of the show.
Here we get another pretty horrific death scene, with Lester sacrificing himself by blowing himself up.
Score: 58/120