Doctor Who Season 2 (28) Episode 6 Rewatch: The Age of Steel

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What do you think of The Age of Steel

5 - Perfection! More like the Age of Golden Drama!
0
No votes
4 - Excellent, but not great. Sort of a Silver Age of Doctor Who.
8
67%
3 - Eh. Average.
3
25%
2 - Sub-standard but not horrible. Kind of like a Oxidized Copper Age of Doctor Who.
1
8%
1 - Horrible. Awful. An Age of Shit Writing, Directing, Producing and Best Boying. May we never speak of this episode again.
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 12

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Straha
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Doctor Who Season 2 (28) Episode 6 Rewatch: The Age of Steel

Post by Straha »

So, the ratings from the last episode are in. If you excise the two ones the score is 3.316 which places it in that zone which I call "Season 2" between Stolen Earth and Doctor's Daughter comparatively. As for the subject of dummy votes (and I also suspect the 5 was a fake vote in the last thread) I want to try something this week. Will all people who rate the episode please make a corresponding post in the thread below saying you voted and what you gave the episode. Also, if you want, why you gave the episode what you did.

And, on that note, on to the episode. So Mickey Smith lovers, the golden age is at an end, Mickey Smith's time with us is no more. After this episode it will cease to be the "Mickey Smith, Rose and that other guy" and start being "The Doctor!" So lets watch, rate, and then reminisce about the glory that was Mickey Smith.
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Bounty
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Post by Bounty »

I gave it a three. The episode relies a bit too heavily on tired plot devices, however, the way they are presented - especially the notion that the Cybermen are still human, and that the horror of becoming a Cyberman drives them insane - was overall quite good; the scene with the dying bride was done sublimely, as was the montage with The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Beyond that, it was a routine action episode where everything explodes for no good reason at the end. I was entertained throughout, but not exactly itching to see it again.
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Thanas
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Post by Thanas »

Well, I am once again on the fence about this. It either is a very weak 4 or a very strong 3 for me.


Pros:
- no glossing over the consequences. See, back then, actions did have consequences and this is driven home quite nicely by the bride who got turned into cybermetal.
- Zeppelins.
- Rose and her family - no magic fix, no Pete suddenly accepting "his" daughter.
- Finally, a decent performance out of Noel Clarke.
- Mickey - good for him. Letting go is always hard and he managed to do it. Nice work.
- Once more, a nice supporting cast.

Cons:
- the cybermen do not really work as villains for me.
- Neither does John Lumic.
- The Cgi looked a bit as if they had recycled the explosions from "Rose".
- driving a Zeppelin by twistings its wheel like that = bad research.


So all in all - either a very weak 4 or a very strong 3. Ah hell, I am feeling generous - 4, based mostly on that excellent goodbye scene at the end.
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Post by Atavarius »

Things I liked:

-Once again good cast chemistry. From Rose and the Doctor to Mickey and his new BFF, to Pete Tyler, this cast meshed together very well.

-Cybermen work very well for me as an enemy, especially the Cyber-Conversion process. Much scarier than say, nanoprobes. The only thing that could have made it better was hearing the people screaming as the process was done, but that may have been a tad too frightening for the kiddies.

-Agreeing with Thanas, consequences are a nice thing, as far too many sci fi shows today smack the big ole' reset button.

-Tennant as the Doctor. He's really in the role now, and playing it very very nicely. I loved the part in the van with the enemy comment, and also the quip about geniuses when he was facing down Lumic.


Things I disliked:

-The TARDIS thing still bothered me in this episode. Would have been so much better if it had been another adventure. Doing what they did with the TARDIS took away a bit from the adventure aspect of Who.

-Mickey the superhacker

-The zeppelins thing altogether.

-Lumic was a bit cheesy as a villain, but still not as bad as some.


I really enjoyed this episode, so a 4 it will be.
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Post by Crazedwraith »

This episode doesn't really appeal to me. There are some very good moments. The robot bride, Mikey leaving and his final scene with Jake for examples.

The emotional inhibitor thing was a decent concept, but it just seemed really cheesy when Cybermen heads started exploding in grief. Them just shutting down would have been less dramatic but more realistic.

Oh and Mrs Moore's death seemed pretty darned contrived. In just about every other scene, Cybermen walking is accompanied by loud mechanical noises and crashing thunderous footsteps/ Yet suddenly they move quietly enough that neither the Doctor or Mrs Moore notice one until it zaps her to death.

Come to think about it, why did the cybermen spare Rose? They specificed a reason to spare Pete: he was a cybus employee, and yet Rose was a nobody as far as they were concerned. They certainly didn't hesitate to kill Mrs Moore because she was useless, even though she was with someone interesting. Yet Rose gets a pass, why?
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Post by Ford Prefect »

Now we're cooking. While I still prefer the Cybermen in Earthshock, I was pretty much down with how they were presented in this episode, in basically every way. Of all the 'new stuff' in Doctor Who recently, the new design for the Cybermen was easily the best.

Pete's World forever. :)
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Post by Stark »

Cybermen + hydralic stomping noise = instant win.

Stupid plot devices aside LOL TIME LORD LASER CRYSTAL, this is weakened by the cliched evil genius stuff (which I was fine with until the poor cyberleader prop and the inane ZOMG CLIMBING ROPE LADDER scene). I liked that they managed to not just re-insert the Cybermen, but they dropped all the stupid crap, gave them an actual motivation, and gave them an awesome foot-stomping noise. Otherwise, I agree with everything Thanas said - the cast was brilliant in an average episode with villains I personally think are complete win.

Anyone remember how nerds complained it was 'stupid' that Cybermen had the Cybus symbol on their chests? LOL!
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Post by Ryushikaze »

Even if it was 'stupid', it made sense. A megalomaniac was remaking the world in his own image. Of COURSE he's going to stamp his brand all over his subjects/ troops.

Yeah, I'll give this a 4. It got hokey at bits, but Mickey was excellent in this episode. It's a shame he vanished until the finale and then the S30 finale. In a lot of ways, he's the golden boy of new Who. Who knows, maybe he can salvage Torchwood.


Yeah, I'm not holding my breath, either.
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Post by Stark »

Yeah I think it's fucking cool, it's the whole damn theme of humans 'always want the latest upgrade', of course a cyber-body marketed as a consumer product is going to be branded, right?

But nerds cried about it anyway. :D

However I note the cybermen already have the doors in their armguards for the lasers they deploy in the finale - perhaps this was some generic tool area adapted to weapons.
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Post by Ohma »

D'oh, I accidentally voted three instead of four.

Again, I echo the general consensus on the episode. While hokey in parts, the episode was overall genuinely well written, entertaining, and like, that other word I can't remember at the moment. (plus I really like Mickey's gayboyfriend :D )

As an aside, I recently cought one of the sci-fi reruns of the season 4 finale. Man, what a steaming pile of deus ex machina tripe.
"Oh well, the interquantum macguffin is in stasisflux so now I can destroy/save teh univarse!!" "Nuh uh! Cause my neutronium fueled plot device totally negates your interquantum macguffin, so there!"

Oh and DALEKS!!! Because uh...can't have a season ender without Daleks!
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Thanas
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Post by Thanas »

Stark wrote:Yeah I think it's fucking cool, it's the whole damn theme of humans 'always want the latest upgrade', of course a cyber-body marketed as a consumer product is going to be branded, right?

But nerds cried about it anyway. :D

However I note the cybermen already have the doors in their armguards for the lasers they deploy in the finale - perhaps this was some generic tool area adapted to weapons.
Well, first off, Stark, what happened to your avatar? I loved it. And now you have gone and replaced it with......ageing Will Riker? :(


Now, for the armguards, it may very well be that they were always supposed to have lasers installed in them, they may not have had time to do this. Remember that they rushed production of them. Crane says as much in the episode.
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Thanas
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Post by Thanas »

Ohma wrote:As an aside, I recently cought one of the sci-fi reruns of the season 4 finale. Man, what a steaming pile of deus ex machina tripe.
"Oh well, the interquantum macguffin is in stasisflux so now I can destroy/save teh univarse!!" "Nuh uh! Cause my neutronium fueled plot device totally negates your interquantum macguffin, so there!"
Yeah, that is so far removed from S1/2 it may very well be a different show. And know what - it is. Everything that made Who Who is gone by that point or reduced to mindless padding.

Think about it - the characters are gone - infact the whole supporting cast is gone. The doctors character traits are completely reversed and the shows themselves follow a whole different formula.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
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My LPs
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