Dr. Who Season 2(28) Episode 5 Rewatch:Rise of the Cybermen

[Straha]

So, the last episode's ratings are in. And fans love Mickey Smith! Girl in the Fireplace garnered a rating of 4.593, making it the second highest rated episode in all our Doctor Who watching history, beating out Bad Wolf and losing to Sound of the Drums by only .007!


So, devoted Mickey Smith fans, we move on to the second episode starring that man we all love; "Rise of the Cybermen." Watch as the Doctor and Rose take Mickey Smith to an alternate universe for the first time in Doctor Who since "Inferno." Look at a universe where Zeppelins caught on, and watch in suspense as Mickey Smith looks for his lost grand mother and gets caught up in mystery and thrilling world questioning suspense. Also Rose turns into a chihuahua, and some big metal things do some stuff.

So watch, rate, and rave!

[DaveJB]

3/5. It's not bad, but it suffers big-time from being a set-up for all the goings-on in the following episode and not actually having a whole lot going on in this one. That, and Roger Lloyd-Pack... aside from the fact that I have trouble seeing Trigger as an evil mastermind, what the hell was up with his performance? He sounds like a dirty old man, and instead of actually laughing, he goes around shouting "BWA-HA-HA! NYA-HA-HA!" It seriously hurts the episode, and I was glad when he got converted ten minutes into the next episode. And what was the point of saying "Oh noez, the TARDIS is dead forever and ever!" at the start of the episode, and then literally five minutes later saying "Whoops, turns out if I breathe on this piece of plastic, the TARDIS will magically repair itself in 24 hours."

Aside from that, the alternate Earth was kind of interesting, and it was nice having Graeme Harper back in the director's chair.

[Revy]

3 out of 5 as well. I liked this, although Roses' mother bugs the crap outta me, to the point where I reaaaally wish a Dalek would turn up and Exterminate her. Like ... dead. Like with a ... a ray gun. Or something. Yeah.

Really, part 2 was a better episode IMO and this episode was setting the scene for that.

[Stark]

Dude, this has Mickey AND his incredibly gayboy friend. How is there any possibility for failure?

[Ford Prefect]

And it's in Pete's World no less!

[Stark]

Pete's world + Mickey's lover + zeppelins = ultimate win.

Hydralic stomping noises only ad to the win.

[Crazedwraith]

Pretty good, overly long on set up but that's the case for most two parters and the set up is not as obviously just set up as in later two parters.

Still the 'TARDIS broken' stuff seem contrived. Especially the rapidity that the Doctor says its dead and then goes to it being repaired. And since he seems to think travel between universes is impossible, he seems very confident he can get them back again.

Voted 3/5, feeling prety neutral on this one.

[Stark]

Don't forget Satan Pit is coming. LOL FELL DOWN A HOLE WE DOOMED.

[Thanas]

Don't forget Satan Pit is coming. LOL FELL DOWN A HOLE WE DOOMED.

You are starting to worry me, Stark.


Now, on to the episode:

The problem with this episode are twofold - one, it follows "The Girl in the Fireplace" and two, it is just not that good.

Bits that were good:
- Jackie. What a fun to watch.
- Rose interacting with family version 2.0 - and getting rejected at every turn. Ouch.
- Rose using her femine wiles to pursuade the doctor to see Pete. C'mon, we've all been there.
- A Henchman that wasn't just a stereotype
- Dog!Rose. Especially the doctor's face.
- Mickey finally gets a backstory.
- decent setup. Not really that great, but decent nonetheless.
- The cliffhanger was actually well done.

Bits that I disliked:
- Doctor and Rose being all passive-aggressive with Mickey. I mean, yeah, Rose does it all the time, but why did the doctor feel compelled to join in?
- The Cybermen. To me they just looked not that threatening. Maybe it is just me, but....yeah.
- The whole episode....seemed to lack some tension. It didn't have quite the flow the previous episodes did.
- The main villain. What a ham.

Now, as to the rating - I am split on this. On the one hand, compared to Seasons 3/4, this is an excellent episode, deserving of a 4. Compared to the rest of Season 2, it is an average one, deserving a 3.

So I will go for the 3. Compared to the rest of Season 2, it is what it deserved.

[Atavarius]

A 3 for me as well. As a two parter, the setup ep always suffers abit.

The cast was good in this one, even if Mickey was a bit of a wanker.

TARDIS gimmick was stupid, definitely could have been better.

All in all a good episode for season 3.

[Straha]

A 3 for me as well. As a two parter, the setup ep always suffers abit.

That's a major difference between Season 2 and the rest of the series. Season 2 the two-parters work the way they should, the setup episode suffers a bit for a much bigger return in the second story. In the rest of the show, though, it's quite the opposite; the setup episode usually sets up something incredibly huge only to have it peter out in the second episode (Last of the Time Lords, Sontaran, Journey's End, Parting of Ways, Silent Library, etc.) or the entire two parter is just crap (Daleks... etc.) In season 2 either the setup episode suffers a bit for a better return in the second episode, like here or Army of Ghosts, or it's fantastic throughout like with Satan Pit. It's nice that they got it right in one season, at least.

As for the episode... it's average. Enjoyable average but average. The premise is annoying because we all know, for a fact, that the TARDIS wont die, especially not like that, and it's an unnecessary plot point. Instead of having "Oh no! The TARDIS is dead! Wait, no it's not. But we have to wait a day for it to come back." as a set-up, why not have "Holy crap. We switched universes. That's not supposed to happen... so... who wants a look around?"? That fits character, makes sense, and isn't so bloody grating on the nerves. Also the alternate universe feels like they're trying to make it set on Earth without actually having it set on Earth, which is doubly annoying. That being said, they pull it off well enough and it's enjoyable and actually keeps you wondering on what's going to happen next.

So, 3/5.

[Thanas]

^Actually, I would argue that they did it best in Season 1, where in every two parter the quality was about the same.

[Straha]

^Actually, I would argue that they did it best in Season 1, where in every two parter the quality was about the same.

I could give you that too.


I've got to say that I think the loudest statement on the averageness of this episode is how little discussion there is, or can be, about it. We went on for pages about School Reunion and Girl in the fireplace. And here we can barely summon up 11 posts, most of which amount to "Eh, average."

[Thanas]

Oh, and look - the troll vote is back again. I guess you have some excising to do, Straha.

[Ryushikaze]

I gave it a three, it had excellent elements, but they seemed a bit too disconnected from each other, so the episode felt slightly disjointed.

The "Oh noes dead TARDIS" was a bit overblown as well. The second part was much better done, however.