5/5 Decent, Solid Cyberman Story
  by Kenneth Sohl (Tennessee)
I think when some fans look back on old Doctor Who serials, they forget that they are viewing them through a haze of ideas and experiences that came long after those classic serials had aired. In some cases, these newer ideas have been derived from original Doctor Who, but received far more attention in their new incarnation, stealing the credit from those who thought of it before.

"Attack of the Cybermen" is a perfect example. Anyone who has watched "Star Trek: First Contact" may draw comparisons with the premise presented in that film and the one in the Who story (which aired over a decade earlier) reviewed here. In both cases, we have soul-less mechanized humanoids clad in implants and hoses (the Borg are basically cybermen with a hive conciounse, after all) traveling back in time to prevent their own destruction by altering past events. Does anyone really believe its just coincidence?

I also wonder which, if any, episodes are liked by the detractors of this one. This definitely isn't Who's finest hour, but it is nowhere near its worst, either. A solid Cyberman story, with the return of Litton, the merc from "Resurrection of the Daleks", a return visit to Telos, and repair of the chameleon circuit of the TARDIS, it does seem there is a lot going on, but it never really gets confusing, even if one is unfamiliar with "Tomb of the Cybermen" or "the Tenth Planet", as those 2 stories are referenced enough to give the viewer a good idea of why events are occurring as they are. Also, the roles of the 2 prisoners attempting escape from the Cybermen were well-cast, and it was agony watching the characters' progress. Also, its good to see 2 things: 1)the doctor refreshingly and realistically finding no recourse other than to picking up a gun and blasting an enemy, and 2)his misreading of an admittedly ambiguous good guy as a bad guy. It's good to see him as desperate or fallible once in a while, instead of as a superman who always has just the right idea at just the right time.

If you like Doctor Who, you'll enjoy this one. If you have issues with it, then I don't see how you'll like any other Who from this period anyway. They can't all be (insert your favorite Who serial here). As for what the fanzine polls say, I wouldn't put too much stock in them. Fan-boys are generally neurotic about their own favorite subject matter and often don't reflect what normal people think anyhow, as evidenced by their apparent dislike for this story. Then again, perhaps I'm being overly harsh; Though I don't think it's been mentioned, I have noticed how from the last couple of the Baker years until classic Who's demise, the characters in the stories became increasingly cynical and unlikeable, and this seems to be often reflected in the popularity of those particular stories. That's why I find, in Litton's final redemption, a symbol for what the series itself needed.



4/5 One of the better Colin Baker episodes
  by Matthew T. Scherer (Illinois USA)
As a huge fan of the Doctor for many years, this episode is a nice mix of history covering the Cybermen and other characters from the various Doctors travels. Colin Baker is not my favorite incarnation of the Doctor, but this is one of the better of his episodes. Another of my favorite Colin Baker episodes is "The Mark of the Rani".Doctor Who - The Mark of the Rani (Episode 140)

3/5 "I thought I looked like a psychedelic Hitler!"
  by Jason A. Miller (New York, New York USA)
The plot of "Attack of the Cybermen" is very easy to describe, really. The Cybermen seek to travel back in time to Earth in 1985 to make sure that the events of Doctor Who - The Tenth Planet [VHS] in 1986 never take place.

Actually it's a little more complex than that. There are actually two factions of Cybermen, each led by familiar characters from the show's past history: there's the Cyber Leader (last seen in Doctor Who - Earthshock (Episode 122) and Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (Episode 130) (25th Anniversary Edition)) on Earth, and then there's the Cyber Controller (last seen in Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen (Episode 37)) on the Cyber home planet of Telos. And the Cybermen don't just have one scheme to change history -- they have three. First they've acquired a time machine that accidentally landed on Telos; then they accidentally walk into the TARDIS on Earth in 1985; and finally they plan to divert the course of Halley's Comet.

Sorry, that's not enough. I'm still not doing the story justice. The Cybermen aren't alone in this story -- they're opposed by the Cryons, a race of sub-zero female humanoids. One of the Cryons is played by a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud; another is played by actress Sarah Berger, who on the DVD commentary track likens her mustachioed outer-space costume to a psychedelic Hitler. But because the Cryons are sub-zero, they can't act in their own interest and in fact don't show up until the story's three-quarter mark. Instead they've hired their own white knight: Lytton, last seen in Doctor Who - Resurrection of the Daleks (Episode 134). Lytton's a cold-blooded killer and here has seven different henchmen helping him out: two mute policemen left over from "Resurrection"; two half-Cybernized slaves on Telos; and three Earth-bound jewel thieves. Of the jewel thieves, one is actually an undercover cop out to arrest Lytton; another is played by Brian Glover, who gets off the episodes best lines. None of these seven characters come to happy ends.

And, lest we forget, the Doctor and Peri are in this story too. The Doctor doesn't have much to do with the plot -- he's still mentally unstable from the effects of his regeneration -- but he does temporarily fix the TARDIS's long-faulty chameleon circuit (which causes Brian Glover to query: "Time travel in an organ?!").

There's nothing wrong with an overly ambitious "Doctor Who" plot (witness Doctor Who - City of Death (Episode 105)). There's also nothing wrong with a pessimistic, downbeat script (see Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani (Episode 136)). Here, however, "Attack of the Cybermen" never gels into a likeable story. Unlike "City of Death", there are here at least two more plot threads than the story can reasonably handle. And unlike "Androzani", where the Doctor served as the story's moral center (and tragic hero), and where Sharaz Jek was a lyrical hero/villain, in "Attack" the Doctor is largely peripheral to the plot, and Lytton (last seen slaughtering lots of humans in "Resurrection") is miscast as a morally ambiguous good guy.

The DVD extra features are plentiful. Anytime Eric Saward (series script editor and this episode's pseudonymous author) shows up, you know a fellow show contributor is about to get thrown under the bus. Here is ire is aimed not at show producer John Nathan-Turner, but rather at someone named Ian Levine. Levine, a figure well known in British fan circles about 25 years ago, claims to have co-written the episode -- to the extent that he suggested a lot of continuity-heavy plot devices. If true, Levine certainly did the story no favors. For example, it's nice to see Telos again, 18 years after its last appearance, but the Cyber Controller (played by the same actor from 18 years ago) has no plot utility. Ultimately it seems that "Attack" has no message or plot of its own -- all it seeks to do is recreate sequences from past Cybermen stories -- and once Brian Glover's character is offed, there's no-one left to root for.

5/5 excellent dr who adventure
  by Michael P. Dobey (colorado springs)
One thing about being a fan of "doctor who" is that you have to suffer through the
idiocy that only the first four doctors in the classic series were great. Baloney,
the 1980's had alot of great stories and the three actors who played the doctor did a great job. Sure my favorite doctor remains the jon pertwee era, but each dcctor is a incarnation of the doctor and different. Colin Baker was my favorite of the three 1980's doctors and this is a great story. The show was attacked for being too violent when first broadcast and this remains a problem with some fans to this day. I personally never thought this was the case as "Doctor who" has always been a show in which people died in. Colin Bakers doctor is very athletic and solid and the only bad thing perhaps was the terrible outfit he wore. And by any standard it is terrible it's a multicolored ragtype thing. But that's a small complaint when enjoying Colin Bakers' great work as the sixth doctor. The cybermen are chilling killers in this story and there is even a great sense of pathos to the whole show.
This story only had two episodes but that's because the series went to 45 minutes per episode at that time. I believe that these episodes can now be seen as good sci fi 24 years after they were first shown and all the 1980's bickering should be left behind. It wasn't the 1980's doctors who killed the show it was the new (at that time) masters of the BBC who were determined to kill it off because they hated sci fi and wanted to save money. Colin Baker did a great job in his run as doctor and that is truly evident in this story. This shows special effects,( circa 1984)is pre-computer generated images (cgi) and should be viewed accordingly aware of this.

4/5 A good story from the Colin Baker Years
  by Jeffrey J. Lyons (Pembroke, NH United States)
The thing I always liked about thist story were the Cryons. I liked them better than the Cybermen, who are my favorite recurring enemies on Doctor Who. I have always liked the Cybermen much better than the Daleks. Except for the inane activities of the two prisoners on the Cybermen's planet of Telos, this is a nicely crafted story. There is a bit of double-double crossing going on with the Lytton character. The effects and sets are a bit better than many earlier classic Doctor Who stories. In the new series we often see how the Doctor is not perfect and things can go awry. The final scene with Lytton is a great example of an early move toward that direction.

One of the ongoing gags is the Doctor's attempt to fix the Chamelion circuit so that the TARDIS-police box would blend with its surrounding. I loved this and I always wished they continued on this path because it opened up many site gags. The police box was never that big a deal to me but purists were appalled when that police box prop was somehow threatened.

EXTRAS: The behind the scenes documentary is quite interesting and there are a good mixture of actors doing the DVD audio commentary. The documentary about the history of the Cybermen was fascinating and included rarely seen footage from "The Tenth Planet." That is one of the incomplete stories in the BBC archives. The history briefly touches on the Tennant Years. The documentary on 21st Century cyber technology, while fascinating, could have been left off the DVD.