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| *record scratch* Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here... |
Oh, hi! Didn't see you there! Last we left the TARDIS crew, they were stuck on a parallel Earth where the Cybermen came up on Earth instead of Mondas. Does Mondas even exist in the other universe? I have no idea, it never even gets brought up beyond an extreme veiled reference.
But with the Doctor, Mickey, Rose, Pete, and the Preachers surrounded by Cybermen bent on their deletion, what can they possibly do to get out of this one?!
Rise of the Cybermen happened to have a good cliffhanger. The fact that it's resolved in the first two minutes of the episode is really kind of disappointing. Then again, there's a few things we can wiggle out of The Age of Steel that are rather disappointing. The Doctor pulls out the piece of the TARDIS he channeled ten years of his life into and uses it to wipe out the Cybermen. The Doctor manages to convince both Pete and Rose to not go back for Jackie and Mrs. Moore arrives with the van to ferry them away.
In the van, the Doctor tells his companions that the piece will recharge in about four hours, but means they're still on schedule. Pete reveals that he is the contact that the Preachers mentioned in the last episode "Gemini", and that he was only working with Lumic to dig up dirt on him and report it to the authorities. Ricky's claim of being "London's Most Wanted" in the last episode is given more explanation here - it's for parking tickets. Nevertheless, even with all the set backs, the Doctor has a plan!
Meanwhile, Lumic is taking London by storm - literally as he activates the EarPods of everyone in London, including Jackie Tyler and all begin to march toward a factory. Rose, at one point, mentions that she recognizes the Cybermen because she's seen one before. The Doctor exposits a bit on where the Cybermen in the main universe came from and plans to stop them in this universe before they can terrorize the galaxy.
The group splits up to get through the city (because that always works well), the end result being that Ricky is killed by a Cyberman. Mickey, horrified and enraged, goes to find the others.
Back at Lumic's evil lair, his employee Mr. Crane. Crane removed his EarPods, which is a big no-no. He hands in his two week's notice, which comes in the form of him pulling Lumic's chair apart and disrupting his life support. After he's killed, Lumic implores his creations to help him, but they refuse, saying that he's due for an upgrade. In a rather chilling scene, as he protests, he's moved along in his chair and howling protests as he goes into a conversion room.
The TARDIS crew and the Preachers reach the river outside the factory. Jake reacts poorly to the news of Ricky's death and Mrs. Moore manages to pull up a schematic of the factory. With this, the Doctor hatches a plan of three teams hitting three separate points - one above, one between, one below (see? I told you there'd be a The Five Doctors reference) - to get the job done. With some fake EarPods, Rose and Pete are going to see if they can save Jackie, so they take the middle road. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore will take the basement tunnels. Jake at first protests taking Mickey along to the roof, but Mickey tells him to cram it - he's not the tin dog.
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| "What the fu-?" - Jake, when Mickey introduced him to Doctor Who slashfic. |
The teams head off. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore find inactive Cybermen in the tunnels, Rose and Pete hit the factory floor doing their best to show no emotion whatsoever, and Jake and Mickey use a bottle of knock-out drops to get onto Lumic's zeppelin. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore have a lovely moment of character building, where she entrusts the Doctor with her real name - Angela Price - and reveals a bit of her backstory, namely being a former Cybus Employee who saw something she wasn't supposed to and went on the run. This moment is ended by them tripping an alarm and the Cyberman army begins to awaken.
They manage to escape, however, by the clever use of a hatch. In case you were wondering if tension was going to be a thing this episode.
As Rose and Pete essentially wander about the conversion floor, we see the cutting implements used in them that remove the brain and place it in a Cyberman body. Of course, we don't actually see anything directly, but the image is horrific enough as is and as someone who is not exactly fond of sharp implements, I found myself a bit chilled. They end up futzing up, however, as a Cyberman comes forward and declares themselves to have been Jackie Tyler...they've failed in their task. However, as Pete worked for Lumic he is to be compensated with an upgrade! This means that he and - for some reason - Rose are taken away.
Now on the zeppelin, Jake and Mickey find an empty Cyberman suit in their quest for the transmitter. It is definitely an empty shell and will certainly not be causing them any trouble very soon.
Back in the tunnels, Mrs. Moore takes out a Cyberman with an EMP. The Doctor opens up the chest plate and reveals a synthetic heart along with an emotional inhibitor chip. He claims that they'd need this, or they'd go insane upon seeing what they'd become. Then, the Cyberman awakens...as the person it was before the conversion. A young woman we've never met, who was to be a bride, is dying and the Doctor mercifully ends her life before she realizes what she's become. He tells Mrs. Moore that if they can deactivate the chips with the right code they can free the Cybermen from Lumic's control, but it will kill them once they've realized what has happened to them. Mrs. Moore encourages him, saying that they have to stop this before Lumic kills anyone else...and then is promptly killed by a Cyberman.
A Cyberman who apparently managed to sneak up on them despite the fact they have large, clunky feet, and it came from the direction that the Doctor was facing! Unlike her, however, the Doctor's binary vascular system gets him out of another jam (I bet he was having The Caves of Androzani flashbacks just then) and he's to be taken to the control room for Lumic.
On the zeppelin, Jake and Mickey have found the transmitter control, but are blocked by a plate. Mickey starts hacking the terminal, activating a silent alarm...which I'm sure will definitely not be cause him and Jake any trouble very soon.
In Cyber Control, the Doctor reunites with Rose and Pete and is introduced to Lumic...or, rather, the Cyber-Controller.
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| I like the clear dome on the Cyber Controller. That is all. |
On the zeppelin, the Cyberman awakens in a totally shocking scene and attacks. Mickey eventually tricks it into hitting the transmitter control. The people of London who are not yet converted are freed, and react about as well as you'd expect. Back in Cyber Control, Lumic is unfazed. This is the Age of Steel and he is its creator, he declares. The Doctor then pulls a reverse monologue on him after figuring out that Mickey and Jake are watching. When Mickey realizes that the Doctor's figured this out - by the Doctor mentioning an "idiot" - he puts on his hacker hat and gets the code for the inhibitor chips off of the Cybus database, texting it to Rose's phone.
The Doctor plugs it in, and the Cybermen are released. They quickly become insane and start dying. Lumic and his creations are consumed by fire, though Lumic manages to free himself and go off in pursuit of the Doctor. Jake tries to bail out, seeing as the place is going to Hell, but Mickey refuses to go on without the others and phones Rose to tell her to get to the roof. With the zeppelin, the Doctor, Rose, and Pete manage to escape...plus one extra, Lumic. With the sonic screwdriver, Pete manages to cut off the section of ladder Lumic is on, saying he does it in the name of Jackie Tyler.
Lumic falls and is consumed in the flames as the zeppelin sails off into the night.
Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor has plugged in the device and the TARDIS is ready to go. The Doctor tells Rose and Mickey that they only have five minutes and need to leave now. Rose has been talking to Pete and tries to explain that she's his daughter from a parallel universe, but it's understandably too much for him and he runs away in shame that he created something so absolutely terrible.
...I mean, the emotional trauma of losing his wife is weighing down heavily on him. Sure, let's go with that.
Mickey, however, has elected to stay behind and help Jake as well as look after his grandmother. The Doctor tells Jake about Mrs. Moore, asking him to find her family, and also informs Mickey that when they leave, he'll be sealing the crack the TARDIS fell through into this universe - they can never come back for him. But he's determined and so the Doctor gives him Rose's mobile phone with the code still programmed in, wishing him good luck.
Rose and Mickey share a tearful farewell that might be sad if their relationship was anything other than horrendously toxic because of the former party, and Mickey and Jake watch the TARDIS dematerialize. It rematerializes seconds later in Jackie's flat. Rose throws herself into her mother's arms, sobbing. Jackie asks them where they've been, the Doctor only giving the reply of "far away".
Back in the other universe, Jake and Mickey sit in the Preachers' van with a massive task ahead of them. Mickey tells Jake that he's not here to replace Ricky - he's going to be his own man - but that they can fight in his name to save the Earth. He mentions looking for a Cyber factory in Paris, and Jake incredulously asks him if he's serious - after all, they're just two men with a van. Mickey tells him that that's nothing, he once saved the universe in a big, yellow truck.
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| ANCIENT GALLIFREYAN LAZOR BEAMS! OMG!!! |
The Age of Steel is...okay. Just okay. Not anything great, but nothing that's too bad about it. The lack of tension is a bit of a bummer after how much I did actually enjoy the cliffhanger from the end of the last episode and the solution comes a little bit too easily in my opinion, as if the writer Tom MacRae had written himself into a corner and wanted an easy out. Or maybe this was one of Russell T. Davies' well-documented instances of meddling with the scripts.
I still say that a parallel universe version of the Cybermen was completely unnecessary to reintroduce them to the public. They didn't have to do that with the Daleks, who have just as labyrinthine a history with the show (if not even more) than the Cybermen do. Despite Russell not wanting to build on the history of the Cybermen, it's not as if every single Cyberman story referenced everything that happened previously. A few times in the Classic show, they were even inconsistent. Doctor Who is essentially built on being inconsistent.
Some high points though, I did enjoy seeing Shaun Dingwall again. I like Mickey taking on a more active role and getting to use his talents to the fullest. One of the biggest crimes of the RTD era is how underutilized Mickey was. This episode takes a few bounds towards fixing that, but then he's gone from now until the finale. Next time, we'll be returning to journeys in our own universe. An alien that steals the faces of people watching television scheming to use the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to feed. Rose trapped for most of an episode as the Doctor fumes.
I'm not saying I like this one, but...
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