DW Rewatch - 2x05 & 2x06, Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel

[caz963]

I’m trying to think of some pithy comments to make about the Cybermen two-parter – Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel - but I seem to be all out of pith.

It’s Ten’s first two-part story and I remember cheering when I saw the Cybermen in the trailer the previous week. I’m a sucker for the return of old enemies.

This one is more of a straightforward adventure story, with the Doctor, Mickey and Rose stuck in an alternative universe where Rose’s Dad is still alive, her parents are rich – but they’ve never had any kids.





The TARDIS has suffered one of it’s (over the years) many spectacular malfunctions and plummets from the sky, landing in the London of a parallel world

Once I got over the shock of seeing Trigger as an evil megalomaniac (!), I found one of the best things about the story is the way Mickey develops as a character. I’ve always thought he got the fuzzy end of the lollipop in the show, and it was good to see him get the chance to strike out on his own and make something more of himself.

I’ve often thought that he should have travelled with Rose and the Doctor a bit more actually – the dynamic between the three of them worked well, and took the emphasis off the whole “Rose + Doc 4eva” thing that was getting pushed down our throats. And when I come to think about it, Rose was pretty inconsiderate towards him on lots of occasions. She never really broke up with him when she went with off with the Ninth Doctor – although I suppose the fact that she did go with him should have told Mickey enough! There were times it felt to me as though she couldn’t quite make up her mind and was using Mickey as sort of a fall-back option. I know they were friends, but the way she was all over him in The Christmas Invasion must have given the fella some hope that she would come back to him; in fact, he makes that fact clear at the end of the episode when he says “you’re never going to stay, are you?”.

In School Reunion he finally twigs that he’s the third wheel “I’m the tin dog!” and at the end of that episode, when the Doctor says he can travel with them Rose is clearly more than a little bit pissed off. At the beginning of The Girl in the Fireplace though, they’re clearly on much better terms, and I really liked their relationship in that episode. But at the beginning of Rise of the Cybermen, he’s being made the butt of the joke again, as Rose and the Doctor are sharing a series of “you had to be there” stories



– which I find quite cruel, at worst – thoughtless at best. Their attitude here takes me back to Tooth and Claw where the pair of them got a right royal telling off from Queen Victoria for taking delight in the death and destruction going on around them. Of course, the Doctor has always been one to rush headlong into trouble and enjoy it, and can be very insensitive once he’s into something. But unlike Donna, who would have given him a slap and made him think about what it must feel like to be in someone else’s shoes, Rose joins in with it – which I suppose is a)the immaturity of youth and b)just goes to show that the Doctor needs someone who will challenge him as well as someone he can have fun with.

Anyway. There’s still plenty to enjoy in these episodes, not the least of which is the sight of David Tennant running around in a tuxedo!



(I told you I was all out of pith!)

The pretty in this episode is frequently bathed in coloured light!






*sigh* That grin :-)



I really like that shot – the way the light is reflecting off his face.



Yay! Specs! It is also quite possible that I may have developed an obsession with his bottom lip.


Tux!! He can wait on me anytime ;-)



Pretty in blue



Bugger.



Baddies!







Hero shot, or what?



After a typical and seemingly un-get-outable-of Doctor Who cliffhanger, the Doctor saves everybody and they leg it.



Pretty in Red. Oh, and – “I’m the Doctor, by the way. If anyone’s interested.” Hee! He’s not centre stage, and he doesn’t like it. ;-)





Yep. He’s making it up as he goes along. No change there, then.



The Doctor and Mrs Moore head off into the tunnels and once again, our hero is faced with Hobson’s Choice. Does he destroy the emotional inhibitors in the Cybermen and kill them by driving them mad with the knowledge of the horror of what they have become? - after all, these were just innocent people who were captured and then “upgraded” through no fault of their own. But the alternative is that the Cybermen take over the world. Not much of a choice really is it?



As usual, he's got his hands in icky stuff. At least he's not licking it this time!



Captured and marched off



Mean. Moody. Magnificent. *g*



The TARDIS is back.

Mickey’s saved the world via a mobile phone and now he’s found his niche. He’s staying in the alternative universe. The Doctor is genuinely sad to see him go.





Back home.

Screencaps from Demon-Cry and The Medusa Cascade.

Comments

[ms-lilith.livejournal.com]

I'm rewatching too, seemed like curling up on the sofa and knitting Rose's mitts and rewatching ten was an appropriate way to deal with my grief! so i've friended you if thats ok.

We said hello a while back. I think we were discussing a curl at the nape of Josh's neck.

In my real life, I'm a sane person, honestly

[ms-lilith.livejournal.com]

"It is also quite possible that I may have developed an obsession with his bottom lip." ;o) There are worse ways to go crazy, right?

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Heh - well, that's very true. And yes, I do remember you from that discussion, and look forward to more of them ;-)
I'm starting to wonder about my sanity in that I'm not dealing well with the fact that Ten is no more. I mean, I was really really sad when WW ended, but this is so much worse :( And I just didn't expect that, which has thrown me completely - because I've watched DW since I was a kid, so I know how it works. I remember Three turning into Four, and Four into Five etc. but I've honestly never felt this sad before. I think it's testament to the amazing character that RTD and David Tennant gave us that we're still feeling like this almost a month later!

I don't know if you used to read my WW fic, but I've written a few very tiny DW ones in the last few weeks - they're up at my fic journal (http://caz-fic.livejournal.com/).

[ms-lilith.livejournal.com]

I read them. they were very sweet. I liked him with donna, I identified, where Martha just got on my nerves.

I never watched it as a kid. I was introduced to it in 2003 by a friend who is a real fanboy. He tried to show me a range. So Chris Eccleston was my first doctor really. And I've always admired his work, he's a great actor, so I was sad that we weren't going to see more of it but, look, it turned out that the BBC knew what they were doing. So Im just going to sit tight and trust them. They have cast a boy, they must have done so for a reason. He was good as Jim in the Sally Lockhart stuff, but he was playing a boy so...I hope i still believe in his past, in the age of him, when he is so young.

Is it just the January blues and this is a tangible lost thing so we are upset about the demise of Ten because we dont realise we are sad because we havent felt the sun for months? Or is it because David Tennant has become such a national treasure and we dont know when we will see more of his work? Or is because we are British and DW is part of our national myth. It's the last of the things people all watch together and have a national conversation about, so the death of the doctor is like the death of royalty would have been to our parents generation? Or are we just crazy women who are upset cos they have taken the pretty man off the television.

I've just got Learners, have you seen that? And David Tennant's bedtime stories over Christmas? They were the cutest thing ever.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I suspect that in my case, it's because i've got other stuff going on underneath, and it's taking the slightest thing to set me off. My brain tends to work that way.

But also - Or is it because David Tennant has become such a national treasure and we dont know when we will see more of his work? - I suspect there is an element of that, too. I confess, I did feel a bit miffed to hear he's planning to move to LA next year. Not that I don't understand his reasons, it's just nice to think that he's here and could just crop up doing "stuff" now and again, but if he's out there, that won't happen.

I think he and Catherine Tate should be taking over from Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 :-) They're so wonderful together!

[de23.livejournal.com]

I totally get what you're saying about the Rose/Mickey/Doctor triangle. I don't count it against Rose, though (perhaps because I've been in a similar situation?). I think part of her ambivalence about Mickey was that she knew she was attracted to the Doctor, but knew that he was never going to be her "boyfriend" or in any sort of "normal" relationship. And so Mickey was putting himself forward as the "normal" alternative and she could see the sense in that. But her heart wasn't in it. And when Mickey came along in the TARDIS she resented his intrusion into the special arena that was her relationship with the Doctor. But they found some kind of equilibrium among the 3 of them (because Mickey didn't push his boyfriend status?). I do agree that they were mean to him sometimes. I think the Doctor was really the lead on that, but he's mean to quite a few people (Martha's friend, the other med student, on Smith & Jones, for example).

What I find really interesting is that by the time of Rise of the Cybermen, it becomes really apparent that Mickey is not just hanging around because of Rose -- he also wants the Doctor's attention/approval. The scene towards the beginning where the Doctor has to choose between following Rose or Mickey is one of my favorites. I really feel for Mickey. And then I'm really happy that he does find his place in this new world and becomes a very strong character. He grows so much through the series.

I think I'll never look at Ten's bottom lip the same way again! ;-)

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I think I'll never look at Ten's bottom lip the same way again! ;-)

Then my work here is done! ;-)