Let's discuss Attack of the Cybermen (1985)

I really like Attack of the Cybermen. It's not perfect, but as a debut, it has a lot to recommend it. To me, it feels like an attempt to do something like Power of the Daleks by way of Day of the Daleks, a new unpredictable Doctor bolstered up by a reliable old enemy in a story that not quite sequelises an earlier triumph (The Dalek Invasion of Earth in Day's case).

The rapport between the two leads is really fun. It feels as though we've known this team for ages. The Doctor's characterisation still maintains that unpredictability from last season, but it's tempered somewhat by some genuinely quite likeable qualities. A point is made about the respect that the two of them show to one another. Despite the bickering. Actually, even the arguments here feel mollified by the fact that they're about whether or not the Doctor is actually okay. There's a lot of bravado there, but his "slips of the mind" have been getting worse (soon to culminate in a mindlock come The Two Doctors). In a different timeline without The Twin Dilemma, it would've been interesting to see the progression: a new regeneration on Varos, troubles in Attack and his mind jamming in Two.

I'm in two minds about the Cybermen. On the one hand, I love the sense of worldbuilding around Cyber Control on Telos. There's this real sense of importance and many wheels being spun at once. On the other hand... "Well, Jerry, they just explode so easily..." It's half-and-half. This was I think the tipping point where the CyberNeomorphs had begun to transform into original Battlestar Galactica Cylons. Then again, their treatment of Lytton, Flast, Stratton, Bates and Russell is also pretty uncompromising. I dunno, it's one of those small things that could've been remedied with another sweep of the script. Russell's Beretta finishes off the Cyberman after Peri's shot it with a Cybergun, for instance. It's little niggles that stop it from having that grounded solidity of something like Day.

I made a discovery recently actually when I was making a new fanedit of it. The 45-minute timeslot brings the cliffhanger down on the order to kill Peri. However, if the story is appended together into one continuous block, there's another point where you could cut off "Part Two" if they'd stuck to the 25-minute format:

You're right there. I think there's a certain degree of "And then," which happens instead of "because of". A lot of good set-up, but in streamlining back the complications, we don't really get the payoff.

Russell, for instance, is brought into the plot because he can get plastic explosives. It's a good scene, played well, but we never see the plastic. What if... The impetus for the guards patrolling the sewers is because when the Cybermen turned up, Russell managed to scarper with the dufflebag of explosives. Hence, the Leader's mistrust of Lytton. He bumps into the Doctor and Peri, the encounter with the scout, etc. The Doctor makes the decision to blow up the Cybermen's forward base, but it's complicated by the fact that two living beings will be caught in the blast. The scout, however, makes it a moot point and Russell detonates the explosives while the Doctor's distracted. The Leader, his personal guard and the two men survive inside the base (ironically the conversion units are pretty sturdy), but it's a wreck. The explosion will have been heard for miles. It's time to evacuate -- fortunately, an errant Time Lord has left his TARDIS lying about. Far quicker than waiting for extraction.

I'm kind of tempted to write up a Target novelisation now...

It's not amazing but still an enjoyable watch. Part 1 sets up this interesting mystery which part 2 doesn't really deliver on. Instead just has lots of action with the Doctor shooting cybermen. Which is the bit I enjoyed most last time I watched it. As after five not doing much was nice seeing the Doctor taking action again. Subplots don't really go anywhere and only purpose seems to be to pad out the story.

As I often like to do, I'll take it behind the scenes a bit.

It's funny that we always get the "Twin Dilemma ruined Colin's chances right off the bat". The ratings tell the opposite story. Ep 1 of Attack Of The Cybermen got 8.9million viewers. The show hadn't had viewership that high since Davison's first season - even The Five Doctors got nowhere near it. In fact S22 overall got ratings better than S21 so the idea that viewers never took to Colin's era at all and switched off just doesn't bear the fruit of the facts. It makes the attempted cancellation, ultimately the resting of the show, even more baffling as it was doing well with the new 45 minute format. It totally smashed the ratings even the iconic Tom got in his last year.

Simply put, the agenda against the show from on high, combined with the BBC needing to save money for the massive cost of launching Eastenders with a huge standing set meant that it was going anyway regardless of how well the show did or what people thought of individual stories.

For my money the story is OK. I do think though it's another step in the fan-service direction that blighted much in the 80s. Totter's Lane didn't need to be there in a story that's already reference heavy to The Tenth Planet And Tomb Of The Cybermen. Lytton is not a character I think had any need to return but he's effective enough. The scene where his hands are crushed is truly something horrific which would be the first of many issues this run would have over being deemed too violent. 

Wonder why Paula Moore never wrote for the show again?

My memory's not to great on the subject, but doesn't the novelisation mention they've met before Resurrection? Maybe a prequel could work too. Television or otherwise, it doesn't look like Lytton's first rodeo with the Daleks.