Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen

In Attack of the Cybermen, a distress call lures the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) into London’s sewer system. It drags them into an interplanetary plot involving diamond thieves and the Cybermen.

Attack of the Cybermen Part 1

Our old “friend” Lytton is planning a bank job, with his gang of criminals. They’re planning to go through the London tunnels, and go up into the bank. In the meantime, The Cybermen are hiding in the London sewers. There, they turn humans into semi-cybernetic slaves. And The Doctor and Peri are responding to a galactic distress signal …. On Earth, in 1985. On Telos, two slaves make a bid for freedom and find a way to escape the planet for good.

Attack of the Cybermen Part 2

On Telos, the Doctor is reintroduced to the Cyber Leader and meets the Cryons, the planets original inhabitants who want their planet back. And they will go to any lengths to do so …

Editorial review of Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen courtesy of Amazon.com

The TARDIS is lured to Earth, 1985, by an alien distress signal. Investigating, the Doctor and Peri stumble upon an attempted bank robbery staged through the London sewers by a familiar foe – ex-Dalek agent, Lytton. But who is he working for this time? For they soon discover there is something far nastier lurking in the sewers – Cybermen. Why do the silver giants need a time machine? What is their devastating plan of attack? And what does it have to do with a catastrophic event that happened long ago in the Doctor’s past?

Trivia

• It’s estimated that 55 deaths occur on screen. 
• This is one of the Doctor Who stories criticized for excessive and inappropriate violence.
• Terry Molloy’s only on screen appearance in Doctor Who playing a character other than Davros.
• The repair to the TARDIS’ Chameleon Circuit was in part a publicity effort to drum up more interest in the series.
• This story introduced the Sixth Doctor’s equivalent of the sonic screwdriver. The screwdriver had been written out in Doctor Who: The Visitation.
• This is an unofficial sequel to Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks.

Quotes

The Doctor: The TARDIS, when working properly, is capable of many amazing things. Not unlike myself.

Cyberleader: When you become as we are, you will serve the Cyber Race well.

Lytton: You know, Griffiths, when I look at you, I wonder why your ancestors bothered to crawl out of the primordial slime.

The Doctor: I thought the Cybermen had destroyed the Cryons.
Flast: So did they. But as you see, some of us survived. Not many, but some. You’re looking very blue.
The Doctor: Do you mean depressed, or cold?
Flast: Ah, I think I shall enjoy your company.
The Doctor: Not for long, I hope. I won’t last half an hour in here, I’m freezing.

Peri Brown: Will it believe you?
The Doctor: If it doesn’t, I shall beat it into submission with my charm.

The Doctor: [Lytton has died attacking the Cyber Controller] I don’t think I ever misjudged anybody quite as badly as I did Lytton.

Cast

• Colin Baker (The Three Doctors) … The Doctor. The Sixth Doctor.
• Nicola Bryant (Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen)… Peri
• Maurice Colbourne … Lytton. The former Dalek agent. Who’s side is he on? What’s his motivation.
• Brian Glover … Griffiths
• Terry Molloy … Russell
• James Beckett … Payne
• David Banks … Cyber Leader
• Michael Kilgarriff … Cyber Controller
• Michael Attwell … Bates
• Jonathan David … Stratton