Spoilers in abundance as Christopher Morley takes a look at the Doctor Who series 8 filming taking place in Cardiff this week, and draws some comparisons with a classic Cyber adventure.
Excitement might just have reached fever pitch for
Doctor Who Series Eight with the revelation that UNIT & the Cybermen look to
be making appearances in the finale ( working title Death In Heaven, if you believe the 'leaked script' currently setting forums ablaze). You might also have
seen a Cyber-head belonging to a The Invasion-
era member of the Cyber-legions!
Thats no place to lose your head!.#DoctorWho #Cybermen #Series8 #Mondas #The12thDoctor pic.twitter.com/YzSPhwojxL
— The clock struck 12. (@1980jg) July 1, 2014
Which could mean
we're about to see a sequel to Episode Three of Season Six of Classic
Who.
Think about it. Modern setting? ( 20th century London). Check. Cybermen? Check. UNIT? Check- after all, this is their maiden outing. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's even now got himself a promotion to Brigadier!
Think about it. Modern setting? ( 20th century London). Check. Cybermen? Check. UNIT? Check- after all, this is their maiden outing. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's even now got himself a promotion to Brigadier!
And who's leading
the present day UNIT? Why, its the Brig's daughter Kate ( The
Power Of Three, Day Of The Doctor).
Osgood appears to be making a return, too. Could it be that not all
the men from Mondas were destroyed at the climax of The
Invasion? There might still be
more hidden in those sewers...
It could be that the ' new' Cybermen return seeking to activate them to bolster their ranks. Or somehow merge with them to create an even deadlier hybrid of old & new? Either way, it could prove very interesting indeed!
It could be that the ' new' Cybermen return seeking to activate them to bolster their ranks. Or somehow merge with them to create an even deadlier hybrid of old & new? Either way, it could prove very interesting indeed!
Of course, the
Doctor's been there & done it all before. He was in his Second
incarnation back then- he, Jamie McCrimmon & Zoe Heriot having
escaped the Land of Fiction ( The Mind Robber)
& quickly finding themselves in the reaches of space over the
dark side of the Moon. While that may
prove invaluable in the musical stakes- Two possibly keen to add a
little Pink Floyd to his recorder studies- he has little time to
devote to finally nailing the likes of Money.
Before he can settle down & place the instrument to his lips,
'Sexy' comes under fire from a dirty great missile. Who could
possibly want to down the TARDIS? Go on, guess.
Understandably
keen to avoid his beloved Type 40 getting blown to bits, the Doctor
effects an emergency rematerialisation well out of the path of the
oncoming weapon. Yet ironically the possible means by which he could
have pulled it off isn't introduced until The Krotons,
the next story in the run...
We refer of
course to the Hostile Action Displacement System or HADS, by which
means 'Sexy' can automatically redirect herself out of harm's way.
Somewhat haphazardly the man with the Paul McCartney hairdo will
subsequently forget all about it until his Eleventh incarnation (
Cold War also marking
the return of the Ice Warriors).
But where does
the earliest use of a similar process land he, Jamie & Zoe? By
now they're just outside London- but there's a problem. The visual
stabiliser circuit's damaged- which means the old police box will be
invisible. You might recall such happening once more in The Impossible Astronaut,
even if it is a massive drain on power!
Professor Travers
might be able to help get it fixed, though. Hitching a lift into our
nation's fair capital, the Doctor's attention is drawn to
International Electromatics. They've basically bought out the entire
city...something's wrong in old Londinium, & no mistake. After
finally making it to the Professor's abode ( another lift needed
after their previous driver's killed), they find he's in America &
has left his gaff in the capable hands of his colleague Professor
Watkins & Watkins's niece Isobel.
Shadily the more
professorial of the two members of the Watkins clan has gone missing
after working with IE- the Doctor now keen to investigate the
mystery. After being gassed unconscious he & Jamie finally get
their appointment with the managing director, Tobias Vaughn, after
making their way to the company's head office.
Sending them on
their way with a story of how the Professor is on site but engaged in
important work, the shady industrialist opens a secret panel in his
office walls to reveal something which is most certainly not human
technology...its all going a bit James Bond,
is it not?
The air of
espionage is helped along by UNIT's abduction of the Doctor &
Jamie to brief them on their investigations into Vaughn's dealings.
Zoe & Isobel are concerned, though. Their pals haven't been back
for hours, so they take it upon themselves to go & look into the
matter. Proving herself a real smartypants, Ms Heriot quickly renders
the computerised receptionist useless with an impossible equation,
but Vaughn is watching. Only now do we learn who he's working
with/for- the Cybermen!
And they want the
Doctor stopped. To rescue their friends, after finding a note upon
their return telling Two & Jamie that the girls have made the
fundamental mistake of going back to IE, they must make a quick
return.
And so the Man
with the Golden Recorder, or 002, & his top operative McCrimmon,
must get to the bottom of the mystery. The name's Doctor. The Doctor!
If he wanted to exude the air of a super spy, though, he quickly
fluffs it as he & Jamie are captured & taken to Vaughan once
more.
Who rather
disappointingly isn't stroking a cat. His masters have been expecting
the Doctor, though. Instead of a simple fall through a trapdoor in
the floor, or some other Bondish plot piece, the two captives are
invited on a sort of guided tour of the company during which they
finally meet Professor Watkins ( cooperating in the knowledge that
Isobel's been kidnapped & hoping to secure her release).
He's been
working for Vaughn on a device with which it's hoped the Cybermen can
be double-crossed! The ' cerebration mentor' is a sort of electronic
hypnosis machine which can either remove or manipulate emotion, by
which Tobias intends to control the Cybermen. He also notes that the
TARDIS might allow him to make a quick getaway should all go
pear-shaped.
The whole thing
could be interpreted as a test spin for the Third Doctor's 'Earth exile'
following the events of The War Games.
Indeed, Terrance Dicks has implied that this was the case-
The Invasion being his first
time in the script editor's chair.
But how could Death In Heaven play out? The ' classic' Cybermen could quite possibly be re-activated by their current forebears to add to the ranks as outlined above. Equally their reawakening could be a big mistake on the part of the new boys! What's to stop two factions of Cybermen waging war with London as a battleground?
But how could Death In Heaven play out? The ' classic' Cybermen could quite possibly be re-activated by their current forebears to add to the ranks as outlined above. Equally their reawakening could be a big mistake on the part of the new boys! What's to stop two factions of Cybermen waging war with London as a battleground?
And what role
does the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere have in all this? We just
might be about to witness the arrival of a new Time Lady. Whether she
arrives simply to warn Twelve that there's going to be a humdinger of
a battle & he's the only man who can stop it, or is she a sort of
recurring companion, Twelve's Romana if you will, with this being the first of many
on/off appearances herein.
The lack of Jenna Coleman in images and the above fan-shot footage of Monday's filming
initially led many to believe that Clara may be kidnapped by the Cybermen, but as
filming continued through the week it now looks like it's new boy Danny
Pink who has undergone Cyber conversion, with Clara attempting to save
him.
But back to the 'Gatekeeper', its not stretching boundaries to suggest that she might fill a similar function to the bowler hat-clad Time Lord who arrives to warn the Third Doctor that the Master has escaped from Gallifrey to Earth, is it? Setting up the return of the renegade Time Lord once known as Koschei.
On the other hand she could prove herself a villain of some sort. Maybe it's she who gets involved with the Cybermen somehow. Either way, the warm-up for Series Eight starts here!
But back to the 'Gatekeeper', its not stretching boundaries to suggest that she might fill a similar function to the bowler hat-clad Time Lord who arrives to warn the Third Doctor that the Master has escaped from Gallifrey to Earth, is it? Setting up the return of the renegade Time Lord once known as Koschei.
On the other hand she could prove herself a villain of some sort. Maybe it's she who gets involved with the Cybermen somehow. Either way, the warm-up for Series Eight starts here!
Picture Source: BBC.co.uk/Doctor Who
