Ascension of the Cybermen (TV story)
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Ascension of the Cybermen was the penultimate episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.
Synopsis
In a galaxy still dealing with the aftermath of the deadly Cyber-Wars, the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions are separated both from each other and from the TARDIS. Banding together with the last dredges of humanity, they must all attempt to find Ko Sharmus and the Boundary before Ashad, or any other remaining Cyberman forces, can locate them. And who is Brendan, the abandoned baby?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
- Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
- Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
- Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
- The Spy Master - Sacha Dhawan
- Ashad - Patrick O'Kane
- Ravio - Julie Graham
- Ko Sharmus - Ian McElhinney
- Yedlarmi - Alex Austin
- Feekat - Steve Toussaint
- Bescot - Rhiannon Clements
- Ethan - Matt Carver
- Fuskle - Jack Osborn
- Brendan - Evan McCabe
- Patrick - Branwell Donaghey
- Meg - Orla O'Rourke
- Michael - Andrew Macklin
- Sergeant - Caolán Byrne
- Voice of Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
- Cybermen - Matthew Rohman, Simon Carew, Jon Davey, Richard Highgate, Richard Price, Mickey Lewis, Matthew Doman, Paul Bailey
Crew
to be added
References
Locations
- The remnants of Cyber-Technology after the Great Cyber-War are floating around in deep space in the far future.
- Patrick finds a baby in the middle of a lane on his way home in Ireland in 1400s.
- Team TARDIS find themselves on a refugee planet very similar to Earth, but with a ring planet visible, according to the coordinates given by Percy Shelley.
- The Gravraft speeds through hyperspace.
- Brendan chases a thief to a cliffside in November 1431.
- The Doctor, Ryan and Ethan manage to get to the Boundary.
- Ko Sharmus escaped from a Cybercamp.
- The portal gateway leads to Gallifrey.
The Doctor
- The Doctor says that she used to hot-wire warp drives as a teenager on weekends, though she quickly points out that in her early life on Gallifrey, there were no teenagers, or weekends.
Individuals
- Patrick and Meg adopt the baby and names him Brendan after they had the local Sergeant have a look at him.
- On first school-day, Brendan puts on a school uniform. Later he and Patrick rake hay.
- Another day, the district nurse have a look at Brendan.
- At yet another day, Brendan gets sick and Meg tells him if it gets worse she'll call the local doctor.
- The refugee planet is inhabited by the last of humanity; Feekat, Ravio, Ethan, Fuskle, Yedlarmi, Bescot and another young woman.
- Graham calls Ethan cockle and the machine he sets up a gizmo.
- Feekat sats the survivors are: teacher, nurse, childminer, driver and builder.
- The Lone Cyberman, Ashad is accompanied by two older-design Cyberguards.
- Ethan says he was born a pariah.
- The Doctor points out the massive inner conflict that Ashad has because he's not fully converted, therefore having a lot of anger and hatred towards his own being. The Doctor reckons she should bill him for therapy.
- Brendan is chasing a thief, Michael, who pulls a revolver on him and shoots him and he falls off a cliff, but somehow doesn't die.
- Ko Sharmus was the last remaining human on the Planet of the Boundary.
- Graham uses Cockney rhyming slang, saying "let's have a butcher's hook.
- Graham and Ravio enter a room on the carrier ship with thousands of Cyber-Warriors, all inactive.
- the Spy Master jumps through the portal gateway by the Boundary.
Food and beverages
- On Brendan's birthday, the family have birthday cake.
- The Doctor offers Ryan a humbug out of a paper bag. She says she's added ginger.
Business
- A Fincham Supply Co. is located in Ireland
- Garda is the local army of Ireland.
- Ashad reckons he alone was chosen to revive the Cyber-Empire.
Technology
- Ravio points a gun at Team TARDIS.
- The Doctor has given Graham a neural inhibitor system, which ought to act against a Cyberman's emotional inhibitor.
- The Doctor has given Yaz a particle projector, which should project gold particles into the air, as an affront to the Cybermen.
- The Doctor has given Ryan a rudimentary force field device, to shield the area when the Cybermen arrive.
- Team TARDIS and the refugee group are attacked by Cyberdrones at their place of encampment.
- The Doctor uses a special grenade against Ashad.
- The Doctor says Cyber warp tech is not designed for humans.
- The Doctor tells Ashad, over a hologram, that the Cyberium AI knows how she has defeated the Cybermen time and time again.
- Ashad and one of his Cyberguards hacks into the Cyberiad, the hive mind of all Cybermen.
- An officer presents an old Brendan with a carriage clock for his services in the army.
- Patrick and the Sergeant, both unaged, leads Brendan into the Garda's backroom to hook him to a memory-erasure machine.
Vehicles
- Patrick is riding a bicycle.
- The TARDIS has to be left behind.
- The Doctor, Ryan and Ethan steal a Cyberfighter; another is taken by the Lone Cyberman.
- A Cyberfighter is a class of Cyber-shuttle, which is itself a type of small Cybership. They run on warp drives.
- Graham, Yaz and company escape on the humans' Gravraft, which they later manage to land on a Cyber-Army carrier ship.
- Due to Ravio pushing the Gravraft, the shell lining breaks, the energy cells compromise and the oxygen pressure drops.
Culture
- Yedlarmi is called Eeyore by Graham.
Story notes
- This episode had a "cold opening".
- The episode had a smooth transition from the "cold opening" into the title sequence, with the scene going through the eye-pod of a Cyber-helmet.
- This is the second episode of the Thirteenth Doctor's era to feature the "middle eight" section of the Doctor Who theme during the closing credits, following The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
- According to the subtitles on iPlayer, the two 2005-2012 design Cybermen with Ashad are "Cyberguards".
- This is one of eleven television stories in which the TARDIS does not appear at all. The others are: Mission to the Unknown, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Mind of Evil, The Dæmons, The Sea Devils, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, Midnight, The Lie of the Land and The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
- A newspaper glanced at by Meg following Brendan's miracle survival lists the Ireland scenes as taking place across the 1400s. This creates an anachronism in the case of Patrick's bicycle, not being invented until the early 1900s in the real world, as well as their style of clothes.
Ratings
to be added
Filming locations
to be added
Production errors
If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor has informed Yaz that Cybermen are "allergic" to gold. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Earthshock, Silver Nemesis, Battlefield, Nightmare in Silver; AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen)
- The Doctor has told Graham that the Cybermen can be driven mad if their emotions are "unsuppress[ed]". (TV: The Invasion, The Age of Steel, Closing Time)
- Similar to the Cyberdrones, Cyber-heads were previously seen to function without a Cyber-suit, most notably Handles. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, The Time of the Doctor)
- Yaz says she and Graham have experience surviving in the vacuum of space. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
- The Doctor offers Ryan a humbug from a paper bag. (TV: The Sun Makers, PROSE: Coldheart)
- The Doctor refers to the Lone Cyberman acquiring the Cyberium from her. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
- Ashad was denied a full conversion, similar to the "rejects" on Telos. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
- The Spy Master once again affirms that "everything is about to change" (TV: Spyfall) and, as the Doctor suspected, he has, somehow, escaped from his imprisonment by the Kasaavin. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
- The Ninth Doctor previously faced an army of Daleks forged from humans by the Dalek Emperor and were sickened by themselves for it following the near-annihilation of the species. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
- Ashad is addressed by his guards as "Leader". (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen et al.) Earlier Mondasian Cyber-Leaders appeared with silver side handles rather than the distinctive black. (TV: The Tenth Planet, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) Similar to the converted Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the corners of Ashad's side handles are black. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Home video releases
to be added
External links
- Official Ascension of the Cybermen page on the Doctor Who website
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