Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)

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Synopsis

The Doctor, Rose and Mickey face an old enemy with a new face on an alternate Earth.

Plot

The TARDIS accidentally falls through a hole in the time vortex, crash-landing and apparently dead, cut off from the universe from which it draws energy. It's arrived in what turns out to be London in a parallel universe: almost, but not quite, the same. There are zeppelins in the sky, the population use advanced EarPods instead of mobile phones, and Rose's father Pete is alive and a very successful businessman.

The Doctor manages to find a small part of the TARDIS which is still alive, and gives up a bit of his life to help his ship regenerate. Since this will take around 24 hours, he reluctantly agrees to let his companions explore the parallel Earth, but he chases after Rose to persuade her not to seek out her "father".

One of the powerful players on this earth is John Lumic, owner of Cybus Industries. Lumic is obsessed with the extension of life through cybernetics, since he is confined to a wheelchair by a fatal condition. His latest experiment, a human "upgrade", is nearing completion, and Lumic has one of his scientists killed for raising ethical objections. He has his henchmen round up bands of homeless people and take them to the Cybus factory at Battersea Power Station and "upgrade" them. He also later has a meeting with Pete Tyler and the President of Britain, the latter of whom refuses to allow Lumic to carry on his experiments. Knowing that the President will be attending Jackie Tyler's birthday that night, Lumic accesses the security arrangements and house plans in Jackie's mind via her EarPods and orders a new batch of upgrades be created.

The Doctor and Rose witness a crowd pause as the EarPods they wear download information directly into their brains, and this advanced technology piques the Doctor's interest. The EarPods are manufactured by Cybus, who also own Pete's company, Vitex. The Doctor decides to attend Jackie Tyler's birthday celebration, since the President and many other high profile guests will be there and he may be able to find out more about the Pods.

Mickey, left to his own devices, seeks out his Gran, who died in his universe. While visiting her he's abducted by two people in a blue van: Jake and Mrs Moore, who take him back to their base where they meet Ricky, Mickey's double from this universe. The three of them are the "resistance", a team who have been investigating Cybus' abductions of homeless people with the help of an inside agent. Their contact has just advised that a group of "upgrades" is leaving the Cybus factory. The resistance head off to tail the Cybus truck, taking Mickey with them.

Disguised as catering staff, the Doctor and Rose infiltrate the party, but before they can find out anything useful Lumic's "upgrades" arrive, and the Doctor recognises them as "Cybermen". They smash their way into the house and kill the President before rounding up the rest of the guests to be upgraded into Cybermen themselves.

Rose, the Doctor and Pete manage to get outside, where they meet up with Mickey and the others, but Ricky and Jake's guns are useless against the Cybermen, who surround them. The Doctor tries to surrender, claiming he volunteers for the upgrade, but the Cybermen refuse; as "rogue elements", they are to "perish under maximum deletion..."

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

  • International Electromatics, a front company for Cybus Industries, has the same name of the company used by Tobias Vaughn in the Doctor's universe which featured in the second doctor's era in the serial DW: The Invasion.
  • The Doctor explains the destruction of the Time Lords made it near-impossible to cross between universes, though he doesn't explain how, exactly.
  • The Doctor powered a green crystal with ten years of his life to power the TARDIS once more so that it can return home. We don't know whether he meant ten years of his entire lifespan or only of current incarnation.
  • Veronica of Reykjavík hand made flower sculptures for Jackie's '39th' birthday.
  • Jackie has a dog called Rose.

Story Notes

  • To date, the introduction of the Cybus Cybermen marks the only occasion in which a classic series element has actually been "reinvented" for the revived series -- meaning not only a new design, but also a new original -- although the revival did acknowledge the original Cybermen design in the episode Dalek, meaning the original Cybermen have not been removed from continuity.
  • Early reports erroneously gave the title of this story as "Rise of the Cyberman."
  • When Roses' phone picks up the Cybus network and connects a video plays and during it you can hear a man say "And it's good news for Great Britain as John Lumic returns to the country of his birth. Mr Lumic, the inventor of high contact metal, has denied reports of ill health." This so called 'High contact metal' could be what is produced when Jackie has her Earpod's overridden by Lumic and two 'metal' looking prongs emerge from them and meet at the top of her head, this could also be what the handles on the cybermen's head's are, they could be used for communication with other cybermen.
  • This is the first episode of the new series to be directed by Graeme Harper, the only classic series director to direct for the new series.

Ratings

to be added

Myths

  • According to The Sun, Lloyd Pack broke his leg just days before filming began on the episode, requiring the scripts being rewritten to place his character, John Lumic, in a wheelchair. Writer Tom MacRae told Doctor Who Magazine in issue #369 that no rewrites were necessary: the script had always had Lumic in a wheelchair.

Filming Locations

  • The scene where Mickey, the Doctor and Rose all split up away from each other in the alternate universe was filmed outside the recently built Riverfront Arts Centre in Newport.

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.
  • The clock face of Big Ben is square however it reverts back to round in the following episode. In the first episode, Big Ben is represented by a computer-generated establishing shot; however, in the following episode, Big Ben is seen in footage shot on location.

Continuity

Timeline

DVD and Other Releases

Series 2 Volume 3 DVD Cover
  • The Rise of the Cybermen (Ep 5) was sold on Series 2 Volume 3, along with "The Age of Steel" and "The Idiot's Lanturn".
  • It was also sold as part of the Series 2 Box Set, which included the specials "Children in Need Special" and "The Christmas Invasion"
  • It was also sold on Issue Ten of the Doctor Who DVD Files, along with the second part of this episode, "The Age of Steel"

See also

External links


Template:Series 2


v • e
Cyberman stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Cyberman story" is one in which one living, authentic Cyberman plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as Dalek are absent due to only featuring deceased Cybermen on display. Stories like Carnival of Monsters, A Good Man Goes to War and The Vanquishers are also not included due to the Cybermen's appearance being of little consequence to the plot of the story.
Television
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Sword of Orion • Spare Parts • Real Time • The Harvest • Silver Lining • Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Crystal of Cantus • The Reaping • The Gathering • The Blue Tooth • Human Resources • The Girl Who Never Was • The Ultimate Adventure • Kingdom of Silver • Legend of the Cybermen • The Silver Turk • Last of the Cybermen • Return to Telos • The Isos Network • The Tyrants of Logic • Code Silver / Master of Worlds • Hour of the Cybermen • Conversion • Return of the Cybermen • The Gates of Hell • Scourge of the Cybermen • Altered Status • Monsters in Metropolis • Secrets of Telos • Way of the Burryman / The Forth Generation • Bad Day in Tinseltown • Willkommen • Wulf • Übermensch • Auf Wiedersehen • The Great Cyber-War • Sins of the Flesh

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