Altogether more disappointing than the previous few stories.
First 2 parts are more appealing than the last 2.
Mostly this is due to the Cybermen's mis-portrayal as faux-villain robot men. Partly this is down to Chris Robbie's performance (hands on hips and strange mid-Atlantic accent) but the scripted dialogue is full of irony and sardonic comments, even some similes.
Other acting is a mix of good and less good. Surprisingly David Collings and Kevin Stoney are hammy and less than credible as Vogans. Adding to this surprise is Michael Wisher hiding as Magrik too. Perhaps some blame for this can be layed on the crappy masks? Given the Davros factor from the previous story (next in production) this shows that masks and mask acting is toss up whether it works so should be approached carefully and used more sparingly.
Ronald Leigh Hunt and William Marlowe are stylish and war film tough as Stevenson and Lester. Jeremy Wilkin as Kellman is memorable but the character seems disposed of wastefully at the end of p3.
Location filming is impressive but is less than well used since successive shots are location film, studio video, location film etc. This jars awfully. Set decoration on Voga is nice but overall design is pedestrian.
The plot is hackneyed. The motivations of various characters do not stand up to logical scrutiny. (What is the Cybermen's original aim? Why don't the Vogans exploit their goldy/money position better (e.g. be more like Switzerland)?
The writing is poor due to the way the script was developed. Like Invasion of the Dinosaurs last series this has suffered from excessive rewrites. This should be recognised as a red flag for "sh*t" story. Maybe it should have been scrapped and something else tried. Presumably this was not done in order to pursue the re-use of the Ark in Space sets to save costs.
Series 12 is done. It's got a high average due to 2 very good stories in the (to date) lowest ep count series yet. Series 7 was like this too.
The new production team of Hinchcliffe and Holmes are well established but they have shown with Revenge... that they are capable of a mis-step if they let it happen.
ABM Rating 2.60/4.00
LJM Rating 2.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.35/10
No. 58 (out of 79)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
Part 3 is the 400th episode of DW...
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