Last of The Cybermen

 

WE...WILL....SURVIVE....

Last of The Cybermen by Alan Barnes

Last of the Cybermen is certainly a Troughton era story, complete with that era's base under siege setting, 60s Cybermen, companions, and weird pacing. 

As a part of the Locum Doctors trilogy (and the only one as of yet that I own) it did what it needed to as part of that whole, being understandable as it's own piece, while blatantly being continued in a future release. Unfortunately, it's plagued by not exactly having the best story ever. Part One feels especially confused, because it definitely has trouble justifying why 6/Jamie/Zoe are doing together, it's sort of vague on that, even the Doctor seems confused and incapable of explaining this, and the most interesting thing is a Cyberman with feelings named "Lanky," who is pretty intriguing at this point. There's also some great atmosphere of a disused cyber-castle in the shape of a giant head, and yet, as soon as they enter the castle, the problems begin to show. "Lanky" is just a side-member of a cast who as a whole, are incredibly grating. They are all stereotypical, boiling down to "villain," "love interest," "victorian values PG Wodehouse man" and "Northern accent comedy Cybermen." Oh, that's right! Any intrigue surrounding 'Lanky' is dropped for a run of the mill Cyber-run-around, as well as with a bunch of very confusing stuff my brain doesn't understand about "logic gates," which is probably very simple for programmers but I don't get it okay, and finally, the fact that the story feels positively entrenched in a bunch of other Second Doctor stories, bringing up references to them, most of the time when it's not even natural. AND ALL this with the fact that for a lot of the time Zoe is under the control of a Cyber-thing and out of the plot and the fact that the Doctor flies the Second Doctor's TARDIS about like he struggled to do the The Tenth's in The Runaway Bride, and you get a weird, weird stew. There are some deep-seated problems in Last of The Cybermen, probably more than there are good things about it.

Yet, not all of it is bad. There are some real nice moments where The Doctor talks with Jamie and Zoe about their future, and this culminates in an awesome moment, where deciding that they'd rather lose their memories and stand by the Doctor, then remember him, but run away when he needs them. The best moment of the story though, is a monologue from a Cyberleader in the deeply troubled part four. The Cybermen, up to this point, have been treated almost as a generic monster. And then they threaten to drill holes into Zoe's skull while she's conscious, to convert her. It's a real shock to the system, and it's great to see this kind of menace from the Cybermen. The conversion is heard from afar as a grisly thing, where a man states he won't give them the satisfaction of screaming, and then you hear the buzzing of the drills and he suddenly screams in agony. It's some real dark Torchwood-Spare Parts-World Enough and Time stuff shuffled in among the crap. And as much as some of it is dampened by having a Northern Comedy Cyberman, these few scenes are absolutely gorgeous. 

All in all, Last of The Cybermen is an incredibly mixed bag, and I'm almost not sure what to think of the final product and whether it gels into a piece worth getting, especially when Big Finish is usually rather good at nailing the odd Cyberman story. 

I think it's perhaps worth liking the Troughton era more than I do to make this worth a purchase.

Which, you know, I've only done like seven Troughton stories, so? Whatever, get this one for the Cybermen and Jamie stuff, and leave whenever Captain Stereotypical British Man starts talking. 6/10