fardell24 ([personal profile] fardell24) wrote2020-03-04 09:03 am
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Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen review

Ascension of the Cybermen
(Written before viewing The Timeless Children.)
The penultimate episode of Series 12. Team TARDIS arrive in the far future to stop the Lone Cyberman. But also in a place reminiscent of Ireland, a strange side story that may be connected. A baby is found, and he's adopted, and grows up. Those scenes were done well. Back to the Cyberwars. The Doctor and her companions trying to help the last survivors by defending them from the Cybermen was done well. The Cyberdrones looked interesting, and were effective in leaving the Doctor and the others in an even more desperate situation.
The Doctor tells the 'fam' to run. She doesn't want to lose anyone else as her previous incarnation had lost Bill. Graham and Yas manage to escape on the human spaceshhip, but Ryan doesn't. The Doctor's anguish as she says that she doesn't want to lose anyone to the Cybermen was done very well. The Doctor, Ryan and one of the survivors, Ethan, steal one of the Cybershuttles to head to the 'Barrier'. (That would prove to be important later on. Good foreshadowing.) More of Brendan, but he's shot and gets up like Captain Jack?
Following Graham, Yas and the others. Something on their ship blows up and they are stuck in space. The scenes regarding this were well done and were appropriately tense. The ship had arrived in a Cyberman space graveyard, along with a dormant ship. They figure out how to get aboard that ship, but discover that it's carrying Cyberwarriors. And the Lone Cyberman has followed them aboard! All of these scenes are done well also, increasing the tensions. More of Brendan, leading somewhere...
Following the Doctor, Ryan and Ethan... The Doctor contacts the Lone Cyberman. This scene was done rather well. But they arrive in their purloined ship at the Barrier ahead of the others. Arriving at a planet. Ko Sharmus isn't the name of the planet, as the Doctor and the others thought, but a person who's guarding the Barrier, which turns out to be a wormhole that opens randomly elsewhere in the universe. When the Doctor approaches it, she see's Gallifrey in it's destroyed state. And then the Master comes through!
That was definitely well done! And what he says. Everything's about to change? (A great cliffhanger!) Back to Brendan. Retiring and then being lead into the back of the Station where he's getting his memory wiped? Is it a chameleon arch? Is this Mondasian Ireland? Both? Certainly an interesting episode, but it's all setup for the next episode. Certainly the Fam are all in different places, especially Graham and Yas. Even Ryan may not survive what is coming. Either with the Cybermen, on Gallifrey, or even with Cybermen on Gallifrey.
(With the Time War, and Sontarrans in The Invasion of Time, why not?) 8.5/10.