The Age of Steel

"We think the same. We are uniform."

Writer: Tom MacRae 

Format: TV

Broadcast: 20th May 2006

Series: 2.06

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose, Mickey

Synopsis 

The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the population. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey join up with the Preachers and Pete Tyler and together they plan an attack to prevent the conversion of human life into Cyber form. But the Cybermen army is strong and not everyone will make it out alive...

Verdict 

The Age of Steel was an absolutely brilliant conclusion to the story already started in Rise of the Cybermen. The opening episode really captured the beginnings of the Cybermen and led up to their big reveal at the cliffhanger but this second episode is where all the action is and overall it serves as a quite brilliant story. The resolution to the cliffhanger was very good with the Doctor using the power tool from the TARDIS to incinerate the Cybermen followed by a humorous but ridiculously slow getaway. I loved how Mrs Moore mentioned that. The scenes in the van were good and I liked how by chance a formidable team had been established. The Preachers had been joined by the TARDIS team and Pete Tyler in an awesome ensemble. They really did work well together and I like how they all split up and had their own collective objectives to put an end to the Cybermen. The Doctor's determination to put an end to the goings on that night was very good and ultimately he had done so. It was quite sad in parts how the Doctor seemed to forget Mickey but that's been seen ever since Series 1 with the Ninth Doctor. I thought Billie Piper once again looked ridiculously amazing in her catering attire and I liked how stubborn she was in joining Pete to go into Battersea power station and attempt to save Jackie. The station was obviously where the Cybermen were getting converted and the whole of London was flocking there like sheep thanks to the Cybus Industries earplugs. I liked the throwback to The Five Doctors with at least one party attacking the power station from above, below and in the middle. It worked very well and they (nearly) all just about made it in. Ricky had already died at the hands of the Cybermen in the earlier escape and Mrs Moore sadly didn't make it into the power station. Her life story whilst walking below amongst a sea of dormant Cybermen with the Doctor was quite a sad and interesting one and just as we felt a connection with the character she was deleted. That made the Cybermen wonderfully ruthless and evil. Jake and Mickey attacking from above in the zeppelin was superb and I loved how they managed to turn off the transmitter control by luring in a Cyberman to destroy it himself. That caused chaos amongst the humans as they realised where they were and what was happening. Pete and Rose were just about spared by the Cyberman that was once Jackie Tyler and the Doctor's lack of being human saw him go into the control room where they were eventually met by the new Cyber Controller. John Lumic was converted into controller and even had his own throne! I must admit I prefer the type of Controller we saw in The Tomb of the Cybermen and Attack of the Cybermen but I still thought he was superb. Speaking of past stories, I really liked the references to School Reunion, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and Dalek with the latter really putting a smile on my face. The way the Doctor communicated to Mickey through the camera to crack the code for the emotional inhibitor was simply stunning and really showed the Doctor at his best. It was truly brilliant and I think this story again just highlighted how well David Tennant plays the Tenth Doctor. He's not my favourite Doctor but boy is he good. The return of the Doctor's suit at the end of the story was another comedic moment. But before that there was an action packed standoff after Mickey had cracked the code for the emotional inhibitor. With the code sent to Rose, the Doctor fed it into the systems and each and every Cyberman realised what they were and the horror that had happened. They all went insane and were even driven to death through that insanity or the explosion of Battersea. The escape in the zeppelin was really good and I liked how the Cyber Controller was still determined to catch them but ultimately met his ends. He was sent crashing from the zeppelin far below. It had been an eventful stay on the parallel Earth and now Mickey had decided to stay. His gran was here and he was going to help finish off the Cybermen in the other factories around the world. Overall, an emotional rollercoaster but an outstanding story! 

Rating: 10/10