ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
This is a very disappointing story, there are all the
ingredients there for it to be very good, but somehow the emphasis is all
wrong. The two children that Clara picks up are annoying, the whole subplot
around the Emperor feels shoe-horned in and most of all the two versions of the
Doctor are too indistinct from each other which occasionally makes it hard to
work out which one is talking.
With Angie and Archie in tow the Doctor and Clara arrive at
an intergalactic theme park – however, when they arrive it is closed down and
semi-derelict. They find the park is occupied by a “punishment platoon” who are
searching for their Emperor who has disappeared. Amongst the exhibits at the
park are some deactivated Cybermen, but it turns out that deep below a group of
fully active Cybermen have been building their army and their strength. They
kidnap Angie and Archie and the Doctor leaves Clara in charge of the platoon
whilst he goes to seek them out.
The Doctor is partially converted and joins minds with the
Cyber-Controller which splits his personality in two. The Doctor names the
Cyber-controlled part of his personality “Mr Clever”. The Doctor and Mr Clever
agree to play chess for control of his body. The Doctor returns Angie and
Archie to Clara. Mr Clever destroys their main source of defence against the
Cyberarmy and the Doctor is forced to remove Mr Clever from his brain by force
instead of by ending the chess game.
Angie recognises one of the soldiers, Porridge (Warwick
Davis) as the missing Emperor. He orders his army to leave and the planet is
destroyed, although one Cyberman escapes. The Doctor returns Archie and Angie
to their home.
This story was, allegedly, intended to make the Cybermen
scary again, but doesn’t really do that job. The fact that these Cybermen can
move quickly is one of the most effective things in the story. Beyond that,
though, the Cybermen are underused here. Almost all the scenes with the two
children smack too much of children’s TV, especially when they are ‘playing’ in
the old amusement park games. Their inclusion in the story feels utterly
superfluous. Also almost entirely superfluous are all the other human
characters. Only the Emperor (or Porridge if you like) has any bearing on the
plot – the rest are there to mostly be ray-gun fodder for the Cybermen. Warwick
Davis is certainly the best thing about this story – the one character you
wouldn’t mind seeing again.
The set up of the Doctor playing chess with Mr Clever for
his body is very good – the Doctor has always had a thing about chess. But it
is not concluded as it should be, by something clever, the Doctor merely blasts
Mr Clever from his head using a weapon. The main problem though is around the
lack of distinction between the Doctor and Mr Clever when there are effectively
whole scenes where Matt Smith is acting with himself. Matt Smith is normally on
point as the Doctor and should be more than capable of pulling this off, but
somehow he misses it and so we get the Doctor and the Doctor arguing against
each other and it gets very hard to follow. It’s a pity because this is what
the whole story revolves around and because it doesn’t work it undermines
everything else.
Although I generally think Matt’s later stories are his
best, with the dishonourable exception of Let’s Kill Hitler, I would say this
is my least favourite of his era.
NEXT UP: THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR
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Andrew J. Müller,
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and Shaun Runham
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2022
