A very dark adventure of the sixth Doctor who I have grown to enjoy (even being the least popular doctor, and the only one to ever be fired, and refuse to come back for his regeneration sequence). He is the most acerbic of the doctors since the first, and certainly the most full of his own intelligence, but I enjoy seeing him, even if I hated him as a kid. A dark return of the cybermen, with the Doctor seeing people not for who they really are, as he really is not very trusting in this incarnation, and taking on the Cybermen with all his strength and will. I love the moments where the Doctor realizes that he is too untrusting now, and might have caused people harm.

In the London sewers two workers are attacked and taken by an unseen force. The Doctor (Colin Baker) is meanwhile making repairs to the TARDIS, fixing it’s chameleon circuit, which has been broken since the first adventure of the Doctor, and will allow it to change from the Police box it got stuck in while Earth so long ago. The repairs cause the ship to behave erratically, scaring Peri (Nicola Bryant) who is still worried about the Doctor as he has just not been the same since his regeneration. The Doctor brings Peri to the Solar System in 1985 and close enough to see Halley’s Comet. On Earth, Lytton (Maurice Clobourne) who was a Dalek Mercenary in Resurrection of the Daleks (an adventure of the much kinder 5th Doctor) is in London planning a raid on the Bank of England with Russell (Terry Molloy), Griffiths (Brian Glover) and Payne (James Beckett). Lytton actives a transmitter, and then heads into the sewers, where the workers disappeared. The TARDIS picks up the signal as a distress signal from Aliens, and he lands in scrapyard in England, with the Chameleon circuit changing into a conspicuous ornamental Stove, Peri remarks on it, but the Doctor brushes it off. They find a dummy transmitter and return to the Tardis to find the source, where the Tardis become a large Organ (Love the running gag). They head to the sewer entrance and are attacked by two policemen. They subdue them and enter the sewers.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Payne is killed when he lags behind Lytton, and Lytton finds the Cybermen. Griffiths trys to shoot them, but Lytton takes the gun and surrenders to the evil robotic men, and they are taken to the Cyberbase in the sewers. Russell runs off and finds the Doctor and Peri, and tells them he is an undercover investigating Lytton.

On Telos, the Cybermen’s newest homeworld to slave workers named Bates (Michael Attwell) and Stratton (Jonathan David) escape from a work party, taking a Cyberman head so they can disguise themselves, and run across the barren wasteland, heading to try and steal their old time ship back.

The Doctor, Peri and Russell go back to the TARDIS and are ambushed by Cybermen with Lytton and Griffiths. Russell i skilled, and the Cybermen order Peri killed, but the Doctor threatens to destroy the Cybermen if she is not released. The Cyber Leader (David Banks) releases Peri and tells the Docto that the Cyber Controller (Michael Kigarriff) whom the Doctor thought was killed is waiting for them on Telos. The Doctor brings the TARDIS there, and is locked in a room with Peri, Griffiths and Lytton. The Doctor tells Peri about the inhabitans of Telos, the Cryons who were wiped out by the arrival of the Cybermen. The Cybermen are using their refrigerated cities to keep Cybermen in stasis.

On Telos it is revealed that most of the suspended Cybermen have gone insane, and rampage when awakened.

The TARDIS arrives on Telos in the tombs instead of the Cyber Control. The Cyber Leaders goes to take them to Cyber Control, but an insane Cyberman attacks them, and Lytton, Griffiths and Peri manage to escape and are taken by two Cryons.

It seems some Cryons have survived in the depths where it is still cold, and have been sabotaging the cryogenic chambers. Lytton it seems has been working for the Cryons, and offers Griffiths 2 million pounds of diamonds (the normal rocks on Telos) to bodyguard Lytton while he captures the time vessel, which the Cybermen cannot be allowed to have or they will destroy the universe.Lytton and Griffiths run into Bates and Stratton, who have been partial cyber-converted, but still can think on their own, and they agree to work together to get off Telos.

The Doctor is locked in a frozen chamber with an old Cryon named Flast (Faith Brown) who tells him how the Cybermen plan on preventing the destruction of Mondas, their original home world in an attack on Earth, and they want to use the time machine to do it. The doctor searches the chamber and finds that it is filled with a substance that is explosive in regular temperatures called Vastial. THe Doctor uses it to defeat the guard and escape by using up his lance. The Doctor escapes, and Flast puts the sonic lance into the box of vastial, then hides. The Cybermen come and throw Flast into the corridor which is too hot for her to live, and she boils to death.

Lytton and the 3 others get through Cyber Control, but Lytton is taken at the landing pad. He is taken to the Cyber Controller and interrogated, and has his hands crushed, though he refuses to give up the Cryons, so the Cyber Controller orders him converted to a Cyberman. The other 3 being killed by Cybermen who were in the ship.

The Doctor gets back the TARDIS and goes to get Peri from the Cryons. Peri tells the Doctor that Lytton was actually being noble and working for the Cryons, and not evil. The doctor is incredulous, but agrees to rescue Lytton.

The TARDIS arrives in the Cyber Control, and the Doctor finds Lytton who begs the Doctor to kill him, as he has been partially converted. THe Doctor tries to save Lytton, but he Cyber controller arrives with a gun, but Lytton attacks him, but is killed. The Doctor grabs the gun, and in an uncharacteristic move, shoots and kills the Cyber Controller.

The Doctor feels a good deal of guilt over misjudging Lytton, but he and Peri leave in the Tardis, just as the vastial that Flast set to explode goes off, destroying Cyber Control and the time ship.

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I have to say I really like how dark this episode is, even with it’s jokes about the chameleon circuit (which seems broken again by the end), and especially the Doctor feeling tortured at having so misjudged Lytton, and allowing the man who became noble to be killed will haunt him.