The Age of Steel

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176b – "The Age of Steel"
Doctor Who episode

The Cyber Controller confronts the Doctor.
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companions Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith)
Guest stars
Production
Writer Tom MacRae
Director Graeme Harper
Script editor Helen Raynor
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 2.6
Series Series 2
Length 2 of 2 episodes, 46 mins
Originally broadcast May 20, 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"Rise of the Cybermen" "The Idiot's Lantern"
IMDb profile

"The Age of Steel" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on May 20, 2006 and is the second part of a two-part story that was the first to feature the Cybermen since Silver Nemesis in 1988. The first part, "Rise of the Cybermen", was broadcast on May 13, 2006. It stars David Tennant as the Doctor, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler and Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith.

It focuses on events in a parallel universe London, where John Lumic plans to convert the whole world's population into Cybermen. With the Doctor, Tyler and Mickey Smith trying to prevent the parallel universe counterpart of Tyler's mother Jackie being converted. They are assisted by Smith's parallel universe Ricky Smith who is the leader of a resistance movement. At the end of the episode Mickey Smith decides to stay in the parallel universe and says goodbye to the Doctor and Tyler.

The episode was relatively popular as it was the climax to the first story to feature the Cybermen since the show's revival. Although it received noticeably less viewers than Rise of the Cybermen. It has an Audience Appreciation rating of 86 as of 2008.

Contents

[edit] Plot

As the Cybermen attempt to delete the Doctor, he uses a charging TARDIS power cell to send tendrils of energy which disintegrate them. Pete wants to go back for Jackie, but the Doctor tells him she is dead. Pete reveals that he is the source of the Preachers' inside information on Lumic and that he only joined Lumic to feed information to the Security Services. The Doctor tells the Preachers that they need to get to the city and tell the authorities about Lumic.

Lumic broadcasts a signal via the EarPods throughout London. Those affected, including Jackie, begin walking towards the Battersea Power Station factory. Cybermen begin stalking the streets as the city is sealed off. The group decides to split up to increase their chances of getting out of the city. However, the Cybermen catch up with Ricky while he is climbing a fence and kill him.

Crane is brought before Lumic and requests an upgrade. This is only a ruse to get close to Lumic's wheelchair. He is able to damage the life support systems before he is killed by the Cybermen. The Cybermen suggest Lumic upgrade himself. When he refuses they disconnect his life support and take him away.

Mickey tells the group of Ricky's demise; Jake is angry, turning on Mickey. They go to view Battersea, and see Lumic's Zeppelin moored on the roof. Pete suggests they get in through the front door, using dummy EarPods. Rose demands to go with him. The Doctor plans sabotage the EarPod transmissions and tells Jake to take out the transmitter, which the Doctor, determines to be on the Zeppelin. Jake reluctantly takes Mickey with him.

The Doctor and Mrs Moore enter the cooling tunnels, which are filled with unactivated Cybermen. Meanwhile, Rose and Pete join the line of humans entering the factory, while Mickey and Jake make it to the mooring station on the roof. After knocking out two hypnotised guards they enter the airship.

Mrs Moore tells the Doctor that she used to work for Cybus Industries, but after reading a file that she was not supposed to she was hunted by Lumic and went on the run. She also tells him her husband and two children think her dead and that her real name is Angela Price. They do not notice a red light flashing at their passing. An alarm alerts Cyber control to movement. The Doctor and Mrs Moore escape just in time through a hatch.

In the factory, Pete and Rose move towards the conversion chambers. A Cyberman approaches them. It reveals that it was once Jackie and recognizes Pete. Rose and Pete are captured and taken to Cyber Control.

The Doctor and Mrs Moore meet a Cyberman, which Moore deactivates with an EMP bomb. The Doctor opens the chest of the downed Cyberman, finding bits of an organic nervous system and an emotional inhibitor. The Cyberman stirs, with its inhibitor broken, it remembers who it was. The Doctor eases her into death with the sonic screwdriver. He realises that the solution is to find the cancellation code for the inhibitor and feed it throughout the system. The shock of realising what they are would kill them and he questions if this is morally right. Suddenly a Cyberman appears from behind and kills Mrs Moore, and takes the Doctor to the factory's central command to be studied.

On the Zeppelin, Mickey finds the that the transmitter control is behind a steel plate. Jake suggests they destroy it by setting the autopilot of the ship to crash. Mickey begins to hack into the ship's systems, but activates a silent alarm in the process.

The Doctor is brought to Cyber Control where he meets Pete and Rose. The Doctor asks where Lumic is. A Cybermen tells him he has been upgraded. A wall slides back and reveals the former Lumic, now a specialised Cyber Controller with glowing eyes and a transparent brain case, seated upon a giant steel throne.

A Cyberman on the Zeppelin comes to life in response to the silent alarm. Mickey trick it into punching him and ducking out of the way so it punches through the steel plate protecting the transmitter control. The Cyberman's falls at the same time the transmission is cut off. The humans in the factory snap out of their trances and begin to flee.

The Doctor hears the cries and realises that Mickey and Jake have succeeded. Lumic refuses to admit defeat saying that the conversions will take place by force. The Doctor sees a light on a camera and realises that Jake and Mickey are observing through a monitor in the Zeppelin. The Doctor then stalls Lumic, challenging his assertions.

As Mickey, listens, he realises the Doctor is dropping hints about him finding a code that will shut down the emotional inhibitors. He searches the Lumic database to decrypt the code, which he sends to Rose's mobile phone. The Doctor commends Lumic for designing his systems to be able to interact with anything, which he promptly demonstrates by plugging Rose's phone into the console, sending the code across the Cyber system.

All over the factory, the Cybermen's inhibitors shut down; they see each other and realise what they have become. The Cybermen begin to malfunction and collapse. The Doctor, Rose and Pete run out of the control room as the factory begins to be consumed in fire. However, unaffected by the transmitted code (except for displaying sheer rage), Lumic is able to free himself from his chair.

Mickey calls Rose and tells her to make for the roof, lowering a ladder from the Zeppelin for them. As the Doctor, Rose and Pete climb Lumic begins climbing up after them. The Doctor throws Pete his sonic screwdriver and tells him to use it on the rope. Pete cuts the ladder, sending Lumic to his apparent death in the burning factory.

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS with the fully charged power cell and restores power to the ship. Rose tries to explain to Pete that she is his daughter, but Pete is unable to accept this. The Doctor tells Jake Mrs Moore's real name, asking him to find her family and tell them how she died. Mickey announces he is staying to help destroy the other Cybermen factories and help his blind grandmother. Rose promises that they will visit him but the Doctor tell her they can never come back to a parallel universe.

Rose and Mickey share an emotional farewell, and Rose returns to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose visit Jackie's flat some time later where Rose breaks down on seeing her mother alive and The Doctor tells her that Mickey has "gone home".

Back in the parallel universe, Mickey tells Jake that they can remember Rickey by fighting in his name. Jake is sceptical that the two of them can do that with a van. Mickey tells him he once "saved the universe with a big yellow truck".

[edit] Continuity

  • Lumic's expression of "Excellent!" is a reference to the off-key rendition of the word that the Cybermen have used in previous stories (beginning with the Fourth Doctor story Revenge of the Cybermen).
  • The Doctor's comments about Cybermen in his universe confirms that the origin of the Cybermen in this universe is not a rewriting of the origins of the Cybermen on Mondas as established in The Tenth Planet. Similarly, this leaves the Big Finish Productions audio play Spare Parts intact.
  • Mickey refers to his "tin dog" status, as in "School Reunion", a comparison to the Doctor's former robot companion K-9.
  • The Doctor refers to attacking Cybus's factory at three points: "Above, between, below." This echoes an ancient Gallifreyan nursery rhyme that refers to the three possible entrances to the Tomb of Rassilon (The Five Doctors).
  • The storage of the converted Cybermen in the cooling tunnels is similar to the events of The Invasion, where the Cyber-army was hidden in the sewers of London. Cybermen were also kept in cryogenic freeze in The Tomb of the Cybermen. In The Invasion the Doctor also used emotions to defeat the Cybermen.
  • This episode is also the first time since Attack of the Cybermen that gold has not been used as a weapon against the Cybermen. The Cybus Industries tie-in site makes reference to earlier prototypes having an "allergy" to gold, stating that this was eliminated after further improvements of the Cyberman body.[1]
  • This episode marks the first time that women are known to be converted into Cybermen in the television series. There is no visual difference between a Cyberman that was a male or female human (however, see also the Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman").
  • Elements similar to Spare Parts include the converted Jackie being aware of her previous identity as a human (as Sisterman Constant and Thomas Dodd were in the play). Sally Phelan's moment of awareness is also similar to Yvonne Hartley in the play.
  • Although a Cyber-Director appeared in The Invasion, and was an immobile unit, the first Cyberman Controller appeared in The Tomb of the Cybermen (and later in Attack of the Cybermen) as a differently designed Cyberman with an enlarged cranium.
  • The Doctor says, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," to the dying Cyberman, Sally Phelan. He has used these words before in the 2006 series, when discovering a diseased 'New Human' in "New Earth". The President said this in the previous episode, "Rise of the Cybermen". The phrase recurs in subsequent episodes.
  • The scene in which the Doctor takes pity on and euthanises the Sally Phelan Cyberman is similar to one in Revelation of the Daleks (1985) in which a character destroys the Dalek mutant her father has become.
  • The Doctor's speech to the Lumic Cyber-Controller while walking round in circles is reminiscent of the speech he used against the Sycorax in "The Christmas Invasion" and to the Clockwork Droids in "The Girl in the Fireplace". It is also similar to a conversation about emotions between the Fifth Doctor and the Cyber Leader in Earthshock (1982).
  • Mickey leaves in this episode, choosing to assume the role of his deceased doppelgänger Ricky and continue his fight against the Cybermen, making him the first companion in the new series to leave the TARDIS crew by choice. Adam Mitchell was expelled from the TARDIS in "The Long Game", and Jack Harkness was left behind at the end of "The Parting of the Ways".
  • As the Doctor says goodbye to Mickey, he jokingly calls him "Mickey the Idiot". This was a nickname the Ninth Doctor used for him more harshly. The Doctor also refers to this nickname when, during his debate with Lumic, he continuously uses the word "idiot" while trying to drop clues to Mickey.
  • Mickey mentions that he "once saved the universe with a big yellow truck". This is a reference to "The Parting of the Ways", when Mickey opens the time vortex on the TARDIS using a tow truck, thereby allowing Rose to return to the future and defeat the Daleks.
  • Mr Crane tries to stop John Lumic by attacking the life support system on his wheelchair. In Genesis of the Daleks (1975), the Fourth Doctor threatens Davros by temporarily switching off the life support system on his chair.
  • When Rose recognises the Cybermen from the mask in Van Statten's museum (in "Dalek") the Doctor says "there are Cybermen in our universe".

[edit] Production

  • This episode, along with "Rise of the Cybermen" was produced in the same production block as the series finale story, "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday".
  • According to an interview with Andrew Hayden-Smith, and comments given by Russell T. Davies in a press conference, Ricky and Jake were initially intended to be gay and lovers.[2][3] A deleted scene included in the Complete Series Two DVD box set confirms this.
  • Footage from "Rose" — specifically, the destruction of the Nestene Consciousness — was reused as part of the destruction of the Battersea Cyber-conversion facility.

[edit] Outside references

  • The marching of thousands of mind-controlled Londoners to Battersea (referred to by the Doctor as "sheep") echoes the Pink Floyd song "Sheep" from their album Animals, where the sheep are led into the "valley of steel" to be slaughtered. The album also features a shot of Battersea Power Station on its cover, with a pig floating above it just like Lumic's own airship. Pink Floyd is known for incorporating the Doctor Who theme music into live performances of the song "One of These Days".
  • As noted by Noel Clarke on the commentary, Mickey phones Rose and says "I'm coming to get you!", which echoes the Ninth Doctor's words to her at the climax of "Bad Wolf". The words also constitute a catchphrase used by Davina McCall on the UK television programme Big Brother, the latest series of which started two days prior to the episode's broadcast and which also featured in "Bad Wolf".
  • The climax of the episode echoes that of Casablanca, with Mickey in the role of Rick Blaine and Rose as Ilsa Lund. Indeed, Mickey adopts the name "Ricky" and talks about freeing Paris.
  • Roger Lloyd Pack and David Tennant appeared together previously in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Barty Crouch Sr. and Jr., respectively.

[edit] Reception

The writing of the show was criticised for the way the Doctor was able to get out of difficult situation by simply pulling something from his pocket.[4]

[edit] Broadcast and DVD release

  • The average overnight viewing figure for this episode was 6.85 million (a 36% share), peaking at 7.7 million.
  • This episode was released together with "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Idiot's Lantern" as a basic DVD with no special features.

[edit] References

  1. ^ CYBUS
  2. ^ Attitude, May 2006
  3. ^ Cult - News - Davies wanted 'Doctor Who' gay kiss - Digital Spy
  4. ^ The Age of Steel Series Two, Episode Six. Outpost Gallifrey News Page (2006-05-20).

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
The TARDIS Index File has information related to:

[edit] Reviews

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Cybermen television stories
First Doctor
Second Doctor
Fourth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
Seventh Doctor
Tenth Doctor
"Rise of the Cybermen" / "The Age of Steel" • "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday"
Torchwood
Minor appearances
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Doctor Who series 2 episodes