Well, whatever you say, this is the episode that fans have been waiting for. The one that marked the return of the series' Number 2 villains. The Cybermen. And boy do they look good. Imposing steel colossi that power their way implacably onto the screen.

Of course, they are not the Cybermen that we know and love. Not just because each time they have appeared over the decades, they have been different, but because the story itself is set in a parallel universe. Which allows the writer to play around with some of the updated Who's back story. So we do have parallel characters and our heroes do interact with them, enabling us to explore a little of their background.

As a two-part episode, this story actually harks back to the longer, more sprawling stories of the seventies. The shorter format fortunately keeps the story tight and still let the writer fun with it. As to the story itself, it gets off to poor start that only serves to paint the villain of the piece as just another megalomaniac. Even in trying to do more than this -- and it is arguable that the writer never manages to achieve this -- it apes Genesis of the Daleks in a commercial world rather than a war-torn one.

Is Rise of the Cybermen 1/2 another Genesis of the Daleks? Well, it sets everything up for it, but we will have to wait and see...

Then again does it really matter? This is after all, just a parallel universe, and not the one that we know and love from forty years of Who. Indeed, the only sign that this is a parallel Earth is the presence of the zeppelins in the sky and the jacked up Bluetooth devices. Which is a shame.

Nevertheless, a good episode, but still not the best.

As an aside, I think that the writers need to take the stories away from Earth and away from the back story.
They also need to find a good sand pit in Berkshire.

Happy Rotuma Day!

Happy Our Lady of Fatima ...day