About
- Broadcast: 13/20 May 2006
- Viewers: 9.22m/7.63m
- Availability: DVD Series 2: Volume 3
Synopsis
PART ONE
The Tardis is trapped on a parallel Earth and Rose discovers that her father is still alive. But sinister forces are at work, and British society is being prepared for the Ultimate Upgrade. Meanwhile, an old enemy of the Doctor’s is about to be reborn.
PART TWO
The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the populace. While Jackie falls under Lumic’s control, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey are reduced to fugitives in a world of terror. A last, desperate attack on the Cyberfactory is their only chance — but will they all survive?
Credits
Written by Tom MacRae
The Doctor – David Tennant
Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
Mickey/Ricky Smith – Noel Clarke
Jackie Tyler – Camille Coduri
Pete Tyler – Shaun Dingwall
John Lumic – Roger Lloyd Pack
Jake Simmonds – Andrew Hayden-Smith
The President – Don Warrington
Rita-Anne – Mona Hammond
Mrs Moore – Helen Griffin
Mr Crane – Colin Spaull
Dr Kendrick – Paul Antony-Barber
Morris – Adam Shaw
Soldier – Andrew Ufondo
Newsreader – Duncan Duff
Cyber-Leader – Paul Kasey
Cyber-Voice – Nicholas Briggs
Quotes
Rose: “They’re people?”
The Doctor: “They were. Until they had all their humanity taken away. It’s a living brain jammed into a cybernetic body with a heart of steel. All emotions removed.”
Rose: “Why no emotion?”
The Doctor: “Because it hurts.”
Cybermen: “We have been upgraded.”
The Doctor: “Into what?”
Cybermen: “The next level of mankind. We are human.2. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us.”
The Doctor: “Oh, as if things weren’t bad enough – there’s two Mickey’s!”
The Doctor: “But we’re surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!”
Cybermen: “You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish under maximum deletion…DELETE. DELETE. DELETE!!”
The Doctor: “Talk about executions, you’ll make me your enemy. And take some really good advice – you don’t wanna do that!
Ricky: “I’m London’s Most Wanted for… parking tickets. ”
Pete: “Great.”
Ricky: “They were deliberate! I was fighting the system! Park anywhere, that’s me.”
Rose: “We’ve gotta get in there and shut it down.”
Mickey: “How do we do that?”
Doctor: “Oh, I’ll think of something.”
Mickey: “You’re just making this up as you go along!”
Doctor: “Yuuuup. But I do it brilliantly”
The Doctor: “I’ve been captured, but don’t worry – Rose and Pete are still out there, they can rescue me– oh well, never mind.”
The Doctor: “Oh, Lumic, you’re a clever man… I’d call you a genius, except I’m in the room. But everything you’ve invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that’s brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what’s there to strive for? Eh? The Cybermen won’t advance. You’ll just stop! You’ll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts. Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people”
Rose: “Mickey, where’d you learn to fly that thing?!”
Mickey: “Playstation. Just hold on, Rose. I’m coming to get you. ”
The Doctor: “Good luck. Mickey the idiot.”
Mickey: “Then, let’s go and liberate Paris.”
Jake “What, you and me? In a van?”
Mickey: “Nothing wrong with a van. I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck.
Notes
These episodes take place in 2007.
These episodes mark 40 years since the Cybermen were first seen on British TV screens.
The story was inspired by the Big Finish audio play, ‘Spare Parts’. Author Marc Platt is credited.
The story went through several rewrites . Early drafts featured “Body Shops” in which wealthy citizens could order “upgrades” for various body parts. The differences between the ‘real’ characters and their parallel counter-parts were also much more obvious.
Roger Lloyd-Pack broke his angle days after accepting the role. But fortunately his character, John Lumic was written into a wheelchair.
Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) leaves in part two. Choosing instead to stay behind and remain on Alternate Earth.
Shaun Dingwall reprises his role as Pete Tyler. Last seen in ‘ Fathers Day’.
The song playing during the Cyber transformation is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.
Director Graeme Harper isn’t new to the world of Who having worked on episodes, ‘The Caves of Androzani’ in 1984 and ‘Revelation of the Daleks‘ in 1985.
Part one features no “Next time” trailer.
Nicholas Briggs returns to voice the Cybermen. He has previously voiced the Daleks and the Nestene.
In part one, Rose receives a news broadcast on her mobile phone which refers to a survey carried out by the Torchwood Institute
Several new tie-in sites went live after this episode was broadcast; cybusindustries.net, cybusfitness.co.uk, internationalelectromatics.co.uk and henriksonline.co.uk.
The “Who Is Doctor Who website” was updated for both part one and part two.