The Doctor et al find themselves transported back to Nerva, which is convenient and it means they can save a bit of money by reusing the set. This benefit is lost on them though, as they have bigger concerns; see they have arrived thousands of years prior to their last visit, but the space station is in a bad way even then. It seems some sort of plague is wiping out the crew. The Doctor has other ideas. Meanwhile, on an uninhabitable asteroid called Voga, the inhabitants (the Vogans) are experiencing some inner leadership turmoil, as they have some designs on Nerva too, in particular as it relates to an old enemy they once defeated before but will have to face again.
I was a little distracted on the first episode of this serial (the last of a really enjoyable season). I found myself a bit confused about being back on the same location as the previous serial, and who these new characters were (not least of which the aliens who seemed to have almost no context); indeed I assumed I must have missed great swathes of plot in my distraction, so I started the episode again. Things were still muddy the second time around, and this continued through to the very end of the serial; even once all the pieces had been fitted together it did still feel like a plot that was being rewritten as they were shooting it, so some bits didn't make sense, or seemed poorly trailed. The action plot is so- so generally, and neither the Vogans nor the Cybermen really made much of an impact on me throughout the serial. There were some nice moments here and there but generally it tended to wash over me. Of course following Genesis didn't help one bit, and certainly the gulf between the two serials is significant.
The cast do okay with Baker on good form, Sladen proving a practical companion (rather than a running and screaming one); meanwhile the supporting cast were mostly solid. The one that stuck out in a bad way was Marter's Sullivan; I have yet to fully make my mind up on him, and he previously has been played as a bit of a daft old sort, but here they decide to essentially make him an idiot for almost no reason and with little context. Okay it was not chalk and cheese from his previous performances, but he was forced to be deliberately stupid and it just clunked around on the screen, making it feel out of place with the previous serials and even within this one.
There is enough in the way of cliffhangers and activity to make this serial just about get along, however at the end of a strong season it does feel like them fumbling the ball over the goal-line as opposed to confidently thumping it into the back of the net.
I was a little distracted on the first episode of this serial (the last of a really enjoyable season). I found myself a bit confused about being back on the same location as the previous serial, and who these new characters were (not least of which the aliens who seemed to have almost no context); indeed I assumed I must have missed great swathes of plot in my distraction, so I started the episode again. Things were still muddy the second time around, and this continued through to the very end of the serial; even once all the pieces had been fitted together it did still feel like a plot that was being rewritten as they were shooting it, so some bits didn't make sense, or seemed poorly trailed. The action plot is so- so generally, and neither the Vogans nor the Cybermen really made much of an impact on me throughout the serial. There were some nice moments here and there but generally it tended to wash over me. Of course following Genesis didn't help one bit, and certainly the gulf between the two serials is significant.
The cast do okay with Baker on good form, Sladen proving a practical companion (rather than a running and screaming one); meanwhile the supporting cast were mostly solid. The one that stuck out in a bad way was Marter's Sullivan; I have yet to fully make my mind up on him, and he previously has been played as a bit of a daft old sort, but here they decide to essentially make him an idiot for almost no reason and with little context. Okay it was not chalk and cheese from his previous performances, but he was forced to be deliberately stupid and it just clunked around on the screen, making it feel out of place with the previous serials and even within this one.
There is enough in the way of cliffhangers and activity to make this serial just about get along, however at the end of a strong season it does feel like them fumbling the ball over the goal-line as opposed to confidently thumping it into the back of the net.