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| Promotional photo for "Ascension of the Cybermen" (from BBC One - Doctor Who, Ascension Of The Cybermen gallery) ©BBC |
So here we are at the start of the big two-part finale of series 12. It starts out with something of a non sequitur, though, with an abandoned baby in (apparently) early 20th century Ireland being adopted by a couple, and then watching him growing up. It's an opening reminiscent of something Steven Moffat would do, except (might as well address this now, since we're here) we're never given much of any clue in this episode as to why we're being shown this. None of the other characters are named Brendan, and other than the strange moment where Brendan survives being shot and then having a long fall seemingly unscathed, there's nothing to indicate anything's wrong until the very end, when an aged Brendan gets his memory wiped by his father and his superior in the Irish police. Are these the memories of Ashad the Lone Cyberman? Of someone else? Is this meant to be an origin for the Cybermen? Could this be where the Boundary at the end usually leads, to the Earth of the past? Moffat would have provided some clues as to why we were being shown this, but Chibnall elects not to. Maybe that means Chibnall trusts the audience more, but it also means that there are a decent number of scenes in "Ascension of the Cybermen" that don't seem to connect to anything else on screen, which is a bit...not exactly frustrating, but more like a "so what?" feeling. In other words, I'm not sure this part lands the way they intended.
Fortunately, the rest of the episode more than makes up for this. They've gotten better at it in recent years, but all too often the appearance of the Cybermen is a bit of a letdown: we're told they're this powerful, unstoppable force but rarely does that seem to be born out on screen. The last time they showed up ("World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls") is probably the closest they've gotten just because there's this sense of futility throughout the whole thing (the happy ending is Nardole leading the people off to a different floor to fight some other day, rather than because the Cybermen were defeated, remember), but usually we get a handful of Cybermen, talk of their glory days, and then we watch them get easily defeated by the Doctor. But here Chibnall has managed to really dig into the idea of the Cybermen as truly dangerous foes, partly just by setting it at the end of (one of) the Cyber Wars -- probably the same ones referenced in "Nightmare in Silver" -- and showing humanity reduced to a handful of people fleeing from the remnants of the Cyber Army. It's a simple move but one that gives this episode a shot in the arm; we really feel the tension, especially as that handful of humans gets whittled down over the course of the story, while the devices the Doctor has lashed together to help stop the Cybermen (neural inhibitor system, gold particles projector) do literally nothing to stop them. These Cybermen are therefore much more dangerous than many of the ones we've seen before. (That said, the flying Cyber Drones are pretty silly-looking.)
In some ways there's not much more to the episode than that; this is pretty much all set-up for the big conclusion at the end. We see the group of humans split up (along with the TARDIS fam), and the group with Graham and Yaz on the dilapidated escape ship go crash onto a Cybercarrier while the Doctor, Ryan, and their new friend Ethan hijack a Cybershuttle to take to Ko Sharmus, a semi-mythical place where humans can escape the Cybermen. This part also allows us a nice confrontation between the Doctor and Ashad, as he explains his goal to resurrect the Cybermen, as well as confirming (after hinting last time) that he wanted to be a Cyberman: he was a "willing recruit". And now he wants to restore the Cybermen (well, he keeps using the word "ascension", presumably to justify the title) and wipe out all other life. (So, only a bit like the Dalek plan in "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", then.)
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| A Cyber-Warrior in hibernation. ("Ascension of the Cybermen") ©BBC |
But yes, it's part one of two, so Yaz and Graham are in the thick of it, while the Doctor's party, having found Ko Sharmus (a person, it turns out, not a place) and the Boundary, learn that the Boundary seems to lead to Gallifrey (although Ko Sharmus remarks that "I've never seen it look like that before", indicating that it doesn't normally lead to Gallifrey), followed by the Master popping out: "Wow! Oh! Ah! That's a good entrance, right?" he exclaims, before redirecting his attention. "Be afraid, Doctor. Because everything is about to change. Forever." It's a good cliffhanger, and the direction this episode has been going so far suggests a promising conclusion next time around. So the question is, will "The Timeless Children" deliver on that promise? We'll find out soon...