Video copyright BBC Photo copyright Owen Quinn
David Tennant’s second season as Doctor Who went to places Christopher Eccleston’s solo season did not. The stakes were higher and the stories just went bigger. Tooth and Claw, School Reunion and the Girl in the Fireplace preceded the two parter Age of Steel and Rise of the Cybermen that set up the rest of the season. Trapped in a parallel universe, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey face a new generation of Cybermen thanks to Lumic, a disabled man trying to beat death and head of Cybus Industries. Rose’s father, Pete, never died here and became a millionaire but she was never born. Blimps fill the skies, everyone is wearing earpods and the homeless are disappearing off the streets. Despite the Doctor’s warnings, Rose gets involved with her father and meets a nasty version of her mother. Mickey meets his double Ricky, the leader of a resistance group fighting Cybus Industries.
At the 40th birthday party of this universe’s millionaire Jackie, Lumic seizes control of the people via their earpods making them mindless slaves and launches his new Cybermen killing the President. The city begins flooding with Cybermen intent on converting everyone. Trapped at Pete’s mansion as the slaughter begins, the Doctor, Rose and Pete find themselves cut off and surrounded by Cybermen. Not even the arrival of Mickey and his double’s gang can get them out. The Doctor surroenders but the Cybermen don’t want to know. Their resistance has marked them for death and they will be deleted.
This is simply one of the best cliffhangers in the show’s history. There truly seems to be no way out for our heroes. Clever direction echoing fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s first season classic Earthshock, makes it seem there are hundreds of Cybermen. No matter where they run our heroes meet a wall of metal monsters until they are surrounded. The word delete has never been more terrifying….
The Time Warriors and Beyond 