Doctor Who (2005) 2-06: The Age of Steel (Quick Review)

Episode:

716

|

Serial:

172

|

Writer:

Tom MacRae

|

Director:

Graeme Harper

|

Air Date:

20-May-2006

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the second part of Doctor Who's Rise of the Cybermen two-parter, The Age of Steel. So they're continuing series 1's approach of giving each part its own title.

The episode was written by Tom MacRae and directed by Graeme Harper, just like the previous one. Some series, like Star Trek, tend to get a different writer and director for every chapter, but Doctor Who treats its two-parters like they're a single story.

I hope you've seen this one already, as there will be SPOILERS below. For this and also the Third Doctor serial Inferno. Though I won't say a thing to ruin anything from the next 20 years of episodes.

Doctor Who (2005) 2-05: Rise of the Cybermen (Quick Review)

Episode:

715

|

Serial:

172

|

Writer:

Tom MacRae

|

Director:

Graeme Harper

|

Air Date:

13-May-2006

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's been exactly 20 years since they aired Rise of the Cybermen! It was actually a bit of an anniversary story, as it came along approximately 40 years after the Cybermen's debut. Which means that The Tenth Planet turns 60 this year!

Some titles leave you guessing what to expect, but this one's not hiding that it's the reintroduction of a classic villain. It's like series 1's Dalek in that way... plus both episodes came at the same point in the season, and they're both inspired by existing stories. In this case it was based on the Big Finish audio drama Spare Parts, by Marc Platt, and once again I haven't heard it. I need to try listening to one of these audio dramas already.

This was the first Doctor Who story to be written by Tom MacRae and he didn't write many more. His next was the Eleventh Doctor episode The Girl Who Waited, and that was pretty much it. He had been commissioned to write another David Tennant episode but it was cancelled.

Director Graeme Harper had a lot more history with the series, as the guy started in the Tom Baker era, directing parts of Warriors' Gate after Paul Joyce was too much of a renegade. The story felt unusually modern for its era and Harper brought a similar energy to his first full serial: the legendary Fifth Doctor story The Caves of Androzani. He also directed Revelation of the Daleks, which is widely regarded as being 'pretty decent for a Sixth Doctor serial'.

Harper took a 20 year break from the show, mostly because they stopped making it, but with this he became the first and only director to have directed episodes of both the classic and modern eras. He's basically the Jonathan Frakes of Doctor Who.

There will be SPOILERS below, but only up to 13th May 2006. I won't even spoil part 2.