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Original Transmission
Cast
In the bowels of a ship, Dr Kendrick tells his employer John Lumic that the prototype they have created is alive. To Lumic's delight, it recognises him, but Kendrick reminds him that as a new form of life, this needs Geneva's approval. Lumic knows that Geneva will reject his scheme, and when Kendrick insists that it is his duty to inform them, Lumic orders the prototype to kill the scientist. A steel hand clamps onto Kendrick's shoulder and electrocutes him. Lumic calls the captain of the ship and tells him to set sail for Great Britain. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose reminisce about a past adventure while Mickey stands by, infuriated that they have forgotten him and always take him for granted. Suddenly a huge explosion rocks the TARDIS console; the time vortex has inexplicably vanished, sending the TARDIS spinning out of control. The time machine crash lands and everything goes dark. The Doctor, in shock, declares that the TARDIS is dead. They fell out of the vortex, into the void, and could be anywhere.
Mickey looks out the door and announces that they are in London, outside Lambeth Palace. However, the presence of Zeppelins in the sky indicate it is not the one they know but the London of a parallel universe in the multiverse. Rose then notices an animated poster showing Pete Tyler, her dead father, advertising Vitex health drinks. Evidently he is alive and successful in this universe. The Doctor reminds her that this Pete is not her father and warns against visiting him. Pete arrives at his country mansion, where the staff are preparing for his wife Jackie's birthday party. Like everyone else, Pete is wearing electronic earpieces called EarPods. They are manufactured by Cybus Industries, and Lumic has sent the latest model for Jackie to wear as a birthday present. Lumic calls Pete from his Zeppelin and tells him to join a meeting between himself and the President of Great Britain that evening. Hanging up, he remotely activates Jackie's EarPods, causing her to go still as if hypnotised. He downloads the security arrangements for Jackie's birthday party. Jackie then wakes up, oblivious of what just happened. Lumic then calls his employee, Mr Crane, and says that he needs "extra staff". Crane acknowledges this; he and his men drive off in an International Electromatics lorry. Meanwhile, Rose begins to pick up a Cybus Industries signal on her mobile phone: a news broadcast announcing Lumic's return to the country. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor explains that the TARDIS draws power from the universe, but this is the wrong one. When the Time Lords controlled the barriers between different parallel universes, moving between them was easy. Now that they are gone, the paths between worlds were closed, so the TARDIS crew are now trapped. Just then, the Doctor spots a green glow beneath the console, and realises that one component of the TARDIS still has power.
Crane arrives at a garbage dump and offers some homeless people food inside the lorry. One of the men there, Jake Simmonds, warns against going in, reminding one homeless man of the others that have vanished off the streets over the last few months. However, the temptation of food is too great, and the homeless man goes in. Once he sees what is actually inside he cries out and tries to escape, but the doors of the lorry are shut and it drives away. Jake records all this on a camcorder. In the TARDIS, the Doctor picks up the glowing object, a power cell that still has some energy from their own universe inside. He blows on it, giving up ten years of his life but giving it enough energy to start the recharging cycle. In twenty-four hours, it will have enough power to get them home. Taking the cell with him, the Doctor and Mickey go in search of Rose, who has been browsing the Internet through her mobile phone. She has discovered that in this universe, she was never born. The Doctor warns her again, but she insists on going to see her parents. Mickey likewise says he has things to see and challenges the Doctor by saying that the Doctor can only chase after one of them. The Doctor follows Rose, leaving a bitter Mickey to venture off on his own into an area of London guarded by armed soldiers.
On the street, the Doctor and Rose chat about Mickey's family history. His father abandoned him and his mother could not cope on her own, so Mickey was raised by his grandmother. However, one day she fell down the stairs and died. The Doctor tells her he knew none of this, and Rose replies he never took the time to ask. They begin to realise that they really might have taken him for granted. Suddenly, everyone on the street around them stops moving. The Doctor examines them closer, and sees the EarPods, realising that they are downloading news information directly into the wearer's heads. The Doctor comments about humanity being obsessed with the opportunity for every enhancement, at which Rose protests his associating her with these people. He reminds her, "it's not so far off your world, this place is only parallel." The signal even taps into Rose's mobile phone: the Doctor finds out that Cybus Industries owns Pete's Vitex company. This intrigues him enough that he gives in to Rose and decides to go and see Pete. Mickey goes to see his blind grandmother, Rita-Anne, who is still alive. However, she calls him "Ricky" and scolds him for having been gone for days; she feared he had been "disappeared". Before Mickey can go in for a cup of tea, a van drives up and Jake drags him into it. Jake tells "Ricky" that he has video evidence of the disappearances, and a woman named Mrs Moore informs him that International Electromatics is a front organisation for Cybus Industries. With "Thin Jimmy" having been arrested, "Ricky" is now on the top of the most wanted list. Lumic makes his pitch to the President about Cybus Industries's "ultimate upgrade": a method of sustaining the human brain indefinitely within a cradle of copyrighted chemicals and allowing its impulses to be bonded onto a metal exoskeleton. The President cuts the presentation off and rejects Lumic's proposal as obscene and unethical despite Lumic's insistence that he has prepared a presentation for the "Ethical Committee" to demonstrate the morality of his plans, and disregarding Lumic's plea that he is dying. The President is sympathetic but tells Lumic he is not God, and leaves, telling Pete he will see him at Jackie's party. Pete tries to console Lumic, suggesting they approach New Germany instead, but Lumic says that Britain is his homeland. He gives Pete leave to depart.
Lumic calls Crane, who has the captured the homeless people, fitted them with EarPods, and placed them under neural control at a factory in Battersea Power Station. Crane asks if they have governmental backing and Lumic tells Crane to begin the upgrade, explaining that he is under the jurisdiction of a higher moral authority, "the right of a man to survive." The homeless men are marched into a room with whirring blades and mechanical arms being permanently converted into emotionless mechanical men. Crane calls for a song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", to cover the rising screams of men and women. Meanwhile, Mickey is brought by Jake to their country house base, where the actual Ricky is. They point their guns at Mickey, and tie him to a chair. Ricky, much grimmer than his counterpart, tells Mickey that they are part of an underground group called the "Preachers", who reject the EarPods and believe Lumic must be stopped. Elsewhere, Crane loads the "upgrades" into the lorry, all clamping boots of metal, as Lumic's zeppelin arrives at the factory. When the Preachers hear news of this from a contact named "Gemini", they arm themselves with AK-47s and head to Pete's mansion, hoping they will find and assassinate Lumic there. When they reach the mansion, they see the upgrades being marched out of the lorry. The Doctor and Rose infiltrate Jackie's party as serving staff. To the Doctor's amusement, they discover that the Tylers have a pet terrier named Rose. Exploring, the Doctor finds a laptop with a Cybus Industries logo and starts to browse through it. Rose manages to speak with Pete and discovers the Tylers have separated. However, when she tries to speak to Jackie about reconciling with Pete, Jackie becomes angry at her impertinence. The Doctor sees Lumic's presentation on the laptop, and is horrified at the familiar design of the prototypes. Outside, Rose suddenly sees a bright flash of light, and hears the distant clanking of metal feet. She and the Doctor go to the window and watch a troop of metal men approaching across the garden. The Doctor murmurs, "It's happening again." Rose asks what they are, and the Doctor tells her: Cybermen. The Cybermen crash through the windows, surrounding the terrified guests as Lumic tells them via EarPod that they were sent on his orders. The Cybermen tell the President that they have been upgraded to "Human.2", the next level of mankind. Every citizen will receive a compulsory free upgrade and become like them. Despite the Doctor's warnings, the President asks what would happen if he refused. A Cyberman replies that if he would not be made compatible, he will be deleted, grabbing the President and electrocuting him. The Cybermen begin to kill everyone they see as the guests start to run chaotically. Jackie flees to the basement with a Cyberman in pursuit. The Doctor, Rose and Pete jump out the window, where they meet up with the Preachers, who fire their weapons ineffectually at the advancing Cybermen. The Cybermen surround the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Ricky, Pete and Jake. The Doctor raises his hands, fists clenched. He tells the Cybermen that they surrender and will submit to the upgrade, but the Cybermen ignore him. A Cyberman declares them as incompatible and inferior: Man will be reborn as Cyberman but those surrounded will perish under "maximum deletion."
The opening scene saw something of a restoration of the status quo we have wanted. Rose and The Doctor enjoying a joke together about a world they visited while Mickey is holding a button down that he could have let go of half an hour ago. This, incidentally, is very reminiscent of Doctor #4 getting Leela to spin a yoyo for a similarly long time for no reason other than to highlight her naivety.
But there is more to Mickey’s alternate world
yet. His alternate self still exists, and is called Rickey, which
has us all wondering about something – was it JUST a joke when
The Ninth Doctor called him Rickey? Or did he see the other version
of him in there somewhere. Because while Mickey is an idiot, Rickey
is a hard-headed freedom fighter working to overthrow Lumic’s
nasty work. Playing the double role of the basically wimpy Mickey
who sometimes shows flashes of courage and the hardman Rickey was
a coup for Noel Clarke. As for the enemy this week:- Roger Lloyd Pack, known for his comedy roles, threw off all of that just as Richard Wilson did last year as Doctor Constantine, and was darkly sinister as the wheelchair bound creator of the Cybermen. The wheelchair is a coincidence. Roger Lloyd Pack had an accident just before filming began so they created his character as disabled. But if it had been deliberate it could not have been better. Who wasn’t reminded of the mad ambition for immortality and power of Davros the creator of the Daleks? Another beautiful echo of the old series. The cybermen themselves were sinister enough. The sounds of their heavy steel feet were terrifying as well as loud. And the patience of the choreographer who got them all marching in step paid off in the scenes where we saw groups of them together. But we didn’t see a lot of them this week. In classic Doctor Who style we only see the enemy for a brief moment before the cliffhanger. More next week. And we can wait in anticipation.
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