Ms. G. Lenaerts 2007-04-29

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

I will confess that this story is not as good as I thought it would be but as time passes it does grow on me.

The cybermen themselves are back on track after their underused performance in 'The Invasion' and are seen to be a lot more cunning and manipulative. E.g. using human greed to aquire the services of a human agent. However I am disapointed that they don't have much involvement in the story until episode 3 but their performance makes up for that.

Tom Baker is excellent as the Doctor, as usual. His banter with the Cyberleader during episode three is a mixture of seriousness and silliness and thats what makes it so good.

Companions Harry and Sarah are seen to have their own mini adventure in this story trying to avoid capture by the Vogans which in by view is a very good subplot.

On first viewing the vogans arn't very impressive but like the story they do grow on you and the idea of the vogan civil war is another excellent subplot.

Weak points of this story include: quite a slow plot, missing cybermen from most of parts one and two and finally the american accent the Cyberleader appears to have picked up.

Mr. D. Blenkin 2003-09-07

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

This action-packed story wraps up season twelve and the space station, Nerva, story arc. I remember watching this cybermen story as a child and being utterly enthralled. Now, so many years down the line, I am still in love with it. Tom Baker,my favourite Doctor,Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, my two favourite companions, arrive on the Beacon by way of the Time-Ring. Hoping to rendezvous with the TARDIS, the trio find Nerva in the past and later discover Cybermats poisoning the crew. Voga, the planet of gold, is the target of annihilation by the Cybermen.
Overall, this is the weakest of the five stories making up this season. But, apart from some risible effects and the odd duff performance,(no Oscar winners here), Revenge Of The Cybermen has some great sets and location work. A welcome return of Doctor Who's 2nd best monster! By the way, my three children love it.

2002-05-21

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

I recently tried to rewatch this and couldn't get past the opening episode it was so boring. Luckily it's the worst of the lot. The Vogans are awful and the Cybermen are just boring. There is, though, some nice location work in Wookey Hole and that alone earns this story it's second star. Voga comes cross as realistic and almost poetic.

Overall it's not as bad as any of the rubbish like Silver Nemesis or Battlefield, instead it's just ''pretty bad'' like Death to the Daleks, Nightmare of Eden and Timelash.

2001-06-27

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

This story was one of the very first to be issued by the BBC on video (I have the original release!). The effects are a little basic and the ships look like those of Blakes 7. That said, the music is well composed and the underground caves (Chiselhurst?) are put to good use.

The acting looks incredibly dated as the actors appear to used to performing Shakespeare at the National - there is some serious overacting!

Although the cybermen appear to have strange firecracker guns on their heads, there is some good cybermat action that make a reappearance from the 3rd doctor. Tom Baker does look a little bored but certainly comes into his own when he delivers lines that he appears to have written himself.

Not the best episode but quite fun.

2000-12-28

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

'Revenge Of The Cybermen' was a bit of a disaster. The Doctor and the human characters are quite good (and you have to remember Tom Baker was still settling in to the role). The plague killing the crew of the Nerva Beacon was quite a good idea as well. Unfortunately this story has nothing else to commend it. The main villains, the Cybermen, have lost the depth of character that made them so effective in the sixties. .... The Vogans are absolute rubbish and the talents of actors like Kevin Stoney and David Collings are completely wasted. The first Cyberman adventure in colour should have been a leap forward for the programme and these particular adversaries, but instead it proved a big disappointment and it hasn't bettered over time.