Smiling Spaceships and Scary Snakes
Revenge of the Cybermen by Christine Grit
Revenge of the Cybermen was my very first introduction to the Cybermen. In fact, it is one of the earliest Doctor Who stories I recall from when I was nine. Not the first one I remember, but pretty close (and that is not so strange as it follows directly on from Genesis of the Daleks). The funny thing about it is that the Cybermen themselves didn’t scare me at all. I mean, at the time I hadn’t heard of them before. I had not seen them arising from the tombs (a pretty scary image, even years later and in black and white too) or rambling threateningly through the streets of London with St. Paul’s in the background. Those images would have had a major impact on me, but alas I didn’t see them until many, many years later. And by then I would have watched many more Cybermen tales which included various different versions of these former human like aliens.
No, what I saw at the time was – at least that was what it looked like – a smiling spaceship in which one could see approximately four robot like beings who also appeared to be smiling. Their bland expressionstruly seemed rather friendly in my childish perception, while the teardrops in the corners of their eyes did nothing to make me scared either. Of course I soon found out that the Cybermen were not nice and friendly robot guys, but I didn’t actually fear them.
The same cannot be said of the Cybermats. Actually I called them robot snakes (some way or another the term ‘Cybermat’ was one that I didn’t learn until many years later) and boy did they scare me. It starts rather early on in the first episode where you can see one of them gliding by a couple of bodies, taking great care to stay out of sight of the Doctor and his two companions. Perhaps it’s got something to do with having lived in the South of Africa and having once been confronted by a poisonous snake lying under the table but that gliding robot snake was really very creepy to my young eyes. When one of them actually attackeda crew member, it got worse. The robot snake just jumped up, and bit this particular man in the neck in a very painful way. Much worse then vampires because to me it looked very real. I don’t care that people nowadays will point out to me, that the effect really isn’t executed that well, as a child it really freaked me out. Not to mention the effect of course when Sarah, my wonderful Sarah, was attacked as well. Especially the way in which it happened. Her sitting down to watch certain television or scanner images, and having absolutely no notion what-so-ever that this creepy thing is gliding up to her from behind, preparing to jump. The attack itself is a visual that has stuck with me for a long time. It didn’t cause me to have nightmares but to this day it is a memory of being really, really frightened. Also a memory of shouting “Turn around Sarah!”, while knowing perfectly well that television didn’t work that way, but still trying to prevent the attack from occurring. What I also remembered is that the Doctor managed to do something to the robot snake and make it jump at a Cyberman instead. I couldn’t remember the hows and whys but I recalled the snake rising up again and the Cyberman groaning when it got attacked. Great memories, even if I was scared. Wasn’t that why I watched the show in the first place?
In fact it was only when I saw the serial again, many years later on VHS, that I realised that there was a big conspiracy swirling around the creepy cybermats and that in reality their role wasn’t that important to the plot (which contained many holes in any case, but children don’t really care about that). I still felt and feel that the Cybermats were creepy and scary and the real antagonists of the story. The nasty human villain, the bombs, the gold, the Cybermen and even the Vogans are just add-ons to a story which should have made these awful cybermats the real monsters of the show.
Actually, it’s the only time they were creepy and scary. When I finally saw their earlier appearance in The Tomb of the Cybermen I just laughed. They were so cute, with those big doggy eyes, and not fearsome at all. One didn’t even understand their necessity to the story. New Who didn’t manage to get that part right either, despite adding sharp teeth and some light effects. It’s the simple gliding along the floor, not making a noise, and then just jumping towards their victims that made them scary. Truly unique to Revenge of the Cybermen.
No, what I saw at the time was – at least that was what it looked like – a smiling spaceship in which one could see approximately four robot like beings who also appeared to be smiling. Their bland expressionstruly seemed rather friendly in my childish perception, while the teardrops in the corners of their eyes did nothing to make me scared either. Of course I soon found out that the Cybermen were not nice and friendly robot guys, but I didn’t actually fear them.
The same cannot be said of the Cybermats. Actually I called them robot snakes (some way or another the term ‘Cybermat’ was one that I didn’t learn until many years later) and boy did they scare me. It starts rather early on in the first episode where you can see one of them gliding by a couple of bodies, taking great care to stay out of sight of the Doctor and his two companions. Perhaps it’s got something to do with having lived in the South of Africa and having once been confronted by a poisonous snake lying under the table but that gliding robot snake was really very creepy to my young eyes. When one of them actually attackeda crew member, it got worse. The robot snake just jumped up, and bit this particular man in the neck in a very painful way. Much worse then vampires because to me it looked very real. I don’t care that people nowadays will point out to me, that the effect really isn’t executed that well, as a child it really freaked me out. Not to mention the effect of course when Sarah, my wonderful Sarah, was attacked as well. Especially the way in which it happened. Her sitting down to watch certain television or scanner images, and having absolutely no notion what-so-ever that this creepy thing is gliding up to her from behind, preparing to jump. The attack itself is a visual that has stuck with me for a long time. It didn’t cause me to have nightmares but to this day it is a memory of being really, really frightened. Also a memory of shouting “Turn around Sarah!”, while knowing perfectly well that television didn’t work that way, but still trying to prevent the attack from occurring. What I also remembered is that the Doctor managed to do something to the robot snake and make it jump at a Cyberman instead. I couldn’t remember the hows and whys but I recalled the snake rising up again and the Cyberman groaning when it got attacked. Great memories, even if I was scared. Wasn’t that why I watched the show in the first place?
In fact it was only when I saw the serial again, many years later on VHS, that I realised that there was a big conspiracy swirling around the creepy cybermats and that in reality their role wasn’t that important to the plot (which contained many holes in any case, but children don’t really care about that). I still felt and feel that the Cybermats were creepy and scary and the real antagonists of the story. The nasty human villain, the bombs, the gold, the Cybermen and even the Vogans are just add-ons to a story which should have made these awful cybermats the real monsters of the show.
Actually, it’s the only time they were creepy and scary. When I finally saw their earlier appearance in The Tomb of the Cybermen I just laughed. They were so cute, with those big doggy eyes, and not fearsome at all. One didn’t even understand their necessity to the story. New Who didn’t manage to get that part right either, despite adding sharp teeth and some light effects. It’s the simple gliding along the floor, not making a noise, and then just jumping towards their victims that made them scary. Truly unique to Revenge of the Cybermen.