daibhidc | Of plastic, panic, Polidori and people getting killed by Cybermen

Right. Something tells me I'm going to want to do a proper post on tonight's episode, so lets get everything out of the way, shall we?

Praxeus

Hmm. I recall enjoying this episode at the time, but four weeks later, I'm not entirely sure I have particularly strong memories of it. Oh, except that I had the scientist pegged as knowing more than she was letting on very slightly before the Doctor did.

Can You Hear Me?

An old-fashioned RTD-style (yes, I know what I just said) "this is how the companions jaunting off affects the people they leave behind" story. The villains were suitable creepy, and I liked the underlying message.

The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Well, I wasn't expecting this to be where the Lone Cyberman showed up. The Cyberman/Frankenstein comparisons were just about underdone enough to not be "And this is where she got the idea", which I always hate (why do SFF writers sometimes seem to have a problem with the idea that SFF writers just make things up?) and the Cyberman itself was a good twist on the concept (if maybe a bit Borgy). A nice haunted house gimmick (with occasional lapses; we're told that the Cyberiad isn't really rearranging the house, just altering their perceptions of it, and then later it seems like maybe it is?) and the inevitable Real After All ending.

Ascension of the Cybermen

Er, isn't the title just a longer way of saying "Rise of the Cybermen", which is already a title? That aside, this was an interesting attempt to do "post-apocalyptic" on a galactic scale. I'm not sure it entirely worked, but it kept moving fast enough that you didn't have time to worry about the logic in some places before the next thing was happening. The final twist that the refugees were being sent to Gallifrey was not one I saw coming, although I suspected the Master was going to show up and knew tonight's show was about the Timeless Child arc. Hopefully, we will also get some answers about Doctor Ruth (not that one).