Series 2 (2006)
Episode title: The Age of SteelFeaturing: Tenth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith
First shown: 20th May 2006
Related articles: Cybermen, Pete Tyler
Guide: Surrounded by advancing Cybermen, the Doctor uses his Arton power cell to disintegrate the Cybermen, turning them to dust as Mrs. Moore arrives in the Preachers van, telling them all to get in, which they do and escape from Pete’s estate. Pete wants to return for his wife but the Doctor insists that everyone inside the house is likely dead by now or being prepared to convert into Cybermen, and if they don’t get away now then they will all have died in vain. Rose is also torn between going back in for Jackie or not, but the Doctor reminds her that this Jackie is not her mother. They all bundle into the van and escape the Cybermen, while Jackie is trapped helplessly behind the basement door as Cybermen patrol her house. The Doctor tells Mickey that the Arton power cell will only need another 4 hours to finish recharging before they can leave the parallel universe, while Rickey suggests they kill Pete for working with Lumic. Mrs. Moore explains that Gemini, an insider within Cybus Industries has been sending the Preachers updates twice a week on the workings of Lumic, to which Pete reveals that he is actually Gemini, though remarks that he thought he was helping the intelligence services, not the Scooby Doo gang.
The Doctor orders Pete to remove his EarPods in case Lumic is listening in, while promising that the whole saga “ends tonight”. Meanwhile, inside the Battersea Power Station, Lumic initiates the ultimate upgrade after broadcasting a signal through the EarPods bringing everyone to the power station, while other broadcasting tells everyone to remain in their homes. Mr. Crane, one of Lumic’s advisors, feels the signal coming through and removes his EarPods, while Rose suggests just taking the EarPods off those who are marching en-masse to the power station, but the Doctor warns against doing so as it could cause a brain storm, killing them, while also expressing his disgust at how willing the human race are to being taken over. Pete reveals that the Cybermen were born out of Lumic’s dying obsession with prolonging his own life, while Rickey and Jake observe the Cybermen forcing people to their lair, which Pete reveals to the Doctor as Battersea. The group splits up to increase their chances to getting out of the city, which has been sealed off, with Rickey and Mickey going in one direction while the others go off in another.
However, while fleeing, the Cybermen catch up with Rickey and Mickey, catching Rickey by the foot as he tries to climb over a fence, electrocuting him while Mickey watches on in horror. Rickey falls to the ground, dead, before Mickey flees to tell the others. Meanwhile, inside Lumic’s factory, Mr. Crane is brought before Lumic to explain his actions and seeming treachery. Mr. Crane says his EarPods malfunctioned and willingly requests an upgrade, tricking Lumic into letting him closer to Lumic’s wheelchair, which he damages the breathing apparatus, causing Lumic to go into shock. The Cybermen move forward and kill Mr. Crane and determining that Lumic needs upgrading to save him. Lumic refuses, but the Cybermen send him off for upgrading anyway as Lumic continues to protest. Down by the river, the group meet back up as Mickey tells them of Rickey’s death. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore decide to enter the factory from underneath, through old cooling tunnels beneath the station, while Pete and Rose enter the factory through the front doors, using dummy EarPods to get in undetected while Mickey and Jake go onto the roof to attack Lumic’s zeppelin.
Upon entering the cooling tunnels, the Doctor and Mrs. Moore discover Cybermen kept in storage while Mickey and Jake knock out the guards on the roof. Mrs. Moore reveals that she is actually Angela Price, who used to work for Lumic before reading a file she shouldn’t have done and went on the run, while her family believes her to be dead. Meanwhile, the Cybermen are activated and the Doctor and Mrs. Moore escape through a service hatch while Pete and Rose discover that the humans are having their brains removed and placed inside Cyber suits during the conversion process. Pete and Rose are discovered and forcibly removed to the Cyber control room. Back down in the tunnels, the Doctor and Mrs. Moore meet a Cyberman, that Mrs. Moore deactivates with an EMP bomb, where the Doctor then inspects it. Opening up the Cybus Industries logo on its chest, the Doctor finds bits of an organic nervous system, and an emotional inhibitor, realising that if the Cybermen saw what they had become, they would probably go insane. The Cyberman wakes up, but with its inhibitor broken it reveals itself to be bride-to-be Sally Phelan, which the Doctor eases into death with his sonic screwdriver. Behind the duo though, another Cyberman appears and electrocutes Mrs. Moore, killing her, before scanning the Doctor’s biology noting that he’s an alien and decides to take him to the control room for further examination.
On the zeppelin, Mickey attempts to hack into the controls to fly and crash it to destroy the transmitter bringing everyone into the power station, while in the control room; the Doctor meets back up with Rose and Pete, who inform him of Jackie’s demise. The Doctor demands to see Lumic, to which the Cybermen reveal he has been upgraded into a superior Cybermen model, the Cyber-Controller. Lumic appears from behind a sliding wall, while back on the zeppelin, a Cyberman lying in wait activates at Mickey’s hacking attempts and tries to kill Mickey and Jake. Mickey goads the Cyberman into trying to punch him, but ducks at the last second, sending the Cyberman’s fist into the transmitter control box, electrocuting the Cyberman and stopping the transmitter from transmitting. The humans snap out of their trance and flee from the power station upon seeing the conversion machines, while in the control room, Lumic refuses to admit defeat stating that the upgrades will simply take place by force instead. The Doctor stalls Lumic, questioning his emotionless utopia, and says that humanity won’t allow it, saying that even an idiot could save the world. In the zeppelin, watching the Doctor through CCTV, Mickey realises that the Doctor is referring to him when he says idiot, and begins searching through Lumic’s database to find the code to shut off the emotional inhibitors.
Mickey finds and decrypts the code and sends it to Rose’s phone, where the Doctor tells Lumic that in his drive for technological dominance, he made his machines compatible with anything, a point he proves when he connects Rose’s phone to the console, sending the code across the Cyber network. All of the emotional inhibitors within the Cybermen shut down, collapsing with the emotions they now feel when they see what they’ve become, with some even exploding. Lumic fumes at the Doctor but he, Rose and Pete run out trying to find an exit, but all of them are blocked by crazed Cybermen, forcing them to head to the roof to the zeppelin. Climbing the ladder up to the zeppelin, the Cyber-Controller, seemingly unaffected by the code himself, tries to climb up after them. The Doctor throws Pete his sonic screwdriver, which he uses to cut the rope on the ladder, causing the Cyber-Controller to fall back into the power station that is now exploding, destroying him.
Returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor plugs the Arton cell back into the TARDIS, giving it power once more. Rose tries to persuade Pete to join them on the TARDIS, but he refuses, unable to contend with the information of Rose being his daughter in the other universe, and decides to tell the authorities about Lumic and the Cybermen. The Doctor says that they only have 5 minutes of power to get back to their universe with, and tells Jake Mrs. Moore’s real name, asking him to find and tell her family that she died saving the world. Mickey decides to stay in the parallel universe and help get rid of the Cybermen, and though Rose says they’ll come and visit him, the Doctor says they can’t as they will have to repair the crack in time that they fell through to get there in the first place. The Doctor gives Mickey Rose’s phone containing the code and wishes him luck before Rose and Mickey reminisce about their childhoods, before Rose and the Doctor leave in the TARDIS, to Jake’s astonishment. The TARDIS returns to Jackie’s flat, where Rose breaks down in tears at seeing her mother alive, while the Doctor says that Mickey has “gone home”. Back on the parallel universe, Mickey and Jake set out to liberate the Earth from the Cybermen conversion factories, though Jake is doubtful of what they can do in a van but Mickey tells him not to worry, saying that he once saved the universe in a big yellow truck, referring to him assisting Rose in The Parting of the Ways (Series 1 : Episode 13). This episode in the concluding part of a two part story. To read the episode guide for the first episode in this two parter click here.