Written by Maxine Alderton
Directed by Emma Sullivan
Lone Cyberman: "You irritate me."
The Doctor: "How very human. Still feel things then? No inhibitor yet."
After last week's probably well meaning but misguided misfire, we are finally back to moving at least one of the main arcs and it's the Lone Cyberman one as the latter finally made his debut and certainly left something of an impression on the Doctor, her companions and the historical characters involved.
Cybermen episodes have not been as well received as other baddies and even in their good ones, they're usually upstaged by other episodes (other enemies, companion departures, etc) but here, it's just half formed Cyberman on the loose, desperate to get the thing it wants and leaving the episode with the Doctor doing the exact opposite of what Jack warned three weeks ago.
The setting for this one was excellently chosen. Yes, I know having an episode with Mary Shelley (Lili Miller) and Cybermen isn't exactly a new thing for this show in a wider media context but it's a first for TV and it's far better done than expected. Simply put, can Maxine Alderton come back next series?
Along with Shelley, you have her husband, Percy (Lewis Rainer), Lord Byron (Jacob Collins-Levy), Dr John Polidari (Maxim Baldry), Elise (Sarah Perles) and Claire Clairmont (Nadia Parkes) and while some episodes have struggled with a sizeable guest cast, this episode managed to utilise the majority of these characters pretty well. It's clear that Alderton definitely did her research with these particular characters, especially with Mary, Percy and Byron in particular.
I liked the flirtatious Byron being unable to impress the Doctor while Ryan dealt with Polidari's mood swings and Yaz even had some good moments with Elise as Graham had to go to the bathroom during the most dire of situations. The humour actually worked in the episode along with the foreboding horror but getting back to our main arc though, things really got interesting.
I loved how vicious and vindictive the Lone Cyberman, formerly known as Ashad (Patrick O'Kane) was in this episode. Mary Shelley's attempts of reaching out to it's humanity failed and the Doctor took the Cyberium from Percy to host it herself before having to surrender it to the Lone Cyberman and thus damning the universe to the ongoing Cyber Wars of the future.
What I also liked was the darker turn of the Doctor here as well. There's an overwhelming feeling that we're approaching the end of days with the Doctor and her current companions and that's pretty exciting. I want this Doctor to have a loss and I get the feeling she's going to get one in the next two episodes as we hurtle into the Cyber Wars.
- Of course, Big Finish will point out that Eighth Doctor previously traveled with Mary Shelley (Julie Cox), though this episode doesn't make any references to that.
- Nice waistcoat the Doctor was sporting in this episode and didn't Ryan, Yasmin and Graham all look gorgeous in period costume this week?
- Byron ended the episode reading a passage from Darkness and it's a pretty damning commentary on the Doctor when you think about it.
- We got the cold opening again. Can we just bring them back full time next series?
- We already met Byron's daughter in the second part of Spyfall earlier this series. The Doctor mentions the character while telling everyone else not to interfere or snog Byron. Disappointed no-one snogged Byron tbh.
- Chronology: June 1816, Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
The Haunting Of Villa Diodati - it's exactly the type of episode we need to see more. Easily one of the best historical episodes we've had in the series run, brilliant use of it's guest characters, probably one of the best uses of the Cybermen, a gorgeous setting, creepy atmosphere and some lovely character bits. Now this is more like it.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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