The Age of Steel
The Doctor confronts Lumic's Cyberman conversion in a parallel London.
The Age of Steel is the sixth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 20 May 2006. It is the second part of a two-part story set in a parallel universe, following the episode Rise of the Cybermen. The episode features a human resistance movement opposing businessman John Lumic's plan to convert humanity into Cybermen.
Quick Facts
- Doctor
- David Tennant – Tenth Doctor
- Companions
- Billie Piper – Rose Tyler; Noel Clarke – Mickey Smith
- Director
- Graeme Harper
- Writer
- Tom MacRae
- Producer
- Phil Collinson
- Executive producers
- Russell T Davies; Julie Gardner
- Composer
- Murray Gold
- Production code
- 2.6
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The Tenth Doctor uses the TARDIS recharging power cell to incinerate the Cybermen surrounding himself, Rose, Mickey, and the Preachers. The group escapes with Pete, who reveals to the Preachers that he is Gemini, their secret source of information on John Lumic. From his zeppelin moored near Battersea Power Station, Lumic activates EarPod devices to control London's population, including Pete's wife Jackie, and bring them in for upgrading. Ricky is killed by Cybermen while trying to scale a fence to meet Mickey. Mickey and Jake decide to board Lumic's zeppelin to destroy the EarPod transmitter; Pete and Rose try to find Jackie inside the factory; the Doctor and Mrs Moore seek Lumic. Pete and Rose are captured when the upgraded Jackie spots them. The Doctor discovers every Cyberman contains an emotional inhibitor and deduces that disabling the inhibitor signal will cause the Cybermen to commit suicide. Mrs Moore is killed by a Cyberman, and the Doctor is taken to Lumic, now upgraded as the Cyber Controller. Mickey and Jake disable the transmitter, causing humans to flee. The Doctor tells Mickey via surveillance camera to find the inhibitor code in the Lumic family database. Mickey sends it to Rose's phone, and the Doctor plugs the phone into the computer systems, dropping the inhibitor signal and sending the Cybermen into despair. The Cybermen explode, setting the factory on fire. Rose, the Doctor, and Pete escape to the roof, where Mickey and Jake control the zeppelin. The Cyber Controller attempts to follow, but Pete causes him to fall by destroying part of the ladder with the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor revives the TARDIS. Rose reveals to Pete that she is his daughter from another parallel universe; Pete walks away. Mickey, feeling Rose no longer needs him, stays in the parallel universe to help care for Ricky's elderly grandmother and assist the Preachers against remaining Cybermen.
Production
The episode was filmed back-to-back with Rise of the Cybermen and the two-part finale Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Exterior scenes were shot at the Coal Exchange and Mount Stuart Square in Cardiff Bay. A deleted scene on the Complete Series Two DVD confirms that Ricky and Jake were originally written as gay lovers, a fact later corroborated by Andrew Hayden-Smith and Russell T Davies. Additionally, the destruction of the Battersea Cyber-conversion facility reuses footage from the episode Rose, specifically the moment the Nestene Consciousness was destroyed.
Broadcast and reception
The episode pulled in an average of 6.85 million overnight viewers, capturing a 36% audience share and peaking at 7.7 million, with the final count settling at 7.63 million. Its Appreciation Index stood at 86. On DVD, it was bundled with "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Idiot's Lantern" in a bare-bones release, and later appeared in the complete series 2 box set and the Doctor Who Cybermen collection. IGN's Ahsan Haque rated it 7.9 out of 10, commending Mickey's journey toward independence but calling it a "popcorn episode" with a predictable Cybermen plot and a tired sci-fi conversation about emotions. Nick Setchfield of SFX praised the two-parter overall, crediting director Graeme Harper for injecting imagination and menace into the Cybermen and the parallel universe. However, he found Roger Lloyd-Pack's performance too exaggerated for the show's current, subtler tone, leaving the character feeling "jarringly two-dimensional."
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