And thus we leave the Flower Power, Beatlemania groove of the 60s and to the flashy, glittery disco dance floor that was the 1970s to the only Cyberman story of this decade.

Why was there only one? Was it so good that the producers decided they can’t top it and so left the Cybermen to bask in the golden glow of this one story and let the impact fade?
Sort of. Except replace ‘good’ with ‘horrible’ and ‘bask in golden glow’ with ‘ferment like sewage’.
Yes sadly this is another pretty bad Cyberman story. Some call it the nadir of the classic cybermen run and honestly they may be kind of right here.

In the future, a space station called Nerva is used as a beacon for spaceships. However a plague has wiped out all but a few of the crew and one mysterious civilian. Then the Cybermen pop up, planning to destroy Voga, a legendary planet of gold, which has recently become one of Jupiter’s moons after being blasted and beaten in a war with the Cybermen. Gold is lethal to Cybermen you see; it clogs up their mechanical lungs and blood vessels. Two factions of Vogans exist; a modest group in an underground city and a more extremist group who are building a rocket to finally end the Cybermen. Meanwhile the Doctor and a few crew members are sent to Voga rigged with explosives.

So Revenge….what is good about it?
Well I do like the Vogan designs. They are clearly masks and make up, but the creative team made an effort to make each face unique. We don’t get much about their culture, but I do like this scene when the Doctor asks a Vogan leader for some gold dust and the Vogan just gives it to him as if he asked for something common as mud...but maybe that is just me.
There’s also some good directing and interesting angles here and there. Also I will say this in the defence of this story, it at least is a new story and isn’t a base under siege rehash like most of the Troughton stories.

What’s bad about the episode? Er, pretty much anything else that isn’t what I described and the main cast.
Most obvious are the Cybermen themselves. For whatever reason the writer decided they have emotions now. They laugh and are amused by the silly squishy humans and also get really annoyed whenever the Cyberwar is mentioned. The worst offender is the Cyberman leader, who struts around with his hands on his hips looking fabulous. Also the weakness to gold is a pretty silly one. It reduces the once cold and terrifying silver giants into being killed off by glitter.
Aside from the Cybermen problems its just kind of a standard story. Its interesting in places but no it doesn’t do enough. Also the Cybermen have no interest in converting humans into cybermen. So that bit of their character is gone out of the window also.

Revenge of the Cybermen is...ok. Its just standard stuff. It isn’t the worst thing ever, but it is the weak link after a triad of amazing episodes, especially Genesis of the Daleks, one of the show’s masterpieces. I think having Genesis next to Revenge just shows the massive differences between the Daleks and Cybermen. The Daleks often getting the royal treatment and full manicure, while the Cybermen are usually left in the dirt to scrounge what they can. Such a massive drop in quality could only make Revenge of the Cybermen more reviled and that is quite sad. Its still better than Wheel in Space and Moonbase, at least in my opinion. All three are see only for completionist sake or if you’re just really interested in Cybermen, otherwise just ignore them.

And with that dullness out of the way it is off to the 80s. And thankfully a boost in quality.