The TARDIS slips through to a parallel universe and the Doctor experiences the genesis of a new breed of Cybermen.
https://tardis.guide/story/the-age-of-steel/
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I love this story. I think that they do Cybermen in a great way and I feel like the parallel earth is a great setting. I don’t see many flaws at all. I rate this 5/5 and have marked them as favourites.
I am hugely fond of the concept of the Cybermen, yet it’s surprising how few televised stories really explore that (horrific) concept. ‘Rise/Age’ is a solid enough story in most respects but one thing that it does (which I respect greatly) is actually draw attention to the horrors of conversion. Whilst remaining bloodless (appropriate given its timeslot and target audience), seeing the conversion production line makes it clear that it’s not a pleasant or painless process. Indeed, this also feeds into the solution whereby switching off the emotional inhibitors causes the destruction of the Cybermen. I think this side is written and played very well.
On the flip side, I don’t think it’s any surprise that the alternative origin story really doesn’t land. Lumic is Davros-lite and not even close to being as compelling as the creator of the Daleks. Roger Lloyd Pack is also a much better actor than the performance he turns in here. Moreover, mirroring the Dalek origin only serves to undermine the Cybermen in my view. The Daleks make perfect sense as the children of a psychotic fascist genius, full of his prejudice and hatred. The Cybermen make far more sense to me as a society that took themselves up a blind technological alley. They should be fundamentally different to the Daleks. ‘Rise/Age’ doesn’t seem to understand this and is the poorer for it.
All in all, I enjoy this story. It was wonderful to see the Cybermen back on our screens. I love the focus on the impact for the converted but find the Lumic storyline and new origin story to be so frustrating.
A mixed bag. 3/5 (6/10)
Solid idea, but it feels stretched a bit thin. I think it would have made a better first part of a three part finale with Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.
A 3/5 from me.
We had one good story and then series 2 strikes again 
Bill Filer’s Negativity Corner:
I don’t really have something positive to say about this story. I really dislike that this was the introduction to the Cybermen that I had, I think it is such a poor example of what the Cybermen are, and what they can be.
I give these stories a 1,5/5 
because I am feeling generous (and kind of like Ricky’s Grandma)
I could never quite love this one, I just feel that it starts to drag a bit. And I don’t find John Lumic that compelling as an antagonist.
I usually tend to like parallel/alternate universe type stories and I am glad that it’s not overdone in ‘Doctor Who’ (they really play it like it is a big event in this), so that part never bothered me. I love Rose being a dog in this timeline and the Doctor finding that funny, still a great scene.
I think the whole Mickey/Ricky part is probably the strongest. (Up to right at the end when he is like ‘yeah I learnt to fly from GTA’, sure but how do you actually know how to fly a zeppelin from an alternate universe?!)
Character breaks just for the sake of plot happen quite a bit here actually. The strongest might be the Doctor letting Rose go LETTING HERSELF GET CONVERTED, because ‘I can’t talk you out of that right?’… I think he would be more protective of her and question the plan, because what even is the plan? Find Jackie, sure but then what? You are all getting converted?!
But yeah 10/10, because of Ricky’s Grandmother!
Best parts of this story for me were that we were doing parallel universes, alt!Pete, and Ricky x Jake.
Lumic was not a good villain, and I’ve been thinking even less of him since RTD did his whole spiel about Davros and disability since this is a far worse disabled villain from his era.
I don’t really feel the Cybermen needed a reboot, or a creator. In fact, I remember feeling a little irritated watching this initially thinking that this was what the Cybermen were going to be from this point forward. “Delete” wasn’t a great catchphrase, either.
We did get Pete’s world out of this, and I wish they’d used that more.
Also, they shouldn’t have deleted this:
Don’t 100% agree with you this time, but definitely this story literally never crosses my mind and I think it is a weak Cyberman story. But I did also watch it the other week and disliked it less than I remembered because at least it does do what a Cyberman story should do and give us a little bit of body horror
Yes yes YES! My goodness, how MUCH I agree with this statement! I do have a number of issues with this story, some of which I have iterated above, but one thing it does so well is to recognise the body horror aspect that is seldom touched on otherwise. This does everything right wrt to body horror and conversion, as does the brief Cyberman scene in The Pandorica Opens, that Closing Time gets so utterly wrong (in my opinion) and other stories just completely ignore or gloss over.
Despite its flaws, this story knows what a Cyberman IS and it knows why that is a terrible thing! What it doesn’t know, unfortunately, is that the Cyber origin story is kind of the polar opposite to that of the Daleks. They modified themselves to survive. They see this as a gift to others. Daleks were bioengineered to hate and to destroy. As such, Cyber origin didn’t need a Davros-lite. I really do see it as a societal slide into nightmare (it’s supposed to hold up a mirror to societal complacency regarding the dangers of extreme applications of medicine/tech).
Moreover, history has really NOT been kind to Lumic, as @SweetAIBelle points out. Classic Davros was already established and, at least, had a clear reason for being the way he was (and I am one of those who applaud RTD daring to move away from the trope) but the same cannot be said of Lumic. He just looks like a case of awkwardly written disabled genius villain stereotype syndrome. Not good.
But the horror of conversion? Yes, really nicely done.
DOCTOR: Hmmm. Central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well, it is a living thing. Oh, but look. Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything.
MRS MOORE: But why?
DOCTOR: It’s still got a human brain. Imagine its reaction if it could see itself, realise itself inside this thing. They’d go insane.
I like it, I really do, but it’s not Spare Parts is it?
I’ve always felt the second part falls a bit flat and this parallel universe is just 2010s London four years early with some added blimps.
Still, it’s somehow one of the best Cyberman stories of the revival, mostly because the rest range from meh to Nightmare in Silver.
7/10
Oh, I rewatched this in recent memory!
I found this really deligtfully cheesy. Good balance of squeamishness and warm fuzzy nostalgia.
I love the cybermen, just in general. I’m a sucker for robots. I talk about this quite a bit, it’s very easy to make the “tinned meat” monsters scary, and I think this episode does a pretty okay job at that.
The CEO gent, he’s a really silly villian.
Did anyone else think Mickey and that hacker guy would have made a cute couple? I dunno, I ship it 
I do, however, dislike “delete” as a “catchphrase”. Only the Daleks make a catchphrase work.
It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s got good moments. Is it a groundbreaking episode? Heavens no. Do I like it? Yeah! 3/5.
Haven’t rewatched it yet but this represents the ORIGINAL SIN for modern Cybermen; Russell gets them wrong in two horribly fantastic ways.
First of all, as captainjackenoch mentioned above, “delete” is just so stupid. This is, again, something that springs from modern Doctor Who obviously being a vector to sell toys to children - you need something for the Cyberman action figure to say when you press the button. Second of all, the massive stompy feet sound effect. This episode undercuts all of the horror of the Cybermen when they’re in motion, and leaves it to the regular humans and their reactions to drive home the disgust of what’s happening to them. I just think this is where the flattening of the Cybermen into the generic spacefaring villain group of A Good Man Goes To War, Nightmare in Silver, and The Doctor Falls comes from. Leave the empires to the Daleks - Cybermen are a personal horror and should usually be kept at that level.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight over the conversion process however, flips it back around, and is probably one of my favourite Cyber-related scenes in how macabre it comes off.
I’m no fan of ‘Delete’ as a ctatchphrase but I forgive and accept precisely because it’s there to engage kids and, in that regard, it was successful. In order to maximise appeal, sometimes decisions like that have to be made. I get that. I might not always like it, but I can make my peace with it.
Now here we are in complete agreement. I don’t think it adds anything. It’s interesting how, back in the 60s, the Cybermen often lurked in the shadows or quietly infiltrated bases. That aspect was damnably scary. It’s a shame it was lost.
Again, yes! This is an aspect that the story got so right. The juxtaposition between song and the act of conversion was very well done. Something horribly human about Mr Crane wanting the music turned up to drown out the screaming.
And as for ‘The Doctor Falls’, it has long been my belief that Moffat should have just stuck with the Mondasian design. It was chillingly effective before the stompy modern Cybermen made their appearance.
World Enough and Time is such a great Spare Parts adaptation, which makes it even more frustrating that The Doctor Falls seems intent on just adapting some of the worst bits of every bad Nick Briggs Cyberman story.
The Doctor Falls includes amazing content with the two Masters AND with converted Bill. That makes the appearance of the ‘stompies’ all the more frustrating.
Just rewatched Rise of the Cybermen for the first time in at least 15 years. I think the pacing is great, the character drama is great, and Tennant is putting in a great performance. But Noel Clarke’s performance as Ricky is genuinely awful (way too try hard, edgy and "hey look at me I’m not Mickey! it stinks!), and as folks said above not only is Lumic Tesco Value Davros, but also Lloyd Pack is phoning it in and not even trying despite being a great actor.
Also I have never really loved the Cybus designs and I continue to think they’re too much like robots and not humanoid enough. A mixed bag of a first part overall, but I overall enjoyed despite how critical I’ve been here! Excited to see what the second part is like on this watch, tomorrow.
Absolutely criminal they deleted this, yeah
I really like this origin for the Cybermen (and I love the idea of cybermen as an inevitability for humanity that you get with it), I think it focuses on the conversion that’s the most interesting part of them quite well, and I like the RTD1 domestic stuff, so this does really work for me.
Admittedly, a lot of it is nostalgia, but I love the Cybus designs (at least for these cybermen, when they start appearing in the Smith era without the logo and that connection back they’re weird)
Overall though, still criminal that the only cyberman story that focuses mostly on the cybermen rather than having attention shared with something else (usually the master) sucks (Nightmare In Silver)
7/10
It’s a fine story. It drags in places, the Cybermen for whatever reason say “delete” a lot, Lumic is a bit much and somewhat disappointing as the “creator”.
The actual body horror stuff is great, it’s got fun action and set pieces, it’s still a fun ride.
Introduces the ultimate Cyberman theme from Murray Gold - I love it so much.
It’s overall a mixed bag. I enjoy that this one got two parts to breath and expand its story especially as it relates again in the finale. When I showed this to a friend during our watch, she liked having more time with the characters here.
Unfortunately, because of the way Cybermen have been handled in modern Who, it is one of the better stories. 12th and 13th doctor stories had some of the more interesting and compelling takes on the Cybermen, but atrocities like Nightmare in Silver make Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel look like perfection.
Insofar as ‘Haunting’, ‘Ascension’ and ‘Power’, I agree. I was so disappointed by how easy to defeat and how throwaway they were in ‘Flux’ though. I’d rather they hadn’t appeared in that at all under the circumstances (and I love Flux).