A review by mhickers119
Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen by Terrance Dicks

lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

 

"Revenge of the Cybermen" was never intended to be the season finale for Doctor Who's twelfth season. It became the "de facto" end to the season when the BBC decided to hold over the already produced "Terror of the Zygons" for the next season in the fall. 

So, if you're expecting an epic, spine-tingling end to Tom Baker's first season as the Doctor, you may be a bit disappointed. I've <a href="https://nashvillebookworm.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/tv-doctor-who-revenge-of-the-cybermen/">detailed my disappointments with the serial itself elsewhere,</a> so I won't rehash those here. Instead, I will attempt to review the Target novel version of this one. 

Early on in my Doctor Who watching days, I checked the adaptation of "Revenge of the Cybermen" out of the library a lot. It was one of a dozen Target books reprinted in the United States under the Pinnacle banner -- and to my mind, that meant it had to be one of the best the series and range had to offer. 

Alas, "Revenge of the Cybermen" isn't one of the best, but I wouldn't say this adaptation is one of the worst that Terrance Dicks ever gave us. It does its best to translate the televised story faithfully to the printed page, though at times you can feel Dicks' frustration at trying to make the (supposedly) emotionless Cybermen interesting on the printed page. This comes across a good bit when various Cybermen speak or when Dicks is forced to try and explain away why they're acting emotionally when (technically) they shouldn't have any emotional reaction to things. 

Dicks does a bit better in translating the epic Vogan conflict to the printed page --or at least he helped this fan identify who was who in the conflict a bit better than the televised version did. Dicks seems to understand when to minimize certain aspects of the story (the gaping loopholes in the Cybermen's plan) and when and what to expand and play up. He even tries to find an explanation for why Voya is able to toodle about the galaxy, though there is little explanation of why it comes so close to the Nerva Beacon. 

All in all, it's a good job with a script that was full of gaping holes to begin with. There isn't a lot of depth given to the supporting cast, but this is far from the later fourth Doctor adventures when it feels like Dicks is only being given enough time to translate a shooting script to the printed page. 

As an audiobook, this one works fairly well, though the nitpicky fan in me found it hard to hear Cybermen speaking in mechanical voices as opposed to what  we saw in the original version. It’s an interesting choice and one that creates a consistent feel to the Cybermen audiobooks, even if it doesn’t line up with the televised version. Nicholas Briggs does solid work, even trying to give us his own take on the fourth Doctor, which is good but he’s no Jon Culshaw.