Ascension of the Cybermen (TV story)

Ascension of the Cybermen was the ninth and penultimate episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
In a galaxy still dealing with the aftermath of the deadly Cyber-Wars, the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions are separated both from each other and from the TARDIS. Banding together with the last dredges of humanity, they must all attempt to find Ko Sharmus and the Boundary before Ashad, or any other remaining Cyberman forces, can locate them. And who is Brendan, the abandoned baby?

On "Earth"
In 1920s "Ireland", a man finds a baby in a basket abandoned in the middle of the road. He brings it home to his wife. They report the finding to a local Garda (policeman), but when the baby is not claimed, the couple adopt him and name him Brendan.

Brendan grows up and joins the Gardaí. While chasing a thief, he is shot and falls off a cliff hundreds of feet high. He wakes up and is apparently unharmed even though the bullet holes passed through the chest of his uniform.

Many years later, old Brendan retires, but as he is leaving the police station after his retirement ceremony, his father and the sergeant (who have not aged) appear and half-drag him back in. They strap him to a chair and attach some electronic equipment to his hands and head. When they turn it on, energy arcs around it and Brendan screams as his memory is wiped.

In space
The Doctor brings Ryan, Graham, and Yasmin to a planet where she says the last few remaining humans are hiding, the rest having been wiped out by the Cybermen. The refugees have little useful weaponry and one ship, which is still being repaired. They panic as two Cybermen ships fly over the ruined village.

The team bring several pieces of the Doctor's equipment which are supposed to slow down the Cybermen. However, a swarm of flying Cyber-drone heads appears, destroys the equipment, and kills two of the refugees. The Cybermen disembark, revealing that they are led by Ashad.

The advancing Cybermen have cut them off from the TARDIS. The Doctor tells the refugees to go to their ship and take off as quickly as they can, and tells the Team to go with them as well while she holds off the Cybermen. Since the team are human, if caught they would be converted into Cybermen. However, two of the refugees and Ryan don't make it, while Ravio launches the ship as it can't withstand any more damage from the Cybermen. Feekat (the older man) is killed. Ethan is confronted by Ashad, but is rescued by the Doctor. Ryan, the Doctor, and Ethan steal one of the Cyber-shuttles and head for Ko Sharmus.

The remaining refugees Ravio, Yedlarmi, and Bescot, with Yaz and Graham, are also heading toward Ko Sharmus. Ravio explains that there is a phenomenon called "the Boundary" there which teleports the travellers to random locations in the universe. They can't control where it goes, but at least they would be safe from the Cybermen. However, the ship's ailing engine explodes. They end up on a giant structure that turns out to be a Cybermen troop carrier, containing thousands of dormant Cybermen.

The Cyber-shuttle reaches what they think is the planet of Ko Sharmus. However, Ko Sharmus turns out to be one lone human, who stayed behind in case any more refugees were seeking the Boundary.

Ashad and his crew find the troop carrier with the other refugees. They decide to steer the ship to Ko Sharmus as it is their only chance of escape before they are taken by Ashad and the now-awake thousands of Cybermen.

Ko Sharmus shows the Doctor, Ryan, and Ethan the Boundary, which appears as a rippling sheet of energy. It unexpectedly clears, and the Doctor sees the capital city of Gallifrey on the other side. The Master leaps through the Boundary and informs the Doctor that "everything is about to change forever".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * - Sacha Dhawan
 * Ashad - Patrick O'Kane
 * Ravio - Julie Graham
 * Ko Sharmus - Ian McElhinney
 * Yedlarmi - Alex Austin
 * Feekat - Steve Toussaint
 * Bescot - Rhiannon Clements
 * Ethan - Matt Carver
 * Fuskle - Jack Osborn
 * Brendan - Evan McCabe
 * Patrick - Branwell Donaghey
 * Meg - Orla O'Rourke
 * Michael - Andrew Macklin
 * Sergeant - Caolán Byrne
 * Voice of Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * Cybermen - Matthew Rohman, Simon Carew, Jon Davey, Richard Highgate, Richard Price, Mickey Lewis, Matthew Doman, Paul Bailey

Crew
to be added

Locations

 * The remnants of Cyber-Technology after the Great Cyber-War are floating around in deep space in the far future.
 * Patrick finds a baby in the middle of a lane on his way home in Ireland.
 * Team TARDIS find themselves on a refugee planet very similar to Earth, but with a ring planet visible, according to the coordinates given by Percy Shelley.
 * The Gravraft speeds through hyperspace.
 * Brendan chases a thief to a cliffside.
 * The Doctor, Ryan and Ethan manage to get to the Boundary.
 * Ko Sharmus escaped from a Cybercamp.
 * The portal gateway leads to Gallifrey.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor says that she used to hot-wire warp drives as a teenager on weekends, though she quickly points out that in her early life on Gallifrey, there were no teenagers, or weekends.

Individuals

 * Patrick and Meg adopt the baby and name him Brendan.
 * On his first school-day, Brendan puts on a school uniform. Later he and Patrick rake hay.
 * Brendan is attended to by a district nurse.
 * When Brendan gets sick, Meg tells him if it gets worse she'll call the local doctor.
 * The refugee planet is inhabited by the last of humanity; Feekat, Ravio, Ethan, Fuskle, Yedlarmi, Bescot and another young woman.
 * Graham calls Ethan cockle, and the machine he sets up a gizmo.
 * Feekat says the survivors are a teacher, a nurse, a childminder, a driver and a builder.
 * Ashad is accompanied by two older-design Cyberguards.
 * Ethan says he was born a pariah.
 * The Doctor points out the massive inner conflict that Ashad has because he's not fully converted, therefore having a lot of anger and hatred towards his own being. The Doctor reckons she should bill him for therapy.
 * Brendan is chasing a thief, Michael, who pulls a revolver on him.
 * Ko Sharmus is the last remaining human on the Planet of the Boundary.
 * Graham uses Cockney rhyming slang, saying "let's have a butcher's", meaning "let's have a look."
 * Graham and Ravio enter a room on the carrier ship with thousands of Cyber-Warriors, all inactive.
 * jumps through the portal gateway by the Boundary.

Food and beverages

 * On Brendan's birthday, the family have birthday cake.
 * The Doctor offers Ryan a humbug out of a paper bag. She says she's added ginger.

Business

 * A Fincham Supply Co. is located in Ireland
 * Garda is the local police force of Ireland.
 * Ashad believes he alone was chosen to revive the Cyber-Empire.

Technology

 * Ravio points a gun at Team TARDIS.
 * The Doctor has given Graham a neural inhibitor system, which ought to act against a Cyberman's emotional inhibitor.
 * The Doctor has given Yaz a particle projector, which should project gold particles into the air, as an affront to the Cybermen.
 * The Doctor has given Ryan a rudimentary force field device, to shield the area when the Cybermen arrive.
 * Team TARDIS and the refugee group are attacked by Cyberdrones.
 * The Doctor uses a special grenade against Ashad.
 * The Doctor says Cyber warp tech is not designed for humans.
 * The Doctor tells Ashad, over a hologram, that the Cyberium AI knows how she has defeated the Cybermen time and time again.
 * Ashad and one of his Cyberguards hacks into the Cyberiad, the hive mind of all Cybermen.
 * An officer presents an old Brendan with a carriage clock for his services in the police force.
 * Patrick and the Sergeant, both unaged, lead Brendan into the Garda's backroom to hook him to a memory-erasure machine.

Vehicles

 * Patrick rides a bicycle.
 * The Doctor, Ryan and Ethan steal a Cyberfighter; another is taken by Ashad.
 * A Cyberfighter is a class of Cyber-shuttle, which is itself a type of small Cybership. They run on warp drives.
 * Graham, Yaz and company escape on the humans' Gravraft, which they later manage to land on a Cyber-Army carrier ship.
 * Due to Ravio pushing the Gravraft, the shell lining breaks, the energy cells become compromised and the oxygen pressure drops.

Culture

 * Yedlarmi is called Eeyore by Graham.

Story notes

 * This episode had a "cold opening".
 * The episode had a smooth transition from the "cold opening" into the title sequence, with the scene going through the eye-pod of a Cyber-helmet.
 * This is the second episode of the Thirteenth Doctor's era to feature the "middle eight" section of the Doctor Who theme during the closing credits, following The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
 * According to the subtitles on iPlayer, the two 2005-2012 design Cybermen with Ashad are "Cyberguards".
 * This is one of eleven television stories in which the TARDIS does not appear at all. The others are: Mission to the Unknown, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Mind of Evil, The Dæmons, The Sea Devils, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, Midnight, The Lie of the Land and The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
 * This is the third penultimate episode in an even-numbered series that is the first part of a two-part story featuring both the Master and the Cybermen, following Dark Water and World Enough and Time.

Ratings

 * 3.71 million (BBC overnight)
 * 4.99 million (BBC overall)

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * The Doctor has informed Yaz that Cybermen are "allergic" to gold. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Earthshock, Silver Nemesis, Battlefield, Nightmare in Silver, AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen)
 * The Doctor has told Graham that the Cybermen can be driven mad if their emotions are "unsuppress[ed ] ". (TV: The Invasion, The Age of Steel, Closing Time)
 * Similar to the Cyberdrones, Cyber-heads were previously seen to function without a Cyber-suit, most notably Handles. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, The Time of the Doctor)
 * Yaz says she and Graham have experience surviving in the vacuum of space. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
 * The Doctor offers Ryan a humbug from a paper bag. (TV: The Sun Makers, PROSE: Coldheart)
 * The Doctor refers to the Lone Cyberman acquiring the Cyberium from her. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
 * Ashad was denied a full conversion, similar to the "rejects" on Telos. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
 * once again affirms that "everything is about to change" (TV: Spyfall) and, as the Doctor suspected, he has, somehow, escaped from his imprisonment by the Kasaavin. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Ninth Doctor previously faced an army of Daleks forged from humans by the Dalek Emperor and were sickened by themselves for it following the near-annihilation of the species. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
 * Ashad is addressed by his guards as "Leader". (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen et al.) Earlier Mondasian Cyber-Leaders appeared with silver side handles rather than the distinctive black. (TV: The Tenth Planet, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet) Similar to the converted Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the corners of Ashad's side handles are black. (TV: Death in Heaven)

Home video releases
to be added