Parallel universes. We've only ever seen one in the series up until this point - the alternative Earth in Inferno which was destroyed by Prof. Stahlmann's drilling project. Interestingly, the Doctor did not exist in that universe - and there is no sign of another one of him in this story, despite everyone else having their mirror selves.
The implication has always been that the Doctor is totally unique to this universe. (More recently, Chris Chibnall has decided that the Doctor originates in a parallel universe, coming to ours as a child, and so they would no longer exist in that other universe).
This hasn't stopped certain pathetic individuals trying desperately to make every single Doctor Who story canon, including all the comics since the 1960's, the novels and the audios. The only way you can possibly do this is to resort to the lazy and unimaginative shortcut of alternative universes.
They would have it that there are multiple Doctors running around parallel universes.
For myself, I simply don't regard stuff that hasn't been seen on screen as canon, until the TV series says otherwise.
When it came to bringing the Cyberman back into Doctor Who, it was always Russell T Davies' intention to hold them off until the second series, as the first would be concentrating on the Daleks. Note how he came up with a totally new monster - the Spheres - when it looked like they might not get permission to use the Daleks, rather than substitute the Cybermen or another already established race like Sontarans or Ice Warriors.
There weren't the same issues with permissions as with the Daleks - RTD shared the same agent as the one who handled the estate of Gerry Davis, co-creator of the Cybermen.
The Cybermen have one of the most complex back stories ever - far more complicated than the Daleks, who have more than one origins story. The Cybermen change their appearance in almost every story, and their home planet (Mondas) got destroyed in their very first story, meaning they had to devise a new home planet (Telos).
RTD decided that it would be far easier for newer members of the audience to start afresh and give the Cybermen a brand new origins tale, rather than try to fit things into their convoluted history.
For a writer he gave this project to Tom MacRae. New to the programme, he had been taken under RTD's wing and was being mentored by him. Davies had named a character in The Long Game after him.
A starting point for the story was the BF audio Spare Parts, by Marc Platt. This was a Fifth Doctor Cyberman origins tale, set on Mondas. Very little was taken - only the sequence where the Doctor and Mrs Moore encounter a damaged Cyberman who is remembering who she was.
Despite this being a new version of the Cybermen, there are some nods to the creatures' past. A subsidiary of Cybus Industries is International Electromatics - the company owned by Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion.
When John Lumic gets upgraded, it is to become the Cyber-Controller. The Cyberman Controller had first appeared in Tomb of the Cybermen, and had returned in Attack of the Cybermen.
Both of these Controllers had enlarged craniums, indicative of a larger brain. Here, the Controller has a transparent cranium, exposing the brain to view.
Ever since their first appearance, the Cybermen had stated that they did not have emotions, which they saw as a weakness. Here the Cybermen have an emotional inhibitor built into their bodies, and strong emotions can actually kill them. We saw how strong emotions could be used as a weapon against them in The Invasion, via Prof. Watkins' Cerebretron Mentor teaching device.
One very big difference in this new story is the way in which Cybermen are created. In the classic era of the programme, they were built piece by piece, through the surgical replacement of limbs and organs of flesh and blood with those of plastic and metal. The brain was surgically altered and conditioned at the same time. This was seen most graphically in Attack of the Cybermen, and we saw Toberman gain Cyberman limbs in Tomb of the Cybermen.
In this story, however, the body is discarded wholesale. The brain is simply removed and placed into a Cyberman body, like it was a suit of armour.
This idea of the brain being like a SIM card that could be placed into an upgraded body formed later drafts of the story. The first drafts had focussed more on the Spare Parts scenario of a dying world where people had to augment their bodies or die. Taking the obsession people had with getting the latest upgrade of their mobile phone or gaming device, MacRae came up with the idea of "Body Swaps" establishments - a play on the Body Shop health and beauty chain. In this draft people would willingly be agreeing to become Cybermen. RTD did not think that people would willingly give up their humanity so this was dropped.
This story also acts as a sequel of sorts to 2005's Father's Day. That episode revolved around the death of Pete Tyler, Rose's dad. On this parallel world, Pete is still alive, and the various schemes he had in this life have actually worked out for him - making him a successful businessman. Rose's mother Jackie is therefore also rich.
Ever since he first met him, the Doctor has called Mickey Smith "Ricky". Mickey's mirror self is actually called Ricky. A coincidence, or did the Doctor know something? Probably the former as the Doctor clearly knows nothing of this other Earth.
One of the plans for these two episodes was to write Mickey out of the series, but then have him return for the finale. Noel Clarke was informed of this plan as early as March 2005, just as the series was being relaunched.
Having John Lumic confined to a wheelchair draws obvious parallels to Davros, creator of the Daleks. This was never intended. It is untrue that Lumic was wheelchair-bound because actor Roger Lloyd Pack broke his ankle just before filming. The character was always to have been in a wheelchair.
Originally there were two Lumics - father and son. The elder was in a wheelchair and dying. The son, Jacob, was the one desperate to save his father by any means, which included the creation of Cyberman bodies. He himself had Cyberman components through having experimented on himself.
From a design point of view, the team went with Art Deco, which had flourished in the years between the two World Wars. The look of the new Cyberman helmet was actually inspired by the Chrysler Building in New York.
The interwar years were also the golden age of the zeppelin, and their presence allowed for an instant reveal that this was not the same London the characters new.
Pete Tyler uses the codename "Gemini" when communicating with the Preachers. This was originally going to be Janus - the Roman god associated with doors and gates, usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named after him, as it is a time of looking back over the old year and forward to the new. "Janus" indicated that there were two sides to Pete. Gemini, on the other hand, is the astrological sign represented by twins Castor and Pollux. This doesn't work quite as well.
There is a Torchwood on the parallel Earth - we hear Pete ask a friend about it at Jackie's birthday party.
It is said to be her 40th birthday - as this was the 40th anniversary of the Cybermen's first appearance in 1966's The Tenth Planet.
When deciding on their plan of attack on Battersea Power Station, the Doctor mentions access points "above, between and below". This is a reference to The Five Doctors, and the three ways into the Dark Tower -
"To Rassilon's Tower we go,
Above, between, below..."
Next time: a story that is hardly one of Mark Gatiss' crowning achievements...
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