The Tenth Planet

DOCTOR: Why don't you speak up? I'm deaf!

SERGEANT: Yes, sir, as I said they just appeared. From a hut.
CUTLER: AAAA HUUUTTTTT???

DOCTOR: I don't like your tone, sir.

CUTLER: And I don't like your face, nor your hair.

KRAIL: That was really most unfortunate. You should not have done that.

POLLY: Can I stay and help?
CUTLER: What do you think you could do?
POLLY: Well, I could make some coffee or something.

BEN: We saved their grotty planet Mandos.

(Mondas, Ben! Mondas!)

• I really don't get the point of the periscope they have at the base. It just seems to be there for anyone who gets bored and decides looking at some snow will be a laugh. 
• In its own way this is as strange and innovative as the two Ian Stuart Black stories we had at the end of last season. Watched as part of a marathon, this story feels new and a bit different. There hasn't been anything quite like it, and the tension and excitement levels are kept up admirably throughout. 
• The way Polly insists a bit of the upside down world (sorry, Mondas!) looks like Malaysia is hilarious. Yes, all the continents are there but upside down, and yet she zooms in massively on Malaysia and keeps repeating that it must be Malaysia. Is that the only part of the world she knows? I also love that "top astronomical circles" are hotly disputing whether or not the land masses resemble those of Earth. How bloody thick are those claiming they don't? It's a globe upside down, for heaven's sake! 
• It is fun that the Doctor knows what Mondas is. At the start of the series he hadn't heard of Skaro or the Daleks, but now he does know things, which is what we expect of him. 
  
• Cutler is told he's not allowed to use the Zee Bomb but he's allowed to use any action he deems necessary against the Cybermen. So he deicdes to deem the Zee Bomb necessary. Cheeky! I like how Ben somehow knows before he's told that the use of it will be dangerous. 
• These Cybermen are strange. They have names and they're very well-spoken. "That was really most unfortunate". When Barclay later suggests moving the warhead to a lower level one agrees by saying, "that will do". It does make them more menacing, though, since they're closer to human than they later become when they start babbling about deleting things. It also makes Ben's actions more tragic when he is forced into killing a Cybermen. His distress at having to do it is very human, very real. He does get a lot to do, though, which is fun. He works out the Cybermen dislike radiation and organises the rebellion. 
• If you were just watching without having read any publicity or the like, the end of this story must have been bloody bizarre! The hero of the series falls to the floor, his face completely changes and cut to music. That's it. Not even the tiniest little attempt at reassurance. And it gets worse next week, though that's (literally) another story. 
• The cliffhangers to episodes two and three are great. And four obviously isn't a bad one...

Verdict

The Cybermen do genuinely want to help. They believe it would be good to remove disease, war and death. That's what makes them scary. Or it is until they decide they can't be bothered and just want to blow up the Earth instead. It is very convenient the way they just fall apart when Mondas does, though. And not exactly explained adequately. That aside, the Tenth Planet is good fun. It's a tight, well-told, well-directed story that rarely lets up the suspense and ends on a shocking note.