Blood of the Cybermen

Production

Previously known as The Winter of Terror, Episode 2's official title, Blood of the Cybermen, was revealed at a BBC event in Scotland on the 22nd of June. It was also revealed at this event that Blood of the Cybermen would be available immediately after the BBC One airing of the last episode in the current series of Doctor Who, The Big Bang, on Saturday the 26th of June for PC users in the UK, with details of a Mac release arriving soon after.

Blood of the Cybermen features the New Series-era Cybermen design, although with slight differences with their chest emblems - whilst the TV series Cybermen have a large Cybus logo on their chest, the Cybermen seen in Blood of the Cybermen have a flattened emblem of a Cyber-face instead. Also returning for the first time since the 1975 story Revenge of the Cybermen will be the Cybermats, small, slug like cyber-beings that the Cybermen use to spy on their victims.

The Doctor and Amy Pond are both voiced by their television counterparts - Matt Smith and Karen Gillan - and the game also features Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Cybermen. It was written by Phil Ford, in association with Steven Moffat and the television show's executive team as well as direction from famed game designer Charles Cecil. Murray Gold, the composer of the TV show's musical score, also composed a new set of music for Blood of the Cybermen.

Gameplay

Blood of the Cybermen's gameplay will be similar in style to the previous episode in the Adventure Game series, City of the Daleks. Players take control of both The Doctor and his companion, Amy Pond, progressing the story by sneaking past Cybermen that are attacking the Artic research base the game is set in - á la Metal Gear Solid - and true to the nature of The Doctor as a pacifist, if the player is spotted by a Cyberman they must flee the area and hide, rather than have the ability to fight. These sneaking sections are once again broken up by a series of minigames to represent bypassing security locks or repairing an item for The Doctor to use.

Plot

Present Day, Earth - an unknown skidoo driver flees from an artic cave, flashing back to memories of his research team discovering the Arm of a Cyberman. The rider hides in another cave, however a glacial movement sends him plummeting off the edge of a drop.

Meanwhile in the TARDIS, The Doctor tells Amy about how he taught Elvis to play guitar when the console begins to flash - the ship has picked up a distress signal, and The Doctor decides to follow it. The Doctor and Amy arrive in the Arctic, where they find the crashed skidoo, and discover the unconscious rider at the bottom of an ice cliff. The Doctor and Amy rescue the rider, and learn his name, Chisholm. He is delirious - or, as The Doctor points out to Amy, terrified - and tells them that he can't return to his research base, as it has been invaded by a terrible force. Insistent that he must save the survivors who sent the distress signal, The Doctor, Amy and a reluctant Chisholm, travel by TARDIS to the GSO base. Upon finding it seemingly deserted, Chisholm is attacked by a small, metallic, snakelike being - a Cybermat. He explains to the Doctor that those infected by Cybermats slowly turn into Cyberslaves, a zombie like creature that is part human, part Cyberman. Chisholm then locks himself in a tower to prevent him from attacking the Doctor and Amy.

The Doctor and Amy head towards the main dome in search of other survivors, however they are confronted by a Cyberslave waiting behind the door. Whilst the Doctor distracts the shambling monster, Amy disables it by blasting it with boiling steam from a nearby vent. They head into the dome and discover the director of the research project, Professor Elizabeth Meadows, is still alive, and working on a cure for the nanovirus to save her colleagues. The Doctor and Amy then go in search of a Cybermat in order to get a pure sample of the virus to work from. However, when they return, they discover that Meadows has mysteriously vanished. The Doctor completes the cure himself, and then heads over to the tower to administer it to Chisholm, but both he and Amy are shocked to discover he is already becoming converted, Cyber implants growing out of his arm and face.

With help from Chisolm, The Doctor and Amy make their way through the Base security doors and head down deeper into the tunnels the team dug, making their way past patrolling Cyberslaves. Eventually they come across a huge cavern, containing the terror that the research team found beneath the ice - a crashlanded Cybership, containing a whole army of Cybermen in cryosleep, waiting to convert the human race. While making their way up to the control room of the ship, Amy is captured by two Cyberslaves - the Doctor gives chase, but when he reaches the control room, containing the Cyberleader itself , he discovers Meadows, partially converted: She was a cyberslave all along, tricking The Doctor into coming down to the Cybership. Meadows threatens that unless the Doctor revives the Cyber army from cryo sleep, Amy will be converted into the first of a new race of Cybermen. The Doctor reluctantly proceeds in reviving the Cybermen, and succeeds, as the Cyberleader begins to awaken on his throne. The newly revived Cyberleader states that Meadows and the cyberslaves are no longer necessary, and are inferior to pure Cybermen, and shoots her. He attempts to shoot the Doctor, but the Doctor manages to escape, avoiding more Cybermen as he heads over to the Cyber-conversion area where Amy is being held. Freeing Amy, they then proceed back to the Control room via a different route to avoid the patrolling Cybermen.

However, they are cornered by the Cybermen. Just as the leader prepares to delete them, Chisholm - now free from the cybermen's nanovirus - surprises the cybermen and attacks them with the Cyber arm the team discovered at the research base, killing them. The Doctor then reverses the revival process, disabling the army of Cybermen currently marching its way across the antartic. Having misunderstimated the amount of time they would have to get out before the ship explodes, The Doctor, Chisholm and Amy flee from the tunnels and out of the base, just in time to avoid the blast. Outside the dome, the Doctor states to Chisholm that the Cyberslaves should revert as the virus has been destroyed in the process, and that UNIT would soon be on their way to ask questions - he tells Chisholm that all he should do is tell them he stopped the problem. As the Doctor and Amy step into the TARDIS, Chisholm asks what name he should give to UNIT, and the Doctor replies "The Doctor. Just 'The Doctor'." as he closes the TARDIS doors and dematerialises.