Published 1997; written by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace.
In 1940, Chicago private investigator Cody McBride, having relocated to London, sees a flaming object fall from the sky - with no explosion. Embedded in a blitzed house, he finds an eight foot silver sphere, which is taken into the care of military intelligence.
Back in his office, McBride finds the Doctor and Ace. Investigation of the link between the anachronistic technology and a series of murders leads them to retired civil servant George Limb, who seeks the Limehouse Lurker - a damaged Cyberleader.
The Doctor, McBride and Inspector Mullen investigate Peddler electronics - whose representative, the sinister Mr Wall, seems to be allied with the Cybermen. Meanwhile, a kidnapped Ace finds herself on Nazi-occupied Jersey - where the captured Le Mur Compound houses several hundred dormant Cybermen.
SS Captain Hartmann, on refusal of a Cyber-alliance, leads a charge on the Cybermen. A Doctor-reprogrammed Cyber-command unit, damaged in the crossfire, sets to explode. While Limb makes for the damaged Cyber-time machine, the Doctor, in the resultant briefly frozen time, manages to pull Ace back to the TARDIS.
Back in London, Mullen and McBride, in the London sewers, find another dormant Cyber-army…
Tropes
- Alien Invasion: On an ill-fated time travel experiment, several thirtieth century Cybermen stranded in 1940 London, to swell their ranks, set about Cyber-converting humans.
- And I Must Scream: On partial Cyber-conversion, Colonel T.P. Potter (retired) briefly retains his identity.
- The Assimilator: Stranded in 1940 London, a small team of Cybermen need to replenish their stock.Cyberman: YOU BELONG TO US> YOU WILL BE LIKE US>
- Axe-Crazy: The Limehouse Lurker, a bomb-damaged Cyberleader.
- Batter Up!:
- In the Peddler warehouse laboratory, with Cody cornered by a Cyberman, Ace, with a gas barrel, whacks it on the handlebar.
- When Cybermats invade his bar, Mama takes up his baseball bat.
- Bloodier and Gorier:
- A damage-crazed Cyberleader, with its biological parts vulnerable to earthly bacteria, needs a substitute fluid - so rips apart several people and smears itself with their blood and pulped flesh.
- A glimpse of the Cyber-conversion process actually makes a soldier vomit.
- A Cybergun erodes Captain Hartmann’s hair; heavily blisters his skin, boils his left eye and melts off his ear.
- Blood Knight: Captain Hartmann.
- Beware the Nice Ones: At an icily warning look in regard to Ace’s safety, McBride suspects this of the Doctor.
- BFG: Against the Cybermen, Captain Hartmann’s men use a Spandau machine gun. It isn’t totally ineffective.
- Big Eater: In Mama’s bar, Ace finishes off Cody’s doughboy.
- The Brigadier: Inverted with Major Lazonby. Adamant of Cyber-technology to be an earthly invention of Dr Peddler, Lazonby urges the Doctor, whom he takes for a spy, to help utilise it against the Nazis.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Alone in Cody’s office, the Doctor, in analysis of a Cyber signalling device, gets into the investigative spirit with an edible cigarette.The Doctor: Letsh shee what comes crawling out of the woodwoik, blue eyesh.
- Broken Tears: Ace, imprisoned on Nazi-occupied Jersey, through her cell wall, gets friendly with research engineer Sid Napley. When he’s dragged off for further torture, Ace breaks down.
- Call-Forward:
- Installation in London’s sewers of a dormant Cyber-army anticipates The Invasion.
- During the Blitz, a piece of alien tech falls from the sky.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Used interrogatively by Jersey-stationed Nazis on the staff of the Le Muir facility.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Wall’s Cybermen.
- Continuity Nod:
- Held as a suspect spy by Major Lazonby, the Doctor hypnotically persuades a guard not to check for authorised prisoner transference.
- Electronic Eyes: Wall has had his eyes replaced by camera lenses.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- The owner and barman of Mama’s American Bar is known only as Mama.
- Underworld informer Sharkey.
- Faux Affably Evil: Played for Horror with Captain Hartmann, whose geniality abruptly vanishes, revealing a coldly vicious sadism.
- For Science!: George Limb, who idealizes humanity’s advancement by Cyber-technology, resigns himself to alliance with the Jersey-stationed Nazis sitting on it.
- Friend on the Force: Initially subverted with Chief Inspector Patrick Mullen impatiently wary of Cody McBride’s operation, although they later ally against the Cybermen.
- Fun Personified: In the London Underground, the Doctor, with a stick of rhubarb, conducts several Blitz-shelterers in a sing-along.
- Genki Girl: Ace’s impudent, jovial enthusiasm is in full force.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The Doctor sings an irreverent war song - although merely hums its anatomically themed lyric.The Doctor: Hitler - ta ta ta -tum turn tummm!
- Gentle Giant: Mama.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Despite her tomboyishness, Ace’s TARDIS bedroom houses a cuddly dinosaur.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: The Nazis briefly interrogate Ace about her personal cassette player but are more concerned with making an army of Cybermen.
- Face–Heel Turn: George Limb, having tried, with Winston Churchill, to alert Britain to the Nazi menace, is latterly resigned to collaboration, in hope of world-advancing Cyber-technology, with the Jersey-stationed Nazis.
- Hardboiled Detective: World-weary, case-hardened Cody.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: The Doctor reprograms the dormant Cybermen to turn on the Nazis.
- He Knows Too Much: Dr Peddler, on refusal of assistance to Cyber-collaborator Wall.
- Mechanical Animals: The Cybermats, being mechanically augmented such local wildlife as squirrels, serve as living tools.
- Move in the Frozen Time: When George Limb escapes in the Cybermen’s faulty time machine, a leak in its works freezes the moment to a near-halt before the damaged Cyber-command unit explodes. The Doctor, not entirely subject to the temporal anomaly, manages to drag Ace to safety.
- Mythology Gag: Electronic engineer Dr Peddler seems to be named after Cybermen co-creator Kit Pedler.
- No Backwards Compatibility in the Future: The Doctor complains that his TARDIS can decide the most complex alien computer programs and link with his brain but can't play 20th century audio cassettes. He ends up using a custom boom box he made for Ace from various alien technology including Time Lord and Alpha Centaurian.
- Old Soldier:
- Colonel T.P. Potter (retired) takes a regimented approach to his ARP Warden duties.
- Inverted with Colonel Schott, a World War One veteran who, of the blood-crazed fanaticism of the SS, is rather weary.
- Product Placement: Downplayed. Hearing a captive caretaker not to have eaten for three days, Ace finds in her pocket a Cadbury’s Creme Egg.
- Robot Dog: A Cyber-command unit, a squat, four-legged mobile console, is reprogrammed by the Doctor, who addresses it thus.
- Starting a New Life:
- To evade his underworld enemies, Chicago private investigator Cody McBride set up office in London, England.
- Beneath a train bridge, Mama runs an American-style bar.
- Scary Black Man: Averted with Mama, who, while equipped with a baseball bat in case of unruly patrons, is quite amiable, and seems actually to hate violence.
- Sequel Episode: Or rather prequel episode - here, we see installation in the London sewers of the Cyber-invasion force.
- Shout-Out:
- A serial-killing crazed Cyberleader, in allusion to Peter Ackroyd’s The Limehouse Golem, is dubbed the Limehouse Lurker.
The Doctor: Don’t panic, Captain. - The Stool Pigeon: Sharkey, referred to as such, is a professional informer.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler:
- Major Lazonby hopes to invert this with Cyber-armour for British troops.
- Captain Hartmann wants a Cyber-Nazi alliance.
- The Swarm: In response to a transmitter pickpocketed by Sharkey from the Doctor, numerous Cybermats rise from a floor drain in Mama’s bar.
- Technology Porn: The might of the Cybermen’s mechanical workings is conveyed in precise detail.
- Technology Uplift: Ace’s Doctor-repaired tape deck, as introduced in Silver Nemesis, incorporates technology from Earth, Gallifrey and Alpha Centauri.
- Time Master: At a temporal leakage from the malfunctioning Cyber time machine, time slows to a near halt. The Doctor, however, just about manages to maintain his autonomy.
- Time Stands Still: Or slows to a near-halt, due to the Cybermen's clapped-out time machine.
- Time-Travelers Are Spies: The Doctor gets mistaken for a nazi spy and arrested when he's caught with a Cyberman head.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Cybermen convert a Blitz-sheltering baby.
