Wow. Question is, do I buy it (partly for the cover, and partly, yes, for the sticker book) and risk having Alison "Idiot" Graham spoil something massive for me?

(last week, she spoiled something so big from Girl in the Fireplace that Moffat himself felt compelled to post on OG and warn people)

You could always buy it, along with a permanent marker. You can then take that permanent marker and oblitorate ANYTHING Alison Graham has written.

Though I completely agree with your stance on her, how did Alison Graham become infamous for the OD/NTS crowd? You all seem to hate her. I first started hating her when she said she hated all sitcoms. What did she say/do for you guys because you definitely hated her before that?

Also, fantastic cover.

> Wow. Question is, do I buy it (partly for the cover, and partly, yes, for the sticker book) and risk having Alison "Idiot" Graham spoil something massive for me?

Buy it, and don't open it until after Saturday.

I have all I need in The Doctor Who Magazine :D

Though I completely agree with your stance on her, how did Alison Graham become infamous for the OD/NTS crowd? You all seem to hate her. I first started hating her when she said she hated all sitcoms. What did she say/do for you guys because you definitely hated her before that?

I can't speak for the others, but basically, I don't have any massive seething hatred towards her - I just think she's a rubbish journalist with a far better job than she deserves. She's the classic example of someone who decides to jump on a bandwagon of loving/hating a particular thing - usually without any real knowledge of it - and then won't shut the hell up about it.

But then, for me, all TV critics pale in the shadow of Charlie Brooker, anyway...

>Wow. Question is, do I buy it (partly for the cover, and partly, yes, for the sticker book) and risk having Alison "Idiot" Graham spoil something massive for me?

How about buying it, but not reading it until 7.45pm on Saturday?

I've just realised I've written exactly the same as Ian wrote earlier. Ah well, just goes to show - great minds think alike, eh?

The last word on Alison Graham.

This man scares me, but he is correct.

I adore the way that we've "known" the design for ages... and then they reveal THE BRAIN and THE EYES LIGHT UP, and bring an entirely new level to it. Marvellous.

I'm thinking the brain is just for this pic. To remind people that they have a human brain. But maybe it's the eyes that light up when they speak. I though it was going to be the mouth.

Actually, if you look at shots of the "regular" Cybs, the eyes don't have those lights in them, they're just hollow.

The Cyb that RT have got hold of is blatantly some form of Cyber Controller/Leader/Whatever. It's definitely different from the "main" ones - in addition to the eyes and brain, it's got those bolts all over it. Or it could be someone that we see in the early-mid stages of being Cyberised. But it's definitely in the episode - we see it in the three-minute trailer, it's the one that's ripping itself out of all those cables and whatnot in a really quite brilliant sequence.

> it's got those bolts all over it.

Comparing the pictures side-by-side I'd argue that that's a regular Cyberman with the top part of its head "slid back", for whatever reason. Those bolt marks are only present either side of the brain section, where that covering normally is.

> if you look at shots of the "regular" Cybs, the eyes don't have those lights in them, they're just hollow.

Well we can see two hollow eyes and we can't see the lights - it doesn't mean the lights aren't behind them in the darkness. It's perfectly possible that those lights come on only at particular times.

The design is brilliant, isn't it. So much scarier than the cybermen populating the 1980s. Not only are they more gaunt, the makers of these new series of Dr Who are really good at making things look like metal when they need to.

>Comparing the pictures side-by-side I'd argue that that's a regular Cyberman with the top part of its head "slid back", for whatever reason. Those bolt marks are only present either side of the brain section, where that covering normally is.

No, look at the body and chest, not just on that picture, but on the earlier RT cover (which they used the same model for), and in this picture :

The one with the brain and the lighting-up eyes, and the bolts all over the chest, is quite clearly a different model to the regular one. If you look at the older RT cover, you can see it WITHOUT the eyes lit up, and it clearly has special light things poking out of the eyes, as opposed to the hollow-eyed regular ones. And, like I say, the bolts across the chest are quite prominent. I'm telling you, it's a different model.

Here :

Check out the bolts, the brain and the bits in the eyes. Compare this with the standard design.

Just to make it three posts in a row, I've just bought the RT and it confirms they're going the classic route - there's a great double-page picture of the three kinds :

Cyber Controller - The one with the brain, the light-up eyes, and the bolts
Cyber Leader - Regular Cyberman with black handlebars (just like the days of old - yay!)
Cyberman - No light-up eyes, no bolts, no brain

I stand corrected. I didn't see any of those other pictures previously - only the head close-up adorning this article.

The Cybermen could become the Terminators of Who if the makers play this right. The Daleks have their eye-stalk thing but provided the Cybermen have lost their allergy to gold, and we start viewing them as invincible again, they'll have a real integrity. At the end of the Dalek episode in the last series, nobody had succeeded in killing a dalek with weapons, and that had a really great pay-off in the anticipation for the final episode. Unfortunately I think that episode weakened them - but I wonder what else they could have done. I'd love for Rise of the Cybermen to finish without anybody managing to kill a single one.

Personally I cannot wait for the last minute Deus ex machina where all the Cybes either just disappear, or someone switches off a plug socket and they all fall down, or the Doctor has a vial of 'anti-metal' (or maybe vinegar...or maybe even an INTRAVENOUS cure to cybernization) which he pours over the Cyber Controller and it affects all the other Cybes, or he tells the Controller to go to his room, or he presses a big red button that stops them in their tracks or Rose decides to look into the heart of the Tardis again and simply removes them from existence or...they find a big telescope or...or...there's a switch that shuts them down with a huge fan in front of it for no reason......

Seriously, the Cybermen DO actually look effective in scenes. I wasn't sure about the design in the first publicity shot. They're a cross between Robocop and C-3PO but more dangerous than both of them hopefully.

> the Doctor has a vial of 'anti-metal' (or maybe vinegar...or maybe even an INTRAVENOUS cure to cybernization) which he pours over the Cyber Controller and it affects all the other Cybes

Nah - it'll be "aim for the brain!" and some army guys with rifles shooting at the one spot on the Cyber Controller that isn't sheathed in metal. And yes, it will affect all the other Cybes. They'll be writhing around in pain on the floor with sparks of electricity around them and stuff. The first trailer for this series had a shot of a Cyberman followed by the Doctor's reaction: "Bullets can't stop it!" - which ended up being about the werewolf. If this mantra doesn't apply to the Cybes as well I'll put myself up for adoption.