3. Better Cybermen
I think this is something that's been on a lot of people's minds for a while now. On their return in 2006 where an entirely new origin story was devised for them (because... we needed another one... right?) they were cool as a bowtie, with a really gripping story arc that concluded with a battle against the Daleks, the (sort of) resurrection of Rose's father and the heartbreaking farewell to Rose herself. And from there, things got... weird. Opinion is sort of divided in terms of their appearance in 'The Next Doctor', and while that episode did have some redeeming qualities it certainly didn't make up for the fact that they only ever got slightly naff cameos after that, with their appearance in our universe making less and less sense each time.* They haven't made an appearance since 'Closing Time', which I've already gone on record as saying is not exactly a favourite of mine. And now we're being promised a 'Moonbase' type re-imagining from one of the few men who have actually seen the serial from start to finish upon its original broadcast and we find ourselves thinking there really is a God. If this had been left up to any less of a writer we'd be given yet another origin story that would have no doubt been a complete rip-off of 'Victory of the Daleks', with the eponymous 'last cyberman' entering some kind of machine or activating some kind of emergency protocol that reincarnates his race. ONLY DIFFERENT!!! But no, Neil Gaiman's the mastermind behind this one, with very fond memories of watching the steel giants in their glory days, and, to paraphrase Monty Python, personally wetting himself at the 'Tomb of the Cybermen'. We've wanted a little bit more oomph in these guys for a while, and now we've got just the guy to do it, vowing to return them to their scariest state before they lose their credibility altogether. Which brings me neatly to my next point... *By the way, I'm well aware that the baddies in 'Closing Time' weren't exactly from Pete's World as they didn't bear the Cybus logo, but does that really explain why they look EXACTLY THE SAME apart from that? Are we really supposed to believe a coincidence THAT insane could actually happen? And if they were Mondans, wouldn't they look like they did in the eighties? But then again, this is a show with a vanishing police box so maybe I'm nitpicking.