This film is very well made on an obviously small budget. Acting and effects are always good, and I was surprised by the small piece of location filming in London. However, Cyberon suffers because it is classed as a Doctor Who spin off. If it were a completely independent film it may gain less recognition but I believe it would be better regarded. The only bad point of this film is the fact that the cyberons solidify later on to resemble cheap cybermen (from Doctor Who) and thus lose most of the interest created early on by their ethereal apparitions. Overall, though, a good piece of British film-making. BBV succeeds again! If you like this, and especially if you are a fan of Doctor Who, go now and seek out the Auton Trilogy for more of Jo Castleton and even better effects.
2 Reviews
The best standalone Doctor Who spin-off yet!
filmnut13 July 2001
I have been a fan of the independent British Doctor Who spin-off movies since 1995's Shakedown and CYBERON is quite possible the best yet. But what makes this different is that it features no cast members or characters from Doctor Who. Although it does feature the Cybermen, not mentioned by name, they are barely glimpsed and could be any alien race.
This is first and foremost good sci-fi drama. They don't try to stretch the budget unrealistically and so virtually all the limited f/x work is good quality and doesn't take over the story. What we have is a story of two doctors who work at a psychiatric hospital testing an experimental drug, which is believed to take human evolution to the next step but is in fact being used by aliens to gain control of the population. It may hardly be an original concept but it works. There are two principle characters who play off of each other well - one is an American actor (this also creates the feeling of higher production values) - played by Jo Castleton and PJ Ochlan, and they deserve full credit for making this one of the best films of 2001.
This is first and foremost good sci-fi drama. They don't try to stretch the budget unrealistically and so virtually all the limited f/x work is good quality and doesn't take over the story. What we have is a story of two doctors who work at a psychiatric hospital testing an experimental drug, which is believed to take human evolution to the next step but is in fact being used by aliens to gain control of the population. It may hardly be an original concept but it works. There are two principle characters who play off of each other well - one is an American actor (this also creates the feeling of higher production values) - played by Jo Castleton and PJ Ochlan, and they deserve full credit for making this one of the best films of 2001.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
