erhaps the cybermen converted an organic lifeform into a cybermat just as they do with their own people? There is no information in old Who that I know of on how cybermats are made.
After the cybermat attacked Craig, the Doctor said, "That thing should have had you." That made me wonder if Craig, like Amy during the first half of the season, wasn't an avatar of himself who has been planted there as part of a deeply-spun trap for the Doctor that will be sprung in the next episode. If Craig was not human after all, he would not be compatible with the cyber conversion process and therefore may have busted their machine with or without Alfie's crying.
Two other things:
1) The presence of cybermen buried deep underground from thousands or millions of years ago was not adequately explained. Cybermen were created in a parallel universe's 20th -century Earth and first reached our Earth in the 1980's in "The Tenth Planet." It's true that cybermen were shown as having rudimentary time travel technology in one of the Six episodes, but I thought they stole that and couldn't build their own cyberships to go back in time.
2) The episode was, more than usual, about coincidences--running into Craig with aliens twice, and then randomly running into Amy and Rory in the store. Normally we explain the Doctor showing up just when trouble starts as the TARDIS bringing him to where he will want to be, which was overtly brought forward in "The Doctor's Wife." But these coincidences existed outside the TARDIS's control and are therefore suspect.
Conclusion: Who do we know who carries a deep grudge against the Doctor, so deep as to want to wage war against him--to consider a war against him as already in progress--and may have the ability to manipulate people's timelines into bizarre coincidences? RASSILON.
Rassilon was somehow resurrected from the dead (we know that timelords can sometimes do this if they really, really feel like it--see "The Five Doctors" and "Arc of Infinity" and every fricking episode where the Master comes back after dying) to, we assume, lead the Time Lords in their desperate war. It's like bringing back Zombie George Washington to be our supreme overlord with executive laser powers, if by George Washington you mean an unholy mix of Grigori Rasputin and Benjamin Franklin. And the Doctor trapped him in a time bubble he is not only desperate to escape, but also capable of escaping, as we learned in "End of Time."
Now, TARDISes can obviously warp coincidence around the universe (e.g. "Bad Wolf"). What if Rassilon had been able to use Time Lord magicks to reach out from beyond the timeless void, and influence the timelines of the universe?
Such an escape attempt would be best effected, according to the physics of the show, through the principle of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, in which it might be most entertaining for Rassilon to make contact with a younger version of himself.
Ramblings, Pt 1
After the cybermat attacked Craig, the Doctor said, "That thing should have had you." That made me wonder if Craig, like Amy during the first half of the season, wasn't an avatar of himself who has been planted there as part of a deeply-spun trap for the Doctor that will be sprung in the next episode. If Craig was not human after all, he would not be compatible with the cyber conversion process and therefore may have busted their machine with or without Alfie's crying.
Two other things:
1) The presence of cybermen buried deep underground from thousands or millions of years ago was not adequately explained. Cybermen were created in a parallel universe's 20th -century Earth and first reached our Earth in the 1980's in "The Tenth Planet." It's true that cybermen were shown as having rudimentary time travel technology in one of the Six episodes, but I thought they stole that and couldn't build their own cyberships to go back in time.
2) The episode was, more than usual, about coincidences--running into Craig with aliens twice, and then randomly running into Amy and Rory in the store. Normally we explain the Doctor showing up just when trouble starts as the TARDIS bringing him to where he will want to be, which was overtly brought forward in "The Doctor's Wife." But these coincidences existed outside the TARDIS's control and are therefore suspect.
Conclusion: Who do we know who carries a deep grudge against the Doctor, so deep as to want to wage war against him--to consider a war against him as already in progress--and may have the ability to manipulate people's timelines into bizarre coincidences? RASSILON.
Rassilon was somehow resurrected from the dead (we know that timelords can sometimes do this if they really, really feel like it--see "The Five Doctors" and "Arc of Infinity" and every fricking episode where the Master comes back after dying) to, we assume, lead the Time Lords in their desperate war. It's like bringing back Zombie George Washington to be our supreme overlord with executive laser powers, if by George Washington you mean an unholy mix of Grigori Rasputin and Benjamin Franklin. And the Doctor trapped him in a time bubble he is not only desperate to escape, but also capable of escaping, as we learned in "End of Time."
Now, TARDISes can obviously warp coincidence around the universe (e.g. "Bad Wolf"). What if Rassilon had been able to use Time Lord magicks to reach out from beyond the timeless void, and influence the timelines of the universe?
Such an escape attempt would be best effected, according to the physics of the show, through the principle of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, in which it might be most entertaining for Rassilon to make contact with a younger version of himself.
More exciting ramblings in Pt 2!