5.1: The Tomb of the Cybermen

• Doctor: Patrick Troughton 
• Companions: Jamie, Victoria
• Creators: Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis (Writers), Morris Barry (Director), Peter Bryant (Producer)
• Season 5

What's the rating?

Must See.

What's interesting about it?

Thanks to all the wiped episodes, the opening story of Troughton's second season is the first time we get to see him at all, with the interesting twist that he's had plenty of time to refine his portrayal. The differences from not just Hartnell, but from everyone else in the story, are immediately apparent. So much of Hartnell's performance was built around his hesitations (which were not infrequently his trying to remember the line), and the rest of the cast's reactions to that.  (My favorite was in The War Machines, when Hartnell fluffs a line with, "I scent something", and Jackie Lane's Dodo deadpans, "Smells fine to me.")

But here, right off, we see a spry and quick Doctor and an actor in complete control of his performance. This allows the rest of the cast to shine, with dialog zooming back and forth quickly and with confidence. Troughton's Doctor also displays a dangerous inability to be cautious in the face of massive danger; if a chance to show off his cleverness presents itself, he jumps for it, even though it's likely to mean the death of everyone.

The handling of race doesn't seem to have advanced since we last saw the show -- if anything, it's regressed. Hartnell's final story, The Tenth Planet contained the first black actor with a speaking role and the important part of an astronaut, where his race was incidental. Here we have a mostly silent black "servant" (and probable lover to his female master) being dragged along so he can use his big muscles to do things the brainy folks can't, occasionally grunting out a word and being manipulated by everyone in the story. Not a proud moment for the show.

And yet this is a Must See. It's the first full outing we get to see of a new Doctor, and unlike the first time we saw them, the Cybermen here are truly menacing. The site design is quite well done, and it's not just a story of humans against monsters, as plenty of the humans here are happy to side with the monsters. The death count might be a record for the series, and most importantly we have a true landmark: This may be the first time a quarry has been used to stand in for an alien planet (pretty effectively, too).

What are others saying?

Widely considered a classic and one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time. I think that may be pushing it a bit...but even I think Wife in Space is being harsh on this one:

• Wife in Space (score: 4/10)
• Tin Dog podcast #230

How can I see it?

• Amazon
• Netflix

4.9: The Evil of the Daleks

What's the rating?

Wiped.

 

4.8: The Faceless Ones

What's the rating?

Wiped.

 

4.7: The Macra Terror

What's the rating?

Wiped.

 

4.6: The Moonbase

• Doctor: Patrick Troughton 
• Companions: Ben, Polly, Jamie
• Creators: Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis (Writers), Morris Barry (Director), Innes Lloyd (Producer)
• Season 4 

What's the rating?

Worth watching.

What's interesting about it?

The moon, actually. While it would seem that such a familiar and nearby rock would not be a good setting for the show, by actually treating the moon as an airless world with less gravity, it's the most alien setting we've seen in the show so far (perhaps excluding The Web Planet, of which we will speak no more).

(Unfortunately, this is just a snapshot and we don't actually get to see this live on the DVD; it's one of the missing episodes so we only see the animated version.)

The purpose of the moonbase is interesting and plausible, in that they maintain the Gravitron, a sort of huge gun used to control weather on Earth. Of course, the Gravitron is also the perfect target for our villains, the Cybermen, who make their second appearance here.

Kit Pedler, the author, had a scientific background and developed the Cybermen to be monsters commenting on the modern possibility of mixing man and machine. Unfortunately in this story he chooses to immerse us in the more boring parts of science and mechanics: After watching the endless checking and debugging of systems to hunt down an anomaly in the Gravitron, I suspect few kids were rushing to their parents asking to become a scientist.

Troughton does his part for science, though, appearing to have an authentically analytical mind as he tries to determine the source of a cyber virus (William Hartnell's crack at this in stories like The Sensorites and The Ark -- where he had to thoughtfully hold up beakers and test tubes -- didn't come off so well). This story is part of the early character arc for Troughton's Doctor, as after the regeneration he's apparently forgotten parts of his life; here he thinks he was once trained as a medical doctor though he's not sure. Unfortunately, since we're missing the other early Troughton stories, this is just one point in the arc and doesn't hold nearly as much meaning as it might otherwise. In particular an odd sequence comes out of nowhere -- reminiscent of Golem in the Lord of the Rings films -- where Troughton has a conversation with himself, one side speaking and one side whispering in his brain; we haven't seen this before or since, so it just sits there without context.

To Kit Pedler's credit, for once the writer gives Polly something to do in addition to serving coffee (amusingly, though, even when she does inevitably serve coffee, on two separate occasions it turns into a major plot point). While Ben and Jamie are being useless and territorial about the one female in their midst, Polly comes up with a plan to attack the Cybermen. Though I'm not sure a non-chemist randomly mixing chemicals is the greatest of ideas.

The first and third episodes are animated recreations. The animation looks reasonable, but the directing leaves something to be desired, as there are several points where the action doesn't "read" and I'm not quite sure what's going on for a moment. On many occasions all the action stops for several seconds, implying that they just weren't sure what to show during a quiet stretch on the soundtrack.

I came close to not recommending this story. However, the strong setting, some interesting bits by Troughton, and (after three slogging episodes) a rousing and amusing ending do make it worth watching, especially considering how few Troughton stories are available.

Ultimately, this is a case where the parts are greater than the whole.

What are others saying?

This is the story where Troughton is considered to have come into his own, fully filling the shoes of The Doctor. 

• Wife in Space (score: 6/10, based on the pre-animation recon)
• TARDIS Tavern podcast #106

How can I see it?

• Amazon