4 episodes
Aired between 8th October 1966 and 29th October 1966
Written by Kit Peddler and Gerry Davis
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Derek Martinus
Synopsis
Earth 1986.
Snowcap Antarctic Space Tracking Station is monitoring a newly launched shuttle. It's a manned flight, taking the Zeus IV Atmospheric Testing Probe into orbit. Everything seems to be running fine for the pilots: Shultz and Williams.
Outside the tracking station, the TARDIS lands in the middle of a blizzard. The Doctor, Ben and Polly suit up in suitably warm clothing, except for the legs, and they forget to cover their faces.
They venture outside and find a strange camera pointing at them. Shortly after, a bunch of soldiers jump out of a hatch in the ground and take them prisoner.
The group are led into Snowcap base, where they are interrogated as to how they got there. The crew send for the commander - General Cutler - who is just as suspicious about the TARDIS' sudden appearance. He takes them to the control room until he can figure out what to do with them, but is soon distracted when alarms begin to sound. Zeus IV has suddenly been drawn off course and is losing power.
The Doctor suddenly jumps up and announces that he knows what's going on. He demands to see the General, but isn't taken seriously. He writes something down on a piece of paper and hands it to Doctor Barclay, one of the base's scientists, explaining that he has wrote down what's causing the problem.
Shultz checks his instruments and to his astonishment, he sees another planet. Williams confirms this, It's not long before Snowcap Base have the planet on their screens too. To everyone's amazement, it has appeared between Earth and Mars, and is a perfect copy of Earth, but with the continents upside down. Barclay notes that this is exactly what the Doctor predicted.
Zeus IV states they're low on fuel, leading the crew at Snowcap Base to attempt to help the shuttle down to Earth. Despite their efforts, the shuttle doesn't re-correct its course.
At a loss, Barclay goes to the Doctor and asks for advice. The Doctor says that millions of years ago, Earth had a twin planet that mysteriously disappeared, and that he expects visitors to arrive soon.
General Cutler gets orders from Geneva to interrogate the Doctor to find out what he knows, Cutler makes demands of the Doctor to tell him the truth, but the Doctor decides not to be too hasty in explaining that they're time travelers.
Cutler grows impatient and sends his men outside to break into the TARDIS. As they reach it, a strange flying saucer lands nearby. The soldiers cannot get the TARDIS open, so they run back to the base to get cutting torches, whilst some wait by the blue box.
As they examine the TARDIS, strange robotic beings approach and attack the men, disguising themselves in the coats.
When the soldiers return with cutting equipment, the robotic creatures reveal themselves and knock the rest of the soldiers out, leaving them to die in the blizzard.
Back in the base, the Doctor is still expecting visitors, and a breakdown in electronic communication suggests this. In fact, Geneva have to watch local TV reports to get information on what's happening as they're cut off from Snowcap Base.
The staff of Snowcap are all too preoccupied to notice the robotic beings who turn up, and take everyone captive. They say they're called Cybermen, and come from Earth's twin - Mondas. Polly begs the Cybermen to help bring down Zeus IV safely, but the Cyberman refuses, saying that people die all the time, but nobody really gets upset about that, so why should he care about the shuttle?
The Cyberman leader (or Cyberleader if you will, although they're not called that yet) explains that Mondas drifted away from Earth to the edge of space. Throughout this time, the Mondasian's found ways of replacing damaged or old body parts with cybernetics, until they eventually had eliminated all weaknesses and emotions.
General Cutler makes a rash move of sounding a panic alarm that goes to Geneva, and is stunned by the Cybermen for his troubles.
Geneva calls the base to check what's wrong, and the Cybermen make Barclay say it's a false alarm. When Geneva accept the explanation, the Cybermen tell Barclay that they can't get Zeus IV down, as Mondas is too close to earth, and the gravity waves are pretty brutal.
Ben tries to take a human gun and lead a rebellion, but the gun is taken off him and bent by the Cybernman's own fleshy hands. The robotic enemies put him in an isolated projection room out of the way.
Polly and the staff at Snowcap Base eventually convince the Cybermen to let them try and rescue Zeus IV, but it's no good, as the ship is dragged too far off course and explodes.
Ben meanwhile, has been trying to find a way out of the projection room. He comes up with a plan to shine the currently loaded film onto the door and makes a racket until one of the Cybermen come in to see what's going on. The robotic man is temporarily blinded by the projector, long enough for Ben to steal it's futuristic gun and kill it. He is upset that it came to that though.
He sneaks back to the control room, and hands the heat ray to Cutler who's just regained consciousness. Cutler jumps up and kills the remaining Cybermen before contacting Geneva to inform them of the attack. Geneva agree to warn all the military bases, but tell Cutler that his son (an astronaut) was sent up in a rocket to try and rescue Zeus IV. Cutler now fears that they are in danger too.
All eyes turn to the scanner as hundreds of Cyber ships make their way towards Earth.
The Doctor suddenly collapses, allegedly because of Mondas' energy drain. He is taken to the barracks and left to recover whilst Ben and Polly join the rest of the staff in the control centre, as they contact Zeus V where Cutlers son is the pilot.
Cutler decides that the only sure way to get his son back to Earth is to destroy Mondas. It just so happens that he has a weapon of mass destruction in the base called the Z- Bomb. Greater than an A bomb (naturally), it has the power to split the planet in two. He intends to fire the bomb at Mondas. Cutler calls Geneva to get approval, but is denied as the results are too unpredictable and could accidentally wipe out Earth as well. Not to be deterred, Cutler rephrases the question, and asks if he has permission to do anything necessary to stop the Cyber invasion. Geneva tell him he can.
Ben and Polly try to convince Cutler not to use the bomb, as the Doctor said that Mondas will burn itself out if they just wait. Cutler isn't inclined to however, and confines Ben to the barracks, where the Doctor is resting. When he's taken there, he wastes no time trying to get out, and begins loosening the air vent cover.
Cutler orders the scientists to arm the bomb with him, which they do under protest. Polly talks to Barclay, who admits that he thinks this will all end badly. Polly suggests that they rig the bomb not to explode, Barclay agrees and they sneak off to find Ben who has just about got the cover off. Barclay tells Ben how to get to the bomb, and how to sabotage the rocket.
Alarms begin to sound, hailing the arrival of more Cybermen. They land and begin making their way across the wastes to the base, but are killed as they approach by the captured Cyberman heat rays.
Ben makes it to the bomb and disarms it, but is caught by Cutler whilst he's sabotaging the rocket. Cutler knocks Ben unconscious, and confronts Barclay with his likely treachery. Luckily for Barclay, he's needed to actually launch the rocket.
The countdown begins, and Polly revives Ben, asking him if he was successful in sabotaging the rocket. Ben is unsure if he pulled it off in time, as the countdown winds its way to zero.
Thankfully, Ben did manage it, and the engines fail to ignite. Cutler is furious and pulls out a pistol, threatening to kill Ben and Barclay, and leave Polly and the Doctor outside to freeze.
The Doctor shows up again, and demands Cutler stops, insisting that Mondas will burn itself out. Cutler is on a rant and doesn't hear the warnings that more Cybermen have arrived. He gets ready to execute the people who he believes have sentenced his son to death, but is killed just in the nick of time by more Cybermen.
Polly asks the Doctor if he's ok. He says he is, but "this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin,"
The Doctor tries to calm everyone down and offers to negotiate a peace, but the Cybermen refuse to even consider it whilst missiles are pointed at their planet. They order that the Z Bomb be taken out of the rocket, and to ensure this happens, they take Polly as a hostage back to the Cyber ship.
When Polly reaches the ship, she is stunned and placed on an uncomfortable metal chair, and her hands are bound by metal straps.
As work to disarm the Z Bomb commences, the Cybermen are contacted by Geneva, where another invasion force have landed. The Cybermen in Geneva issue orders to the Snowcap Cybermen, that they must move to their secondary objective. When the Doctor discovers that it means the destruction of the Earth, he hits the loudspeaker button, and warns the crew to not disarm the bomb.
As it happens, Ben was taken along with the scientists to help disarm the bomb, and he hears the Doctor's communication. He begins to question why the Cybermen aren't disarming the bomb themselves. They don't even stay in the same room, only watch from outside.
He reckons that the Cybermen are vulnerable to radiation. He puts it to the test by getting the scientists to play dead, forcing one of them inside to see what's gone wrong. As soon as it enters, the Cyberman begins to suffer. Ben shoves it back outside and locks the door.
Confident that they have a powerful bargaining chip, he orders the return of Polly, but the Cybermen see it more as a stalemate and refuse, taking the Doctor to the ship also, and threatening to kill them unless the bomb is disarmed.
Ben thinks on his feet and gets the scientists to remove some radioactive rods from the bomb, as the robotic men turn up outside and try to gas them out of the room. Ben and the scientists are forced to open the door. Thanks to the rods and using the heat rays, they manage to get the better of the Cybermen and escape.
Ben and the scientists return to the control centre and take back the base. As they prepare for more visitors, they see Mondas glowing white before exploding apart. When the planet is destroyed, the remaining Cybermen all melt into their suits and die. Control and power returns to Zeus V, allowing Snowcap Base to safely guide them in to land.
Ben rushes to the Cyber ship, and rescues Polly and the Doctor, who is again, very weak. Ben wakes him up and tells him it's all over, but the Doctor says "it's far from all over" and asks to be returned to the TARDIS quickly. Ben gives him his cloak, and the Doctor rushes off alone, back to the ship.
Once inside he closes the doors, and begins working the controls. He's clearly not ok, and the TARDIS seems to go haywire with blinking lights and strange noises until he collapses on the floor.
Ben and Polly who were left banging on the door outside are eventually let in by the TARDIS, and rush over to the Doctor.
Polly cradles him to make sure he's ok, but as the pair look onward, they see the Doctor's face glow brilliantly white before it changes to the face of a complete stranger...
Trivia
- If you remember from the previous story, Patrick Troughton initially turned down the role of the Doctor. Even though this was the case, one thing was certain - William Hartnell had to go. Although no one really knew it explicitly, his illness was making life difficult. He was always ill, found it difficult to remember the lines, and a day didn't go by without him having some kind of major tantrum with the cast and crew.
- Unconfirmed sources say that Hartnell recommended Troughton as a worthy successor when he learned he was to go. This might have persuaded Innes Lloyd to continue to ask Troughton (which he did). Patrick eventually changed his mind and agreed to come on board.
- When they met, Troughton was appropriately humble to Hartnell, who seemed to appreciate it. People even said that the former Doctor was pleased with his replacement, believing that the show would be left in good hands.
- During filming of the Tenth Planet, Hartnell fell ill with bronchitis, and that's why the Doctor spends the episode confined to bed. His usual lines were given to Ben (the Doctor says this; the Doctor says that), and the science stuff was given to the base's scientist. Luckily, he was back ready to perform for episode 4.
- From what I know, there was little send off for William Hartnell. He turned up, filmed the regeneration scene, and when the work was done, simply went home at the end of the day. Although he was a crotchety, irascible (and somewhat racist) man, this seems a little tragic that a man who brought so much joy to the nations children, and being such a fan of the show, would simply melt away into the background. Following Doctor Who, he believed that he would go on to do more TV, but his illness got the better of him. He only starred in an episode of Z Cars, and did a bit of pantomime before he would reappear again in The Three Doctors.
- Finally, for a bit of fun. Bossk's suit in the Empire Strike's back is actually the one William's wore for this story!!!
- The antarctic scene was done quite well actually. Besides the Cybermen coming onto the set parallel to the back of it, you would find it difficult to tell where the stage began and ended.
- I might catch some heat for this, but I thought the Cybermen were creepy as hell. Ok, they get to look much, much better as the show goes on, but as an initial go at an inhuman monster, nothing's as creepy as a giant in a mask that a rapist might wear.
- The space command set was also pretty good, being on multiple levels gave it a bigger impact.
- General Cutler did a decent job too. Very much in keeping with what we would later class the 80's US military of being like.
- If I credit Steven of bringing a realistic approach to the role, then I think I should extend that courtesy to Michael Craze and Anneke Wills too. They both act in ways that I think are in character and help illustrate the potential danger and need for action
What didn't work
- Wearing a miniskirt in the middle of a blizzard at the South Pole has go to go down as a pretty bad idea.
- The international scene doesn't have to be emphasised by everyone doing their nations stereotypical accents. Even the Africans in Geneva are dressed up in traditional ceremonial garb.
- It should go without saying, but those original Cybermen accents were awful. I would possibly consider all the other Doctor Who stories having theme tunes like the Gunfighters, before I would accept more of this stuff.
- Although I like the look of the Cybermen, that chest plate does look a bit cumbersome. It would have been better to shrink it down a bit.
- Why did the continents of Mondas have to be the same, but upside down?
- Ben claims that the Doctor told him Mondas will burn itself out. When exactly did he have this conversation?
- The ventilator shaft leads directly from the barracks to the launch pad. Hang on, won't it get a bit warm in the sleeping quarters when gallons of rocket fuel is pumped through the system?
Overall Feelings
Ok, so you hire an actual scientist (an ophthalmologist no less), and ask him to come up with a story based on real life issues. What you get is a story about machine men coming from a planet that rockets into the solar system and looks the exact duplicate of our own. Oh and this planet can suck energy by the way, but ultimately just destroys itself.
I would find it frustrating to understand why this was ever given the okay by Gerry Davis, the current script editor. But it's worth noting that a story about a twin planet hiding on the dark side of the sun had been trying to get through the Doctor Who doors since 1963. When you know this, it's worth questioning how much of this was actually Kit Pedlar's idea (he's the scientist).
As it happens, Pedlar came up with the idea for the Cybermen, taking the concept of transplants in humans to the extreme. This was way before the cyberpunk era was conceived, and still works as a thought provoking concept, even today. Even the space station in the arctic makes sort of scientific sense as back then, even the moon landing hadn't taken place, but it was nice to romanticise about what it would be like.
This story brings two huge things to the table - the introduction of the Cybermen, and the first ever regeneration of the Doctor. Next to this spectacle, just like the Dalek Invasion of Earth, the plot is inconsequential. As a further correlation, both have planets that can be piloted by the baddies.
I watched the story, urging it to be something it's not. The scenery is good, the monsters although dated, are creepy (with the exception of their voices), and the main actors perform well. It just all comes crashing down when you have a plot that resolves itself and a totally bonkers premise. People must have liked it at the time though, because from hereon in, there will be ton's more of the base under siege stories. Innes Lloyd found a winning formula and ran with it.
Rating
5 out of 10
The true rating of this show is actually 3 out of 10, but it gets +1 because it's the introduction of the Cybermen, and it gets +1 because it's the regeneration of the Doctor.
Rewatchability Factor
6 out of 10
The story is pretty absurd, but it's worth a watch for the end of an era, and the introduction of an iconic villain, even if they do talk rather silly
Watch this if you liked...
Consulting the Matrix
Do you prefer the twin planet of Mondas as a means of introducing the Cybermen, or do you prefer them to be the invention of John Lumic?
No comments:
Post a Comment