4 episodes
Aired between 2nd September 1967 and 23rd September 1967
Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Morris Barry
Synopsis
The Doctor introduces Victoria to her new home onboard the TARDIS and explains that he's 450 years old, much to both Jamie and Victoria's amazement.
The Doctor sends them off to the wardrobe room whilst he takes them on their next adventure.
On the desolate planet of Telos, an archaeological expedition blows away rocks to reveal an entrance to the long lost city of the Cybermen.
The group all get excited and Kaftan, the only lady in the group, offers £50 to anyone who can get the doors open.
One of the group rushes forward to take the prize, but the doors summarily electrocute them to death.
As the group are still reeling in shock, they hear (and supposedly see) something landing over the ridge. It's the TARDIS.
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria soon arrive and are accused of being a rival expedition trying to claim jump and take all the glory.
Upon seeing the dead body and discovering that this is a tomb of the Cybermen, the Doctor insists that he's there to help and indeed uses a simple device from his pocket to isolate the current and make the doors harmless. Kaftan's bodyguard, Toberman flexes his muscles and makes short work of opening the doors.
Inside, there's a control panel with lots of levers and a dial at the top; there's a door to the bottom and top left, and a strange looking tube with a lid on it at the far right of the chamber. Everyone rushes in and gazes in wonderment at the stuff, despite the Doctor's warning. He, Jamie and Victoria have little choice but to follow.
In a dark corner of the chamber, Kleig, the expedition's funder, and Kaftan conspire and suggest that the Doctor's arrival may cause problems for them. They agree with the help of Toberman to each follow one of the TARDIS crew and keep an eye on them.
Kleig immediately starts examining the controls, but can't figure them out. The Doctor is on hand to help however, demonstrating that they work on symbolic logic and succeeding in opening the doors (the tube remains sealed). Kleig is openly resentful of the Doctor's success, and makes it his mission to figure the thing out.
Parry, the lead archaeologist, suggests that they all split up and explore the place, taking notes as they go.
Kleig and the Doctor stay in the main room, trying to figure out the controls. The Doctor advises that they should leave them alone, but ends up giving advice to Kleig that restores power to the tomb.
Victoria heads to the top left room with Kaftan and the assistant lead, Viner. They come across a sarcophagus and some kind of radar machine that the group speculate was used to revitalise the Cybermen in some way. As they look around, Kaftan begins pressing buttons and pulling levers. Victoria climbs into the sarcophagus for no reason and Kaftan uses the controls to close the lid on her. The radar machine activates with Victoria inside!
Viner begins to panic and demands that Kaftan reveals which buttons she pressed. She claims she didn't touch anything and so can't tell him, but the Doctor rushes in and figures the sequence out, subsequently freeing Victoria.
In the bottom left room, Jamie ventures with Peter Hayden. They find another bank of controls, but this time, it's Hayden that starts messing with them.
Soon, the back wall lights up with hypnotic patterns that puts Jamie in a trance. He stops the sequence and brings Jamie around, but is fascinated. He insists that Jamie starts the sequence up again, but this time Hayden wants to be the subject. Jamie reluctantly agrees and begins pressing buttons, starting the hypnotic patterns up again.
The Doctor shows up and warns Jamie to stop, but it's too late. From the side of the wall, the body of a Cyberman scoots out, and Hayden is shot dead! Just as quickly, the Cyberman scoots away again, and everyone is panicked and Viner thinks that the Cyberman killed Hayden. The Doctor gets Jamie to remember what buttons he's pressed and proves that in actual fact, he was shot from behind by some kind of weapon testing apparatus that was intended to shoot the Cyberman target as it scooted out, but Hayden was in the way. Elsewhere in that chamber, Victoria finds a tiny metal catterpillar that seems dead. The Doctor says its a Cybermat and warns her to leave it alone, but she puts it in her handbag instead.
Visibly shaken by Hayden's death, Parry calls everyone together and announces that they're abandoning the dig. Kleig is furious but is forced to back down when Parry insists that he's the leader of the expedition and Kleig merely funded it. Before they can act however, Hopper, the team's pilot rushes into the tomb and announces that someone has sabotaged the ship.
He reckons that it will take 72 hours to fix, and until it's done, everyone must stay in the tomb out of the way, especially seeing as the saboteur is among them. Kleig eagerly suggests that whilst they're all stuck there, they may as well continue exploring. Parry reluctantly agrees.
Kleig returns to the logic problem of the control panel and finally cracks it (with subtle help from the Doctor). The tube opens up revealing a set of ladders heading down into a very cold tomb. Everyone don's cold weather gear (the Doctor wears a cloak which he gets from somewhere) and everyone but the Women go down there, much to Victoria's annoyance. The Doctor consoles her by suggesting that she keeps an eye on Kaftan for him.
Entering the tomb, the group find a giant ....well...tomb!
It's marked with the Cyber image that's everywhere else and contains the remnants of the cyber race, frozen in suspended animation.
On top, Kaftan slips a pill into Victoria's coffee and puts her to sleep. With her out of the way, Kaftan closes the hatch, sealing everyone in the tomb.
Down below, Kleig very obviously suggests warming the tomb up, which the Doctor strongly advises against. Jamie discovers that the hatch above them is shut, and Kleig suggests that the button for opening it should be on the control panel. The Doctor helps him press buttons and it begins to warm up the tomb.
Inside, the Cybermen begin to awaken.
Kleig gets all excited and watches onwards in triumph. Viner freaks out and tries to shut the controls off again, but Kleig pulls a gun and shoots him.
Back above, Victoria awakens and asks what happened to her and why the hatch is shut. She gets short with Kaftan who is giving smart arse answers and tries to rush past her to raise the hatch. Kaftan pulls a gun on her and holds her hostage. As the Cybermen are waking up however, so too are the Cybermats. The one in Victoria's handbag chews its way out and attaches itself to Kaftan's neck, knocking her unconscious.
Victoria grabs the pistol and shoots the little creature, killing it.
Now alone, Victoria tries to raise the hatch but can't figure it out so she runs off to fetch Hopper.
Back down in the tomb, the Cybermen break free of their capsules and descend to the floor. Once there, they open a cupboard and release the Cyber-Controller who just so happens to have a massive brain.
Kleig introduces himself to the Controller and reveals that he belongs to the Brotherhood of Logicians, a shadowy group who plan to take over the world by making a deal with the Cybermen, figuring that the Cybermen will be grateful for being revived. The Controller has other plans and after nearly snapping Kleig's arm to prove the point, he announces that they will all become like the Cybermen.
The Cybermen boast that they remember the Doctor, and that the tomb was really a trap, put there to lure beings intelligent enough to release them. Once they did, the Cybermen could convert them and exploit their intelligence. And so, this is what is being proposed of the group.
Victoria returns with Hopper and his crewman, Jim Callum. She tells them what's gone off, and they start pulling up the control panel and tracing the wires around. They eventually find the right ones, but Kaftan recovers and snatches the gun off the table, holding them all hostage. Victoria manages to distract her this time, and Hopper disarms her. He opens the hatch and decides to go down alone, taking the gun and some smoke grenades with him.
Once down there, he uses the grenades to throw everything into chaos. The Doctor and co. run away into the tunnels surrounding the tomb and the Cybermen give chase, but only manage to capture Kleig and Toberman.
The rest get out just in time and close the hatch, leaving the Cybermen to pound on it from the other side. As the Cybermen begin converting Toberman however, Kleig sneaks off to the hatch and starts banging on it. The Doctor recognises that it's him or Toberman from the softness of the thuds. The hatch is raised and Kleig is released before it's closed quickly again.
Their plans thwarted, Kleig and Kaftan are imprisoned in the weapons testing room, where they soon use their incredible logic to deduce that it's a good location to find weapons. They find an X-Ray laser on the Cyberman target dummy.
Trapped inside the tomb, the Cybermen resort to using their big Cybermats to harass the control room.
Inside said control room, later that night, the Doctor and Victoria discuss how her father gave his life to save her. The Doctor insists that it does get easier, and says that he keeps his memories of his family locked away in his mind, but can refer to them whenever he wants. The rest of the time, he acts like they never existed.
Not long after, the group are surrounded by Cybermats.
The Doctor wakes everyone up and uses the control panel wiring to make a small electrical barrier which everyone hides behind. The barrier sends the Cybermats mental and they all stop working.
No sooner has this happens, than Kleig and Kaftan emerge, using the gun to cement their authority. Kleig fires at the Doctor but Jamie pushes him out of the way, hitting Callum in the shoulder. Happy with the demonstration of their power, Kleig and Kaftan announce that they intend to approach the Cybermen again, this time using the gun as leverage to get what they want.
The Cyber-Controller sends the rest of his soldiers back to their capsules seeing as they are running out of power. Kleig opens the hatch and calls the Controller out. He goes out to the top, bringing a docile Toberman with him.
As the Controller emerges, Kleig sees that he too is low on power and bargains the chance for the Controller to revitalise himself on the release of Toberman and the agreement to help him conquer the world. The Controller agrees and is herded into the revitalisation room with the Doctor, Parry, and Jamie.
The Controller threatens the group to help him revitalise. The Doctor helps him inside the sarcophagus, but intends to trap him inside when the doors are closed. Jamie uses some rope and fastens it up, but as the machine completes its cycle, the Cyber-Controller is more powerful than ever before and makes light work of snapping the ropes.
Once free, the Controller telepathically contacts Toberman and gets him to knock Kleig unconscious and release them from the room. The Controller takes the X-Ray gun, and orders Kaftan to open the hatch to the tomb. She in turn tries to shoot him with a normal gun. The Controller says that the gun cannot harm him and shoots her with his own weapon, killing her.
The Controller opens the hatch himself, but is confronted by Toberman who has been snapped out of his trance by the death of his mistress and the help of the Doctor. They fight and Toberman gets the upper hand, throwing the Controller into the bank of levers.
A couple of the Cybermen are revived from the tomb and try to come up to aid the Controller but are gunned down by Jamie and the X-Ray gun.
The Doctor convinces Toberman to go back down into the tomb with him to destroy the rest of the Cybermen. As they go down, Kleig regains consciousness and sneaks after them, retrieving the discarded X-Ray gun. Once inside, Kleig holds them hostage and setting the controls to defrost again. He captures Jamie who comes down after him and holds them all at gunpoint, announcing that he will be the new Cyber-Controller. As he rants and raves, a newly revived Cyberman comes behind him and throttles him to death. It then tries to release the other Cybermen until Toberman kills it by smashing in its chest unit.
The Doctor rushes to the controls and uses them to put the Cybermen back into deep freeze.
They go back to the top and realise that Hopper has returned to the tomb to announce that the ship is finally repaired. The Doctor seals the tube up again and electrifies the controls as well as the doors. As they're about to leave, the Cyber-Controller springs up and chases after them. The group make it outside and try to close the doors behind them, but the Cyber-Controller is strong, and they know that as soon as the doors connect, anyone in contact with them will be electrocuted.
Jamie grabs some wooden shoring planks and they prop against the door but it looks hopeless. Toberman suddenly bats everyone away and pushes against the door himself. Thanks to his superhuman strength, the doors are closed and both he and the Cyber-Controller are killed by the electricity.
A forlorn Parry and Hopper say goodbye to the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria, and return to their ship,
The Doctor predicts that this is the end of the Cybermen, but as they leave for the TARDIS, he doesn't see one of the Cybermats skulking around outside the tomb, very much alive.
Trivia
- This story sees a new script editor Victor Pemberton take over the reins from Gerry Davis himself.
- The giant tomb scene was filmed at Ealing Studio's, with just the base tier being constructed for close up work in other studios later on
- Innes Lloyd had decided that he'd had enough of Doctor Who and began putting his plans in to leave. He tested Peter Bryant as Producer by going on holiday and leaving the production in his hands.
- As the Doctor and Jamie first enter the control room, the bit where they accidentally hold hands was totally off the cuff and spontaneous, Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines both knew that Morris Barry would never stand for such nonsense, but if they did it there and then, he wouldn't have time to re-shoot it.
What worked
- The quarry scenes were quite good.
- It's hard to argue that the Cybermen symbols here aren't iconic.
- Actually, the pyrotechnics in the x ray guns were pretty good. It looked like it was really firing.
- The effects team finally got the goo coming out of the chestplate right
- Some of the humor between Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines is first class and still brought a laugh out of me now.
- Parry's a broken man by the end of the story. It's nice to see that they showed this angle, not downplaying the fact that there's a pretty high death toll in this story, and that these people mattered to someone
What didn't work
- If you want people to come and wake you up, why electrocute the doors and put lots of traps in the way?
- How to make it painfully obvious on the fact that you're the bad guy and up to no good - ask Kleig and Kaftan. They wrote the book!
- Everything about the Cybermat's
- What's the point of Jamie putting on an insulated coat if he stays in a kilt?
- The fact that we're asked to believe that the Cyber-Controller crouched in a cupboard for 500 years
- To say that this story immediately follows on from the Evil of the Daleks, Victoria is pretty calm about her father's death.
- Whilst we're on the subject of Victoria, she doesn't seem to have a problem of wearing a miniskirt either. She must have been very liberal in her day
- So the logician's plan was to bank on the Cybermen being grateful for someone releasing them. not very logical given that they've tried to take over the earth twice now
- Probably the biggest thing that doesn't work in this story is that the Doctor repeatedly explains why exploring the tomb is a bad idea, and then goes and helps the team activate the tomb and help explore. It's safe to say that the majority of deaths in this story were directly the Doctor's fault!
Overall Feelings
For many a year, I've watched this story and enjoyed it. As with the Moonbase, this is another Cyberman story that gives you every reason to hate this thing. Everything is just so unbelievable and over the top. But what's happened, is that the Tomb of the Cybermen is to be celebrated for all it's faults.
From the moment when they've "blown the bl**dy doors off" the quarry, until the very end credits, everything is just so delightfully cheesy, I mean all that's missing is for Kleig to shout "Nothing in zi vorld can stop me now!"
I suppose that despite all the lashings of edam and over the top acting, there's the sliver of something more to enjoy here. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this story, like a lot of the gothic era Tom Baker stories, is inspired by some of the classic films. This is a futuristic re-imagining of the Mummy. And in that, there's a lot of the classic horror tropes that up to now, have been absent from Doctor Who, and the unusually high body count attests to it.
It's a story that really does go a long way to show how good things will become. Troughton, Hines and Debbie Watling are all great together and the fact that they get on so well on screen is testament to the fact that they did off screen. Just like the Cybermen are frozen in their tombs, this story captures just a brilliant and fun time for the show to be thawed out again and again.
Rating
6 out of 10
Cheese-tastic but with a high body count and lots of pulp horror tropes about tombs and mad scientists
Rewatchability Factor
9 out of 10
I've watched this loads of times and I would happily come back again
Watch this if you liked...
- The Attack of the Cybermen
Consulting the Matrix
Kleig and Kaftan were both incredibly over the top. Who is you favourite over the top bad guy?
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