Day 87 — March 28th 2021
The Tomb of the Cybermen Episodes One and Two
The Tomb of the Cybermen — Episode One
Whenever people ask me what my favourite Doctor Who story is, I always tell them that it’s The Tomb of the Cybermen. Or, failing that, I tell them that it’s this one for the Old Testament and The Unicorn and the Wasp for the new. And that’s true — I always do think of this as being my favourite story. It was one of the very first Doctor Who stories I ever saw (I picked it up on DVD from the BBC Shop in Norwich in the summer of 2004, having taken a few tentative steps into the series via VHS tapes from the local library before then) and I was instantly hooked. I loved it. It hit me in a way that the likes of Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Resurrection of the Daleks simply didn’t — although I’d loved those too. Shortly after buying the DVD I had some friends round and convinced them to watch it with me because I’d love it so much. I don’t think they even made it through this first episode, but they were clearly fools!
But because this is my ‘favourite’ story, I always worry about it when it comes to a marathon like this. I’m rating each episode and generating the scores for full stories from those. What if this doesn’t — for whatever reason — come out as top? Can I still claim that it’s my ‘favourite’? When I did my last marathon, I remember worrying about just that. I think I remember even bumping up the scores a little to make sure that this still came out on top. I’d been thrown by how much I’d enjoyed The Power of the Daleks and The Macra Terror, both of which threatened this one for the top spot. I can’t remember if I did end up massaging the scores or not, but I resolved this time around to not do that. I decided that as I’m being more honest with myself on the scoring this time (I had an unwritten rule in 2013 to never give a ‘1’ to any episode, but this time around I reached The Web Planet and did what I knew was right) I’d simply rate this one fairly alongside the other episodes I’ve done so far.
After all, if I can acknowledge that The Faceless Ones is full of brilliant material but ultimately less than the sum of its parts, then I can equally argue that this is so much more. Luckily, though, I’ve not had to do that, because this first episode is brilliant. Oh, God, it’s brilliant! I enjoyed it even more than I’d hoped to.
We open with a gorgeous TARDIS scene shot on film, and doesn’t it look brilliant like that? There’s also an echo to the voices of our regulars which makes it seem more sparse and awe-inspiring than usual. I don’t often talk about the Control Room, because I’m usually more interested in the Police Box than what’s inside it, but it’s been looking a bit rubbish lately. Luckily, we’ve not really been able to see much of it in Season Four. There’s photos from the likes of The Smugglers which show the toll being carted in and out of studio week after week has had. Dented roundels, missing roundels, you name it. Here, though, it’s great. And it feels like a nice attempt to reintroduce it right at the start of Season Five. It also contains the only bit of Troughton dialogue I can quote in anything even vaguely resembling an impression of the man himself;
Doctor Who: ‘It’s the Tardis. It’s my home. At least, it has been for a considerable number of years.’
From here we’re straight out onto the surface of an alien world… and what a world! I praised The Savages for some great location work, but this tops that in almost every way. There’s some great shots with ‘mountains’ in the background which are particularly effective. I think almost all of it is done with the help of some forced perspective, and I know they used that for shots of the rocket ship among the valleys, and I think it’s gorgeous. I think it holds up as the most effective alien planet we’ve visited in the series so far.
I think my favourite thing about this episode, though, is the humour. It’s so brilliantly funny, and it almost revels in that. Doctor Who suggesting that Toberman might be afraid to touch the doors and then quickly retracting when the man flexes his muscles (‘Oh, no, no, he’s not afraid’). The description of his own ‘special technique’ for exploring new locations (‘Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut’).
But even better than that is the sequence of our TARDIS travellers entering the tomb for the first time. You get a wonderful bit of bonding for the three of them, and the brilliant exchange about Victoria feeling uncomfortable out of her Victorian clothes;
Doctor Who: ‘You look very nice in that dress, Victoria.’
Victoria: ‘Thank you. Don’t you think it’s a bit…’
Doctor Who: ‘A bit short? Oh, I shouldn’t worry about that. Look at Jamie’s!’
Jamie: ‘Hey, I’ll have you know that… Oh! aye!’
That same scene includes the often-lauded moment when Doctor Who and Jamie hold hands without thinking and then snatch themselves away when they realise, and that’s hilarious! It’s also a moment that would have been totally lost before this story was returned in the early 1990s. It’s little gems like that which I long to see in many of the other missing episodes. What magic is buried in there, unknown via the tele-snaps and off air soundtracks?
So it’s a great start, and I’m suitably pleased. I’m going with a 9/10 here.
This episode is also home to the moment which inspired a Doctor Who joke I think about all the time even though it ever actually ended up being used. ‘With Toberman to guard us we need fear no one,’ says Kaftan. In an early outline for the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip The Flood there were plans to include some cyber-dogs, and then-editor Clayton Hickman proposed a line of dialogue for the story; ‘With doberman to guard us we need fear no one.’
I’m not making it up when I say I think about that joke at least weekly, and it makes me smile every single time.
The Tomb of the Cybermen — Episode Two
One of the things people call out as being a bit rubbish in The Tomb of the Cybermen is the way Doctor Who keeps helping the archeologists to get a little further and then immediately warning them off it and despairing that they’re continuing. This episode is filled with examples. He explains how to open the hatch to the tombs and then, when Kleig can’t quite get the calculation right, he flicks some switches to help him along. He knows that Klieg intends to waken the Cybermen, and just lets him do it.
I don’t see any problem with it, though. He explains away his reasoning in this episode;
Jamie: ‘You knew, Doctor?’
Doctor Who: ‘I wanted to know what he was up to.’
Doctor Who’s known that Kaftan and Klieg are up to something from the moment he encountered the expedition (and let’s be honest, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to spot it). He’s just giving them enough rope to hang themselves. Now I’ll admit that it’s bad that other people die in the process, but there’s a method to his meddling at lest.
And I also reckon he’s just a bit bored. Doctor Who loves an adventure! He’s arrived on a planet that’s said to contain the last remains of the Cybermen? There’s no way he’s just gonna move on to somewhere new! He wants to have a bit of fun! He’s not encountered the Cybermen for at least 17 episodes, and he’s probably missing them.
This episode continues to be as funny as the last one, and I’ve actually found myself laughing out loud with it on several occasions. Even though I’ve always loved it, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually done that before. Particular highlights here include Jamie trying to stand up to Toberman before realising what he’s up against (‘hey, let the Doctor past or I’ll… yes, well… let the Doctor past’) and Doctor Who taking the piss out of Kleig when he can’t get his calculations right (‘I think your logic is wearing a bit thin…’).
Perhaps my biggest laugh is right at the start of the episode, when Doctor Who tries to repeat the sequence of events which led to the Episode One cliffhanger, and bring out a Cyberman;
Doctor Who: ‘Now there is a distinct element of risk in what I’m asking you all to do, so if anyone wishes to leave they must do so at once. Not you, Jamie!’
But for all that this is a funny episode, I think it’s also quite a scary one. I like to joke that the Cybercontroller has been squatting in a fridge for 500 years, but the sequence of the regular Cybermen breaking out of their tombs is really effective.
It should be a bit comical, and it’s definitely a bit clunky. But somehow the entire moment, underscored with the brilliant Space Adventure track, which has by now become the signature motif of the Cybermen, is brilliant. It’s haunting and iconic, and I can totally see why it stuck in the memory to make this one of the ‘holy grail’ missing stories.
And then there’s the cliffhanger. Oh God the cliffhanger;
Klieg: ‘I am Klieg. Eric Klieg. I have brought you back to life. We of the Logicians have planned this. You are alive because of us. Now you will help us. We need your power. You need our mass intelligence. Are you listening? Do you understand me? Now that I have released you…’
[The Cybercontroller grabs Klieg’s outstretched wrist]
Klieg: ‘Aaah! Let me go! I set you free! It was our plan!’
The Cybercontroller: ‘You belong to us. You shall be like us.’
I don’t think the Cybermen have ever really scared me before, but in that moment I totally get it. I don’t see a load of Equity members stood around in silver boiler suits, I see these terrifying cybernetic creatures, and I totally buy the danger the characters are in. I love it. The episode was heading for another ‘9’, but that cliffhanger is so perfect that it bumps it up to a 10/10.
