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Rewatching... Doctor Who: Tomb Of The Cybermen - Episode 1

My continuing mission: to watch classic television exactly fifty years after original broadcast date.

By Nick BrownPublished 7 years ago 8 min read
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"Look at him. 'Archaeologist' written all over him."

Saturday 2 September 1967

​Can it really be less than a year since Patrick Troughton took over as Doctor Who? He seems so established, and Hartnell so long ago now. And this is the programme's fifth season? Incredible.

So I'm still in 1967, the new TARDIS team is back, and it's about Cybermen. It seems to be continuing directly on from where we left off last season, with Jamie and the Doctor's new friend Victoria Waterfield being welcomed aboard the TARDIS. After her father was exterminated by the Daleks the Doctor promised him he'd look after her. I'm not sure the Doctor's style of 'looking after' would be quite what Mr. Waterfield would have had in mind...

There's a new reverb effect on all the dialogue in the TARDIS. I don't know why it wasn't there before but I quite like it, it gives an impression of scale. Also it's shot on film which looks very different.

So we learn the Doctors age: about 450 years old "in Earth terms."

The Doctor's hurt indignation when Jamie requests a "smooth take off" is very funny. "What a nerve" he says.

Elsewhere on a rocky planet a group of bickering men, one token lady and her... um... black servant, are looking for the entrance to the city of Telos.

The episode captions appear two and a half minutes in—this already looks very different to the Doctor Who I'm used to.

They do what you might expect them to do in a quarry and blow up a big piece of rock, revealing (off camera!) a pair of huge doors. The woman is called Kaftan and has a non specific 'foreign' accent.

I'm not sure if she's offering £50 of her own money to whoever opens the doors, or whether she's repeating an offer made elsewhere. Either way, blimey: fifty quid is an absolute fortune!

There are ten people in this expedition, a pretty impressive cast for this programme. Except... oh wait... one is electrocuted trying to claim his fifty pounds.

There's a familiar "engine" sound nearby.

I always enjoy it when we hear the TARDIS landing from the perspective of supporting cast. They all scurry around in panic when they realise they're not alone here. The use of film in these scenes really gives it a great "movie" look.

The travellers appear, clambering over the rocks.

Jamie and Victoria have got changed into new outfits! Jamie has a new shirt and Victoria has found a much shorter dress... surely she'd protest at that. I wonder if she was pressured by Jamie. One can imagine the scene: "It'll be much more practical Victoria."...Oh yes of course...

I wonder if they've come directly after the last TARDIS scene or whether they've had an adventure or three in between.

The Doctor spots trouble immediately, running over to the body by the doors.

His cleverness is getting him into trouble as he seems to understand how the man was killed. I'm not sure why that earns him suspicion from the others who call him a "wise guy." But the Doctor seems quite flattered to be described as an archaeologist, beaming delightedly.

The leader of the expedition comes clean. They are searching for the last remains of the Cybermen.

This comes as a shock to Jamie and the Doctor, who oddly haven't spotted the huge Cyberman icons by the doors. How could you miss those?! They say the planet is called Telos (and pronounce is differently to the way they did earlier). So the planet and the city have the same name? Or the planet only has one city? I'm confused.

This is another one of those multi-national teams like the one in the last Cyberman story. It's all very progressive and forward thinking in the style of the new Star Trek series which started in America last year. Except none of the crew in that series has what they call in 1967 a "coloured" or "negro" servant. And although one of the men sounds American or Canadian, I'm not sure where Kaftan is from. There's also a rather smarmy and sarcastic chap called Eric Klieg who has a European accent of some kind. That's George Pastell, I recognise him as Smarmy Villainous Foreign Guy from every current tv action series.

Klieg is particularly unfriendly to the Doctor. He seems really threatened by him. I guess he was the clever one before the Doctor arrived. Apparently Klieg provided the funding for the expedition.

The Doctor and Jamie fail to open the doors after the Doctor establishes that the electricity has been discharged.

"I haven't had much exercise lately," complains Jamie. A pretty weak excuse. Apparently fighting redcoats, gallivanting around from planet to planet, defeating giant crabs, striding around Gatwick airport, pushing Daleks from balconies and duelling hand to hand with giant Turks doesn't count as exercise...

So it's up to the big servant guy, Toberman, to open the doors.

I wonder if there are more Tobermen. Tomb of the Tobermen? It's almost as though his name is a clue to his fate...

That scene where the Doctor and Jamie accidentally hold hands is brilliantly funny! Looks like an ad lib to me. Troughton and Hines have really settled into their roles now. This looks like a team having fun and it's great to see.

The expedition team explore inside what I expected to be a city but actually looks like a metal walled room.

Odd hearing the Cybermen described as having "dynasties." Kaftan makes veiled threats about keeping an eye on the strangers and Toberman makes gleeful 'fighting' gestures. He seems to be a man who enjoys violence, and she is definitely up to no good.

Why is the Doctor helping them at all? Perhaps he's worried about what would happen if the team were left alone with the Cybermen. Maybe the situation is safer under his watchful eye. Or is he just massively curious and can't control himself?

All this talk of OR gates and computers sounds very plausible. More convincing than most of the dialogue Hartnell was given. George Pastell is very good at sarcasm, and gets a wonderful put down as the Doctor explains his "special technique" of deduction: keeping his eyes open and his mouth shut! Yeah that told him!

A bit of casual sixties sexism as the women are told to remain where they are as the men form separate parties. Victoria is having none of it though. Her indignation at this and then her frosty "I'm alright thank you" to Kaftan after having her arm grabbed and being told they need to stick together gives us a glimpse that she may be feisty companion material rather than the feeble Victorian girl we expected. Her sole purpose in the preceding story seemed to be to be rescued by the men, so this looks like a promising new direction.

The Doctor proves that Klieg's not the only one who can do sarcasm, getting one over on him: "I love to see the experts at work," he grins.

Victoria has joined up with Kaftan, Toberman and a chap called Viner.

Kaftan is positively flirtatious with Viner as she tells him that she sent Toberman to join the others as she doesn't need protection now that Viner's with them. He's immune to her charms though and pulls his arm away to get on with the matter in hand. The 'matter' being fussing around with a clip board and working out what all the equipment is for.

Viner is a very rude man it seems, snapping at Victoria for getting in his way. "Fiddle!" she exclaims at him, using an unexpected 'F' word.

The Cybermen clearly have an eye for branding: their stencilled head icons are all over the place. And we get a nice 'scientific' explanation of why there is daylight inside the windowless corridors.

Jamie discovers a small metal creature which he describes as a caterpillar. It's "dead as a stone" though.

The Doctor seems to be having second thoughts about helping the expedition. I think he feels that they are being manipulated by the Cybermen, claiming that it's all been too easy.

I love Klieg's sarcastic "oh thank you" to the Doctor as he tells him his calculations are mostly right! Bizarrely the Doctor tells Klieg exactly what to do and then strongly advises him not to do it!

So ignoring the Doctor (of course) Klieg activates a thing which does a thing and the room shakes and rumbles a bit and control panels light up. A bit rich then, the Doctor protesting that Klieg should have left it alone.

Meanwhile Victoria has been nosing around a Cybermen revitalisation sarcophagus and gets trapped inside. And Jamie and his companion Haydon accidentally activate a "hypnotising machine."

We get some sixties style hypnotised acting. You know the kind of thing: "Don't look at it!"; "I must..." etc.

The Doctor releases Victoria...

...so perhaps I was wrong and she is still there to be rescued.

Haydon just loves pressing buttons and pulling levers. He and Jamie mess about with every control there is and just as the Doctor arrives to stop them, too late a Cybermen appears from behind a door and shoots Haydon. The man apparently drops dead with smoke pouring out of his back and that's this season's first cliffhanger.

Nasty. Odd movement though that Cybermen; something didn't look right about the way it slid across the room...

A gripping episode, I really enjoyed that. Just over a year ago Doctor Who was showing signs of looking a little tired, but if that's the way the new series is going, I can't wait for the rest of it.

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About the Creator

Nick Brown

I've embarked upon an open ended mission, pretending to travel back in time and watch classic television on (or close to) the fiftieth anniversary of original broadcast date; getting a sense of the context, the magic of that first viewing.

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