Doctor Who Rewind - The Moonbase
Despite a short break for 50th Anniversary Celebration excitement, it's back to completely lost or semi lost serials from the late 60's for me and we pick up again with the Cybermen's second outing,The Moonbase.
Two episodes of this four parter have survived the Troughton cull, so at least I have had some moving reference points to go on.
The story is set on the Moon some 57 years from 2013 in 2070. After landing on the lunar surface and having a bit of a lark in zero G the Doctor and pals head over to the weather tracking station manned by an international team headed by Hobson, played superbly by Patrick Barr (star of the The Dam Busters et al).
The team use a machine called a Gravitron to control Earths weather. And as far as I can see this involves a person sitting alone at a control desk in a room with a shower cap on his head. Why though, I don't know.
The team have been hit by a mysterious virus which renders them unconscious. The first to be hit with the virus is the station doctor who, on his deathbed talks of seeing a strange silver hand.
The Doctor starts investigating and generally gets in everyone's way including Hobson. Later Jamie is struck down ill and is placed with the other victims in sickbay. Delirious , he eyes a figure advancing on one of the other bodies, of which he mutters something about a phantom piper. The Cyberman carries off the body of the station employee and disappears. Jamie tells the Doctor and Hobson, who go off to investigate but Polly remains at his side when she too see's the silver plastic covered mutant advancing on him, she recognises it immediately as a Cyberman.
The Cyberman ignores Jamie, and takes another virus stricken body and disappears. When Hobson finds out about the Cyberman story he dismisses it out of hand, as he believes the robots were wiped out years ago. He gives the Doctor just 24 hours to figure out what is going on, before ejecting him and his friends off the station.
More victims fall prey to the virus and Hobson has difficulty maintaining the functions of the station. Jamie and Polly are attacked by a Cyberman and stunned by an electric pulse from its hand. It leaves with another body.
The Doctor can find no explication for the virus.
Meanwhile the antennas that the Gravitron uses on the lunar surface are broken and two station personnel are sent to fix it. Yes, we all know what happens to them don't we. Appearing from nowhere two Cybermen beat them to the ground.
After Polly makes a nice cup of tea for everyone, another crew member gets struck down with varicose vein face syndrome and the Doctor connects the dots and realises that, no it's not Polly's tea making that is infecting everyone but the sugar. Which has come from the supply in the stores, which has been compromised by the evil Cybermen.
In another attack, in which the Cybermen take over the central control of the station, they reveal they want to use the Gravitron to destroy life on earth.
Three captured moonbase crew members are mind controlled by the Cybermen and sent to take over the Gravitron. Ben and Polly gather and mix a concoction of nail varnish remover, fire extinguishers and other plastic dissolving substances and lead a fight against the Cybermen. The liquid works and the cyber-bots are rendered useless when their control front packs are melted.
The hole that leads to the food stores is blocked so other Cybermen can't get through. Cybermen on the surface damage the aerial and any further communication with earth is useless. The controlled drone workers in the Gravitron room are activate the machine to send a rescue relief ship off course and into the sun.
A hole is blasted in the station wall causing it to depressurise, Hobson and his crew mate manage to plug it with a coffee tray, as you do.
Two more Cyberships arrive and a cannon is pointed at the base, they threaten Hobson that unless he opens the doors they will fire. Hobson refuses and the Cybermen use the laser cannon, the Gravitron though, deflects the laser.
The Doctor, Polly, Hobson and others eventually manage to point the gravitron at the Cybermen, who float majestically into the blackness of space.
While the station crew members re-align the Gravitron the Doctor and his companions escape back to the TARDIS and dematerialise.
The Doctor activates the time scanner and a future picture is displayed of a giant claw.
Despite getting a little ground hogged around the third episode (a recon), I must have tried to watch it about three times, well, I was trying to watch it late at night, slipping in and out of consciousness, I eventually made it to the end.
The two existing episodes definitely helped my enjoyment of the story, and seeing the action play out, in pristine restored black and white was a joy. There's a lot to like in this story and some good ideas which are explored.
The Cybermen design, minus the large head lamps seen in The Tenth Planet is less obtrusive and cumbersome.
What really impressed me with this story was the musical score. The Radiophonic workshop seem to be back on form with this serial. The incidental effects are genuinely un-nerving and other worldly. The theme music which is used throughout is from an album of stock music used on Doctor Who from the time, it's called Space Adventures and is by Martin Slavin. It's a kind of skewed futuristic march.
At this point Troughton was beginning to settle down into the role created by Hartnell. His performance is less sporadic here and you get the impression that he feels as though he doesn't need to play every scene with the same intensity as he may have before. He still lacks for many characterises that Hartnell added to his character, and I still feel a little short changed by his portrayal of the Doctor. Hopefully though, this will change in the coming stories.
Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, we plough on with another missing story, The Macra Terror.
Two episodes of this four parter have survived the Troughton cull, so at least I have had some moving reference points to go on.
The story is set on the Moon some 57 years from 2013 in 2070. After landing on the lunar surface and having a bit of a lark in zero G the Doctor and pals head over to the weather tracking station manned by an international team headed by Hobson, played superbly by Patrick Barr (star of the The Dam Busters et al).
The team use a machine called a Gravitron to control Earths weather. And as far as I can see this involves a person sitting alone at a control desk in a room with a shower cap on his head. Why though, I don't know.
The team have been hit by a mysterious virus which renders them unconscious. The first to be hit with the virus is the station doctor who, on his deathbed talks of seeing a strange silver hand.
The Doctor starts investigating and generally gets in everyone's way including Hobson. Later Jamie is struck down ill and is placed with the other victims in sickbay. Delirious , he eyes a figure advancing on one of the other bodies, of which he mutters something about a phantom piper. The Cyberman carries off the body of the station employee and disappears. Jamie tells the Doctor and Hobson, who go off to investigate but Polly remains at his side when she too see's the silver plastic covered mutant advancing on him, she recognises it immediately as a Cyberman.
The Cyberman ignores Jamie, and takes another virus stricken body and disappears. When Hobson finds out about the Cyberman story he dismisses it out of hand, as he believes the robots were wiped out years ago. He gives the Doctor just 24 hours to figure out what is going on, before ejecting him and his friends off the station.
More victims fall prey to the virus and Hobson has difficulty maintaining the functions of the station. Jamie and Polly are attacked by a Cyberman and stunned by an electric pulse from its hand. It leaves with another body.
The Doctor can find no explication for the virus.
Meanwhile the antennas that the Gravitron uses on the lunar surface are broken and two station personnel are sent to fix it. Yes, we all know what happens to them don't we. Appearing from nowhere two Cybermen beat them to the ground.
After Polly makes a nice cup of tea for everyone, another crew member gets struck down with varicose vein face syndrome and the Doctor connects the dots and realises that, no it's not Polly's tea making that is infecting everyone but the sugar. Which has come from the supply in the stores, which has been compromised by the evil Cybermen.
In another attack, in which the Cybermen take over the central control of the station, they reveal they want to use the Gravitron to destroy life on earth.
Three captured moonbase crew members are mind controlled by the Cybermen and sent to take over the Gravitron. Ben and Polly gather and mix a concoction of nail varnish remover, fire extinguishers and other plastic dissolving substances and lead a fight against the Cybermen. The liquid works and the cyber-bots are rendered useless when their control front packs are melted.
The hole that leads to the food stores is blocked so other Cybermen can't get through. Cybermen on the surface damage the aerial and any further communication with earth is useless. The controlled drone workers in the Gravitron room are activate the machine to send a rescue relief ship off course and into the sun.
A hole is blasted in the station wall causing it to depressurise, Hobson and his crew mate manage to plug it with a coffee tray, as you do.
Two more Cyberships arrive and a cannon is pointed at the base, they threaten Hobson that unless he opens the doors they will fire. Hobson refuses and the Cybermen use the laser cannon, the Gravitron though, deflects the laser.
The Doctor, Polly, Hobson and others eventually manage to point the gravitron at the Cybermen, who float majestically into the blackness of space.
While the station crew members re-align the Gravitron the Doctor and his companions escape back to the TARDIS and dematerialise.
The Doctor activates the time scanner and a future picture is displayed of a giant claw.
Despite getting a little ground hogged around the third episode (a recon), I must have tried to watch it about three times, well, I was trying to watch it late at night, slipping in and out of consciousness, I eventually made it to the end.
The two existing episodes definitely helped my enjoyment of the story, and seeing the action play out, in pristine restored black and white was a joy. There's a lot to like in this story and some good ideas which are explored.
The Cybermen design, minus the large head lamps seen in The Tenth Planet is less obtrusive and cumbersome.
What really impressed me with this story was the musical score. The Radiophonic workshop seem to be back on form with this serial. The incidental effects are genuinely un-nerving and other worldly. The theme music which is used throughout is from an album of stock music used on Doctor Who from the time, it's called Space Adventures and is by Martin Slavin. It's a kind of skewed futuristic march.
At this point Troughton was beginning to settle down into the role created by Hartnell. His performance is less sporadic here and you get the impression that he feels as though he doesn't need to play every scene with the same intensity as he may have before. He still lacks for many characterises that Hartnell added to his character, and I still feel a little short changed by his portrayal of the Doctor. Hopefully though, this will change in the coming stories.
Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, we plough on with another missing story, The Macra Terror.
posted by Nic Treadwell at 10:40 pm
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