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Friday, December 13, 2013

Doctor Who Rewind - Tomb Of The Cybermen

Doctor Who Rewind
Tomb Of The Cybermen

At last, with my sanity still intact I reach the fifth season of Doctor Who, and the first complete Troughton story, regarded by fans to be an absolute classic in the canon, featuring one of the Doctor's best loved adversaries, those silver clad cyborgs themselves, The Cybermen.

Joining me again on the sofa, and relishing the thought of continuous moving images, small Treadwell. His companionship through out this journey will now start to become more regular as we move past the lost years of Doctor Who. But let's not get carried away, were not out of the woods yet! We've reached an island retreat from the reconstructions but will still have to endure the odd one or two in the coming weeks.

Anyway, let's get back to Tomb Of The Cybermen. There's a lovely, and very cinematic scene at the top of episode one where the Doctor escorts Victoria into the TARDIS and explains its function. The camera follows the Doctor in and we see exactly what Victoria would see. The TARDIS then dematerialises and we are transported to a dry sun baked planet (actually a quarry in Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Pit at Waspey's Woods in Buckinghamshire).

The writers of this story, Kit Pedler and Gerry Davies were highly influenced by Egyptology. The story is set on the planet Telos where an archeological team arrive in search of a lost civilisation.

Fortunately their very unorthodox archeological practice, of blowing the side of a mountain sky high, pays dividends, revealing (almost to neatly) two giant doors.

The TARDIS lands and the expedition is joined by Jamie, Victoria and the Doctor. The team is funded by Kaftan, who is accompanied by her giant manservant Toberman and her colleague Klieg. They are there to try and find the remains of the Cybermen who died five centuries before.

One of the team is electrocuted trying to enter the tomb but with the Doctors help they eventually open the mighty doors revealing the secrets within.

Inside they are greeted by a strange console with many levers and dials, with strange symbols and pictograms of Cybermen all over the place.

The team split up. Victoria and Kaftan end up in a chamber that houses a sarcophagus. Victoria gets trapped inside it after Kaftan pulls a lever and tries to initiate the projector array pointing at it. The Doctor, who suspects nothing manages to free her .

Jamie and Hayden are in another room and activate some kind of test firing range, involving a hypnotic screen and a mocked up Cyberman which springs across the screen. Unfortunately Hayden is shot in the back by the device. It's in this room that Victoria finds a small device, a silver robot mouse. The Doctor explicitly tells her to leave it alone and what does she do? She puts it into her bag! I mean, would you stick a Cybermat into your bag?

Meanwhile Toberman, the man mountain played by Roy Stewart has wondered off. When he returns he informs Kaftan that, it is done.

Captain Hopper returns claiming that the ship they arrived on has been sabotaged and won't be going anywhere till it's repaired. I wonder who did that then?

Finally cracking the code for the hatch to the tombs below, the team descend, leaving Kaftan and Victoria above. Below they find the frozen tombs of the Cyberman, who are iced up in an oversized box of ice pops three stories high.

Kaftan meanwhile drugs Victoria and re-seals the hatch.

Back down below the totally shifty Klieg tells the Doctor he and Kaftan belong to a secret brotherhood who have been plotting to find and wake the Cybermen from their slumber. The Doctor completely knows Klieg is a wrongen' who is as slippery as a pile of frozen poo but humours him into trying to open the hatch back up. Of course Klieg flicks a switch and the Cybermen start to defrost.

So we get to the iconic melting scene of Cyborg units emerging from their cells, which are incidentally covered in cling film. They descended and approach Klieg. The Cyber controller - he with the bigger plant pot on his head than the others - grabs Klieg and twists his arm clearly giving him no thanks at all for awakening him.

Yes, the Cybermen have tricked everyone with their latest plot, to lie in wait until someone intelligent enough to wake them comes along and does just that. And then, convert them into Cybermen as thanks.

Fortunately Capt Hopper arrives up top and works out how to open the Hatch, he tosses a few grenades down enabling the captives to ascend. Toberman unfortunately does not escape and is subjected to partial cyber conversion.

Kaftan and Klieg get hold of x-ray laser cyber gun and manages to re-open the hatch for the Cyber controller to emerge (his cohorts having been ordered back to their cells for re-energising), he is however winding down a bit. Klieg promises to help the controller providing they help him to conquer the earth.

The Doctor tries to trap the controller in the sarcophagus but he breaks loose, picking up the Cybergun, and shooting Kaftan when she tries to block his way.

Toberman regains control over his senses and picks up the Cyber controller - throwing his listless body (that has by this time been swapped for double, a dressed up mannequin) into the control room console.

The Doctor, wanting to make sure the Cybermen are frozen, goes down into the tombs and is followed by Klieg, who takes the Cyber gun. Klieg now has illusions of grandeur, hoping that the remaining Cybermen, will look to him as their leader. He starts the re-energising sequence, and once revitalised one of the Cybermen throttle him from behind. Toberman grabs the Cyberman and several punches later...shaving foam is pouring out of the poor cyberman's chest to great effect.

The Doctor throws a switch and the Cybermen once again freeze up in there cocoons. The Doctor re-electrifies the doors and everyone makes to leave. Just then the controller, refusing to die gets up and starts approaching. As a last act of defiance against those that have converted him, Tobermen sacrifices himself by closing the doors to the tomb. He is killed by the voltage.

The Doctor, Victoria and Jamie leave for the TARDIS with the others returning to their repaired ship.

Is this the last of the Cybermen, well maybe not, a lone Cybermat has escaped and is left outside of the Tomb! With nobody noticing it, it is free to escape and start rebooting the entire Cyber race!

What a joy to watch a full story of Troughton then, and both he and Jamie have got their parts and relationship down to a fine art. As an example, there's funny little little moment just before they enter the tomb for the first time, where they accidentally hold each others hands thinking it's Victoria's. Apparently they'd worked out the skit before the cameras rolled as the director would never have aloud it.

What a brilliant performance to by George Pastell (a very well known actor in his day for manny Hammer Horror films) as Klieg, a man who wants to find union with the Cybermen. The characters ego grows throughout the story until he himself thinks he can direct the mighty metal giants. He even considers bringing the Doctor into his little plan when Troughton humours him, telling him how clever and brainy he is.

Of note to are the wonderful sets that were created. Again with little budget I bet. The sequence where the Cybermen wake from there Tombs, looks great even today, as a piece of vintage film.

All in all I can see why this story is revered so much by fans, and why it helped to secure the future of the Cybermen in Doctor Who.

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind we encounter some rather cute cuddly giants in the hills of Tibet.





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