Doctor Who - The Wheel In Space

The final story of the fifth season, with only two episodes still existing, see's the return of the Telos Cybermen. And if there's one thing you can rely on Cybermen for it's an ingenious plan to invade earth.

The failure of the TARDIS's fluid link means Jamie and the Doctor must abandon the space ship swiftly. They find themselves on a vessel floating in space, deserted except for a robot, which after detecting them turns on navigation control causing a rapid change of direction. The Doctor bangs his head and is out cold for much of the rest, and next episode, leaving Jamie to fend for himself. Jamie eventually destroys the robot when it becomes aggressive, but not before it releases a series of egg shaped objects from itself which float off into space.

The Doctor and Jamie are rescued from the vessel when an Earth Space Station (the wheel in space - which observes phenomena in deep space, and is staffed with a small international crew) become concerned when their supply vessel, which has strayed some eighty million miles off course and has gone missing, suddenly turns up. After failed attempts to establish contact, they crew decide to destroy it with an x ray laser but Jamie manages to create enough noise to be detected.

Meanwhile the egg like objects have attached themselves to the said Space Station. On board Jamie tells the resident medic that the Doctor's name is John Smith, which he reads off of a nearby piece of equipment.

Everyone is suspicious of Jamie and the Doctor, so it's decided that the supply vessel should still be destroyed. Saving the TARDIS from destruction Jamie sabotages the x ray gun.

Two egg like pods on the supply vessel crack open and reveal Cybermen, who have sent the smaller pods containing Cybermats to consume the bernalium rods in the Wheel’s stores. The bernalium is essential to power the x-ray laser. The Cybermen have engineered the star in Messier 13 to go nova, forcing the Wheel crew to look to their bernalium stores only to find them missing. The Cybermen expect the crewmen will come to the Silver Carrier for an alternate source of bernalium, which can then be transported into the Wheel – with a surprise inside. A cunning plan that only the Cybermen could execute.

The bigger reason behind securing the Wheel for themselves of course is so they can get their fleet to home in on its radio beam, and invade Earth for its mineral wealth. Crafty buggers.

The Cybermen use their powers of mind control to great effect in the story, utilising several crew members to do their dirty work unnoticed. And if course the slithering Cybermats make a welcome return, but still look utterly ridiculous slowly labouring across the floor so that anyone can see them.

Zoe, the stations parapsychology librarian, becomes friendly with Jamie after Initially showing him around. She's quite bored with the mundane life she's been leading on board the station, and is excited by the prospect of a bit of adventure. After stowing away on the TARDIS at the end of the story, she is shown, by way of some kind of mind tv link between the Doctor and a monitor, just what she's in for if she decides to travel with the Doctor.

Again in this story, it feels like there are some unnecessary plot twists and turns in order to just pad the story out over several weeks. With production still so ripe even a fair few years into Doctor Who in 1968, it must have been hard to be given a block of six weeks and asked to write a compelling, exciting story without a big budget. Though other stories however did manage it, but this one falls some way short. Not through bad acting or the sets. But just having a story confined to a space station, endless corridors, and control rooms and equipment. And on the whole uninteresting characters who you don't really give two hoots about.

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, shock horror, the Daleks are replaced!!