Synopsis:
As a strange alien tone sounds across the city, people fall into a catatonic state whilst Cybermen begin to emerge from the sewer system and march unopposed through the streets of London...
At Professor Watkins' home, the Doctor has also been affected due to his depolariser falling off. His friends quickly recover it and he revives.
Captain Turner radios to UNIT HQ.
Reports have come in of Cybermen appearing everywhere. The Brigadier informs them that he will be sending a jeep to collect them all as they will be safer at the HQ.
In his office, Vaughn is consulting with the Cyber-Director. It announces that the main invasion fleet will now move in, and the radio homing beacon at the IE compound must be activated.
Vaughn informs it that his organisation will now take over, with the Cybermen already on Earth to remain under his control.
The Cybermen see this as opposition to them, but he argues that he is more familiar with the way things work on Earth. They counter that all humans are now under their control and he begins to lose his temper, revealing his personal ambitions. He manages to end the meeting with an agreement from them to continue as he had advised.
However, as soon as he terminates the discussion he summons Packer and orders him to fetch Watkins, who they know to be at his home. His machine must go into mass production immediately. They do not expect any resistance from UNIT.
Sergeant Walters pulls up in front of Watkins' house - but closely followed by an IE vehicle.
Watkins is shot in the leg as they flee, and then Jamie is hit and wounded.
Turner calls the Brigadier who arranges for a helicopter to pick them up.
Packer reports to Vaughn what has happened - guessing correctly that it was through the Doctor that UNIT evaded the Cyber-control signal. He argues that the Doctor should have been killed when they first had the chance, and worries that without the Cerebratron Mentor they are powerless against the Cybermen. Suppressing his anger, Vaughn simply claims that he has the Doctor and his friends where he wants them, but orders that the radio beacon be activated. The full Cyberman invasion force must be brought in as soon as possible.
The UNIT transporter is now in flight.
The Doctor argues that their first priority is to destroy the Cyber-control signal, as there will be thousands of Cybermen approaching from space and Earth must be able to defend itself. The Brigadier points out that they would need a missile to achieve this as it is being beamed from space - then recalls that the Russians had a manned rocket about to launch. A warhead could be fitted to this instead of an astronaut capsule.
Captain Turner will travel to Russia with depolarisers to organise this.
The second priority is the destruction of the homing beacon at the IE compound, to prevent more Cybermen landing.
The Brigadier orders the aircraft to take him to Henlow Downs missile base. They may be able to destroy the Cyberships as they approach. The aircraft lands at an airfield where Turner has arranged for a supersonic craft to take him on to Russia.
The Doctor suggests that the Brigadier take Zoe with him to the missile base, as her computational skills may prove very useful. He, meanwhile, plans to go and see Vaughn...
The Doctor drives off in a UNIT jeep, with the Brigadier ordering a helicopter to tail him and remain close by should he need it.
The Doctor soon reports that he is going to enter the IE building via the sewer network, assuming that it is now empty of Cybermen.
Vaughn and Packer are meeting in the office when an alarm sounds. The Doctor appears on the internal camera system, announcing his arrival to the bemused Vaughn.
The Doctor keeps his UNIT radio switched on so that they will be able to listen in.
The Brigadier and Zoe arrive at Henlow Downs where they begin reviving the ground crew, who are commanded by Major Branwell.
The Doctor is trying to reason with Vaughn, pointing out that the Cybermen will destroy all life on Earth. Vaughn, however, sees this as merely a delaying tactic and is trying to second-guess what UNIT are up to. He has ordered the radio homing beacon to be aligned, and assumes that this is what UNIT will target. They will be too late as far as he is concerned. He refuses to put a stop to what has taken years to plan, with success within his grasp.
Zoe learns from Branwell and Sergeant Peters that the radar at the base will only pick up the Cyberships when they are practically on top of them.
The Cyberships begin to appear on radar - far more than Henlow Downs has missiles to intercept.
Zoe asks for the countdown to be paused - which the Brigadier authorises against the complaints from the Major - then makes some rapid calculations. She shows Branwell and Peters how their few missiles could be used to set off a chain reaction that would wipe out the entire fleet.
The missiles are launched...
The Cyber-Director reports to Vaughn that the fleet is being destroyed, and he is accused to betraying the Cybermen. They will now take over the invasion.
When Vaughn tries to argue with it, he is sent reeling by an energy pulse generated by the machine, which announces that a Cyber-Megatron bomb will be delivered. This will kill every living being on the planet.
"Is this what you wanted?" demands the Doctor of Vaughn. "To be the ruler of a dead world?"...
Written by Derrick Sherwin (from a story by Kit Pedler)
Recorded: Friday 1st November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 14th December 1968
Ratings: 7.2 million / AI 55
VFX: Bill King & Trading Post
Designer: Richard Hunt
Director: Douglas Camfield
Additional cast: Clifford Earl (Major Branwell), Norman Hartley (Sergeant Peters)
Before we look at the making-of, let's get some negatives out of the way first. It comes as a bit of a disappointment, after the big invasion set piece at the conclusion to Episode 6, that the Cybermen do not feature in this episode at all, save for the reprise at the start.
Then there is the model work. They are great models, but the filming of their destruction is far from satisfying. They are simply shot at by fireworks, some of which clearly miss their target, and the sequence fails to match what Zoe has so cleverly organised for the missiles.
Lastly, there's the overuse of rather ropey stock footage employed for the missile launches. This is made even worse when the whole story is watched in one sitting as the exact same material is used in the final episode as well. Some is even repeated within this episode.
The draft script for this episode once again described the Cyberships as looking exactly as they had done in The Wheel in Space - cylindrical and covered in a pattern of hexagons.
Sherwin specifically recommended stock footage of Nike-Zeus missiles, presumably because he already knew about this material in the library.
Early rewrites to the scenes set at Watkins' home were carried out in early August. This included the wounding of both the professor and Jamie. The former was not needed for the remainder of the story, whilst Frazer Hines would be having a holiday during the week of recording of the eighth instalment.
(As this incident takes place so early in the episode, it's a pity Camfield couldn't have recorded it during the making of the previous episode and so free Hines, and Burnham, from both episodes. Presumably it would have meant an extra set - the hallway - and he may have lacked the time in studio anyway).
Earlier in the story, Watkins' front door had been recorded in studio, based on an actual location used on film. This was at No.18 St. James' Gardens in Kensington, filmed on Wednesday 11th September.
The only other filming for this episode was the model work, undertaken at Ealing on Friday 30th August.
There were two different types of Cybership model. One comprised a pair of drums with a glowing globe between, representing warships, whilst another type was covered in rectangular pods, suggesting transporter ships. These had been built by Bill King's company.
They were filmed sitting on tables covered in black cloth and with black drapes behind. The camera tracked past the stationery models to suggest movement. The attack on the ships was achieved by firing small explosive charges at them, which proved less than successful.
I'll have a separate "Afterlife" post about these Cybership models, as they turn up in some unexpected places over the next couple of years.
No Cybermen were required in studio on Friday 1st November, when recording began with two scenes set in Watkins' home, after which recording followed story order.
One of the recording breaks was to allow extras wearing UNIT uniforms on the transporter aircraft set to change into conventional army attire to become Henlow Downs ground staff.
The Doctor flipping a coin to decide which direction to go in the sewers was a visual ad-lib from Troughton. His POV of the empty tunnels came from still images of the full sewer set taken during the making of the previous episode.
The big new set this week was the command centre at Henlow Downs. This was dominated by a large illuminated display which showed the launch status of its eight missiles.
The stock footage of the missiles came from Visnews and from the Ministry of Technology. As this material was silent, Brian Hodgson provided radiophonic sounds to overscore the images.
A bright lighting effect was used to indicate the attack on Vaughn from the Cyber-Director.
The closing credits began to roll over a close-up of the shocked Vaughn.
We've talked about some of the negatives, so what are the positives - for it is actually a very good episode. It's an especially good episode for Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier, who up until now has been pretty much confined to his aircraft headquarters. He finally gets out and about and has a lot more to do.
The Brigadier as we know him from the Pertwee era isn't quite there yet, but he's starting to develop.
There's a lovely little exchange between him and Zoe where she complains that a helicopter won't be of much use to the Doctor down in the sewers. He isn't at all concerned, and simply asks her if she fancies a cup of tea. The look on Padbury's face is priceless. (This sequence, as well as one from the missile control room, was used to illustrate the somewhat sexist nature of the series in its early days, in the documentary (More Than) 30 Years in the TARDIS).
With Hines starting his holiday early - Jamie being injured and no longer playing any part in proceedings - this is very much Zoe's turn to shine. She changed back into her iconic glittery catsuit in the last episode, and here she is seen coming up with the plan to use a limited number of missiles to take out the entire Cyberman invasion fleet. The scene is let down just a bit by the soldiers ogling her derriere as she goes from display to display taking notes of the readings.
The episode ends with a couple of great scenes between the Doctor and Vaughn, initially dancing around each other until the would-be dictator sees his dream of conquest suddenly torn away from him.
The Doctor has only sneaked into the IE building to avoid the Cybermen. As soon as he's in, he announces his presence. They may oppose each other, but the Doctor and Vaughn clearly have some mutual admiration for each other, as can be seen by the way in which the pair sit and chat in the office.
You do have to wonder about the Cyber-Megatron bomb business. If the Cybermen were never interested in enslaving or converting the population of Earth - that was only ever Vaughn's intention - and they simply want the planet's mineral wealth, then why did they enter into this arrangement with him and invade in the first place?
- The ratings see a sizeable improvement this week, despite the new competition from Gerry Anderson's Joe 90 in some ITV regions, plus the fact that many people would be out Christmas shopping or attending events in the run-up to the festive period.
- Amongst the Henlow Downs personnel is background artist Reg Cranfield. He had been the very first person to ever appear in Doctor Who - the policeman who checks the junkyard gates in the broadcast version of An Unearthly Child. Previous appearances included walk-ons in The Massacre, The Gunfighters and The Underwater Menace, and he would later feature in The Silurians, The Mutants and The Green Death. His final Doctor Who role was as a Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin.
- Clifford Earl had played the desk sergeant in The Feast of Steven. He was often called upon to play policemen of one rank or another - a staggering 42 times according to his IMDb listing.
- Like Earl, Norman Hartley had been employed on the series previously by Douglas Camfield - playing the Viking raider Ulf in The Time Meddler.
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