Synopsis:
A Cyberman appears from behind a hidden panel and shoots archaeologist Peter Haydon dead - just as the Doctor and the rest of the party enter the weapons testing room.
The Cyberman has vanished, and the Doctor notes that the young man was shot in the back - so couldn't have been killed by it. He has everyone go to the doorway then has Jamie repeat the sequence of controls he had operated when Haydon was killed. This reveals that a laser gun emerged from a wall panel at the back of the room - designed to fire upon the Cyberman which is just an empty suit, employed as target practice. Victoria picks up the small inanimate creature from the floor. Quickly referring to his diary he advises she leave it alone, but she slips it into her bag.
Parry has everyone congregate in the main chamber, where Klieg is still attempting to decipher the logic symbols which should literally unlock the secrets of the complex.
Following the death of Haydon and the crewman who had earlier been electrocuted, the professor reluctantly announces that the expedition must return to Earth. Hopper arrives and he is telling him of his decision when the captain informs everyone that they will not be able to leave. His ship has been sabotaged, and they will not be able to re-embark as they would get in the way of repairs. They must spend the night where they are.
Kaftan had earlier sent Toberman out on a task whilst they were exploring the two chambers, and the Doctor deduces that it was he who carried out this act of sabotage - though he will not openly accuse them. He would prefer to observe and see what she and Klieg are up to.
As they must stay, Klieg returns to his efforts to break the logic code to open the huge hatch in the middle of the chamber.
He believes he has finally found the correct sequence, but the hatch fails to open. The Doctor has spotted an error in his calculations, and operates a control without him noticing.
The hatch opens.
Kaftan and Victoria will remain in the upper chamber whilst the others descend a ladder to explore.
An attempt by Kaftan to have Toberman stay behind as well is foiled when the Doctor insists that he will stay too. He asks Victoria to keep a wary eye on Kaftan.
The main tomb chamber contains a tall gallery filled with sealed alcoves, within each of which is a dormant Cyberman. At the base of the structure is a large panel with a stylised representation of a Cyberman head. To the side is a control panel.
Above, Kaftan has drugged Victoria's coffee, and when she awakes she finds that she has closed the hatch.
The party realise they are sealed down in the tomb chamber but Klieg points out that there must be a control for the hatch here as well. He begins operating controls.
Victoria finds herself held at gunpoint, but the tiny creature in her bag has come to life and chewed its way out. Kaftan fails to heed her warnings, assuming a trick, until the creature springs at her. She faints. Victoria snatches up her gun and shoots the creature - destroying it.
She then runs out to find Hopper.
As Klieg works the controls, the ice covering the tombs rapidly melts as the temperature rises. The creatures within the alcoves begin to stir.
Panic-stricken, Viner begins reversing the process - but Klieg shoots him dead. He resumes the revivification process.
The Cybermen burst out of their alcoves and begin descending to floor level, to the horror of the watching party.
Two of the Cybermen open up the panel with the bas-relief, to reveal a giant figure crouching within. It slowly unbends itself and emerges. Taller than normal Cybermen, with no chest unit, it has a large domed cranium, lit from within. The Doctor deduces that it is their leader, or Controller.
Klieg approaches it to introduce himself as their rescuer and to offer an alliance with his Brotherhood of Logicians - but the giant creature clamps its hand round his arm, forcing him to his knees.
It tells them: "You belong to us. You will be like us...".
Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
Recorded: Saturday 8th July 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.50pm, Saturday 9th September 1967
Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 52
VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day
Designer: Martin Johnson
Director: Morris Barry
Additional cast: Michael Kilgarriff (Cyberman Controller), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voices), Reg Whitehead, Tony Harwood, Hans de Vries, John Hogan, Richard Kerley, Ronald Lee, Charles Pemberton, Kenneth Seeger (Cybermen)
In their script, Pedler and Davis mentioned that the "Cyberman theme" - Space Adventure - should be heard as the Doctor and his group looked down into the now open hatch. This piece of music had been used in both of their earlier stories, though this would be the last time for them. It'll feature one more time in the series, but this time accompanying the Yeti in their attack at Covent Garden.
The only description given of the Cybermats was that they possessed antennae.
The writers were unavailable for rewrites so this work was undertaken by Victor Pemberton, mainly to flesh out the character of Victoria and to add more atmosphere.
A total of eight Cyberman costumes were used in the production. These were basically the same as those seen in The Moonbase, but with some slight modifications. After the actors had previously complained about the lack of air, a circle of holes were drilled into the cheeks of the helmets to provide ventilation, and the lace-up boots were replaced with small wellingtons. Extra piping emerges from the base of the chest unit and there are only two pipes coming from the top of the unit instead of four as in their last appearance.
The Cyber Controller has a brand new costume in a darker shade, with no chest unit and a large glass cranium within which was a light fitting. The battery for this was hidden in a panel built into the back of the helmet. The dome had veins painted on it, but the effect of the glowing brain case was mostly lost under the bright studio lights. This was an ordinary helmet which had been adapted, rather than a special build as you can see where the "handle bars" would have fitted.
Cast as the Controller was 6' 5" actor Michael Kilgarriff, who was known to the director and the producer for his radio drama work. He was reluctant to take on the role, however, and was very disappointed to learn that he would not be providing the voice of the Controller. This would be the work of Peter Hawkins, who used the special electronic palette introduced in The Moonbase, and which caused him to suffer headaches from the vibrations.
Filming on the Cyber-tomb set took place at Ealing on Wednesday 14th June. As mentioned last time, this was to be Martin Johnson's only work on the series, which is a great pity as it is such an iconic set. The half-moon shaped steps would return in Nightmare in Silver and The Time of the Doctor in their Cyberman set designs.
The alcoves containing each Cyberman were covered in transparent polythene, with the stylised Cyberman head logo spray-painted on using a stencil. Set dressing then continued with fake frosting to indicate the freezing temperatures.
The large bas-relief on the Controller's hatch was carved from polystyrene.
The set was four levels high, with a fifth dummy one on top. An angled mirror above this made the structure look even higher. It was reported that when it came to tea breaks, the Cyberman actors on the upper levels missed out.
Shots of Kaftan's attack by the Cybermat were filmed the following day on the control room set. Head of the VFX Dept. Jack Kine designed the Cybermats, which were then made by Ron Oates.
Model shots of the tombs thawing and refreezing were filmed at Television Centre's puppet stage on Monday 19th June, using timelapse photography.
Despite being killed at the conclusion of Episode 1, Bernard Holley was given another day's employment to feature at the start of this instalment - simply to appear as Haydon's corpse.
The dummy Cyberman - "Fred" - was fitted with a small explosive charge, triggered to coincide with the head falling off.
Only the two lowermost levels of the tomb structure were set up at Lime Grove, and it is noticeable that we never see the cast in shot with the full structure.
The small Cybermat prop was stuck onto Shirley Cooklin's shoulder off camera, with its launching at her having been pre-filmed at Ealing.
Klieg's gun fired blanks.
The cast change costumes as Hopper provides anoraks due to the night-time temperature drop on Telos. The Doctor dons a black cloak, fetched from the TARDIS.
One small cut was made to the episode prior to transmission - the end of the scene where Kaftan gives Victoria a hot drink.
As with The Moonbase, the Cybermen don't make their grand appearance until the cliffhanger to Episode 2, halfway through the serial. (We see them briefly in the second instalment of the previous story, but they don't really come into their own until the third).
This marks the first appearance in the series of the Cybermats, though it's only a tiny one, first seen dormant in the opening episode.
Amazingly, the prim and proper Victoria is able to destroy the little creature with a single shot from a modern handgun - suggesting perhaps that she was quite the tomboy in her former life.
Of all the costumes she could have selected from the TARDIS wardrobe, she picks a short skirted dress rather than something more akin to the clothes of her own time. We see her rather nervous about it in the first episode, requiring reassurance, but it's still an odd choice.
Another thing we neglected to mention last week was the poor research that went into the archaeological party. At one point Viner, armed only with a little notepad and pen, had claimed to have recorded everything there was to see in the recharging room, having only been in it for a few minutes. As anyone who has ever watched Time Team or similar series will know, real archaeologists painstakingly record everything in the minutest detail. This party don't even use cameras.
We have to question the Doctor's actions in this episode. He insisted on staying when Cybermen were mentioned last week (despite the fact that there were gigantic representations of them on either die of the city doorway). Here, he deliberately goes out of his way to help Klieg open the hatch, even though he must know that it leads to where the Cybermen must be. Everything which follows, including a number of other deaths, could be laid at his door. It may be that he knew that Klieg would succeed eventually anyway, and he's simply hurrying things along, but his behaviour is still questionable.
Often described as the clownish Doctor - "Chaplinesque" - he's very much a darker, manipulative figure at this point.
- The ratings see a rise on the opening episode, with the appreciation figure remaining stable.
- With the launch of the new series, it was around this time that TV chat shows such as that hosted by DJ Simon Dee were clamouring to have Patrick Troughton on as a guest, but he flatly refused. This was bad news for Frazer Hines who longed to appear - but they were not interested unless they could get Troughton as well.
- After praise from Huw Wheldon at last week's programme review meeting, the Director General of the BBC, Sir Hugh Greene, expressed how pleased he was with the new serial.
- However, a trio of schoolgirls writing to Junior Points of View following this episode thought the series "stupendously stupid".
- Michael Kilgarriff will go on to portray the Controller once more in Attack of the Cybermen. Between, he played an Ogron in Frontier in Space, and the K1 Robot in Tom Baker's debut story.
- He is an expert on Victorian Music Hall, and often acted as Master of Ceremonies for music hall performances, as well as featuring in documentaries on the subject such as Frank Skinner's What A Performance. He has written what is regarded as the definitive book on the songs of the period, published by Oxford University Press.
- Reg Whitehead and Ronald Lee were Cyberman returnees from The Moonbase. Whitehead went out with Debbie Watling briefly after meeting here.
- Klieg mentions Whitehead Logic at one point. Not a reference to the actor playing a Cyberman but to Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947), a mathematical logician.
- After setting up the story, costume designer Sandra Reid had to relinquish control due to going into hospital. The exact same thing had happened on The Moonbase. After this episode she hands over to Dorothea Wallace and will not return to the series.
- A reproduction of a Tomb Cyberman at an exhibition in Bradford in 2014:
- The first of two great retro movie-style posters for this story by Oliver Arkinstall-Jones...
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