Synopsis:
On the planet Telos, Eric Klieg has released the Cybermen from their frozen tombs. He attempts to forge an alliance between their Controller and his Brotherhood of Logicians - but the Cyberman leader rejects this, stating that he and the rest of the party will become just like them...
The Doctor realises that they have walked into a trap as the Controller explains that they knew that inquisitive humans would come and free them some day, with the intelligence to break their logic codes.
Victoria, meanwhile, has gone to the rocket and fetched Captain Hopper and his co-pilot, Callum. As the control chamber looks exactly like he had last seen it, Hopper takes some convincing that anything is wrong - but Victoria points out that the rest of the party are now down below and the hatch has sealed them in.
The Controller informs the Doctor that it knows of him. It explains that their technology was running down and they had run out of replacement parts, which is why they elected to go into hibernation.
Now this group will become the first of a new race of Cybermen who will be sent to Earth to prepare it for conquest. First they must be converted.
Jamie attempts to escape but is stunned by an electric shock. Toberman is the first to be converted and struggles to free himself, but is quickly overpowered.
Kaftan has woken up and she aims her pistol at Hopper and Callum just as they have traced the wiring and worked out how to open the hatch.
Victoria suddenly screams that the Cybermat is behind her once more, and this distraction allows the men to disarm her.
Victoria will guard her whilst Hopper and Callum descend to the lower level, armed with smoke grenades.
The Doctor and the others learn that they are to be frozen until conversion takes place, and Klieg has been selected to lead them due to his Logician credentials.
Hopper and Callum launch their attack and in the confusion everyone but Klieg and Toberman manages to make it to the ladder leading up to the control chamber.
The Doctor is almost dragged back down but Victoria and Jamie free him and the hatch is closed.
As they work out their next steps, they hear someone knocking on the underside of the hatch, and this proves to be Klieg.
He is undeterred in his belief that he can negotiate with the Cybermen, if only he could do so on more equal terms.
He and Kaftan are locked in the weapons testing room, as Hopper explains that the others will have to remain here since the rocket repairs are still incomplete. Callum can stay with them.
In the tomb chamber the Controller orders the release of a swarm of Cybermats - full-size versions of the creatures. They are programmed to home in on human brainwaves - using Toberman's as a template - before being sent to the upper level via small chutes.
The archaeological party are sleeping, with Victoria on guard. The Doctor wakes to take over from her, and realises that she let him sleep on. She explains that this is due to him being 450 years old. The two then discuss the circumstances which led to her joining them, which leads on to talk of their families.
They are interrupted by the appearance of the Cybermats which close in on them. The Doctor arranges for an electrical cable to be laid out around them. When the Cybermats get too close, the electromagnetic field destroys them.
They go to open the weapons room door to make sure that Klieg and Kaftan have not also been attacked - only to discover that they have secured one of the Cyberman guns for themselves.
Infuriated at the meddling of the Doctor, Klieg takes aim at the Doctor - and Victoria screams as he opens fire...
Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
Recorded: Saturday 15th July 1967 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.50pm, Saturday 16th September 1967
Ratings: 7.2 million / AI 49
VFX: Michealjohn Harris & Peter Day
Designer: Martin Johnson
Director: Morris Barry
The idea for the Cybermats came from Kit Pedler, who was inspired by silverfish. He hoped that they might be marketable like the Daleks.
The initial design came from Jack Kine, head of the VFX department, and given to Ron Oates to finalise. He ran with the silverfish idea but also thought of guinea pigs. Michealjohn Harris had 10 of the creatures made up. A couple of them were radio-controlled whilst three were battery operated. Others were more basic props which could be pulled along on strings.
The more complex ones could move their tails, mandibles and antennae. Smoke could be pumped into them for when they were destroyed.
In the original script for this episode, after Klieg had blasted a hole in a wall to test the Cyberman weapon - described as an X-Ray laser - a lone Cybermat was to have crawled out of it, unseen by himself or Kaftan. This might have explained why we see a lone Cybermat later, after the others have been destroyed.
Filming took place on Wednesday 14th June at Ealing for the sequences with the gas bomb attack in the tomb area when a smoke machine was employed. Such effects were preferrable at Ealing as the smoke could take too long to clear in the more cramped TV studios, unless such sequences could be recorded last in the evening.
Shots of the sleeping Callum being threatened by one of the Cybermats were filmed the next day. That afternoon the fight between Toberman and a Cyberman was also staged, with Roy Stewart suspended on a kirby wire to be picked up and thrown by the Cyberman, played by Richard Kerley. The wire is very obvious when seen on screen.
Various Cybermat shots were filmed on Friday 16th to be used as inserts, including close-ups of the creatures.
Unfortunately Deborah Watling was suffering from 'flu when the third episode went into studio, and she struggled with her big scene with Patrick Troughton.
The opening titles were shown over a black background before the previous episode's conclusion was re-enacted. A recording run-on was used to set up a spark generator, to be superimposed for the scene where Jamie is attacked by a Cyberman, and the same device was used for when Toberman is blasted with an electric charge.
A smoke machine was employed in studio for when Hopper launches his rescue attempt, though most of this sequence had been filmed at Ealing.
This was also employed to pump smoke from the cable when the Cybermats were destroyed.
Three of the more complex Cybermats were used to move in on Toberman, and this was when Harris discovered that the camera cables in the electronic studio interfered with the radio control frequency he was using - something which hadn't been noticed at Ealing due to the different technology employed there.
The same three Cybermats were placed onto cardboard sheets, to be pulled off camera to indicate that they were rising up the chutes.
Klieg's X-Ray laser was fitted with a small flash charge, and a hole was cued to be burnt into a wall just as George Pastell fired the gun.
Whilst some of the verbal interplay between Victoria and Hopper is very entertaining, this episode will be best remembered for the touching scene between her and the Doctor as they discuss recent events and go on to talk of family.
We've been introduced to Susan as his grand-daughter, but the Doctor has never made mention of any other family before now. Victoria has spoken of her life with her father before the Daleks came to their home, and she goes on to say that the Doctor probably can't remember his family, being so ancient - to which he replies:
"Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake".
He's obviously referring to a larger group of family rather than just recalling Susan.
It's the sort of gentle character scene which we simply couldn't have had with the more adult companions like Ben, Polly and Jamie.
After all the fuss Klieg went to, to open the hatch using applied logic, it turns out that it could have been opened by almost anyone by simply checking on the wiring!
And talking of logic, locking prisoners up in a weapon-testing room isn't the cleverest idea. Why would the Cybermen waste a perfectly functional weapon on a test dummy?
Another flaw is being unable to unlock the hatch from their side, when the Cybermen get trapped on the lower level. Even Klieg said last week that logic dictated that there should be an opening device on the tomb level.
- The ratings continue to rise, up 1.2 million since the opening episode, though the appreciation figure drops below the 50 mark.
- On Tuesday 19th September Kit Pedler appeared on BBC2's Late Night Line-Up, to discuss BBC1's weekly science programme Tomorrow's World.
- Earlier that day, Dr Pedler had participated in the recording of a pilot episode for a new programme which would allow viewer feedback and discussion on BBC output. Presented by David Coleman, the show was named Talkback. Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis had been invited to take part in a discussion about the suitability of Doctor Who as children's viewing, but both declined to appear. Lloyd didn't want the inexperienced Peter Bryant to feature either - so it was left to Pedler to represent the programme. Facing seven members of the public who were generally hostile to the programme, Pedler came in for a hard time but defended the violence as fantasy-based and not realistic. Coleman also solicited opinions from children, and the item was rounded off by an academic, Dr Himmelweit, who actually stated that children like to be frightened. As a pilot, this Talkback episode was never screened, though the same debate would be remounted for the first broadcast episode which went out live the following week.
- The following day the Cybermats were praised by Huw Wheldon at the BBC Programme Review meeting.
- And on Thursday 21st September, the following letter appeared in Radio Times:
- Finally this week, any excuse to show my holiday snaps: the Controller costume which is on display at the Peterborough Museum, 2025...
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