The Tomb of the Cybermen was the last of three Cyberman stories novelised by their co-creator, Gerry Davis. It was first published in May 1978, and the artist is Jeff Cummins. Unlike Chris Achilleos and his The Moonbase novelisation, where he had been given the wrong reference material, Cummins actually made the conscious decision not to use the correct design, thinking it "rubbish". He used one from The Invasion instead (though with the ribbed shoulder piping of the Revenge version). He then claimed to be surprised when fans wrote to him to point this out...
This would have featured the correct Cybermen as well as an image of the Doctor. This time it's him who comes from The Invasion.
One reason for it not being pursued further was that this coincided with the policy decision by Target, at the behest of the Doctor Who Production Office, not to feature any Doctor on the covers other than the current one.
The novel was reissued with the same cover as the VHS release in February 1993. The artist this time is Alister Pearson. More on this below.
Titan Books published the script book for the story, edited by John McElroy, in August 1989. It simply featured a portrait image of the Controller on its cover. An earlier print used the diamond logo.
The first audio release for the story came on cassette in July 1993, tying in with the 30th Anniversary. As well as a couple of images from the story, it also features an old Season 4 publicity shot of Troughton. It looks like the Cyberman is sneaking up on someone fast asleep at the bottom of the cover.
The linking narration was by Jon Pertwee.
It was originally intended that this would be released in the summer of 1992, but got held back when the complete TV story was returned to the archives and rushed out onto video.
The BBC Audio Collection CD soundtrack release came in May 2006, this time with narration from Frazer Hines. The photomontage cover manages to fit in lots of elements, including Kaftan and Cybermats (though not the narrator). For once we get a photo of the Doctor which actually comes from the the actual story.
A vinyl release of the soundtrack came in April 2018, as part of World Record Day, courtesy of Demon Records. It uses the same Troughton image which might have adorned the novelisation, and also features a Controller with a weirdly elongated head. Despite its unique helmet design, the Controller doesn't feature much on the covers of the various media, unlike the Dalek Emperor in the previous story.
That previously mentioned VHS arrived in May 1992, rush-released onto video following the story's rediscovery in the Far East. At one point it had been planned to show it on BBC2 first, but it was added to the VHS release slate instead for obvious commercial reasons.
The image of Troughton hails from The Power of the Daleks, whilst the Controller came from a photograph of a fan reproduction printed in Doctor Who Monthly. Julian Vince recreated scenes from this story and The Dalek Invasion of Earth to illustrate "Nostalgia" articles in the magazine. With the story still lost at the time of publication, and few reference photos of the Controller, the costume isn't quite right - looking more like black PVC.
Unusually for a VHS, the tape had an extra item at the start, in the form of a short interview with Morris Barry, recorded at the Museum of the Moving Image on London's Southbank which hosted a Doctor Who exhibition at the time ("Behind The Sofa").
The story was released on DVD early in the range, back in the Spring of 2002. Prior to this the releases tended to use only a single photographic image on their covers. This was Clayton Hickman's first contribution to the range, and he began composing more interesting montages. Here we see the Cyberman bas-relief in the background to the main figure, emerging from its tomb.
The PG Rating (Parent / Guardian) was imposed in the mistaken belief that the story contained mild sex / nudity...
The US Region 1 version sported a different cover, using the same Troughton image as had appeared on the soundtrack CD, with the Cybermen emerging from their alcoves as a backdrop. This was released in August 2002.
Many of the early DVD releases had been short on Value Added Material or required better restoration which had been unavailable at the time of their initial release, and these were reissued as Special Editions in box sets of three towards the end of the run. The Tomb of the Cybermen was re-released in this form in February 2012 as part of the Revisitations 3 set, which also included SE's of The Three Doctors and The Robots of Death.
A far more dynamic cover montage, it really ought to have had the Controller as the central top figure, rather than just another Cyberman. This was Clayton Hickman's work again, and you can see how he has come on. Not sure, but isn't that Troughton image also from The Invasion?
The Region 1 release uses the same cover image but set against a much darker blue.
That Troughton image turns up again for the German DVD release. That title can also translate as "The Grave of the Cybermen". This was initially released as a limited edition "mediabook" set in April 2020, along with various photo cards (including a Frazer Hines autograph), a magnetic notebook and a bowtie. A basic release followed the month after. The Jamie image hails from the previous story.
Davis' novelisation was released on CD as an audiobook in March 2013, sticking with Cummins' original artwork. As you can see, the reader was Michael Kilgarriff, who played the Controller, with Nick Briggs supplying the Cyberman voices - even though they often sounded like quacking ducks on TV.
A more colourful version of Pearson's artwork for the VHS / novelisation reprint was given away as a poster with DWM (issue 191).
And finally, Pearson also did his own version of the Cummins novelisation cover, using the correct Cyberman this time. Amongst other things, it was employed to illustrate the "New to Who" Podcast in September 2017:
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