"Toniiiiiiiiiiiight..." |
Season Four, Story Six (production code HH)
Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor
With Michael Craze (Ben), Anneke Wills (Polly) and Frazer Hines (Jamie)
- Written by Kit Pedler
- Directed by Morris Barry
- Produced by Innes Lloyd
- Script Editor – Gerry Davis
Broadcast Dates, Viewership, Appreciation
- Episode 1 - 11 Feb 1967 (8.1m, 50%) **MISSING**
- Episode 2 - 18 Feb 1967 (8.9m, 49%)
- Episode 3 - 25 Feb 1967 (8.2m, 53%) **MISSING**
- Episode 4 - 4 Mar 1967 (8.1m, 58%)
How To Watch
- Loose Cannon reconstructions of episodes 1 and 3 are available here. Please support official BBC releases.
- Episodes 2 and 4 were originally released on DVD in the Lost In Time compilation in 2004, and originally on VHS in 1992 in the compilation "Cybermen: the Early Years."
- A 2014 DVD release featured animated versions of the missing episodes.
- Not available on streaming services due to its incompleteness
Synopsis
The TARDIS is thrown off course and forced to land on the moon due to the effects of the Gravitron, a weather control device operated by a team of scientists on a lunar base to keep the Earth's weather in balance. Jamie is injured jumping around in the reduced gravity, and our heroes seek medical help at the moonbase. The base has been subjected to a mysterious plague that is impeding the scientists' ability to control the Gravitron, as well as a number of unexplained deaths and pressure drops. Their arrival provokes suspicion, but the Doctor discovers that Cybermen have infiltrated the base, advance scouts of a forthcoming invasion force, and identifies poisoned sugar in the base's coffee as the source of the plague. The stricken crewmen have been partially converted, and under Cyber control they sabotage the Gravitron to disrupt weather conditions on Earth to pave the way to a forthcoming invasion. Polly and Ben improvise a chemical defense to destroy the infiltrators, and the Doctor and crew use the Graviton to hurl the invasion force into deep space.
Analysis, Background, Tidbits, Etc.
Like the Daleks, the Cybermen's second story was the one that really cemented how they looked and acted. "The Moonbase" was adapted into a Target novelization years before "The Tenth Planet" (titled Doctor Who and the Cybermen), so this was the earliest Cyberman adventure available for reading, which was the only way possible to experience these stories until the two extant episodes were released in the early 90's.
The Cybermen got a full makeover for this story, not just how they looked – metal helmets covering their faces instead of a fabric mask, among other details – but also how they sounded, with flat metallic monotone replacing the sing-song voices. And also like the Daleks, their history becomes a bit muddled, explaining how a second colony of Cybermen had already left Mondas prior to the events in "Tenth Planet" to settle on another planet (which we would later discover is Telos) and develop along a different path.
This story also establishes the template for most of the future Cyberman adventures. The core of their motivation, wanting to cyber-ize humanity ("assimilate," anyone?), is all but completely forgotten, and they become yet another hulking menace looking to invade Earth through an overly complex plot. This hulking menace could've easily been swapped out by pretty much any other bipedal alien menace, except there wasn't as robust a list to choose from at the time. And the Cybermen are monotonal but not as devoid of emotion as they claim.
Fraser learned his lines faster than the rest. |
And as the story was developed before the introduction of Jamie to the cast, he had to be sidelined yet again, confined to a hospital bed for most of the story.
That said, "Moonbase" is a fairly effective template for the Base Under Siege storyline that would be the basis for much of the following season. The Gravitron prop is pretty impressive for its era, the diversity is above average, though as in "Tenth Planet" it's mainly White Men With Accents. Because his episodes are missing, we don't get a chance to see the one BIPOC character Ralph nor explicitly learn his fate. And alas, all characters except for Polly are male.
And this is the story where we find the Doctor making a Statement of Purpose, where we establish the Doctor's core values. From episode two:
DOCTOR: No, Ben. We can't go yet.
BEN: Well, why not? They don't want us here.
DOCTOR: Because there is something evil here and we must stay.
HOBSON: Evil? Don't be daft.
DOCTOR: Evil is what I meant. There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought.
Although a subject for future discussion is a definition for evil; all he seems to come up with here is "people who act against what we believe in," which basically characterizes evil as Those Who Do Not Agree With Us, a definition I find somewhat problematic.
And then he turns around and asks Polly to make coffee for everyone. But then again, it's Polly that comes up with the 'cocktail' that poisons the Cybermen. Baby steps.
I also appreciate how the Capaldi era story "Kill the Moon" pays homage to "The Moonbase" when a drinks tray covers a breach in the base and stops all the air from escaping.
This was another story where each episode was taped one week before it was broadcast, something that still blows my mind. During the filming for episode one, Troughton was walking through the set and narrowly escaped injury when the Gravitron prop collapsed and fell where he'd just been standing. If memory serves, you can see a dent or two.
Haven't I Seen You...
- John Levene, later to become the legend that is Sgt. Benton, makes an uncredited appearance as a Cyberman
- John Rolfe (Becket) was a Captain in "The War Machines," and would later appear as Fell in "The Green Death."
- Alan Rowe (Evans) would return as Edward of Wessex in "The Time Warrior," Skinsale in "The Horror of Fang Rock," and Garif in "Full Circle." He was the longtime partner of Geoffrey Bayldon (Organon, "The Creature From the Pit") who was considered for the First and Second Doctors.
- Victor Pemberton (scientist) would serve as a script editor and also wrote "Fury from the Deep" and the audio adventure "Doctor Who and the Pescatons"
- Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voices) has a long and storied association, usually offscreen, with the show.
Does the BIPOC Character survive? Maybe? Ralph (Mark Heath) is abducted by Cybermen in episode one and partially cyber-converted. He is (probably) among the technicians later seen under cybercontrol working in the radioactive Gravitron control room, and presumably freed when the advance force of Cybermen are defeated. His ultimate fate is unclear.
Sausage Factor: 100% (all credited cast members, apart from Anneke Wills, are male)
Rating: Two and a half out of four Air-Tight Drink Trays
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John Geoffrion is a semi-retired semi-professional thespian, a professional data guy, and a Dad. He usually falls asleep to the Classic Doctor Who channel on Pluto.tv
I have the version with the animations and the novelization. It's a good story, but them having to sideline Jamie as you point out is a bit of a problem. I'm not against larger TARDIS teams, but it's often difficult to get 3 companions to all feel relevant. It's a problem here, with the 5th Doctor's team of Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric, and elsewhere, although the original team of Susan, Barbara, and Ian worked out well enough more often than not.
ReplyDeleteI also have to agree with you pointing out that considering those that think differently are evil is a problem, we can see it all around us right now, and its worrisome. In the Cyberman's case, I'd have to agree that they need to be stopped, but that line of thinking is still unsettling if broadly applied. Nice review as always!
I can't imagine what Michael Craze thought when they brought Fraser on as a companion-in-reserve, while he was holding his own (I thought) as the show's young-man-of-action... And in the Davison era, that trio of companions was also a mess; the writers and production team didn't know what to do with them, (Tegan was conceived as a means to better market the show in Australia, Adric was conceived to appeal to the show's gay audience), and they have far, far better chemistry nowadays as convention panelists than they ever did onscreen.
ReplyDelete