The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Tomb Of The Cybermen
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part One (02/09/07)
A good start to the new series and another return for the Cybermen! Much better than The Moonbase already, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have stumbled across an archaeological group on an alien planet looking for the lost tombs of the Cybermen (obviously). Already one of the rocket crew has been killed at the entrance, and the cliffhanger saw an archaeologist shot down. The plot seems fairly straight-forward, based on all those films about excavating cursed mummies tombs, and the villains are a bit blatant and cliche being arrogant, rude, greedy and possibly German, but after the convoluted plot to last season's Dalek finale a simple plot is quite welcome.
Exactly why the Doctor is helping the archaeologists, though, is beyond me - first he gets them in there, then he shows them how to get the power up and running, and tells them where the doors they've missed are. Surely it would've been a better idea to just not show them how to get in! Of course, then there wouldn't be a story, would there? Maybe he's just making sure the shit hits the fan whilst he's there to deal with it?
Victoria's a bit better than the waily bint of her debut, not taking any rap from Kaftan and standing up for her right to explore. A promising first episode, then.
Oh, and the Doctor's about 450 years old! Or so he tells Victoria in the opening scene. And Victoria seems to have adapted to 60s fashions rather well, although she does seem to feel the need to say 'mercy' quite a lot.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Two (09/09/07)
Another good episode, possibly better than last week. Kaftan got her bodyguard (Toberman) to trash the spaceship so that the survey team couldn't leave the planet and so, while Captain Hopper and his crew fix the ship, the archaeologists have gone down into the tomb. Kaftan stayed behind and Victoria stayed too (to keep an eye on her) but Kaftan drugged her coffee and sealed the tomb while Victoria slept.
Meanwhile, Klieg (the other bad guy, who seems to be Kaftan's bitch) woke the Cybermen up and killed one of the archaeologists when he tried to stop him. Apparently, Klieg and Kaftan are members of the Brotherhood of Logicians who want to resurrect the Cybermen and use them to impose order (and their rule) on Earth. It seems, though, that the Cybercontroller has other ideas!
The Doctor and Jamie seem to be taking a bit of a back seat in this story, commenting and observing and occasionally coming up with witty remarks. Victoria's had some good bits to do, confronting Kaftan and shooting a Cybermat. Oh yeah - the Cybermat! That's new - a sort of metallic worm; Jamie found it in Part One, Victoria picked it up and put it in her handbag, then it came back to life and attacked Kaftan, who'd just pulled a gun on Victoria. This allowed Victoria to grab the gun and shoot the Cybermat - a pretty good aim seeing she's a Victorian lady and the Cybermat is pretty small. Anyhow, good episode and now the Cybermen are awake! Should be good next week.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Three (16/09/07)
A very good episode this week with plenty of action, a restatement of what the Cybermen are all about and a nice quiet bit towards the end where the Doctor discussed Victoria's father with her while everyone else was asleep and mentioned his own family! Nothing specific, but it's a subject never broached before, even when Susan was around, plus it help to fill out both the Doctor and Victoria and their relationship.
Kaftan is really being written as the brains behind Klieg's scheme - having met the Cybermen who are going to convert all the Humans into creatures like themselves, Klieg is calling them 'vile' and such other horrified words. Meanwhile, Kaftan is determined not to compromise their plan and has demanded he goes back down into the tomb armed with one of their own weapons. This was after everyone had escaped and locked Klieg and Kaftan in the weapons-testing room (I mean, really?!?).
Victoria was very good at the start of the episode, ordering the American rocket pilot to sort out opening the hatch to the tomb. The American saved everyone (except Toberman) but the Cybercontroller sent loads of Cybermats up which were quickly dispatched after a not-that-scary attack: surely they could have just jumped over the Cybermats instead of getting all squeamish. Maybe they're scarier in colour? Anyhow, the cliffhanger had Klieg and Kaftan escape from their cell...somehow...and shoot the Doctor. Bet he survives, though.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Four (23/09/07)
Not a bad finale. Kaftan died pretty early on, shot by the Cybercontroller, and Toberman (now half Cyberman) ended up joining forces with the Doctor in order to defeat the Cybermen. There was a bit where Klieg (who you thought had been killed) followed the Doctor and Toberman into the tomb where the Doctor got to ridicule him just before a Cyberman came along and killed him properly. Victoria got her own back with a sniping comment to the Pilot, and the Doctor froze the Cybermen again. Then the Cybercontroller, who had apparently been destroyed by Toberman, came back to life as everyone was leaving, tried to kill everyone, but got sealed in the tomb. And Toberman died, electrocuted when he sealed the doors.
Not as unsatisfactory an ending as for The Moonbase, but it seems that, having killed the Cybermen off in The Tenth Planet, the writers seem reluctant to do it again. I mean, it's not like they couldn't as there could be any number of Cybermen floating around the universe! So, not as good as last week, but a better story than some of the ones last season.
I think four part stories seem to work a lot better - they don't seem to have as much padding. Whilst The Faceless Ones, The Power Of... and The Evil Of The Daleks were by far the best stories (aside from The Macra Terror) last season, each kind of sagged in the middle or tended to crawl in parts. This, and 'Macra', were better structured by far. I hope the production team have noticed.
Incidentally, the Doctor didn't get shot - Klieg missed and shot Callum instead, kind of emphasising that Kaftan was the one who wore the trousers (and shot the guns) in that relationship!
A good start to the new series and another return for the Cybermen! Much better than The Moonbase already, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have stumbled across an archaeological group on an alien planet looking for the lost tombs of the Cybermen (obviously). Already one of the rocket crew has been killed at the entrance, and the cliffhanger saw an archaeologist shot down. The plot seems fairly straight-forward, based on all those films about excavating cursed mummies tombs, and the villains are a bit blatant and cliche being arrogant, rude, greedy and possibly German, but after the convoluted plot to last season's Dalek finale a simple plot is quite welcome.
Exactly why the Doctor is helping the archaeologists, though, is beyond me - first he gets them in there, then he shows them how to get the power up and running, and tells them where the doors they've missed are. Surely it would've been a better idea to just not show them how to get in! Of course, then there wouldn't be a story, would there? Maybe he's just making sure the shit hits the fan whilst he's there to deal with it?
Victoria's a bit better than the waily bint of her debut, not taking any rap from Kaftan and standing up for her right to explore. A promising first episode, then.
Oh, and the Doctor's about 450 years old! Or so he tells Victoria in the opening scene. And Victoria seems to have adapted to 60s fashions rather well, although she does seem to feel the need to say 'mercy' quite a lot.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Two (09/09/07)
Another good episode, possibly better than last week. Kaftan got her bodyguard (Toberman) to trash the spaceship so that the survey team couldn't leave the planet and so, while Captain Hopper and his crew fix the ship, the archaeologists have gone down into the tomb. Kaftan stayed behind and Victoria stayed too (to keep an eye on her) but Kaftan drugged her coffee and sealed the tomb while Victoria slept.
Meanwhile, Klieg (the other bad guy, who seems to be Kaftan's bitch) woke the Cybermen up and killed one of the archaeologists when he tried to stop him. Apparently, Klieg and Kaftan are members of the Brotherhood of Logicians who want to resurrect the Cybermen and use them to impose order (and their rule) on Earth. It seems, though, that the Cybercontroller has other ideas!
The Doctor and Jamie seem to be taking a bit of a back seat in this story, commenting and observing and occasionally coming up with witty remarks. Victoria's had some good bits to do, confronting Kaftan and shooting a Cybermat. Oh yeah - the Cybermat! That's new - a sort of metallic worm; Jamie found it in Part One, Victoria picked it up and put it in her handbag, then it came back to life and attacked Kaftan, who'd just pulled a gun on Victoria. This allowed Victoria to grab the gun and shoot the Cybermat - a pretty good aim seeing she's a Victorian lady and the Cybermat is pretty small. Anyhow, good episode and now the Cybermen are awake! Should be good next week.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Three (16/09/07)
A very good episode this week with plenty of action, a restatement of what the Cybermen are all about and a nice quiet bit towards the end where the Doctor discussed Victoria's father with her while everyone else was asleep and mentioned his own family! Nothing specific, but it's a subject never broached before, even when Susan was around, plus it help to fill out both the Doctor and Victoria and their relationship.
Kaftan is really being written as the brains behind Klieg's scheme - having met the Cybermen who are going to convert all the Humans into creatures like themselves, Klieg is calling them 'vile' and such other horrified words. Meanwhile, Kaftan is determined not to compromise their plan and has demanded he goes back down into the tomb armed with one of their own weapons. This was after everyone had escaped and locked Klieg and Kaftan in the weapons-testing room (I mean, really?!?).
Victoria was very good at the start of the episode, ordering the American rocket pilot to sort out opening the hatch to the tomb. The American saved everyone (except Toberman) but the Cybercontroller sent loads of Cybermats up which were quickly dispatched after a not-that-scary attack: surely they could have just jumped over the Cybermats instead of getting all squeamish. Maybe they're scarier in colour? Anyhow, the cliffhanger had Klieg and Kaftan escape from their cell...somehow...and shoot the Doctor. Bet he survives, though.
The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part Four (23/09/07)
Not a bad finale. Kaftan died pretty early on, shot by the Cybercontroller, and Toberman (now half Cyberman) ended up joining forces with the Doctor in order to defeat the Cybermen. There was a bit where Klieg (who you thought had been killed) followed the Doctor and Toberman into the tomb where the Doctor got to ridicule him just before a Cyberman came along and killed him properly. Victoria got her own back with a sniping comment to the Pilot, and the Doctor froze the Cybermen again. Then the Cybercontroller, who had apparently been destroyed by Toberman, came back to life as everyone was leaving, tried to kill everyone, but got sealed in the tomb. And Toberman died, electrocuted when he sealed the doors.
Not as unsatisfactory an ending as for The Moonbase, but it seems that, having killed the Cybermen off in The Tenth Planet, the writers seem reluctant to do it again. I mean, it's not like they couldn't as there could be any number of Cybermen floating around the universe! So, not as good as last week, but a better story than some of the ones last season.
I think four part stories seem to work a lot better - they don't seem to have as much padding. Whilst The Faceless Ones, The Power Of... and The Evil Of The Daleks were by far the best stories (aside from The Macra Terror) last season, each kind of sagged in the middle or tended to crawl in parts. This, and 'Macra', were better structured by far. I hope the production team have noticed.
Incidentally, the Doctor didn't get shot - Klieg missed and shot Callum instead, kind of emphasising that Kaftan was the one who wore the trousers (and shot the guns) in that relationship!
There are some stories where the Doctor & co.'s involvement has no real impact on events; not many of them, granted, but some. Equally, there are few stories where their involvement is responsible for every single event that follows, but this is one of them. Had the TARDIS not landed just behind that sand dune this story would have been over the instant the greedy extra who wanted Kaftan's 50 quid for opening the doors shorted out of this life and they packed up and went home again. Instead, from here on in pretty much everything that happens is the Doctor's responsibility, if not his fault. You're right that his motivations are hard to fathom; in the end it seems to boil down to mere curiosity and a desire to sneak a peek at the fables tombs. As such, the fact so many die as a result makes his actions highly irresponsible, although to be fair he's not to know there are wrong'uns among the space hopper crew.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot to like about this story, although it's not one you want to think about too deeply. (You simply have to accept the fact that Victoria seems to have gotten over her father's death, the concept of the TARDIS and her 19th-century moral inhibitions in the space of about five minutes as well.) The story's also interesting for the phenomenon it represents of the lost classic resurrected and subsequently going down in people's estimations when they realise it's not the powerhouse production they remembered it being.
I have to admit, it's an enjoyable story but I'd never call it a classic. Reading back my entries, I could tell that I was trying to be positive about it but had found it quite lacklustre in comparison to the preceding three stories. I remember it being discovered and people raving about it and how good it was, then seeing the episodes and thinking it was okay, but nothing special - about the only remarkable thing about the story is the Doctor and Victoria's chat in part three. The Doctor comes across in the story like a small boy poking an ant's nest, and in retrospect it really doesn't paint him in a very flattering light; I couldn't imagine Hartnell's Doctor doing this. Unlike when the 1st Doctor intentionally went down to explore the Dalek city, here the 2nd knows full well what lies within the tomb and the danger opening it will put everyone in. It makes you wonder what Kit and Gerry were trying to do with the character. It's a nice, if a little pedestrian four parter and a fairly run-of-the-mill start to the fifth season.
DeleteI can imagine the darker, more scheming early 1st Doctor doing it, definitely! He'd struggle with the ladder down into the tombs, but apart from that...
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