Production Code: MM
First Transmitted
1 - 02/09/1967 17:50
2 - 09/09/1967 17:50
3 - 16/09/1967 17:50
4 - 23/09/1967 17:50
Plot
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Telos where an Earth archaeological expedition, led by Professor Parry, is attempting to uncover the lost tombs of the Cybermen. With a lot of help from the Doctor the archaeologists enter the tombs. There, one of the party, Klieg, reveals himself and his business partner, Kaftan, to be planning to revive the Cybermen.
He wants to use their strength, allied with the intelligence of his own Brotherhood of Logicians, to create an invincible force for conquest. It transpires however that the tomb is actually a giant trap designed to lure humans suitable for conversion into further Cybermen - a fate that almost befalls Kaftan's assistant Toberman.
After fending off an attack by Cybermats - small but dangerous cybernetic creatures - the Doctor eventually defeats the revived Cybermen, led by their Controller, and reseals the tombs. The Controller is apparently destroyed in the process.
Episode Endings
In a room within the excavated complex, Jamie and the archaeologist Haydon have found a machine that creates patterns on a wall. They experiment with it, and when Jamie activates a previously unused switch the figure of a Cyberman appears. Moments later Haydon falls dead to the ground - he has been shot.
The Cybermen have released their Controller from his tomb. Klieg appeals to the creature, explaining that he represents the Brotherhood of Logicians and needs their help. The creature grabs his arm and flatly intones: 'You belong to us. You will be like us.'
The Cybermen send Cybermats to attack the archaeologists. The Doctor renders them harmless and then goes to check on Kaftan and Klieg, who have been locked in the weapons testing room. Kaftan and Klieg suddenly appear, having escaped with the aid of an X-ray laser found in the room. Klieg fires the laser, apparently aiming at the Doctor.
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria depart from Telos, leaving behind a live Cybermat and the dead body of the partially cybernised Toberman.
Roots
Mummy movies, especially Hammer's The Mummy (starring George Pastell) and The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.
The Avengers episode The House that Jack Built.
Dialogue Triumphs
Eric Klieg : "How did you know [the answer to the logic riddle] in the first place?"
The Doctor : "Oh, I used my own, special technique."
Eric Klieg : "Oh, really, Doctor... and may we know what that is?"
The Doctor : "Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut!"
The Doctor : "Well, if we count in Earth terms I suppose I must be about 400... yes, about 450 years old! Yes. Well. Quite..."
The Doctor : "Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."
The Doctor : [Reassuring Victoria, missing her father, with recollections of his own family] "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."
Dialogue Disasters
Captain : "You scream real good, Vic."
Victoria : "Who'd be a woman?"
Captain : "How would you know, honey?"
Double Entendre
"What are all these knobs?"
Continuity
The Doctor says that he 'perfected' the TARDIS, which appears to land like a spaceship: 'Something came down over there.' The Doctor has a book with a picture of a Cybermat in it [his diary] but is unfamiliar with them. He has an electricity detector, which he also uses in The Web of Fear.
There are two sizes of Cybermat. The Cybermen have been sealed in their tombs for 500 years. They salute their Controller, but express no other emotion. They are bullet proof, can fire sparks from their fingers, and can control cybernised humans remotely. The X-ray laser is their standard weapon (cf. The Invasion, Earthshock). Telos has a rarefied atmosphere.
QV
Location
Telos, [after 2570].
Future History
The Brotherhood of Logicians are a collective of the time's great thinkers, believing that logic and intelligence are supreme virtues. Orbiters send rockets down to planets. Parry's expedition is privately financed.
Trivia
Martin Johnson's set designs are truly excellent, and include some striking bas-relief Cyberman images on the walls of the tomb complex.
Producer Peter Bryant's then wife Shirley Cooklin appears in the role of Kaftan, which was written specially for her.
Klieg mentions 'Whitehead logic' in the first episode - probably referring to Alfred North Whitehead, co-author of 'Principia Mathematica' and one of the fathers of mathematical and computer logic, and maybe a bit of a nod to the actor Reg Whitehead, who had played a Cyberman in all their stories to date.
There is a wonderfully moving scene in which the Doctor comforts a frightened Victoria and tries to help her to come to terms with the death of her father by telling her that he can recall his own family, but only when he chooses to.
Toberman was described in the original scripts as wearing a hearing aid (tying in with the fact that he was virtually mute and perhaps with the story's theme of cybernisation), but this idea was dropped at the request of director Morris Barry.
Klieg was originally to have been played by Vladek Sheybal and the Cyber Controller by John Wills (who had appeared as a Cyberman in The Moonbase).
Orange squash was specially provided in the studio for the actors playing the Cybermen, who got very hot inside their heavy costumes.
Myth
The only surviving copy of this story is slightly edited. (The prints in the BBC's archives are complete and unedited.)
Goofs
In episode one the Doctor and Jamie hold one of the tomb doors closed with their feet.
The Cybercontroller uses a visible harness to lift Toberman over his head.
Toberman returns the favour by spinning a dummy Cybercontroller.
The Cybermen retreat into their tombs backwards, the film having been reversed.
Kaftan and Klieg are locked in the weapon testing room, complete with deadly weapon. (The room features a psychedelic target that can hypnotise humans, with a 'subliminal centre you're trained to see', which is not a very Cyberman sort of thing.)
Would Victoria really be able to shoot a Cybermat with a handgun?
Fashion Victim
Victoria seems only slightly concerned by switching from Victorian gown to mini-dress.
It's one of the few stories to feature anoraks.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Victoria - Deborah Watling
Captain Hopper - George Roubicek
Crewman - Ray Grover
Cyberman - Hans de Vries
Cyberman - Tony Harwood
Cyberman - John Hogan
Cyberman - Richard Kerley
Cyberman - Ronald Lee
Cyberman - Charles Pemberton
Cyberman - Kenneth Seeger
Cyberman - Reg Whitehead
Cyberman Controller - Michael Kilgarriff
Cybermen Voices - Peter Hawkins
Eric Klieg - George Pastell
Jim Callum - Clive Merrison
John Viner - Cyril Shaps
Kaftan - Shirley Cooklin
Peter Haydon - Bernard Holley
Professor Parry - Aubrey Richards
Ted Rogers - Alan Johns
Toberman - Roy Stewart
Crew
Director - Morris Barry
The Tomb of the Cybermen