Episodes - Afterlife: Mondasian Cybermen

For a great many years it looked as though the Cyberman design seen in The Tenth Planet would be their one and only on-screen appearance.

On their return, just a few months later, the Cybermen would be totally redesigned to look more robotic, mainly due to the problems experienced by the actors wearing the original cruder costumes.

They might have been absent from TV, but the Mondasian Cybermen did live on - initially in a quite unexpected place.

The whole point of comic strips is that you can create anything you want, so long as you have imagination and the skill to draw it. It seems good reference material also helps...

Patrick Troughton was already the Doctor, and the new version of the Cybermen seen on screen, when they made their first appearance in the Doctor Who comic strip in TV Comic. The visual material given to artist John Canning for "The Coming of the Cybermen" proved to derive entirely from their first story.

This first adventure saw the Doctor, with grandchildren John and Gillian, discover an abandoned spaceship on the planet Minot. This proved to belong to the Cybermen, a group of whom then turn up to retrieve it. The Doctor is trapped on board as it takes off, and he has to find a way to escape back to the planet.

At one point he specifically describes the Cybermen as his greatest enemies - this being the period in which the Daleks were still tied up in their own strip elsewhere.

Other adventures followed, in which the Cybermen attempted an attack on Earth using a burrowing mole-machine ("Cyber-Mole"). In other strips, the ever growing list of allergies which the Cybermen were susceptible to was foreshadowed by them being destroyed by flower pollen (a story called "Flower Power").

"Eskimo Joe" saw them in another snowy setting - and includes the surreal image of Cybermen on skis. "The Cyber Empire" had them enslaving humans and building a Cyber-Hovercraft, which the Doctor promptly stole. A Cyber-Controller is mentioned.

Throughout their series of adventures, the comic took the decision not to update the Cybermen at any point, even when the strip began to feature newer enemies such as the Quarks, and companion Jamie.

The Mondasian Cybermen had been popular with at least one of the classic Doctors. Peter Davison recalled:

"The Cybermen were always my favourite adversaries, dating back to when I watched them with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. I remembered they'd changed entirely since those days. They used to have a sort of sock over their heads, and a headlamp on their foreheads, and they talked in a very strange voice".

They would later become identified with another Doctor...

A few months before Davison took over the DWM comic strip, his predecessor encountered an abandoned Mondasian Cyberman in "Junkyard Demon". It was found in a scrapyard presided over by Flotsam and Jetsam. Reactivated it even tried to take over the TARDIS. In the end it ran out of power.

Big Finish revisited the Mondasians in the highly acclaimed "Spare Parts", which told an origins story for the Cybermen as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa arrived on Mondas. This acted as an inspiration for elements of The Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel. 

The company also presented a Mondasian Cyberman in "The Silver Turk", featuring the Eighth Doctor and set in 19th Century Vienna. Like The Haunting of Villa Diodati, this sought to link Cybermen to the Frankenstein story via Mary Shelley's inclusion.

Artist Adrian Salmon also lent his talents to a strip which featured a Cyberman / Silurian / Sea Devil crossover, in Mondas' ancient times.

The first sighting of an original Cyberman in modern times came with the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time. This dealt mainly with the earliest days of the show, but then had to move on to Hartnell's departure from the series, with recreations from The Tenth Planet. 

At one point we see an actor in Cyberman costume, smoking by the TARDIS prop. He is identified as "Reg" - so Reg Whitehead.

Mondasian Cybermen were finally back for real in The World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls, as a sort of farewell gift to their other big Doctor fan - Peter Capaldi. The Doctor and company encountered a new race of these Cybermen which evolved on a colony ship which originated on Mondas. It was made clear in this story that Cybermen can evolve anywhere that you find humanoids living in extreme circumstances, so the Mondasian design might well have been the ancestor of all later versions - other that the alternative universe Cybus ones.

This story then segued into Twice Upon A Time...

Capaldi's swansong incorporated the final moments of The Tenth Planet into an adventure in which the First and most recent Doctors compared notes on regeneration.

The episode opened with some recreations from 1966, and one of these included the Cybermen. Unfortunately this scene was deleted (no pun intended) but can be seen on the DVD / Blu-ray extras.

It should be noted that the new incarnation of the Mondasian Cybermen only pays homage to the originals. They are not exact copies by any means. The one in the 50th Anniversary drama was far more faithful to the original Sandra Reid versions than the Capaldi ones.

Episode 134: The Tenth Planet (4)

Synopsis:

Polly desperately asks Ben if he succeeded in sabotaging the Z-Bomb, but he is still groggy and cannot remember. The countdown reaches zero and the rockets flare...

Seconds later, however, the engines shut down.

Cutler is furious and demands to know from Barclay how long it will take to repair the fault, but he calmly states that there is not enough time - confirmed by the Doctor, who returns to the tracking room. He explains cryptically to his young companions that he is subject to some external influence, and that his old body is wearing a bit thin...

The General's mind snaps, and he threatens to kill them. So fixated is he that he fails to heed warnings from a radar technician that another spaceship has landed close by.

A trio of Cybermen break in and kill Cutler before he can shoot Barclay and the time-travellers. 

The new leader is Krang, who informs the tracking room crew that they are aware that a missile has been aimed at Mondas. He demands that it be disarmed.

The Doctor attempts to reason with him, stating that he knows Mondas is doomed due to its excessive energy absorption, then offering to help the Cybermen. As the creatures confer, the Doctor explains that he is merely trying to buy time. The tenth planet is rapidly destroying itself.

The Cybermen have now landed in force and taken over the planet's key installations - including Wigner's Geneva ISC headquarters. Their overall controller - Gern - is there.

Krang commands that a number of scientists go to the silo room to disarm the Z-Bomb. Polly will be taken to their spaceship as a hostage to force their compliance. 

Ben agrees to go with Barclay and Dyson to the silo room, with the Doctor urging him to delay their work as long as possible.

The young seaman wonders why the Cybermen do not carry out the task themselves, and they realise that there is something in the area which is a threat to them. They realise that this is radiation, and their theory proves correct as the Cybermen on guard are forced to retreat when tempted inside after Dyson feigns illness. 

They will lock themselves in the room and hold out there until Mondas destroys itself. Krang gives them an ultimatum to leave the silo, and the Doctor will now also be sent to the spaceship as a further hostage. The Doctor warns Ben over the intercom that the Cybermen are now plotting to use the Z-Bomb to destroy the Earth, in order to save their own planet.

The group in the silo elect to go on the offensive as they know the Cybermen will attempt to break in shortly. Sure enough Krang sends Cybermen to the room armed with a paralysing gas.

In the Cybership, the Doctor and Polly notice a strange vibration affecting the craft, which he believes to be a sign that the Cybermen draw all their power from the planet. Polly is concerned by his failing health.

Ben seeks a weapon, and Barclay confirms that the base's reactor has removeable radioactive fuel rods which can be portable for short periods of time.

Krang and the rest of the Cybermen are destroyed. Unsure how many of the creatures are waiting nearby, Ben decides to use one of their communications devices to lure them here.

With the fuel rods removed, the lights and heating fail and in the darkness a third group of Cybermen enter the base. Before they can do anything, however, everyone's attention is drawn to a monitor screen showing Mondas. They see the planet begin to break up.

The Cybermen across the planet collapse and die - having been totally reliant on drawing their energy from their homeworld, just as the Doctor had suspected.

As Barclay and Dyson concentrate on getting the power supply reinstated and ensuring the safe return of the Zeus 5 capsule, Ben slips away to find Polly and the Doctor. He releases them and the increasingly frail Doctor wanders out into the snow to get back to the TARDIS. His concerned companions follow, and initially find the ship's doors locked against them.

The Doctor begins operating controls on the console, before the ship starts to function by itself. He collapses to the floor as Ben and Polly finally manage to enter - just in time to see his features begin to blur and change.

Seconds later, a smaller, dark-haired man lies on the spot where the Doctor had been...

Next time: The Power of the Daleks

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis

Recorded: Saturday 8th October 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 29th October 1966

Ratings: 7.5 million / AI 47

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Derek Martinus

Additional cast: Harry Brooks (Krang), Reg Whitehead (Jarl), Gregg Palmer (Gern), Bruce Wells (Cyberman), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voices)

Critique:

As we mentioned last week, the final half of The Tenth Planet was written by Gerry Davis alone due to Kit Pedler's ill health over the summer of 1966, though the finished Episodes 3 and 4 credited both men.

Davis kept more detailed notes of his work, so we can enjoy a much closer look at the development of the final instalment.

The paralysing gas was first used by the Cybermen at the beginning of the episode - using it to break into the base in the first place. An extra scene set in Geneva saw Wigner demand that the Doctor make contact with the ruling body on Mondas to negotiate a peaceful resolution. It was claimed that radio contact would be most effective from the South Pole. 

The Cybermen spoke now of taking only certain individuals to Mondas, and they would need to be converted during the space flight to survive there.

There was some dialogue about Cutler's last hours - with the Doctor advising that Terry Cutler should never know about his father's behaviour, and indeed should not be told he is dead at all until after he has safely landed. The Doctor also spoke of some short-term disruptions to Earth's weather as a result of Mondas' destruction.

It has been noted by fans that the Cyberman decision to use the Z-Bomb to destroy Earth seems to come out of nowhere, and it is assumed that this is a sign of Davis' late take-over of the scripts due to Kit Pedler's illness. Whilst Pedler strove to maintain some sort of ambiguity about the Cybermen's motivations, Davis presents them as much more straightforward villains.

Something which remains unclear is the exact nature of Mondas. Has its return to the Solar System been a natural phenomenon - some sort of vast elliptical orbit - or has it been deliberately guided back into the Solar System? 

Krail simply states that the planet has now returned. There is nothing in the dialogue to state that the planet was artificially powered here - though this is what Attack of the Cybermen will later claim.

The other issue is the energy drain. Is this a deliberate technological process initiated by the Cybermen, or some natural process of the planet? When asked how they are going to stop the energy drain Krail states: "We cannot. It is beyond our powers".

It can't simply be a machine that can be switched on and off - otherwise the Cybermen would have stopped Mondas from absorbing too much energy.

Mondas actually burned up on Tuesday 30th August - when a model of the planet was attacked with a blow-torch at Ealing Film Studios.

Establishing shots of the Cybership in relation to the base, seen in earlier episodes, were reused for this instalment.

The other filming for this episode took place on Wednesday 31st, for the scene of Ben and Polly returning to the TARDIS.

Patrick Troughton had been contracted for the changeover sequence on Friday 16th September. It had been decided to record this first on Hartnell's final studio day, due to its technical complexity. The older actor was very upset, and his successor went out of his way to help support him. 

The key member of the production team for this was vision mixer Shirley Coward, who came up with the flaring effect that bleached out the scene as the two camera outputs were mixed. This came about by chance as one of the mixing desks at Riverside had a fault and was not actually supposed to be used.

Unlike later changeovers - where the outgoing Doctor was recorded on the floor, and then replaced by the successor stepping in and lying in exactly the same spot - Hartnell and Troughton were recorded simultaneously, lying on different sections of the TARDIS set's floor, each with a different camera pointing at them from an identical angle.

This required a considerable amount of time to line up, and it was rehearsed from 6 - 6:30pm,  then recorded over the next half hour. It would then be played into studio at the conclusion of the studio session, which was due to run between 8:30 - 10pm.

Hartnell also had a still image taken of his face - to be used in a superimposed shot on a mirror in the next episode.

The same three actors from Episode 2 - Whitehead, Brooks and Palmer - returned to play different Cybermen. They were joined by a fourth Cyberman, played by Bruce Wells, who had been used on the Ealing filming.

Given names in the scripts, only Krang is actually referred to by name in dialogue. Krang is also given some sort of rank or title - "Regos".

Peter Hawkins joined Roy Skelton to provide additional Cyberman voices. The latter voiced Krang, whilst Hawkins voiced Gern.

Bill King, of the Trading Post effects company, handled the deaths of Cutler and others, with the smoke effect seen in Episode 2. King also arranged the disintegrating Cyberman chest units. All seven Cyberman costumes were provided by Shawcraft, to be arranged empty on the floor to show the destroyed creatures.

Recording breaks through the evening were used mainly to move Cybermen from set to set, and for the use of gas effects. Wells was the Cyberman seen in the spaceship scenes with Polly and the Doctor.

For his final scenes as the Doctor, Hartnell stood on the darkened TARDIS set which had lights pulsing behind the semi-transparent roundels. Close-ups showed the controls operating by themselves, and the materialisation sound was heard throughout, following an assortment of electronic noise.

At no point is the process ever named as a "regeneration". That term was used for the first time only when Jon Pertwee handed over to Tom Baker, and was then applied retroactively to earlier changes. 

We'll discuss the first changeover more fully next time.

The Doctor's final lines as scripted were: "No, no, I can't go through with it - I can't. I can't. I will not give in".

As broadcast, his final words are: "Ah yes, thank you. It's good. Keep warm", as Ben hands him his cloak.

The final 15 minutes of studio time did not require Hartnell, so he could go off and get ready for the farewell party that had been organised to take place at the home of Innes Lloyd. He was very emotional, and when Lloyd gave him a lift home around 1am he stressed to him how he could now enjoy a well-deserved rest.

William Hartnell claimed in interviews at the time that the decision to leave Doctor Who had been a mutual one - though he contradicted this in a letter to fan Ian McLachlan in 1968. He also told journalists that he had a number of exciting new projects lined up, including job offers from Australia.

See below for what he actually did next. 

His career quickly ground to a halt as his health deteriorated, with only a couple of small screen roles open to him. 

By the time Barry Letts contacted him to feature in The Three Doctors, for the programme's 10th Anniversary, he could no longer work at all. His role in the story was quickly reduced and he appeared only in pre-filmed scenes at Ealing, reading his lines from boards.

Intensely proud of his time as the Doctor - the definitive article you might say - towards the end he could not recall ever having been in the show. 

He died, aged 67, on 23rd April 1975.

Trivia:

• The ratings remain healthy as far as audience numbers go, but the final instalment sees a further drop in the appreciation figure - though only by a single point. 
• Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis were very happy with the story, and decided that it should be used as a template for future stories.
• The last great dialogue fluff of the Hartnell era features in this episode - but it isn't courtesy of the star. Michael Craze trips over the phrase "grotty planet Mondas" - muddling up all the vowels to talk about the "plonet Mandos".
• The final Cyberman leader to enter Snowcap is named Shav in the scripts.
• The story has been recreated twice in recent years - featuring David Bradley as William Hartnell / the First Doctor on both occasions. The regeneration sequence was included in the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time, with Reece Shearsmith playing Patrick Troughton:

The closing moments of the episode were then slotted into the final Peter Capaldi story - Twice Upon A Time. The Doctor basically has a whole adventure with his future self between leaving the Cybership and reaching the TARDIS. 

This also featured recreated scenes from earlier in the story - one of which included the new Mondasian Cyberman costumes from World Enough And Time / The Doctor Falls. However, only one of these scenes, from Episode 2, made it into the finished programme.

• It was always intended that The Tenth Planet was to be retained by the BBC as a complete set of 16mm film recordings. The video tapes were scrubbed in October 1969. In November 1973 the fourth episode was borrowed by Blue Peter in order that a clip of the regeneration could be used in a 10th Anniversary feature. What happened to the episode thereafter remains a mystery, though there are plenty of rumours. Widely regarded as the show's "Holy Grail" missing episode, it was actually beaten by the final instalment of The Daleks' Master Plan in a recent DWM poll.
• The missing episode can be enjoyed in a number of ways, as telesnaps were taken and the soundtrack exists. These were used for the VHS release of the story - despite Michael Craze having filmed links for an earlier abandoned release (see blog post The Art of The Tenth Planet). For the DVD, the episode was animated to a high quality - unlike most of the subsequent animated missing stories:

• William Hartnell's next significant work on leaving Doctor Who was actually in touring pantomime. Interviewed by local TV, as can be seen as a DVD extra, this was not a happy experience for the actor. The show also drew poor reviews (see below). Hartnell had little more than a cameo role, as the cobbler, in Puss In Boots. He first appeared in his TV costume, but then was seen in panto outfit, including a Harpo Marx-style wig. One of the issues with the production was that the venues were not theatres but a cinema chain, which only had shallow stages and were not geared up for this kind of show. Performances were said to feel under-rehearsed and there were sound and other technical issues. That headline says it all...

Story 297c: Flux - Once, Upon Time

In which the Doctor is forced to improvise to save Yaz and Vinder from being exposed to the full force of Time itself...

They are in the Temple of Atropos on the planet named Time, captured by Swarm and Azure and forced to take the place of two damaged Mouri - beings who help harness and control Time, which is seen as a sentient but chaotic force.

The Doctor saves everyone by throwing them into a time storm, where they can be concealed within their own timelines.

Elsewhere, a young woman named Bel is travelling through the remnants of the universe, attempting to avoid the consequences of the Flux. She records messages to her lover as she goes along. On one world she spots a pair of refugees and witnesses them come under attack by a glowing blue cloud, which destroys them.

Within the time storm, the Doctor sees a Weeping Angel. She finds herself in a darker version of her coat, standing outside the Temple of Atropos. With her are Dan, Yaz and Vinder. They are armed and all seem to know each other well - part of a team. They are about to raid the building.

She realises that she is experiencing a moment from the period for which she has no memories - and the people with her are avatars for other people. At this point in her history she was the "Fugitive" Doctor. Dan is actually Karvanista, proving that they were once partners within the Division.

Their task is the capture the Ravagers - Swarm and Azure - who are besieged within the Temple. This is the older incarnation of Swarm, before his escape from captivity just before the Flux struck.

Dan is back in Liverpool with Diane, but the pair keep flitting through time. He also sees the cloud of blue particles. Only he notices the time jumps, and recalls these incidents from his recent past. Diane suddenly vanishes, to be replaced by the hulking Passenger, who had accompanied Swarm and Azure at the Temple.

Yaz is back in the police force, and fleetingly sees a Weeping Angel. Her colleague transforms into the Doctor, who manages to warn her that she is trying to break into her time stream before vanishing again.

Vinder has been transported back to the time immediately before his demotion and exile to the deep space observation platform. His commanding officer, who appears to him in the form of Yaz, orders him to work with a powerful figure known as the Grand Serpent - a ruthless, manipulative character.

Attending a meeting with him, he realises that the Grand Serpent is advocating the assassination of a client's political rival. When he questions something he says, he suddenly finds himself in disgrace and reassigned to the spacecraft.

Within the time storm, the Doctor is warned by a trio of Mouri that Time is toying with her and her friends.

Dan next finds himself in a series of tunnels, and comes under laser fire. Joseph Williamson is here. Both have to evade the blue particle cloud. He then returns to present day Liverpool, and the Doctor appears and tells him about her hiding him within his time stream. She vanishes again, as she is still dealing with the Mouri.

Bel finds an abandoned Lupari spaceship and uses it to escape the region of space now dominated by the Daleks. The universe has been split between Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran space since the Flux struck.

The ship comes under attack by Cybermen but she is able to destroy them all.

Yaz is now playing video games with sister Sonya. Their first-person-shooter game suddenly features a Weeping Angel, which emerges from the screen.

The Doctor appears and Yaz tells her that this is not her home. The Angel is corrupting their time streams. The Doctor gets pulled away and Yaz smashes the games console to make the creature vanish.

Back at the Temple, during their Division operation, Swarm and Azure explain that they champion Time in its war against Space. They explain that Passengers are actually living prisons - each can contain thousands of people. However, the Division team have planted one of their own, containing Mouri. They emerge and the Ravagers are captured.

The Doctor next arrives on a space station where she meets a woman named Awsok, who tells her that the Ravagers were released deliberately in order to corrupt Time, whilst the Flux was created to destroy Space.

Before she can discover more, the Doctor finds herself back inside the time storm and the Mouri announce that they are about to return everyone to the present. The Doctor demands more time, as she wishes to learn more of her past, but they decline. Back at the Temple, Swarm and Azure reveal that the blue particle cloud is actually the destructive Time Force. The Doctor and her companions, along with Vinder, escape to the TARDIS.

The Doctor takes him to his home planet. It still exists, but it is now lifeless. He tells them that he now plans to seek out his lover - Bel. The others leave in the TARDIS, where Yaz is shocked to see a Weeping Angel on her mobile phone. 

Dropping it, the creature materialises within the ship and begins to operate the controls...

Once, Upon Time, the third chapter of Flux, was written by Chris Chibnall, and was first broadcast on Sunday 14th November 2021.

Falling between an action-packed Sontaran adventure and an atmospheric Weeping Angel story, this episode was always going to struggle. Indeed, in polls it tended to be the least popular of the six instalments.

Until you work out that everyone has been placed within their time streams, it can be confusing - leaping about as it does. Half way through the overall story, some explanations should start to make themselves known but, apart from the background to the Ravagers, we're still none the wiser.

Williamson's presence in particular remains inexplicable. Not only has he popped up within an alien temple, but there are now laser shots being fired in his tunnels by someone we don't even get to see.

And after the Flux there is now the weird blue cloud to get our heads round.

A serious problem is the addition of even more characters. Chapter 3 of 6 and we now get the Grand Serpent, Bel and Awsok... As Flux develops, it looks increasingly probable that Chibnall was making large parts of it up as he went along. Two of these characters will have some role to play in the final analysis, but Bel really isn't needed at all. Vinder could have been given a quest that did not necessarily mean the inclusion of a whole new character, on top of all the others we've already got. And in hindsight we know we're going to get another, much more, significant character in the next chapter.

Of our new characters, the Grand Serpent is portrayed by Craig Parkinson. He is best known as one of the regulars in police drama Line of Duty, having previously featured in Misfits and Whitechapel, in which he played two roles - modern day versions of the Kray Twins.

Awsok is Barbara Flynn. She starred opposite Peter Davison and David Troughton in the cult drama series A Very Peculiar Practice. Other roles of note include an early Inspector Morse, the Beiderbecke Trilogy with James Bolam, and more recently Beyond Paradise - a spin off from the popular Death in Paradise.

Bel is played by Thaddea Graham, who has appeared opposite Ncuti Gatwa in Sex Education.

We get return appearances by Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor, and Bhavnisha Parmar as Yaz's sister Sonya - last seen in Can You Hear Me?

It's a personal annoyance of mine that Chibnall upset a great many fans by introducing the notion that there were other Doctors before Hartnell - hundreds or even thousands of them. So why do we only ever see Doctor Ruth? Here was a perfect opportunity to show another earlier incarnation, but we only ever seem to get her...

Overall, it's only supposed to be a place-holder episode, a sort of catching of the breath between bigger and better chapters, but it would have been nice if it had moved things along a lot further. Nice to see the Cybermen again, even if it's only a cameo appearance.

Things you might like to know:

• Craig Parkinson is married to Susan Lynch, who appeared in The Ghost Monument as Angstrom.
• Vinder has heard of TARDISes - further suggesting that this character was replacement for Captain Jack.
• Masked Ravager Guards were due to have featured in the Temple scenes, and got as far as creature designs being made before being cut.
• Weeping Angels were featuring in actual console games in 2021, including VR game The Edge of Reality. There was also a game designed for mobile phones called The Lonely Assassins.
• Jo Martin is credited as "Fugitive Doctor". Until now this had been a term used only by fandom and in certain BBC sanctioned publications, but the programme itself now makes it official.

What's Wrong With... Earthshock

The cave with the bomb seems to be in the middle of nowhere, so what geographical relation has it to the forthcoming conference?

Why place the device somewhere accessible, where it might be found and deactivated? Why not simply stick it in a hole in the ground and bury it, or drop it in the ocean?

If it's a planet-destroying bomb, it could have been placed thousands of miles away where there would be less likelihood of security searches.

The conference surely includes lots of different aliens, so why do the troopers have a scanner that can only pick up mammalian lifeforms? It's a conference to establish an alliance against Cybermen, so shouldn't they at least be able to pick them up on their equipment?

What if an enemy wanted to use robots? Oh look - they have used robots.

The sentinels actually draw attention to the bomb, sort of defeating the whole subterfuge thing.

The Cybermen assume that their plans are fool-proof, but surely they understand the concept of "contingency". They are relying entirely on a single bomb, which has already been disturbed by cavers, so why didn't they think of having a second, or even third, device elsewhere.

The fact that they have placed sentinels shows that they expect potential tampering.

After all, in Revenge of the Cybermen they knew that one bomb would be enough to destroy Voga, but still had three of them carried into the heart of the asteroid.

They are also quick enough at coming up with a 'Plan B' when the bomb is deactivated. Why not have 'Plan B' in place from the start?

Radio signals travel at 186,410 miles per second in space - so why does it take a whole minute for the Cyber-signal to get from the freighter to the bomb? Just how far out is this vessel?

Why did the Cybermen kill some of the crew if they wanted to keep a low profile of the freighter? They can't all have stumbled into their secret lair.

Scott is a member of Earth's security forces - so why did the Doctor not call on him the minute he and Adric were captured. Why leave him in the TARDIS in the first place?

The Doctor is a suspected murderer, yet Briggs allows him and Adric to remain on the bridge, unsecured. She and Berger simply go about their business with their backs to the pair of potential killers.

It isn't made very clear why the Cyber-Leader leaves a significant number of his troops on the crashing freighter - nor why they suddenly activate remotely. Where do they go to? Only a single damaged Cyberman makes it to the bridge to stop Adric's meddling.

How do the first lot of Cybermen get off the ship? The Leader takes to the TARDIS, but where does his army go? How many escape pods does this sparsely-crewed freighter need? It is logical that the crew might try to escape, so why leave them a pod anyway?

Why did the Cybermen capture Tegan, when they've been killing everyone else? Why, in general, do monsters always seem to know which members of the cast are the regulars?

This one generated heated debate in the pages of DWM: how can the Cybermen have footage from Revenge of the Cybermen when it takes place far in their future? How can they have footage from The Tenth Planet when not only did every Cyberman perish, but so did their entire planet? Uploaded to some computer archive just doesn't wash.

Stuff everyone notices:

One of the troopers turns to look back, and fails to spot the obvious moving shadow of an android on the cavern wall, despite staring right at it.

A couple of Cybermen seem to be having a very casual chat in one scene.

A member of the production team can be seen lurking under a stairway, as spotted by Peter Davison when watching the DVD with the contrast turned up.

A female trooper is grabbed by a Cybermen just as she is about to walk into the TARDIS, yet is seen entering unharmed seconds later.

You can see David Banks' battery pack sliding down his chin, before the clear chin piece suddenly becomes opaque - and earlier his voice modulator picks up Davison's voice briefly.

Earth didn't look like it does today 65,000,000 years ago - and wouldn't have been in the same location in space back then for the freighter to crash into it.

Adric miraculously intuits that the console is about to explode several seconds before it happens. Mr Waterhouse rather spoils the moment.

And can anyone really take seriously the idea of Beryl Reid as a tough space captain?

Episode 133: The Tenth Planet (3)

Synopsis:

As General Cutler absorbs the news that his son is now in orbit in the Zeus 5 capsule, a radar technician announces that a huge fleet of Cyberman spaceships is approaching the Earth...

Cutler orders scientist Dyson to contact his son in the Zeus 5, just as the Doctor suddenly collapses. Ben and Polly are told to take him to the crew room.

Terry Cutler is notified that he will no longer be rendezvousing with Zeus 4, and is advised to keep an eye out for the Cyberman fleet which should be in a lower orbit. Cutler assures him that he will bring him down safely - no matter the cost.

Ben and Polly return to the tracking room to hear that the General plans to destroy Mondas. Snowcap Base is one of the sites where the powerful Z-Bomb is housed.

Barclay is horrified as this weapon could damage the Earth with radiation due to the proximity of the two worlds. Cutler admits the risk, but dismisses it as potentially affecting only the side of the Earth facing Mondas. 

He contacts Wigner in Geneva and seeks permission to use the Z-Bomb, but this is explicitly refused due to the dangers mentioned by Barclay. However, the bureaucrat does allow Cutler to use any means necessary to defend against the Cybermen - little realising that the General will twist this to mean deployment of the Z-Bomb. Barclay, Ben and Polly realise that the base commander is becoming mentally unbalanced, due to his obsession with saving his son.

When it becomes clear that he intends to launch the weapon, as Mondas directly threatens the Earth, Ben tries to tell him that the Doctor thought otherwise. He claimed that Mondas was more at risk from Earth than the other way round, due to its energy-draining. He had advised patience.

Cutler refuses to heed this advice and begins the launch preparations.

Polly is asked by Ben to start working on Barclay, to get him on their side.

Sure enough, he is so opposed to the Z-Bomb use that he agrees to help them sabotage the launch.

The radar technician reports another landing nearby of a Cyberman spaceship. The three weapons earlier captured from Krail and his fellow Cybermen are taken outside by a squad of soldiers who conceal themselves in the snow. As a group of Cybermen emerge out of the blizzard, they are ambushed with their own weaponry and most are destroyed, with the survivors retreating back to their craft.

Barclay has sent Ben through a ventilation shaft from the crew room to the missile silo, with instructions on how to sabotage the weapon in such a way as it will take a long time to trace and put right.

Cutler becomes suspicious and goes to the silo room in time to catch Ben tampering with the device. He pushes him and he falls from a gantry, leaving him stunned.

He is brought to the tracking room as the missile countdown begins - with the General threatening to kill him and Barclay if anything goes wrong.

Polly desperately asks Ben if he succeeded in his mission, but he is still confused from his injury. He simply cannot recall. 

The countdown reaches zero and the rockets fire...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis

Recorded: Saturday 1st October 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 22nd October 1966

Ratings: 7.6 million / AI 48

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Derek Martinus

Additional cast: Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Christopher Dunham (R/T technician)

Critique:

After completing his scripts for the first two episodes, Kit Pedler was taken seriously ill in the summer of 1966 - necessitating surgery and a hospital stay. Gerry Davis was very busy at the time working on both The Smugglers and the story which would launch the new Doctor - then known as "The Destiny of Doctor Who". He had already been guiding Pedler through his contributions, and so it was decided that he would complete Hartnell's final adventure himself - for which he had to get special permission, being the series' Story Editor. He would be entitled to split the fee with Pedler as well as be given on-screen credit for his work. 

This was discussed with Pedler, who agreed to the arrangement. He was able to inform Davis of his ideas for the remaining two instalments, though it was up to the Story Editor how much of this he could use.

It was also agreed at this time that Pedler and Davis would enjoy shared copyright of the Cybermen.

During the summer break Hartnell had suffered bouts of ill health. On completing recording of the second episode of his final story, the star was struck down by bronchitis. His doctor prescribed a week's rest along with his antibiotics, and so he would be unable to attend rehearsals for the next instalment which commenced two days later. The Doctor would have to be written out of the episode.

Having been forced to pen the episode himself, it now fell to Davis to make the necessary adaptations to cover Hartnell's absence.

The Doctor simply falls unconscious at the beginning of the episode, and his exposition is split between Ben and Barclay. It is noticeable that Ben speaks of things which the Doctor is supposed to have said - such as the danger to Mondas and the call for restraint - when he has never been heard to say any such thing, and there hasn't even been any opportunity to do so off-screen.

The consequences of using the Z-Bomb against Mondas and other scientific dialogue was given to Barclay.

As with the third episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, when Hartnell had been forced to miss a week through injury, a double would be employed, seen only from the back - their sole job being to fall over in the first shot. They would then remain unconscious off camera for the remainder of the episode.

Having already doubled for Hartnell in Cornwall for The Smugglers, and for the opening South Pole scenes at Ealing, Gordon Craig was hired to feature briefly at the start of the episode, collapsing in a faint. The Doctor is then taken to the crew room and spends the rest of the instalment under a blanket on a bunk bed.

As well as the dialogue changes, the initial draft of the third episode did not include Ben in the tracking room at the conclusion. The Doctor was to have felt ill throughout, and not played a significant role anyway. He was to have rested in the crew room for much of the instalment, only being brought back to the tracking room for the cliff-hanger.

The Cybermen did not feature at Riverside on the third studio day. The creatures appear in one sequence only, which was filmed at Ealing on Thursday 1st September.

This had been the first time that the actors had worked in the costumes, and many of the problems in doing so only became apparent this day.

Some fainted under the hot studio lights, and everyone needed help getting back up after falling in the ambush. As previously mentioned, the lamp on the top of the head was fitted with a bulb which was supposed to illuminate - but it blew on being switched on and the idea was quickly dropped.

Parts of the costume came loose, requiring running repairs from Sandra Reid and her assistant.

A BBC photographer was present on the day to record the activity. It was on this occasion that all of the group shots of the Cybermen in the snow were taken. The chap on the right, above, wearing glasses, is director Derek Martinus.

The three actors who would be playing the Cybermen in studio were amongst the group - Reg Whitehead, Harry Brooks and Gregg Palmer - and joining them for filming only were John Slater, Bruce Wells, John Haines, and John Knott.

Model filming depicting the raising of the Z-Bomb rocket took place two days earlier, Tuesday 30th August, also on Ealing's Stage 3.

During the rehearsal period, Martinus wrote to Hartnell wishing him a speedy recovery and informing him of how they had covered his absence.

One side effect of the changes made by Davis was the removal of a new scene for Glenn Beck as the TV News announcer. Instead, he and Roy Skelton - not needed for Cyber-voices - provided background vocals for the various intercom messages throughout the episode.

Skelton also provided the Z-Bomb countdown.

The studio day did not get off to a good start, as Martinus was angry with the state of the tracking room set. It had been transported to Alexandra Palace for storage as there was insufficient room at Riverside, and had been damaged at some point in transit.

Davis' name was misspelt in the opening credits.

The Zeus 4 set was reused as the Zeus 5 one. Callen Angelo, playing Cutler's astronaut son, was only ever seen in close-up on monitors to help disguise this.

The main new set was the multi-level rocket silo room, which included the wall-mounted grill which Ben had to crawl through.

Stuntman Peter Pocock doubled for Michael Craze in the sequence where Ben is knocked off the gantry by the General.

Recording breaks were mainly to allow cast members to move between the tracking room and silo sets, and to allow Craze to move along the ventilation shaft in close-ups.

Stock footage of rocket jets firing was used for the final scene, and countdown numerals were superimposed over the Snowcap crewmembers.

The Tenth Planet very much provides the blueprint for the "base under siege" story structure, which will come to prominence in the Troughton era of the programme. We have the small group of people - generally scientists rather than trained soldiers, though there may be some of those to act as "red shirts". They are housed in a claustrophobic location, situated in a hostile environment - making simple escape impossible. To add to the drama, the person in command of this location is wholly unsuited to the role, suffering from some mental health issue - triggered by the alien threat or an existing condition which the situation exacerbates.

Cutler is clearly a hard taskmaster whom it is difficult to work with, and the nature of the remote and confined location is specifically mentioned in the first episode as the Sergeant explains how no-one works here for more than a few months at a time.

We've seen how ruthless the General can be when dealing with the Cybermen, but he totally flips when his son comes under threat. He is quite prepared to ignore a direct order - twisting Wigner's "any means necessary" to include the very thing he's been specifically told not to use. His planned actions can destroy a whole half of the earth at the very least, but he's single-mindedly fixated on saving his son. This can't all have come out of nowhere. Clearly Cutler must have already been suffering some kind of obsessive-compulsive behaviours prior to this, which his superiors really ought to have picked up on. People working in remote hostile environments would be getting psychological check-ups on a regular basis. 

Even if ISC were unaware of any of this, they ought to have known that sending into danger the son of the man responsible for dealing directly with an alien invasion would be a distraction at the very least, and the trigger for a complete mental breakdown at worst.

It may be a Cyberman story, but with this third episode Gerry Davis is more interested in telling a human story.

Trivia:

• The ratings see yet another significant increase of more than one million on the previous week. The appreciation figure remains constant and under 50, however.
• Bernard Hepton, who would go on to find fame in Colditz and Secret Army, was originally considered for the role of Dyson. When rewrites saw the part diminished, he was no longer interested.
• Cutler's son is named Terry in the credits and in various production documents - but it is never mentioned in dialogue.
• The script specified that Wigner should speak to one of his underlings in Greek, but actor Steve Plytas opted to use French instead.
• The forthcoming change in lead actor was reported in the US entertainment trade paper Variety on Wednesday 28th September. The piece mentioned how the Doctor's personality would change along with his appearance, and pointed out how successful the series had been so far in foreign sales.
• Michael Craze could be seen in the Wednesday Play series in the run-up to broadcast - in a comedy called A Piece of Resistance. This was actually a repeat, however, as it had debuted on BBC 2 on Boxing Day, 1965.
• The layout of the base has to be questioned, as it appears that there is a ventilation shaft leading directly from the crew room to the rocket silo - suggesting that anyone lying in bed during a launch would most likely be cremated...

The Art of... The Tenth Planet

Gerry Davis was the author for the novelisation of The Tenth Planet, having been its original co-writer. He had already penned the first of the Cybermen novelisations, based on The Moonbase.

Whilst Doctor Who and the Cybermen had been a fairly straightforward adaptation, for this book Davis elected to make a few changes.

He moved the date to 2000AD, and instead of an old Western it is a James Bond movie which Ben sees. The description of Roger Moore fighting in a kung-fu school lets us know that this is specifically 1974's The Man With The Golden Gun. He also changes the regeneration scene - with the Doctor taking to a bed-like device covered with a canopy - and adds the same "Origins of the Cybermen" prologue from his earlier book.

The cover is by Chris Achilleos, and actually featured in the first Doctor Who Monster Book some three months before the novel's release date.

The book was published in 1976. A reprint in 1978 used a blue logo, and amended the background to a simpler purple block, omitting the rays of light emanating from Mondas at the top of the artwork.

This was the first of the Target books not to have the Doctor's image on the cover. He is relegated to the back, as this was part of a short run of books to have additional artwork on the reverse.

The 2012 reissue - the one with the foreword by Tom MacRae - did away with a coloured background altogether, placing the Cybermen and planets against a plain white backing.

The book was reprinted again in 1993, this time with totally new artwork from Alister Pearson, and using the Oliver Elmes McCoy logo:

An image of Hartnell, based on a photo from The Celestial Toymaker, is flanked by a mirrored full length image of a Cyberman, with a portrait shot above the Doctor's head (taken from a telesnap from the cliff-hanger to the first episode).

The Tenth Planet was not released in VHS form until 2000, by which time they were using photomontage covers. Once again The Celestial Toymaker provides the Hartnell portrait, and the profile shot as used on the Achilleos cover is coupled with the full length photograph as used by Pearson to depict the Cybermen.

We have a wintry landscape, but whoever put the cover together seems to think that they have trees at the South Pole...

A video release had been planned earlier, which would have featured Michael Craze describing the events of the missing episode. This material was recorded - at the Museum of the Moving Image Behind the Sofa exhibition - but the release was then shelved when a rumour began to do the rounds that Part 4 was about to be returned to the archives.

Andrew Skilleter produced the above artwork for the abortive VHS. The Doctor image is taken from a photograph from The Web Planet, wearing his Atmospheric Density Jacket.

The story was released onto DVD, quite late in the range, in October 2013. The cover art comes courtesy of Lee Binding.

It was made available first as part of the "Regenerations" box-set, which included the surviving regeneration stories for every Doctor up to Tennant's first stint. The full length photo of a Cyberman is used once again, along with a mix from the Ealing filming.

The Region 1 release once again allows more of Binding's artwork (above) to be seen - whereas the Region 2 version is very cramped thanks to the roundel design which takes up the top third, and the various graphics.

Being only partially complete, The Tenth Planet had its soundtrack released as part of the BBC Radio Collection in January 2006. The linking narration was by Anneke Wills.

An overly cluttered photomontage cover includes images from other stories - Polly from The War Machines and the Doctor and Ben from The Smugglers. Our old friend the full length shot of the Cyberman in the snow, is there - with a weird tornado emanating from his gun - as is the profile image, top left. The cover is then padded out with more Cybermen from the Ealing filming. Cutler and the astronauts are somehow also squeezed in. Sometimes less really is more...

The novelisation was released as an audiobook in 2018. The reader is Anneke Wills again, and Nick Briggs provides the vocals for the Cybermen. (Personally, I prefer to hear the voices of the original TV versions of Daleks, Cybermen and Master in my head, so don't hold with this sort of over-writing of history).

For the cover, they have decided to use the later 1978 reprint version, with the solid purple backdrop at the top of the image.

Finally, the music from the B&W era has been released in different formats over the years, especially as Space Adventures Vols 1 & 2. In December 2002 a compilation of just over 13 minutes of the stock music from The Tenth Planet was released on the Ochre Records label. One of the group shots from Ealing provides the cover image.

Episode 132: The Tenth Planet (2)

Synopsis:

Outside Snowcap Base, three soldiers have been killed by large robotic beings which have emerged from out of a blizzard...

In the base's tracking room, General Cutler continues to disbelieve the Doctor's claims that they will shortly have visitors from the new planet. He is concentrating more on the deteriorating situation with the Zeus 4 capsule and its two occupants. They will not survive another orbit.

The new arrivals don the overcoats of the dead soldiers and enter the base.

At International Space Command HQ in Geneva, Wigner learns that communications with Snowcap have been lost. The TV news is now showing the general public images of the tenth planet, with scientists arguing over the similarity of its land masses to those of Earth.

With everyone concentrating on the capsule, only the Doctor notices the silver boots of the three soldiers who have slipped into the tracking room. He tries to warn the others but is too late.

The beings unmask themselves, shooting down a guard who attempts to attack them.

Their leader, Krail, informs them that they are Cybermen and have come from the planet Mondas, which was indeed the long-lost twin of the Earth as the Doctor had earlier tried to explain.

Mondas left the solar system centuries ago, and in order to survive their harsh peripatetic existence in the wastes of outer space, the inhabitants resorted to spare part surgery to replace limbs and organs. They are now almost entirely robotic in body, but retain organic brains. However, these have been surgically altered to remove what they see as weaknesses - human emotions.

When Cutler insists that they be permitted to bring the Zeus 4 down, Krail simply states that there is no point as it will be destroyed anyway. It is inevitable. Not only is Mondas exerting gravitational disturbances, it is also responsible for the energy drain which affected both the capsule and its pilots.

When Ben tries to use the dead guard's gun, he is ordered detained - after one of the Cybermen has effortlessly bent the gun barrel. He finds himself locked in the base's cinema room.

When Cutler refuses to co-operate and sends out a distress signal, Krail renders him unconscious. Scientist Barclay is left to do as the Cybermen command. They state that they want the humans to come to Mondas with them, as the energy drain will destroy the Earth. Once there, they will be converted to be like them.

He is allowed to make a final effort to save the capsule, but this ends in failure. 

The capsule explodes.

Ben devises a plan of escape. He points the film projector at the door then calls for a Cyberman. When it opens the door it is blinded, and he is able to seize its weapon. When it refuses to surrender, he is compelled to shoot and destroy it.

He then returns to the tracking room. Cutler has woken up and spots Ben sneaking in - motioning to him to give him the Cyberman weapon. He opens fire and destroys Krail and the other Cyberman, then hurriedly contacts Geneva to inform them of the alien incursion.

Wigner informs him that they had sent up a rescue mission - Zeus 5 - shortly before the capsule blew up. A single astronaut was selected, who had to be a volunteer. The person chosen is Terry Cutler - the General's son.

The new craft has double the energy reserves of the Zeus 4, but Cutler is convinced his son has been sent to his death. He will do anything to save him.

A radar technician suddenly announces multiple contacts. A fleet of hundreds of Cyberman spaceships is approaching the Earth...

Data:

Written by Kit Pedler

Recorded: Saturday 24th September 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 15th October 1966

Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 48

Designer: Peter Kindred

Director: Derek Martinus

Additional cast: Krail (Reg Whitehead), Talon (Harry Brooks), Shav (Gregg Palmer), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voices), Christopher Matthews (Radar Technician), Glenn Beck (TV Announcer)

Critique:

Polly: But we cannot live with you. You're... you're different. You've got no feelings.

Krail: Feelings? I do not understand that word.

The Doctor: Emotions. Love, pride, hate, fear. Have you no emotions, sir?

As mentioned last week, once Pedler had decided on the aliens being creatures who were cybernetically enhanced, his initial thoughts were either to break up the human body shape all together, or to have the Cybermen look like idealised men, with only subtle implants. They would all look the same, with only a small coin-sized metal plate on the temple, with a wire leading into the hairline, which could easily be hidden with a hat. They had metal rods and rams at the joints of arms and legs. An electronic chest unit was also specified.

Pedler also specified a transparent forearm, with a human hand at the end. This would have been manageable in close-up, with a model arm, but impossible to achieve convincingly otherwise.

Costume designer Sandra Reid decided against the simplified look to make the Cybermen more striking - by making them more robotic, yet still retaining elements of their past humanity.

The actors wore a grey body suit made from a grey jersey material, with a hood of similar material covering the head. Over this would be worn a transparent plastic outfit, attached to which were plastic epaulettes and metal rings at the joints to indicate the muscular aids mentioned by Pedler.

On the front was the chest unit, which was of considerable size and weight. At the bottom of this hung the Cyber-weaponry - a rectangular frame in the middle of which was a circular unit, from a common household lampshade fitting.

On the head was a metal skull cap which had a large cylindrical lamp attached by three tubes - one on either side of the head and one at the rear. The "handlebars" had a transparent mid-section.

Holes were cut in the jersey material of the hood for eyes and mouth, lined with a silvered vinyl. The actors had the area around eyes and mouth blacked out with make-up. 

The headpieces and chest units were constructed by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge: below, one of their staff can be seen wearing parts of the costume in the 8mm Follow That Dalek film, made in 1967.

The lamp on the top of the head was originally intended to illuminate - but the bulb exploded on the first test and the idea was abandoned.

The Cybermen made their debut at Ealing on Friday 2nd September on Ealing Film Studio's Stage 3, for their initial appearance at the conclusion to the first episode.

The second instalment required none of the Ealing filming. Some stock footage of radar dishes and radio-telescopes was all that was employed.

Three actors donned the heavy and cumbersome Cyberman costumes for the second studio session. The weight combined with heat from the studio lighting caused them considerable difficulties. Performers had fainted at Ealing, and once fallen could not get up without assistance.

Problems with the stability of the head lamp had already been flagged up during filming, and in studio it was found necessary to use clear sticky tape to hold the "handlebars" in place (see image below). This is apparent in some scenes when viewed on DVD today, though it would have been invisible to viewers at the time, watching the series on tiny 405-line televisions.

The script named the three Krail, Talon and Shav. The first acted as the leader whilst Talon was the Cyberman who confronted Ben in the projection room. These names were never actually used in any of the on-screen dialogue.

The Cyberman voices were provided by Roy Skelton, who had previously provided vocals for the Monoids in The Ark. He discussed how the Cybermen would sound with Martinus.

The actors simply opened their mouths whilst their words were heard - holding them open for the duration of the speech. They therefore had to learn the script - though on occasion we can see them mistime. The sing-song style of speech was supposed to indicate a computerised mode, like a tape loop which might run at different speeds.

A short film sequence from the end of Episode One was used to open the episode, followed by the computer text for the titles, accompanied by an electronic buzzing sound.

The Cyber-weapon had a lamp fitted, which lit up when fired. This was connected to a long flex, and the scene required a recording break as the actor playing the guard had to have smoke pumped into his costume.

The guards' gun was replaced by one with a dummy barrel, so that Whitehead could easily bend it double.

To render Cutler unconscious, the Cyberman simply held his head between its hands.

The Cybermen required two other recording breaks - one for Brooks to smash a dummy door into the projection room, and another to set up the deaths of Krail and Shav.

The episode ended with a shot of the radar scanner screen, across which a number of small lights moved in unison to indicate the approaching invaders.

A couple of queries generated by this episode: why is Ben simply locked up when the guard is shot down, and what exactly is the confusion reported on TV regarding the continents of Mondas?

The first is simply one of those conventions that regulars get to survive, despite doing exactly the same thing that an extra or stunt man might have just done, with fatal consequences.

The confusion amongst the scientists is harder to explain. All they would need to do is turn a photograph upside down to see that Mondas is an exact duplicate of the Earth.

On getting back to his home in Kent after recording, William Hartnell fell ill with bronchitis. Prescribed rest as well as medication, he would be unable to attend the rehearsals for the following episode.

As the fourth and final episode of The Tenth Planet has been lost, it means that this is our final sight of the actor in his original role as the Doctor, before being forced to step down from the series.

It is also our only proper look at the original Mondasian Cybermen in action. They show up only at the close of the first episode, and feature in just the one filmed sequence in the third.

Hartnell's illness wasn't the only health crisis to hit this story. Gerry Davis had already been forced to deal with the hospitalisation of Kit Pedler during the writing stage - as we'll hear about next time...

Trivia:

• The ratings see a big rise in viewing numbers, with almost a million more tuning in than for Episode 1 - but the appreciation figure actually drops slightly, taking it back beneath the 50 mark once again.
• Pedler had specified human hands for the Cybermen, but Sandra Reid's recollection was that they were supposed to have gloves. When these failed to turn up at Ealing, a silver-blue make-up was applied to the actors' hands instead. The gloves turned up later, by which time it was decided they were no longer required.
• The film Ben finds in the projector is an old Western. In his novelisation of the story, Davis changes this to a James Bond movie - specifically The Man With The Golden Gun.
• Sir Hugh Greene, Director General of the BBC, sent a note to the weekly review meeting to say how much he enjoyed this episode - especially as it had featured more Cybermen.
• This episode was selected for a number of National Film Theatre screenings across England in the 1980's.
• Gregg Palmer - Dutch actor Donald Van der Maaten - can be seen in the flesh, as it were, in The War Games. He plays the German officer, Lieut. Lucke, in the third episode.
• Hammer Horror fans will recognise Christopher Matthews as Dennis Waterman's brother in The Scars of Dracula. Another horror role was the male lead in Scream and Scream Again, which also featured Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. Sci-fi roles included an X-Wing pilot in the first Star Wars film, and a member of Moonbase Alpha's crew in two episodes of the first season of Space:1999.