The Moonbase

Attempting to show Jamie the capabilities of the TARDIS the Doctor manages to lose control of the craft and set it down on the moon in 2070. While on the lunar surface the crew enjoy some low gravity stunts which result in Jamie being knocked out and taken into the medical wing of the Moonbase from which all Earth weather is controlled by use of a directional gravity device. The staff of the base are made up of men from all over the world, but just as the Doctor and company arrive they are set upon by a mysterious infection and begin to suspect the time travellers of spreading it. The Doctor begins his investigation into the disease but then discovers the truth of matters: the Cybermen have returned, and the Moonbase is their target.

It's been 84 years since the Cybermen first attempted to invade Earth so the Moonbase crew are skeptical at best that they have returned but indeed they have - and with a much more robotic redesign. Gone are the creepy remnants of their humanity - no visible flesh hands or teeth or eyes visible. The body has become encased in a flexible metal (shut up that's what it's supposed to be) suit and the head completely encased in a helmet. Their voices have become more computerized and the curious inflection they had when they spoke in The Tenth Planet is also gone. The Cybermen for all intents and purposes have evolved to survive and upgraded their technology to do so. And the sheer number of them on the lunar landscape set is impressive to watch; you just can't do that with Daleks in a studio.

Like The Underwater Menace before it The Moonbase had to be rewritten to an extent to include Jamie, but an easy way out was taken when he was knocked out and put in bed for half the story. I don't know exactly how one gets feverish from a head knock but whatever. In his delerium he sees the Cybermen and mistakes them for ghosts coming to take him to death, but he is passed over in favour of them kidnapping other members of the base staff who have been infected. Back as male lead companion Ben gets involved with the base operations until his lines have to be shared with Jamie. And Polly screams a lot and makes coffee for the men, all her secretarial skills from working with Professor Brett not gone to waste. But together the three of them prove an effective team at last, and they come up with a chemical means to attack the Cybermen, even if Polly's inspiration comes from gazing at her nails and wondering where her next manicure is going to come from.

And I noticed this while I watched the show but only got confirmation while watching the DVD extras: the Doctor's goofy performance is turned down somewhat so he comes across as serious and darker than his previous adventures. It's not entirely gone but it just takes a backseat to the more serious angles of what is going on, and it appears that the Doctor has finally settled properly into himself.

The Moonbase is just one more casualty of the 1970s junking spree and only episodes 2 and 4 exist in their broadcast form. For a while enjoying this one was a back and forth between the BBC Radio Collection audio and either the Cybermen VHS special release or the Lost in Time DVD, but as with other partly held episodes this one was treated to animated restoration to fill in the gaps. It makes for a different way to watch it but hey it's better than nothing, and the animation style is along the lines of what was done for The Reign of Terror which was not bad at all. I find this animation treatment a bit better than the style done for the full restore of Power of the Daleks, but possibly because it's just half the story, not the whole thing. But the segments that were animated were done off of telesnaps that were available which made them much more true to the original than just guessing what was going on.

And now it's back to audio only for a while with the immediate follow up to The Moonbase...

NEXT EPISODE: THE MACRA TERROR