The Tomb of the Cybermen

Now without any family at all, Victoria attempts to come to grips with the prospect of travelling with the Doctor and Jamie on board the TARDIS. Her first landing, however, brings the ship to the planet Telos - the final resting place of the Cybermen. Victoria doesn't know what a Cyberman is but Jamie and the Doctor do, and they are not keen on anyone looking to find the monsters. The TARDIS crew join the expedition and venture into the tombs of the Cybermen where not only do they find the monsters are not extinct, but there's a traitor in the group who wants to resurrect them for his own means.

I have some great memories of this one, and not like the people who saw it on TV back in 1967; all four episodes of Tomb were missing and presumed lost so the Target novel was my first real experience with the tale and I at the time did not know what a Cyberman was (nor did I realize they had the wrong version on the cover). I read it as any young fan would and enjoyed it and didn't think to wonder if I would ever see it, but one day in 1991 I was visiting with a friend and another friend called us up and told us in shaky tones that an insert in his Doctor Who Magazine read that all four episodes had been found in Hong Kong and were back in the BBC's hands. About two months later we got to see it on a UK VHS, making the total number of complete second Doctor adventures now five and shedding some more light on that mysterious era we had mostly only heard or read about.

Tomb has this very epic feel about it with a distinct soundtrack evoking the tension and mystery of The Outer Limits. And everything about the adventure feels big, like the inside of the TARDIS has a funny echo which makes it sound cavernous... the location footage makes the planet Telos look like a vast wasteland, and the sets for the tombs themselves are vast and impressive. Even the cast of characters is much larger than the usual adventure would require; aside from the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria there is the expedition of six people plus the additional hired hands who flew them to the planet, and of course when the Cybermen are involved, you know that number is going to start to go down. But the Cybermen themselves are not responsible for the majority of the deaths, and equal amounts can be blamed on carelessness and the murderous intentions of a megalomaniac and his cronies.

The thing that got me the most about the Cybermen though was the fact that they didn't do a heck of a lot... we don't see them until almost the end of episode two and then they stand around a lot listening to the CyberController menacing the humans who have revived them. The Controller is a new member of the Cyberman ranks, distinguished from his fellows by his lack of chest unit but his taller status accentuated by a more domed head, and he is far more verbal. He does articulate something very important, though; that they have detailed records of the Doctor now, much like the Daleks, so he has once again been noticed and gained another enemy.

There's this other bit about the Doctor as well which isn't ever touched on again in the classic era of the televised series; while having a talk with Victoria he alludes to his family, and the inference is that they are all dead.

Tomb is not without its faults of course but they are limited to visual effects, like the CyberController breaking open a hatch obviously made of cardboard and tin foil, tears in some of the Cyberman costumes, and some poorly executed press slams in physical fights with the Cybermen. Otherwise, though, it's about as perfect as a Doctor Who can get with a wonderfully deluded villain and his misguided notions of siding with the Cybermen for the conquest of Earth, and the Doctor telling him off brilliantly. And a very promising start for young Victoria Waterfield as a new companion.

NEXT EPISODE: THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN