Tomb of the Cybermen

You belong to us. You shall be like us.

I had seen enough clips of Tomb of the Cybermen to have a pretty good idea of the plot before I had even watched the whole thing. I was really interested in this one because the opening clips and the music reminded me very strongly of The Twilight Zone. So it was quite a different viewing experience when I finally was able to sit down and watch the episode.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Jamie and a newly added Victoria land on the planet Telos where they meet up with an expedition from Earth looking for the lost city of the Cybermen. The Doctor soon recognizes that the scientific leader Eric Klieg and his colleague Kaftan (who are funding the expedition) are hoping to revive the Cybermen and use them to gain domination of the world. The Doctor manipulates the situation to allow Klieg to awaken the Cybermen from hibernation, confirming his suspicions about him. The Cybermen attempt to break out of the caverns with Klieg still believing that if he aids the Cybermen, they will take orders from him. The Doctor manages to trick the Cybermen to go back into their hibernation state and the Cyber Controller is killed when the tombs are resealed. Most of the expedition was also killed in the battle with the Cybermen and the survivors fly back to Earth while the Doctor and his party leave in the TARDIS.

Analysis
I enjoyed this story, but I was also a little let down by it. Part of that was the build up, but it was also due to the relative incompetence of both Klieg and the Cybermen. The Doctor is the one who ends up allowing the expedition into the Cybermen's base and then is also the one who allows them access to the hibernation chambers. What's more, it is not until the end of Episode Two that Klieg manages to awaken the Cybermen and he is promptly slapped aside by the Cyber Controller.

The Cybermen themselves don't do very much. It is only the Cyber Controller who ever engages in a fight and that is mostly with the mute servant Toberman after Toberman breaks free of the Cyberman mind control. There is also the attack by the Cybermats. This is actually somewhat creepy, despite the fact that the Cybermats themselves look a little silly. However, once the initial wave is thwarted, the attack is over and it becomes an internal watch again.

The story has moments of action, but it also has some slow moments. There is a touching scene between the Doctor and Victoria about family since Victoria is still mourning the death of her father from the previous story (The Evil of the Daleks), but aside from that, most of the slow moments come across as a bit dull with not enough character study to liven the mood.

One other unsatisfying thing is the dispatching of Klieg. Like most classic Doctor Who stories, Klieg is undone by his actions and killed by the Cybermen. However, this is done in his second attempt to gain control of the Cybermen when he believes he can take over as Cyber Controller. The Cybermen do not accept this (Cyber Control was merely stunned rather than killed) and Klieg is knocked to the side once again and the Cybermen kill him off-screen. I understand that as the show was intended for a family audience, the producers couldn't show Klieg killed in a gruesome manner, but it still felt unsatisfying to simply see him fly to the side, a couple of Cybermen move towards him and then zoom in on Victoria's horrified face.

I wish this story had had a bit more action and that either Klieg or the Cybermen were presented as a more formidable villain. It's entertaining enough, but I just have this sense that this story could have been so much better given the set up it had. I would watch it again given the opportunity but there are certainly better Second Doctor stories out there to enjoy.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5