The Moonbase

Then we'll hit 'em with some of this Polly cocktail

The Moonbase marked the return of the Cybermen, their makeover into the more familiar metallic casing and the point where the Second Doctor seemed to come into his own. The Moonbase also laid out what would become the familiar format of Second Doctor stories in the form of a base under siege with the Doctor figuring out the critical weakness of the enemy to exploit. It also is half missing, but fortunately has some very nice animation to fill in with Episodes One and Three.

Plot Summary
After a bumpy ride, the Doctor manages to land the TARDIS, not on Mars as intended, but on the surface of the moon in 2070. Ben and Polly convince him to explore outside. They go out wearing spacesuits and the companions have fun bouncing around in the low gravity. Jamie over-jumps and crashes outside the moonbase, concussing himself. He is taken inside by two men working at the base and the Doctor, Ben and Polly follow.

In the base's command center, a technician falls ill, black lines developing on his skin. The base commander, Dr. Hobson, orders him taken to the infirmary although little can be done as the base doctor was the first one taken ill. The Doctor, Ben and Polly are taken to him where the Doctor is mistaken for a replacement doctor sent by Earth. Polly heads to the infirmary to check on Jamie while the Doctor and Ben learn about the Gravitron, a gravity beam used to control tides and other weather phenomena on Earth.

A fourth crew member is taken ill and the Doctor and Ben head back with him to the infirmary to study this virus. Jamie moans in a delirious state about a phantom piper who stalks the McCrimmon clan. The Doctor studies the base doctor's symptoms and then sends Ben back to the command room to help and observe.

Hobson radios Earth to request help and a new full staff doctor. Earth responds that they will accommodate him on the next supply run in a month. Hobson is unhappy about this but can do nothing. One of the technicians note that he picked up feedback during the transmission suggesting they are being monitored.

Hobson's second in command, Benoit, forces him to take a break and sends Ben down to the store room to help Ralph with preparing a resupply list. Ralph sends Ben to catalogue one end of the store room food supply while he works the other. A Cyberman appears from the shadows and kills Ralph, dragging his body away. Ben heads back to the command center to report on Ralph's disappearance, leaving both Benoit and Hobson confused and concerned.

The Doctor enters and tells Hobson that the doctor has died. They head back to the infirmary where Polly tells them she thought she saw something enter the room and then duck back out. The group pulls the sheet back to examine the dead doctor but find the doctor's body has gone. Hobson heads back to command while the Doctor and Ben follow to investigate some more, leaving Polly alone with Jamie. Jamie calls out for water and Polly leaves to get him some. As she does so, a Cyberman reenters the room with Jamie taking him for the phantom piper.

The Cyberman ignores Jamie and grabs a second patient, taking him from the room. Polly sees the back of him and screams, summoning the Doctor and Ben. Ben runs up to the command center to fetch Hobson who comes down. Polly relates her story but Hobson dismisses it saying the Cybermen disappeared after the destruction of Mondas nearly 100 years ago. Hobson is growing increasingly wary of the Doctor and his companions, desiring them to leave. The Doctor strikes a deal with him that they will leave if the Doctor hasn't figured out the cause of the illness within 24 hours. Hobson agrees.

In the command center, Hobson orders a series of tests as the Gravitron is not aligning properly and that is beginning to have serious consequences on Earth. As they are running test, the Doctor enters and collects hair, skin and soil samples from each of them. While he is away, a Cyberman enters the infirmary and takes another infected patient. It knocks out both Polly and Jamie with a bolt of energy, but the Doctor is able to revive them after it leaves.

The command crew eventually discover that one of the control arrays has parts either damaged or missing and that they began happening shortly after the Doctor and his companions arrived. Benoit also notes another in a series of momentary atmospheric pressure drops that had been happening since shortly before the virus emerged. Hobson dispatches two men to check the array while he and Benoit head down to the infirmary to confront the Doctor.

In the infirmary, the Doctor has failed to make any discoveries. When Hobson comes down to get them to leave, he fakes having made a discovery and ushers them out into the waiting room. He tells Polly to bring them some coffee as an added distraction.

Outside, the two men sent to check on the array are attacked by Cybermen. Inside, one of the crew who Polly has served falls ill with the virus. As he is carried to a bed, the Doctor realizes that the virus is in the sugar. He takes a sample and discovers a neurological virus. He informs Hobson that the Cybermen must be behind this but Hobson scoffs saying that they had searched the whole base and found nothing.

The Doctor pulls Hobson aside as whispers as to whether his men searched the infirmary. Hobson realizes that they never did as it was always occupied. As he does, a Cybermen rises from under a bed sheet and advances on them. The Cyberman orders them to surrender. One technician tries to get behind him to attack but is gunned down by a second Cyberman entering. The rest of the crew surrender.

The Cybermen take Hobson, the Doctor and the other crew back to the control room, leaving Ben and Polly in the infirmary with Jamie, having determined that the three of them are of no value but also no threat. In the control room, Hobson and the others are placed in one corner while the men infected with the neurovirus are brought in and made to work the Gravitron. The Cybermen intend to use the Gravitron to manipulate the Earth's weather to destroy all human life from the planet and eliminate any potential threat.

While the Cybermen are focused on working the Gravitron, the Doctor sneaks around, determining how to disrupt the signals to the controlled men and finding a weakness in the Cybermen. He hits on the idea that they are vulnerable to the extreme gravitational effects produced by the Gravitron.

Back in the infirmary, Jamie comes back around feeling better. Polly hits on an idea of using solvents to dissolve the plastic components of the life support systems in their chest. She and Ben blend several different solvents together from the chemical stores and pour them in spray bottles. Each companion gets one bottle and they sneak towards the control room.

The three companions burst in and spray the Cybermen with the solvent mixture. It causes the plastic components to melt and the Cybermen collapse, choking on melted plastic. Hobson immediately pulls the controlled men out of the Gravitron control area, having collapsed due to the sonic strain. They are taken to the infirmary to recover.

Benoit heads outside to see if he can find the two men who were sent out earlier. He finds their suits but not the men. He is attacked by one Cyberman but the gun fails to discharge. Benoit runs back towards the base with the Cyberman chasing him. Ben meets him at the door and tosses a small glass bottle of the "Polly cocktail" into the pursing Cyberman's chest, killing him.

Hobson orders a lockdown of the base while the Cybermen land two more ships and begin marching out to take the base by force. With the doors sealed, the Cybermen are unable to break in, their previous hole having also been sealed off. The Cybermen temporarily stop their advance when a ship from Earth is observed approaching. The Cybermen increase their control signal and reanimate Dr. Evans. Evans knocks out the orderly and sneaks into the Gravitron control room. He then uses the Gravitron to knock the Earth ship out of orbit and into the sun. Evans then uses the Gravitron to continue the Cybermen's plans to attack Earth.

With the outside threat gone, the Cybermen renew their attack on the base. They fire small lasers at the base and manage to breach the dome, causing atmosphere to leak out. Hobson and Benoit manage to seal it off using a heavy plastic tray Polly had brought in to serve coffee. The loss of atmosphere knocks Evans out and he is pulled out and taken back to the infirmary.

The Doctor orders Jamie and Ben to seal off the infirmary as he expects the other controlled men to attack which they do just as Jamie and Ben arrive there. The two men barricade the door with metal benches and chairs. They then retreat and do the same for the entrance to the control room.

With additional Cybermen filing across the moon's surface, they prepare to launch heavy weapons at the base. The Doctor notes that the Gravitron is still at full power and stands his ground, offering an easy target. The Cybermen blast their heavy gun at him but the gravity output from the Gravitron deflects the beam. His theory validated, the Doctor orders the Gravitron lowered as close to the surface as possible. Benoit lowers the angle of attack and Hobson disengages the safety system to allow it to go even lower.

The gravity wave pushes the Cybermen up off the moon and into space. Their ships also are thrown backwards and off into space. The crew celebrates the defeat of the Cybermen while the Doctor and his companions slip away quietly. They make their way back to the TARDIS and take off with the Doctor activating his time scanner to give them a glimpse of what is in store next. They recoil as they see a large crab claw on the screen.

Analysis
Overall I liked The Moonbase but it is a good example that has such good build up and then peters out to an almost disappointing conclusion. So much of the story depends on atmosphere and the use of a "phantom in the shadows" motif. Once that's gone, it turns into a hold off an attack story and one that is resolved very quickly and where the Doctor is not the central focus and that is a bit disappointing.

I do like the Doctor in this one. This is the first real and true appearance of the dark and plotting Second Doctor that became more the staple. Up until now he had been a bit theatrical and this is the one where he finally settles in to a serious mode, but not losing that sense of whimsy. His extraction of samples from the crew is one of those light-hearted moments of oddity that make the Second Doctor so enjoyable.

The companions, apart from Jamie, were quite good in this story. It is fairly well known that this story was written before Innes Lloyd came down and announced that Jamie would be coming on as a companion so a hasty rewrite was given to it. Jamie was essentially put on the shelf for two and a half episodes and then given a couple of Ben's lines and substituted in where a generic member of the base team would have been in. Ben does the standard action man but it does give him a lot of interface with various people. He actually interacts with them more than the Doctor does.

Polly comes off probably best of all, even if she does slip in and out of women's stereotypes. Polly stays in the infirmary to watch Jamie but she also is the Doctor's main assistant when trying to figure out the virus. She comes up with the solvent cocktail but doesn't know what the primary ingredients of solvents are. She forces Ben and Jamie to let her fight the Cybermen along side them but she twice is relegated to coffee detail, even if one of them is a distracting maneuver for the Doctor. I think even with these up and downs, Polly proves herself quite worthy in this story and both her and Ben are given fairly meaty roles that do their characters justice.

Two of the most enjoyable characters were actually part of the guest cast. The Doctor suffered a bit from the lack of attention but that was because Hobson and Benoit were so good at taking that attention. Hobson especially was a commanding presence and had a real take charge attitude. What's more, unlike base commanders in other "base under siege" stories, he is competent and never gives in to madness or despair. Because of this, the Doctor stays in a supporting role as more of an idea man rather than rearing himself into a major leadership role as you might see in The Ice Warriors for example.

Benoit was also a place that the Doctor could have slipped in to but again, you have such a good actor and a well defined role. Benoit is a solid second-in-command who respects his superior and is always looking out for what is best for the mission and the men under them. You see genuine respect that the characters have towards each other and it both plays well and is quite engaging, even if it means that the Doctor doesn't get to step in. Benoit also does a good job of not falling into easy French stereotypes. He has a heavy accent and descends to swearing in French but the actor is French so has an easy flow. He never goes over the top, giving in to expected cheap reference as to how French he is and it is nice to see that (in contrast to the Italian stereotype in The Tenth Planet).

The Cybermen did well in their redesign. It is interesting to note that most of the design changes were made simply because the original suits were just so hard to maintain and were so hard on the actors. From an aesthetic standpoint, I think the changes worked quite well. There were traces of the humans that became the Cybermen in The Tenth Planet which seemed to make them a bit more relatable and less scary to me. Robotizing them more drained that relatability and the coldness is what makes them so frightening. I personally think the Cybermen seen in The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen were the most frightening versions. The voice helped with that, although I'm glad I've been able to have the subtitles on when watching both these stories as while it makes the Cybermen scary, it's also a devil of a time to fully understand what they are saying.

So with so many good elements, why does the story end so poorly? I think it is the way the story shifted. The first three parts were almost like a haunted house story. The enemy was within the house, moving stealthily and picking off people one at a time. In Episode Three, you have the Cybermen strike and with only three take over the whole base. That ends the secrecy but you have a prisoner tale now and our heroes triumph over their captors. That then leaves Episode Four.

Episode Four's primary problems are actually due to padding I think. The Doctor effectively figures out that the Gravitron must be used against the Cybermen in Episode Three but spends nearly 2/3's of Episode four waiting around before saying anything. There is also the inconsistency of the Cybermen attacks. One squad of Cybermen was able to dig through and into the base but three ships full are held back by secured doors? That seems odd.

I can understand falling back to deal with the ship from Earth, but once that is done the attacks should be consistent and constant. They successfully breach the dome but then stop once Hobson and Benoit plug the hole. Why not make a new hole? Why not keep firing until all atmosphere in the base is boiled away? Instead they make one hole and then call off the attack to bring in a heavy cannon, which might actually damage the Gravitron, which they seem keen on avoiding. Also, why does the heavy cannon blast get deflected by the Gravity beam when the small firing did not? The Cybermen attacks just seem almost haphazard and indifferent.

It is also a bit underwhelming to have the Gravitron simply fling the Cybermen away. It is done so easily and so quickly that it feels like flinging away a bug that has landed on your arm and undercuts the power of the Cybermen even more than the intermittent attacks did. I think a far better solution would have been to use the Gravitron to push away the Cybermen ships and most of the men at the beginning of Episode Four but then the rest of the story being to fend off the remaining ten or fifteen who managed to breach the base. Have Ben and Polly use the last of the cocktail so that the Doctor has to step forward and think of a way to defeat the last group as they try to take final control. That would have made the threat far more personal and given the Doctor more of a central focus in trying to outthink the enemy.

Although it ended somewhat poorly, this is still a good story. The animation of Episodes One and Three is done very well and actually adds to the atmosphere. I actually thought the tension was higher and better done in the animated episodes than in Episode Two, although that was still done pretty well. The characters are good and there is a fairly nice balance in how everyone works together, apart from the limitation of how the Doctor is used. I'd easily watch it again, although I still wish there could have been an ending that suited the build up better.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5