400 Revenge of the Cybermen: Part Three

EPISODE: Revenge of the Cybermen: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 400
STORY NUMBER: 079
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 May 1975
WRITER: Gerry Davis
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
RATINGS: 8.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Cybermen Box Set

"You've no home planet, no influence, nothing. You're just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship."

Episode 400? Wow.

Sarah & Harry are taken to Tyrum. Kellman briefs the Cybermen on Voga. He goes to Voga, ostensibly to check the Transmat is working. The Cybermen intend to destroy Voga so Stevens, Lester & The Doctor are sent to Voga by Transmat with powerful Cyberbombs strapped to them. Kellman attempts to find Vorus but is captured by Tyrum's men. The Cybermen escorting the Doctor & the humans are attacked by Vogans. Kellman tells Tyrum of Vorus' plan to launch a rocket at the beacon destroying the remaining Cybermen. The Cybermen move through the caves killing any Vogan they find as the Doctor & the humans move towards their target. Sarah goes transmats back to the beacon to warn the Doctor. Vorus prepares to launch his Skystriker rocket at the beacon but fears he has run out of time now the Cybermen have arrived with their bombs. Harry & Kellman attempt to find the Doctor & his party but cause a cave in killing Kellman and knocking the bomb carriers out. Harry attempts to free The Doctor from his bomb harness little knowing that the harness is booby trapped......

There aren't that many Cybermen in this episode but you get an idea of how powerful they're meant to be as the two on Voga move through the caves seemingly impervious to everything the Vogans throw at them. Where's the so called Glitter Guns that we hear about during this episode? Given that the Cybermen have showed up you'd expect them to be armed with an appropriate weapon quick enough!

Got a little first from the Cyberleader here:

LEADER: This is the main shaft?
KELLMAN: Yes, this is a shaft I explored for you. It runs right to the core of Voga.
LEADER: How far from the shaft entrance is the transmat receptor area?
KELLMAN: Just a matter of yards. I set the receptors as close as possible.
LEADER: Excellent, Kellman. You have done well. The humans will carry the explosives into the shaft.

Yes it's out first Excellent! He likes it so much he gives it two more airings:

CYBERMAN: Our warriors report all initial opposition has been crushed.
LEADER: Excellent. They are now one hundred metres below the surface.

And then:

CYBERMAN: Average progress rate is fifty metres per minute.
LEADER: Excellent. They will be in the central chamber of Voga.

Meanwhile the Cybermen coerce someone into doing their dirty work for them:

LEADER: And you, Doctor, and your two friends will help us in this task. That is why your lives have been spared.
STEVENSON: I was wondering why you hadn't killed us.
LESTER: We don't have to help them. They can't force us.
LEADER: Oh, you are mistaken.
LESTER: You'll discover who's mistaken, chum.
LEADER: The heart of Voga is almost pure gold. Gold is hostile to our function, therefore Kellman was asked to preserve three animal organisms for this purpose.
DOCTOR: Isn't it wonderful to feel needed, Commander?

LEADER: Cyberbombs, the most compact and powerful explosive devices ever invented.
DOCTOR: Yes, and their use was banned by the Armageddon Convention.
LEADER: Cybermen do not subscribe to any theory of morality in war, Doctor. Our calculations indicate that two bombs placed in the central fissure of Voga will fragmatise the planet.
DOCTOR: Fragmatise? Oh well, I suppose we can't expect decent English from a machine.
LEADER: Prime the buckles. Two bombs should be sufficient. Three will make certain.
STEVENSON: Now what have they done?
LEADER: The buckles are now primed. Any attempt to remove the harness before the countdown reaches the red zone will cause a secondary explosion. Do you understand?
LESTER: You mean, if we attempt to release the harness before then, we'll get blown up.
LEADER: Correct. It is as well to keep that thought in your minds.
DOCTOR: And when we reach the centre of Voga, we'll be fragmatised, as you put it.
LEADER: Incorrect. You will have fourteen minutes, the time period of the red zone, to reach your surface and save yourselves by the transmat beam.
STEVENSON: That is not long enough.
LEADER: Fourteen minutes is considered adequate.
DOCTOR: Anything else before we go?
LEADER: Yes, Doctor. Your progress will be followed by radar. Any attempt to deviate from the planned course will be immediately detected and the bombs exploded by means of these manual controls.
DOCTOR: Thank you.
LEADER: Countdown has commenced. You, Doctor, will leave first.
DOCTOR: Careful, careful. I might explode.

That's not going to end well, is it?

The idea that the Cybermen have been lured here by the ability to destroy a threat to them but it actually being a trap to destroy the Cybermen appeals to me. Both sides here, the Cybermen and the Vogans, have been greatly reduced by their conflict and wish to re-obtain their former greatness:

TYRUM: You're insane, Vorus. You've brought about the destruction of our race.
VORUS: I wanted to bring them freedom, Tyrum. Freedom from fear, freedom to live as Vogans should, on the surface, not cowering like worms in the earth.

Compare that to this exchange between the Doctor & Cyberleader:

DOCTOR: You've no home planet, no influence, nothing. You're just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship.
LEADER: You speak unwisely. We are destined to be rulers of all the cosmos.
DOCTOR: No, I don't think so, somehow. You tried that once and you were nearly wiped out.
LEADER: Because of Voga and its gold. If humans had not had the resources of Voga, the Cyber War would have ended in glorious triumph.
DOCTOR: It was a glorious triumph, for human ingenuity. They discovered your weakness and invented the glitter gun, and that was the end of Cybermen except as gold-plated souvenirs that people use as hat stands.
LESTER: Watch it, Doctor. I think you've riled him.
LEADER: That is why Voga must be destroyed before we begin our second campaign.
DOCTOR: Oh, there's to be a second campaign, is there?
LEADER: We have enough parts in our ship to build an entirely new Cyber Army, and this time, Doctor, it will be invincible. Cybermen function more efficiently than animal organisms. That is why we will rule the galaxy.
DOCTOR: Loose thinking. The trouble with Cybermen is they've got hydraulic muscles, and of course hydraulic brains to go with them.

A clip showing the Doctor's first line from this exchange was reused in Earthshock episode 2 in 1982.

There's a couple of lovely touches with the transmat in this episode as the Doctor beams down playing with a yoyo and Sarah's crossing her fingers, actions that are continued from departure to destination giving a continuity even though one point was shot in studio and the other on location some weeks apart.

And if you think the transmat terminal in the caves looks familiar, then you're right: it's exactly the same sphere arrangement seen a few episodes earlier in the Sontaran Experiment, except there they were assembled out in the open.

Location filming for this story was conducted at Wookey Hole in Somerset (itself an actual location in the Doctor Who New Adventure novel Blood Heat) between the 18th-21st November 1974. The filming there was plagued by accidents: an electrician broke his leg, Elisabeth Sladen's motorboat went out of control throwing her into the water where she nearly drowned and the stuntmen who rescued her was injured getting her out of the water. Some members of the cast & crew attributed the incidents to a local curse but in reality most of the incidents can be ascribed to the small amount of air in the caves being consumed by a larger than usual number of people.

The location filming for this story has been homaged by The League of Gentlemen in the fifth episode of their first television series. Mark Gatiss, a future Doctor Who writer and actor, plays a cave guide in the fictional Stump Hole Cavern and at one point says

This particular cavern might be familiar from it’s countless appearances on the small screen. In 1974 you couldn’t move down here for Cyber Men. In fact, in an amusing incident, Tom Baker sprained his ankle on that rock there…

A live version of this sketch can be found on YouTube but I'd suggest you don't watch it at work!

Lovely bit of almost Douglas Adamsesque comedy from the Doctor as they troop round the caves with the bombs strapped to them:

LESTER: Why don't we just wait here?
DOCTOR: I think my idea's better.
LESTER: What is your idea?
DOCTOR: I don't know yet. That's the trouble with ideas. They only come a bit at a time.

The story is nicely bound together with some great music from composer Carey Blyton, doing the music for his third and final Doctor who story having previously worked on The Silurians and then the previous season's Death to the Daleks, also directed by Michael Briant who's in charge here too. The sort of heavy ponderous metallic theme for the Cybermen is fabulous. There's over 5 minutes worth of it on the 4 disc Doctor Who - The 50th Anniversary Collection CD, which is well worth owning, and more on the now our of print limited edition 11 disc set.

Like Magrik actor Michael Wisher several of the supporting artists playing Vogans were also in Genesis of the Daleks, so we've seen them already even though there appearance in this was filmed first: Barry Summerford & Roy Caeser were both Kaled Elite Guards,
David Billa was various Thals and Cy Town, as per usual, was inside a Dalek. Leslie Weekes had been in Mission to the Unknown as a Varga Plant and The Mind of Evil episode Three as a UNIT Soldier. He'll be back in The Masque of Mandragora as a Peasant villager in part one and a brother in part 3. Finally a big welcome back to Harry Fielder, appearing for the first time since 1968's Wheel in Space where he was a wheel Crewmember in episode 1 & 2. He'd made his debut earlier that year as a Central European Guard in The Enemy of the World episodes 2 & 3 and will return as a guard in The Seeds of Doom parts three and four, he's actually credited in 4, the Second Assassin in The Face of Evil part one, which gets him an appearance on the commentary, a Titan Base Crewman in The Invisible Enemy part one, a Levithian Guard in The Ribos Operation part three, a Guard in The Armageddon Factor part two, another credited role, a Tigellan in Meglos part one and a security guard in Castrovalva part one. He's got a fair few episodes of Blake's 7 to his name: an Armed Crewman in Space Fall & Cygnus Alpha, a Scavenger in Deliverance and a Federation Trooper in Weapon, Trial, Voice from the Past, Children of Auron, Games, Warlord & Blake. During his career Aitch has been in everything and his website & book are well worth a look. He's not been too well of late so hope you're feeling better soon!.

399 Revenge of the Cybermen: Part Two

EPISODE: Revenge of the Cybermen: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 399
STORY NUMBER: 079
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 26 April 1975
WRITER: Gerry Davis
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Cybermen Box Set

"All resistance overcome. The Beacon is ours."

The Doctor escapes from the room and hearing Sarah's scrams rushes to the crew room where he finds her having been bitten by a Cybermat. The Doctor & Harry take her to the Transmat to use it to purge the poison from her system but they find the pentallion drive removed and the Transmat not functioning, concluding Kellman is responsible and working for the Cybermen. The Doctor jury rigs a replacement circuit while Stevens & Lester go to arrest Kellman who is now armed. Sarah & Harry are transmatted to Voga but the circuit explodes stranding them there. Harry finds gold, which is abundant on the planet, but his curiosity gets them into trouble when they are found and captured by the Vogans. Lester & Stevens capture & disarm Kellman. The Doctor explains to Lester & Stevens that the Cybermen are allergic to gold because it clogs their breathing apparatus. The Doctor threatens Kellman with the Cybermat as the Cybermen approach the station. Harry & Sarah are taken to Vorus who seems to know a lot about what has been happening on the beacon and tells them only four humans were meant to be left alive. Vorus is summoned by councillor Tyrum. Kellman tells the Doctor where the missing pentallion drive is. Tyrum sends his militia into the gold mines to relieve Vorus' guardians under protest from Vorus. Fighting breaks out between the two factions. The Doctor reactivates the transmat but using it fails to return Sarah & Harry who escape from their gold chains and are taken to Tyrum. The Cybership nears the station and docks. Stevens, Lester & The Doctor attempt to stop them but the Cybermen open fire and all three are gunned down!

It takes a while for the Cybermen to properly show up in this story. They pop up here and there through the first two episodes but don't get to interact with anyone else until the end of the episode when they storm the beacon. So half way through the story and effectively they've only just showed up. For a monster that I've not seen for six years I'd be wanting a bit more a bit sooner. Gerry Davies, who's been busy writing Doomwatch since his last Doctor Who (1967's The Tomb of the Cybermen), has used this structure with the Cybermen before: They're not fully revealed in either The Moonbase or Tomb of the Cybermen till the end of the second episode. As we've said this is the first proper Cybermen story for six and half years, although they had brief cameos in The War Games, Mind of Evil & Carnival of Monsters. As is traditional for the Cybermen they've had a redesign. Essentially these Cybermen are the Invasion version wearing the Moonbase/Tomb chest units with cabling on the limbs replaced by ribbed vacuum cleaner hose which also surrounds the tubes projecting from the head.

The Invasion Cybermen are the successors to the Wheel in Space version, but are the most major redesign. The retain the tear-drops on the eyes and circle at the top of the chest unit, caused by the Wheel Cybermen wearing their chest units upside down! So it's a little odd to see the earlier chest unit return especially mounted the right way up! It's interesting seeing all four versions together and looking at how the Cybermen have evolved in appearance.

Since we last saw the Cybermen they've gained a new weakness!

DOCTOR: Voga, otherwise known as the Planet of Gold, is hated and feared by Cybermen because gold is lethal to them.
STEVENSON: How?
DOCTOR: It's the perfect non-corrodible metal. It plates their breathing apparatus and in effect suffocates them.

Clogs their breathing apparatus? That's a little strange since we saw Cybermen operating in a vacuum in The Moonbase & Wheel in Space so I would have thought that they didn't need to breathe. I suppose you could argue that they need to take in air in environments where it's present or the ones from space have been specially adapted.... The gold allergy joins a lengthy list of Cyber weaknesses which also includes radiation (Tenth Planet), gravity & plastic solvents (The Moonbase) and emotions (The Invasion, see they did it in the classic series too take that everyone who hated the end of Closing Time!). Unlike the other weaknesses this one sticks and resurfaces in Earthshock and Silver Nemesis.

For the first time we get a designated Cyberleader, who has a black helmet with a silver face plate. The Cybermen now have no hand weapons and instead fire blasts from the "lamp" on their helmet, previously a flat disc, which is now four tubes.

Neither of the Cybermen with their names listed in speaking roles have played the monsters before but both have been in Doctor Who previously. The Cyberleader, Christopher Robbie was in the Mind Robber as the Karkus while the credited Cyberman Melville Jones was a guard in The Time Monster. Other non speaking Cybermen include Tony Lord, a guard in Monster of Peladon, and regular extra Pat Gorman who, amongst his myriad other credits, had been a Cyberman in The Invasion and would repeat the role in Attack of the Cybermen!

Onto the Vogan cast members in this story: Playing Vorus is David Collings on his Doctor Who debut. He'll return as Poul in The Robots of Death (directed by Michael Briant) and Mawdryn in Mawdryn Undead. He's best known to telefantasy fans for playing Silver in Sapphire & Steel. His rocket scientist Magrik is played by Michael Wisher who we've just seen in Genesis of the Daleks as Davros although the story was recorded after Revenge of the Cybermen. See Genesis of the Daleks episode 2 for a complete list of his Doctor Who roles.

Vogan Elder Tyrum is a final Doctor Who role for Kevin Stoney who was Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan and Tobias Vaughan in The Invasion, both directed by Douglas Camfield. In 1984 his death was erroneously reported by fan publication Doctor Who Bulletin so it was a great shock to fans when he appeared on stage at a 1987 convention! He eventually passed away in 2008, aged 86, after a long battle with skin cancer. Brian Grellis is Sheprah and we'll see him again as Safran in The Invisible Enemy and the Megaphone Man in Snakedance.

Stuntman Terry Walsh is also credited on IMDB as Sherpah: I'm guessing this is something to do with the location filming in the tunnels.

This is the first look we've got of the location, filmed underground in Wookey Hole, more of which next episode, and it looks fabulous!

There were two little cart trains used in Genesis of the Daleks: The Kaleds had one and the Thals were using one to load their rocket. Here's another in the Vogan caves.

What's interesting about this one is that it appears in studio and on location!

398 Revenge of the Cybermen: Part One

EPISODE: Revenge of the Cybermen: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 398
STORY NUMBER: 079
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 April 1975
WRITER: Gerry Davis
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
RATINGS: 9.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Cybermen Box Set

"My colleague is a doctor of medicine and I'm a doctor of many things."

The Doctor, Sarah & Harry materialise on Nerva Beacon, with the time ring that brought them there vanishing. They immediately find a number of dead bodies left where they had fallen. In a control room beacon operator Warner wards a spaceship away due to a plague infection. A request for information is referred to Commander Stevens who tells Warner to lie. The civilian on the station Professor Kellman questions how much longer Stevens can run the station with just him, Warner & Lester left alive. The Doctor explains to Sarah & Harry they've arrived in an earlier point in the Ark's history when it was still a navigational beacon. Unseen by then a silver creature moves between the bodies. Warner picks up an alien transmission. He thinks it may have come from the Asteroid Voga that they orbit but Kellman insists Voga is lifeless. The Doctor unlocks the door unsealing the section they were in which alerts Warner. Lester & Stevens investigate. On Voga the body of the being making the transmission is taken to Vorus, a Vogan leader, who is planning something with Magrik. Magrik fears the Cybermen may be monitoring them. Warner is attacked by the silver creature and a network of red lines grows on his face. Kellman seizes the recording Warner made, but is disturbed by the Doctor's party arriving next door. They are apprehended by Stevens & Lester, and Kellman shows them Warner. Kellman wants them killed as plague carriers. Kellman monitors the Doctor & Stevens: The Doctor is convinced it's not a plague and wonders about the missing tape. Lester tells them that this is the 79 day of the plague and the station has been isolated during this time. The Doctor recognises the name Voga as the planet of gold that was a key player in the war with the Cybermen. Kellman contacts his allies by a concealed radio: The Cybermen direct their ship towards the station. Harry finds puncture marks on Warner's body and the Doctor begins to suspect what has caused the plague. He visits Kellman's room and searches it discovering the monitoring device & transmitter, but is forced to hide when Kellman returns setting a trap electrifying the floor causing smoke to fill the room. As Sarah waits for the Doctor's return she is attacked by the silver creature which bites her neck......

We're back on Nerva station after eight episode wandering round Earth and Skaro. In some respects this idea is similar to the Hartnell story the Ark where they spend two episodes on The Ark leaving earth and two episodes years later arriving on Refusis. Here though we're back at the previous location we saw in Ark in Space some time in the past.

So it's only natural that Revenge of the Cybermen reuses several sets from Ark in Space, notably the corridor contained in the beacon's ring and the transmat room. Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen were filmed back to back, with Sontaran Experiment preceding them and Genesis of the Daleks following, to allow this to happen.

If you look some elements have been altered, the colour of the Transmat booth and the panels round the corridor ring.

Some good science here:

WARNER: Where did that rock come from, anyway? What system?
KELLMAN: Nobody knows. It was first detected in our system fifty years ago and it was captured by Jupiter.

Jupiter is known to capture asteroids due to it's immense gravitational pull and indeed has probably prevented a fair few from colliding with Earth!

There's also some information that's now VERY out of date:

DOCTOR: Who's your civilian?
STEVENSON: Professor Kellman. He's an exographer.
DOCTOR: Interesting. Planetary survey. Of what?
STEVENSON: Jupiter.
DOCTOR: I thought Jupiter had already been thoroughly studied.
STEVENSON: Yes. He's interested in its new satellite.
DOCTOR: What, do you mean there are now thirteen?
STEVENSON: Turned up fifty years ago. That's why this beacon's out here. A lot of the Great Circle freighters haven't got it on their charts yet.

In fact that information was already out of date by the time the episode was broadcast! Jupiter's 12th moon Anake was discovered in 1951 but in September 1974, after the majority of the work on the script had been completed, a 13th Leda was discovered and another, Thermisto sighted later in 1975! Voyager found three more moons but from 1999 onwards a whole slew of moons was detected bringing the current total to 67!

This discrepancy between reality and what was stated on screen obviously irritated Doctor Who author Stephen Cole that he wrote an entire book, To The Slaughter, to explain why Jupiter only had 12 moons in this story!

The Doctor then asks the obvious question about the new moon which leads the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place

DOCTOR: What's it called?
STEVENSON: Neo Phobos, originally, but Kellman's renamed it Voga.
DOCTOR: Voga. Of course. Has he been down there?
STEVENSON: Kellman? He set up a transmat. Why?
DOCTOR: Voga. Voga. Planet of gold. Yes, it's all coming back to me now.
STEVENSON: What's coming back to you?
DOCTOR: Cybermen. That's what we're up against, Commander. Cybermen.
STEVENSON: But surely, Doctor, Cybermen died out centuries ago.
DOCTOR: They disappeared after their attack on Voga at the end of the Cyber War. Not the same thing as dying out, Commander. They're utterly ruthless. Total machine creatures.

Huzzah, at long last over six years after their last appearance the Cybermen are back. Unfortunately the story mucks their reveal up something chronic. Yes, I know they're in the title but...... They get name checked by the Vogans before they are shown, and then the reveal is three of them standing around in their spaceship. A little wasted perhaps, no big end of episode reveal as they crash through the airlock.

Returning writer Gerry Davis, former Doctor Who script editor and co-creator of the Cybermen raids his own back catalogue for other Cyber elements to insert into this tale.

The silver creature is some form of Cybermat which we previously saw in Tomb of the Cybermen & Wheel in Space

The virus is very similar, involving an updated effect to the one that the Cybermen used in the Moonbase.

However since all three stories were by some distance in the past reusing them is perfectly fine. And, once you remove the botched Cyberman reveal, so is this episode.

Warner shuffles off this mortal coil during this episode so we probably aught to talk about the actor who plays him now, Alec Wallis, who was previously Leading Telegraphist Bowman in The Sea Devils which, like Revenge of the Cybermen, was directed by Michael Briant. We'll do the rest of the beacon's crew now while we're on the subject. Ronald Leigh-Hunt plays Commander Stevenson and we saw him as Commander Radnor in The Seeds of Death.

Lester is a bit trusting isn't he: 2 minutes after meeting the Doctor & friends, with air of suspicion still surrounding them he gives Sarah his gun! He's played by William Marlowe who was previously criminal Harry Mailer in The Mind of Evil. Many publications claim he was married to another performer in that story, Fernanda Marlowe, purely on the basis that they share the same surname but this isn't the case. He was married to Catherine Schell (Countess Scarlioni in City of Death) at the time both of his Who appearances were filmed but later married Kismet Delgado, the widow of Roger Delgado, the actor who played the Master in many Pertwee stories. Jeremy Wilkin, playing Kellman, is the only member of the cast with no other Doctor Who appearances to his name. However he was the voice of Virgil Tracy in the second series of Thunderbirds, Captain Ochre & the original Captain Black in Captain Scarlet and was in the very first episode of Blake's 7, The Way Back, as Dev Tarrant.

There is what looks like a very bad piece of special effects in this episode:

KELLMAN: What are you doing?
WARNER: Logging it. Unidentified call apparently from the direction of Voga.

Unfortunately the display showing Warner's data entry looks positioned too far to the left!

And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, the thing hanging in the back of Vorus' rooms is what will later become known as the Seal of the High Council of the Time Lords. Designer Roger Murray-Leach worked on this story and the Deadly Assassin where he reused the design in the Gallifreyan Capitol giving it the association it's had ever since.

Four days after this episode aired, on 23rd April 1975, William Hartnell died. He'd been suffering from arteriosclerosis for a number of years, then had a number of strokes during the early part of 1975 and died peacefully in his sleep of heart failure on 23 April 1975.