The Tomb of the Cybermen is the first serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who", which was originally broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 September 1967.
In the serial, the time traveller the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his travelling companions Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) get caught up in an expedition to the planet Telos. The financiers of the expedition, Eric Klieg (George Pastell) and Kaftan (Shirley Cooklin), intend to revitalise the Cybermen that are buried on Telos in underground tombs, hoping they will share their power.
"The Tomb of the Cybermen" is the earliest serial known to exist in its entirety starring Troughton as the Second Doctor. It is also the only known complete Cyberman story produced in the 1960s, and introduces the concepts of the Cyber Controller and the Cybermats, both of which would be re-used in later Cyberman stories.
Plot.
Landing on the planet Telos, the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria meet Parry, the leader of an archeological expedition. Funded by Kaftan, who is accompanied by her colleague Klieg and her servant Toberman, the group have found and seek to explore the tomb of the Cybermen, who died out five centuries before. The Doctor helps open the tomb's electrified doors and stays behind with Parry and Klieg to open the crypt while the others explore the building.
After another crewman is killed by a cybergun-testing machine, Parry decides to call off the expedition, only to be informed that someone has sabotaged the rocket ship, stranding them until repairs are completed. The crew open and enter the crypt; leaving Kaftan and Victoria behind, they find a small army of frozen Cybermen. Kaftan and Klieg betray the group and revive the Cybermen, who they hope to recruit for a conquest of the universe. However, the Cybermen seize the crew, intending to rebuild their invasion force and conquer Earth. The repair crew mount a rescue and recover most of the party, but Toberman is recaptured and partially converted. The group disarm and imprison Kaftan and Klieg, only for them to repair the cybergun, hoping to force the Cybermen into their alliance.
With their energy levels running low, the Cybermen return to the crypt whilst their Controller and Toberman meet with the group. The Doctor attempts to sabotage the Controller's revitalization, but it escapes and attacks the group. After it murders Kaftan, Toberman breaks free of the Cybermen's conditioning and disables it. While he, the Doctor, and Jamie return to refreeze the crypt, Klieg, unable to accept that the Cybermen will not forge an alliance, tries to stop them, only to be murdered by a Cyberman. After Toberman destroys it, the Doctor activates the crypt, hoping that the Cybermen will stay there for good.
The Doctor resets the tomb's defenses to ensure the Cybermen will not be revived again, only to discover the Controller is still functional. The Doctor flees and tries to enclose it with the survivors' help, but they are overpowered. Toberman sacrifices himself to close the doors, completing the circuit and electrocuting both him and the Controller. With the rocket repaired, the expedition leaves, the Doctor and his companions bidding them goodbye. As they leave, they fail to spot a surviving Cybermat, which approaches Toberman's body.
Production.
Writing.
Peter Bryant, who had previously been assistant to Gerry Davis and been newly promoted to script editor on the preceding story, was allowed to produce this serial in order to prove that he could take over from Innes Lloyd as producer later on in the season. Bryant's own assistant, Victor Pemberton, acted as script editor on this serial, but left the series after production of the serial was finished, deciding that he didn't want to be a script editor. When Bryant's eventual promotion to producer came, Derrick Sherwin became script editor. The working titles for this story were "The Ice Tombs of Telos" and "The Cybermen Planet".
Toberman was originally intended to be deaf, hence his lack of significant speech; his hearing aid would foreshadow his transformation into a Cyberman.
Recording.
It was produced at the end of the fourth recording block but was deliberately held back to season 5, despite the fact a 'Next Week' caption was prepared for the final episode of "The Evil of the Daleks", suggesting it was originally intended to end the fourth season.
The exterior scenes for Telos were recorded at Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry.
The Cybermats were controlled by various means – by wires, by wind-up clockwork, by radio-control, and some by simply being shoved into the shot. When the team were not filming, it was known for the people controlling the radio-controlled Cybermats to chase Deborah Watling around on set. The scene of the Cybermen breaking out of their tombs was filmed entirely in one take.
In the scene where the group are at the main entrance of the tomb, Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines worked out in secret the brief sequence where both the Doctor and Jamie go to take Victoria by the hand and end up taking each others. They knew that, with the recording schedule and the likelihood that re-takes would not be possible, it would have to be left in.
Broadcast, archive and reception.
On 24 February 2013, the episode aired in the United States on BBC America as part of a year-long celebration and acknowledgement of the 50th anniversary of "Doctor Who". Prior to the episode's airing that evening, a short documentary was aired which featured interviews with former, current and original Doctor Who production staff who shared their memories and perspectives of Patrick Troughton. It also appeared on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's iView exclusively, part of their celebration for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.
Reception.
Following the transmission of the first episode, the BBC's Head of Drama Sydney Newman personally congratulated Peter Bryant on what he had seen, which Bryant later recalled: "Coming from the man who created "Doctor Who" that was the ultimate compliment, even more so seeing as it was my first job as producer." However, the serial also attracted controversy. On 26 September 1967, Kit Pedler appeared on the BBC series "Talkback", hosted by David Coleman, to defend the serial against parents who thought it was too violent.
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote favourably of the serial in "The Discontinuity Guide" (1995), despite some criticism, "The first two episodes are wonderful, a well directed and expensive looking restating of the series' basics, but once the Cybermen are released from the Tombs, they go back in again." In "The Television Companion" (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker stated that it was similar to previous Cybermen stories, but "manages to develop the idea to greater advantage and, as a result, achieves a considerable success" and was "well-paced, gripping and, in places, genuinely frightening". They praised the Cybermen, but said the noise they made while being attacked was "silly", and also criticised some of the direction and Deborah Watling's Victoria, who they felt was an inconsistent character.
In 2009, Mark Braxton of "Radio Times" wrote that the story ""does" deserve its reputation" as a classic. DVD Talk's J. Doyle Wallis, in a review of the original DVD release, gave the serial three and a half out of five stars and called it "a very entertaining story". In a review of the special edition DVD for the same website, John Sinnott gave "The Tomb of the Cybermen" four stars. Sinnot praised Troughton's performance and the subtlety of the guest acting. Reviewing the serial for "The Independent" in 2012, Neela Debnath praised the "impressive production values" and faster pace. Christopher Bahn of "The A.V. Club" was less positive. He said that the story's "flaws are awfully apparent today" due to the "huge gaps in story logic and some really unfortunate racial stereotyping". Bahn was positive towards Troughton and the plot's buildup, but felt that the rest "just kind of peters out" and the villains' motivations were "convoluted".
In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders of io9 listed the cliffhanger to the second episode – in which the Cybermen break out of their tombs – as one of the greatest cliffhangers in the history of "Doctor Who".
Archive.
When the BBC's film archive was first properly audited in 1978, it was one of many believed missing having been missed in an earlier 1976 listing. It was prepared for release in early 1992 on audio cassette as part of the "Missing Stories" collection, using recordings made by fans at home at the time of transmission, with newly recorded explanatory narration by Jon Pertwee. Then in late 1991, telerecordings of all four episodes were returned to the BBC from the Hong Kong-based Rediffusion company. In May 1992, it was released on VHS with a special introduction from director Morris Barry. The VHS release topped the sales charts throughout the country. This was the only "Doctor Who" story from the original era to top the UK charts.
Between 1991 and 2013, it was believed to be the only complete story from Season 5 (and the only complete serial to feature Deborah Watling) before the complete run of "The Enemy of the World" was returned from Nigeria in 2013.
Commercial releases.
In print.
Gerry Davis novelisation was published by Target Books in 1978, entitled "Doctor Who and The Tomb of the Cybermen". However, due to a lack of source material, the cover, by Jeff Cummins, featured a Cyberman from the later story "The Invasion". A reissue of the book featured a new - and correct - cover by Alister Pearson. An audio reading of the novelisation, read by Michael Kilgarriff, was released in March 2013.
A transcript of the transmitted version of the serial, edited by John McElroy, was published by Titan Books in August 1989. It was the second in that publisher's series of "Doctor Who" script books, following "The Tribe of Gum". There was no video copy of "The Tomb of the Cybermen" in the BBC archives at the time that the book was prepared.
Home media.
With the recovery of the film prints, the planned soundtrack release was delayed until 1993, when contractual obligations forced its release. See List of "Doctor Who" audio releases.
Following the 1993 cassette release, on 1 May 2006 the soundtrack was released on a 2-CD set with linking narration by and a bonus interview with Frazer Hines. This was the first existing story to be released on audio in the same format as the missing story range.
A vinyl release of the soundtrack was released in 2018 exclusively for Record Store Day.
In the UK the DVD was released 13 January 2002. This was the first black and white story to be released on this format. This serial was also released as part of the "Doctor Who DVD Files" in issue 73 on 19 October 2011. A special edition of the DVD, with new bonus features and the entire story now treated with the VidFIRE process was released in the UK on 13 February 2012 in the third of the "Revisitations" DVD box sets.
In 2013 it was released on DVD again as part of the "Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 1–4" box set, alongside "The Aztecs", "Spearhead from Space" and "Pyramids of Mars". Alongside a documentary on the Second Doctor, the disc features the serial put together as a single feature in widescreen format with an introduction from former show runner Steven Moffat, as well as its original version. It was then released again (the same VidFIRE restored version), included in a set paired with "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" (a two-part Tenth Doctor David Tennant story from 2006), in 2013's "The Monster Collection" series, specifically "The Cybermen" entry.
Music release.
Stock music and sound effects from this story was released on a "mini-album" by Via Satellite in 1997. It had 2 versions of the Doctor Who theme music, sound effects from "," and an incomplete selection of stock music used in the story. It was planned to be the first in a series of mini-albums, with "The Faceless Ones" and "Inside the Spaceship" being mooted as future albums. Neither was produced.
Library tracks used in "The Tomb of the Cybermen" but missing from this CD include "Univers Sidéral" by Paul Bonneau, assorted "Synchro-Stings" by Trevor Duncan, "Sting Tintabuloid 1" by Desmond Leslie, "Eerie Vaults" by Steve Race, "Suspended Animation", "Galaxy" and "Hypnosis" by Eric Siday, "Dramatic Brass Chords" by Wolf