The Moonbase - Episode 3

It’s back to the cd for the third episode. After being impressed with the somewhat claustrophobic feel of the studio its back to try and imagine the same feeling on CD. It’s a shame really that we have to go back to the CD after enjoying the visuals from the previous episode.  The previous episode ended with the cure being found and the Cyberman ending up sneaking into the sick bay. It seems like something goods going to happen in the episode but the waiting goes on and on.

This episode is where we actually get to hear a Cyberman talk and it’s quite different from the first time we saw them. I think that the first look was best but actually the voice is much improved. Their involvement is more noticeable during part three and it seems that there are more of them. It’s great how they are quite – dare I say it – evil. Whereas in The Tenth Planet you could argue that they were at least trying to save their planet, whereas this time there isn’t the chance to make the same argument because they just seem pure evil.

The problem with this episode is that there isn’t much that happens really. In the first part of this story it’s the mystery of whats causing the plague and now that’s been solved it seems like there was an awful amount of waiting around for the Cybermen to get themselves sorted. This is the most active that Jamie has been so far. It comes at the time when Ben, Polly and Jamie try and come up with a way of defeating the Cybermen. Patrick Troughton doesn’t have much to do in this episode so its down to the companions to be the active ones and I like how there is the slightly implication that Jamie might fancy Polly and there is also a moment where Ben and Jamie let their testoerome go overboard and it seems like there might be a fight but this all takes place in one scene.

I don’t quite know whats happened but I find myself not really enjoying this episode as much. I think that the problem is that nothing really happens until the final few minutes when the Cybermen march along the surface of the moon. When episode four starts we will see this in all its glory but sadly despite the wonderful narration of Frazer Hines it’s a somewhat ordinary cliffhanger. It’s back to the DVD tomorrow for the final episode and I still maintain that there is something to enjoy about this story and think that all the elements are there for this to be another solid Cyberman story.