Friday, 1 November 2013

The Tomb of the Cybermen - Episode 1

The Cybermen have been chosen to open the fifth season of Doctor Who and its their third story in less than a year which shows why the 1960’s were the golden era for the Cybermen. With the Daleks on a plane going towards America, the Cybermen take the crown of number one villain. This is also the first complete Patrick Troughton story that I will have watched which is quite remarkable considering that this is now the eighth story with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. This was one of the first stories that I remember hearing as a Doctor Who fan. I remember listening to it on cassette tape as me, my mom and dad drove home from food shopping. So I have a fondness for this story that I don’t think will diminish over the next  four episodes.

The opening shot is of the TARDIS on Skaro and it feels like it’s the shot that should have finished at the end of The Evil of the Daleks. The TARDIS set has a weird echo as opposed to a normal studio feel in previous adventures. Not sure whether this was what they were planning for in the future or whether it was an emergency measure for this episode but it doesn’t seem right.
This story is another under siege story although the story does start on the outside with archaeologists desperately trying to get inside but it soon turns into that sort of story that I like. I like that we get a couple of scenes with the archaeologists and how they don’t seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. There are three people of particular interest such as Eric Kleig (George Pastell), Kaftan (Shirley Cooklin) and Toberman (Roy Stewart) are the more entertaining and stronger characters. In this episode its Kleig who is the standout as he has a bit of a rivalry with the Doctor. Patrick Troughton is really good in this episode. Once the Doctor discovers that they are dealing with the Cybermen it almost seems like he is helping Kleig into trying to get into the Tomb. Deborah Watling goes 18 minutes before being put in peril.

I haven’t been a massive fan of Morris Barry’s direction in the past but the location scenes were really quite fun. He has managed to make scenes filmed in a quarry seem quite entertaining. When the story does get inside the Tomb main room, there is a nice claustrophobic feel to it. It’s all dark and that’s a nice contrast to the bright outside. Even though once they get in there are only three rooms, he manages to make it feel like its quite a big place and keep the rooms quite small. The writing isn’t particularly special but I suspect that the good stuff is kept for the remaining episode.
It seems like it’s a tradition that when a monster returns that they don’t appear until the final moment of the story. This is the case for this story because all we see is a Cyberman appears from out of nowhere. It doesn’t say anything or even move and so the camera just focuses in on its face. We will learn why in the next episode but its not quite the best ending to an opening episode ever. That said I have enjoyed this episode because it introduces the regulars and also the supporting cast. A good opening episode.

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