The Tomb of the Cybermen - Episode 4

The final episode has to end the story on a high note after the previous three episodes have been very good. The previous episode ended with a close up of Klieg’s gun with the Doctor being warned to watch out. The episode basically has to do two things such as defeated Klieg and Kaftan and defeat the Cybermen. Due to the way that the story has been written this looks like it wont be an easy thing and that’s what so good about this episode.

Toberman as a Cybermen doesn’t look or act any different to before. It seems like his only purpose is to pick the Cyber Controller up and he’s been as much use to the story as he had been in the previous episodes and I feel like they could have done more with the character apart from just being the muscles of the story. The scene where Toberman picks up the dummy Cyber Controller and throws him onto the controls is rather poorly done. It’s clear that it’s a dummy when he’s in the air and its falls a bit to badly. I like the effect of the Cybermen going back into their tomb. It might have just been a simple reversing of the footage but it was effective.

There’s a nice comedic moment in this episode where the Doctor asks Jamie if he’s tied the knots tightly with Jamie being very confident before the Cyber Controller bursting out of the chamber. To be honest I think that Victoria and Jamie haven’t been quite as good as in previous episode but that’s more because they weren’t given much to do but that said what they are given to do they do it well.

Kaftan’s death was effective as she suffered a firey death. She bit the dust on the 10 minute mark and that means that Klieg is left and his death seems far more graphic without us actually seeing him die. I thought that the death of one of the Cybermen was quite graphic and it was the best death in the episode because when the Cyberman Controller dies it’s ok but not as good as the death before. Toberman’s death was a shame really but it was probably the right thing to do because if he was part Cybermen he probably wouldn’t want to be like that but it was actually quite a noble death.

I like how the ending with the Cyber Controller seemed to be one final twist before our heroes get out. It means we get one final death and the goodbye between the archaeologists and the regulars was quite sad. I do question why they left Toberman to just seemingly rot which does seem quite a weird ending to the story. That said I still think that this story is a very good one and it easily the best Patrick Troughton story that he has done so far.