Episode #38 : The Abominable Snowmen

Jamie: Have you thought up some clever plan, Doctor?

The Doctor: Yes, Jamie, I believe I have.

Jamie: What are you going to do?

The Doctor: Bung a rock at it.

Episode 38:    The Abominable Snowmen.
Companions:  The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 30th September to 4th November 1967.

Mysterious forces are at work in 1930s Tibet. The once gentle Yeti have turned savage and besieged a Buddhist monastery. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive expecting a friendly welcome from the abbot, but soon become ensnared in the plans of the extradimensional being known as the Great Intelligence.

This story sets up another sort-of long running villain in The Great Intelligence, an entity also retconned into being another of HP Lovecraft's Great Old Ones. In this case, it is supposed to be the god-like entity called Yog Sothoth even though it bears little in relation to that being. There is a gap of 44 years between appearances, giving The Great Intelligence the biggest gap between appearances on screen of any villain so far.

Only the second episode of this story survives so again I am basing this review on episode synopses. With that in mind it is difficult to actually tell what the plot of the villainous Intelligence involves. It hints that it is seeking a physical form but I don't think it is implicit that that is the case. The story also sets up the appearance of the robot Yeti, who only make a couple further appearances at this point. Whether these are meant to be the new physical form for the Intelligence is unclear.

As episodes go it seems ok, but lacking in motivations for the villain, but again that could just be the result of reading the synopses.

Episode #37 : The Tomb of the Cybermen

"Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing, that nobody in the

universe can do what we're doing."

 

 

Episode 37:   The Tomb of the Cybermen.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 2nd to 23rd September 1967.

The TARDIS arrives on the planet Telos, where an Earth archaeological expedition led by Professor Parry is trying to uncover the lost tombs of the Cybermen. With a lot of help from the Doctor, the archaeologists enter the tombs. There, one of the party, Klieg, reveals himself and his business partner, Kaftan, to be planning to revive the Cybermen.

There are time as I go re-watching these stories, that I realise that I am often overly-critical of some of them. Especially these which are pre-Pertwee. But The Tomb of the Cybermen is a gem among these early stories and a must-watch in my opinion. Very rarely does 1960's Doctor Who get such a well written, well paced and well-acted story, but this one does it.

The story deals with the Cybermen having put themselves into a hibernation state for 500 years. My guess would be because of Mondas' destruction in the mid 20th century though as machine life forms who could live indefinitely it makes me wonder why that would be necessary. Now that they have been found they plan to start assimilating, for lack of a better word, the archaeologists and rebuild their race. The story also introduces the concept of a Cyber-Controller and Cybermats, both of which will last throughout the Cybermen's appearances in the series.

This is the first time that I can say I've seen Victoria Waterfield on screen and I quite like her as a companion. Unlike Jamie, who just seems to leap into the idea of time travel and space, Victoria actually plays the culture shock of being a person out of time, dropped into things she doesn't truly understand.

We get a follow up to the events of this story with the 6th Doctor in the story Attack of the Cybermen, which also ties into the events from The Tenth Planet. Nice to see that the writers were considering previous stories at some point.

For those who want to watch the better classic stories, I heartily recommend this one. A big thumbs up.

Episode #36 : The Evil of the Daleks

"I am not a student of human nature. I am a professor of a far wider academy of

which human nature is merely a part."

 

 

Episode 36:   The Evil of the Daleks.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.
Air Date:        Seven episodes. 20th May to 1st July 1967.

 

The Daleks draft the Second Doctor into distilling the Human Factor. Once implanted, it will make the Dalek race invincible. Jamie's faith in the Doctor is stretched to the limit as he appears to be collaborating with the Daleks. The Doctor has a few tricks up his sleeve, but then again so might the Daleks.

 

The Evil of the Daleks is another lengthy story which is missing all but two episodes. The story synopses has it as a rather quirky story, especially for one that features the Daleks. It carries on almost immediately from the end of the prior story and then jumps to Victorian London, and then to the Dalek home world of Skaro. The overall plot seems to be that the Daleks desire a human factor in order to conquer the universe and they are trying to distill that and inject it into themselves. The Doctor ends up forced to help them and implants them with child-like mind set, before then blowing them all up.

 

This was supposed to be the final story with the Daleks for the show as their creator, Terry Nation, was attempting to get them their own American TV show which ultimately never happened. It would be some time before the Daleks reappeared in the show.

This story introduces the Dalek Emperor as the overall ruler of their race. It isn't seen again until the 9th Doctor story Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways, but it isn't clear if it is the same Emperor, or a replacement.

 

We pick up a new companion with this story, Victoria Waterfield, a young lady from Victorian London. With her father killed by the Daleks, the Doctor and Jamie take her on board the TARDIS.

 

All in all it seems like an OK story but a bit odd in places. Maybe one day it will get the animated treatment and we can see how it actually plays out.

Episode #35 : The Faceless Ones

"Well, in view of the facts that I’ve already presented - the ray gun, this pen and one or two other things - I think we’re dealing with people who are not from this planet."

Episode 35:    The Faceless Ones.
Companions:  The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 8th April to 13th May 1967.

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in July, 1966, on a runway at Gatwick airport. Polly witnesses a murder in a nearby hangar and is then kidnapped by the perpetrator, Spencer of Chameleon Tours. Ben also vanishes. The Second Doctor and Jamie are left to convince the sceptical airport Commandant there has been foul play.

Only the first part of this story currently survives. I have been able to watch that one episode and I am sad to say that it was pretty terrible, in script/story, acting and special effects. A real shame as the idea behind this one has potential I am sure. The story is based around a sort of invasion by the alien Faceless Ones who for some strange reason lost their identities in a "gigantic explosion" on their home planet, a condition that if not treated leads to death. To deal with this, they abduct people from other worlds and steal their faces. All of which sounds somewhat absurd to me. To make the concept of the story worse, the Doctor doesn't even defeat them. He's just nice to them basically and says that he has some ideas to help if they stop abducting people.

This story sees Ben and Polly leave as they have found themselves back home in London around the time that they left to travel with the Doctor in the first place. Having not really seen much of them due to lost episodes it is hard to rate them companions.

Episode #34: The Macra Terror

"Doctor, that was it - that thing in the picture! That was the claw!"

Episode 34:   The Macra Terror.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 11th March to 1st April 1967.

When the Second Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie visit a human colony that appears to be one big holiday camp, they think they have come across a truly happy place. Yet a shadowy presence soon makes them realise that the surface contentment is carefully controlled.

The Macra Terror that is entirely missing, though an audio recording still exists along with a handful of screen images. Unfortunately although I've read two or three different synopsis for this story it is very difficult to tell whether it was a good or bad one. Some elements exist for both approaches. Hopefully one day an intact copy can be found.

The story features as it's villains a race of giant intelligent alien crabs called The Macra. The Macra require certain types of gases to breathe in order to live, and have enslaved the human population of a distant world to mine it for them from deep beneath the surface. At the time of this write up they have only reappeared once more (Gridlock) making them one of the villains with the lengthiest gap between appearances in the show, only beaten by The Great Intelligence.

Episode #33 : The Moonbase

"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

Episode 33:      The Moonbase.
Companions:    The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date:          Four episodes. 11th February to 4th March 1967.

The TARDIS arrives in 2070 on the Moon, where a weather control station under the command of a man named Hobson is in the grip of a plague epidemic - in reality the result of an alien poison planted by the Cybermen. Jamie is knocked unconscious and lapses into a delirium, leaving the Second Doctor, Ben, and Polly to fight off a massive Cyberman attack.

Two episodes of this story currently survive and I have never seen the remaining two. However, I do own and have read repeatedly, the novelization of The Moonbase so that and an internet synopses are what I will base this short review on. Supposedly though, at the end of this year, 2013, this story will get the animation treatment to make it a fully watchable episode again.

We have a rather quick return of the Cybermen, perhaps because they proved popular in the Ten Planet the BBC decided to see if they could be the new Daleks? The costumes have massively improved since we last saw them and they appear much more mechanical now than then. Despite that they do seem to have vulnerable plastic elements which eventually leads to their destruction at the end of the story.

The story is set upon the moon only fifty odd years from now, where the worlds weather is controlled by a piece of machinery called a Graviton. How it does this with gravity I don't know. When it goes out of alignment the world is struck by strong winds and hurricanes. The Cybermen want to eradicate human life on Earth so they can claim the planet. I guess the assimilation ideas weren't fully thought through at this time though the story does mention some crewmen of the moonbase being made cybernetic.

Not a bad story really though I am looking forward to watching it if the rumours of animation are true.

Episode #32 : The Underwater Menace

"Just one small question: Why do you want to blow up the world?"

 

 

Episode 32:   The Underwater Menace.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date:       Four episodes. 14th January to the 4th February 1967.

 

The TARDIS arrives on an extinct volcanic island. Before long, the travellers are captured and taken into the depths of the Earth, where they find a hidden civilisation - the lost city of Atlantis.

 

This is a rather unusual story as it feels all too comical without actually being funny or a comedy. it all comes down to the villain of the piece, a man scientist named Zarkoff. Zarkoff carries off a strange almost eastern European accent and is played as a stereotypical mad scientist complete with shout "NUFFINK IN ZE VORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!" All in all it is a tad strange and cringe worthy.

The other element that failed for me was the appearance of the fish people (see the photo above) decked out with glitter, sparkly things and carried on strings to emulate swimming. All very cheap and nasty, not to mention plain old silly looking. Considering I love the dodgy cheap special effects later on this just goes to show how bad these are.

 

The Underwater Menace is the first to mention Atlantis, though in this case what the Doctor has found is merely a surviving outpost. Atlantis will get referenced twice more (as of this time), and the story of what happened changes each time.

 

Ultimately it is a very silly story and just boring to watch. it is one of those where I found myself unconsciously looking to flick through a book or check my phone throughout the viewing. Not a good sign.