The Tomb of the Cybermen
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Template:Doctorwhobox The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967.
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Synopsis
An archeological expedition to the planet Telos discovers the final resting place of the Cybermen, frozen in tombs for eternity. The Second Doctor would like it to remain that way, but some members of the expedition seem to have other ideas.
Plot
Tombofthecybermen.jpg
On the planet Telos, an archeological expedition uses explosives to uncover the entrance to a city, hidden in the side of a mountain. The huge metal doors are adorned with a symbol resembling the head and shoulders of a Cyberman. When a member of the expedition touches the doors, he is electrocuted to death. As the expedition looks on, stunned, a sound attracts their attention - the landing of the TARDIS. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria approach the others, and Captain Hopper, the expedition's pilot, holds them at gunpoint until the Doctor convinces them they had nothing to do with the death. Viner, the assistant to expedition leader Parry, accuses the Doctor of being part of a rival expedition. Parry explains that they are here to find the remains of the Cybermen, who apparently died out centuries before. Parry believes some had returned to Telos to die. The expedition is funded by Kaftan, who is accompanied by her giant manservant Toberman and her colleague Kleig. When Hopper wants to call off the expedition, Kleig protests. The Doctor, now that he knows that the Cybermen are involved, also wants the exploration of the city to continue.
The Doctor uses a small device to check that the doors are now safe, and Toberman's great strength swings them open. Entering the darkened inner chamber, they find a control panel with a series of levers and switches and a large, sealed hatch. Kleig tries to decipher the controls but is unsuccessful. The Doctor discovers that there are hidden doors in the walls, and opens them by throwing a few levers. The controls operate on symbolic logic: the levers he pulled represented an OR gate. Kleig appears resentful that the Doctor is able to deduce this instead of him. The hatch, however, remains sealed and Parry and Kleig continue to try and open it as Toberman slips out of the city.
The other members of the expedition explore. Victoria, Viner and Kaftan come across a chamber with a sarcophagus-like box facing a projection device that was apparently used to revitalize the Cybermen. Victoria curiously climbs into the sarcophagus despite Viner's protestations, while Kaftan secretly studies the controls. In another room, Jamie and Haydon find a small silver caterpillar-like object on the floor. In the control room, the Doctor tries to convince Kleig not to activate the controls, but in pointing out Kleig's errors, he inadvertently gives Kleig the clue he needs. As power is restored and the lights in the base come up, the Doctor worries the Cybermen may not be as dead as some may believe. Kaftan, taking advantage of the restored power, operates the controls and seals Victoria in the sarcophagus. When Viner confronts her, Kaftan denies she did anything. As Viner goes to seek help, in the other room Jamie thinks he saw the silver caterpillar move, but Haydon pays no attention, operating the room's set of controls. A wall lights up with a hypnotic pattern that puts Jamie into a trance. Haydon manages to deactivate the pattern and snap Jamie out of it, but they both reason there must be more to it - why would the Cybermen need a hypnotizing machine?
Kaftan tries to activate the projector pointing at the sarcophagus containing the trapped Victoria, but the Doctor arrives and moves her aside. He studies the control panel and deduces the logical sequence that will open the sarcophagus, releasing Victoria. Haydon has reactivated the "hypnosis device" in the meantime, but before the Doctor can intervene, a Cyberman slides into view, a hidden panel in the wall opposite wall opens, and a gun fires, killing Haydon. The Cyberman slides out of sight again. Everyone is convinced Haydon was killed by the Cyberman, but the Doctor points out that Haydon was shot in the back. Throwing the switches again, the faux Cyberman slides out once more and is destroyed by the hidden gun, showing that the room is actually a testing range.
Victoria finds the metal caterpillar, which the Doctor identifies as a cybermat, and advises her to leave it alone. Instead, once his back is turned, she places it in her handbag. Outside, Toberman returns and reports to Kaftan that "It is done." Parry now decides to abandon the expedition and return to Earth. At this point, however, Hopper returns and angrily reveals that someone has sabotaged the rocket ship - no one will be leaving until he can effect repairs and no one will be allowed aboard the ship until his crew has done so.
Kleig believes he has found the logical sequence to open the hatch, but fails again, until the Doctor surreptitiously presses a few additional buttons, helping him along. Believing it was he who solved the puzzle, Kleig watches proudly as the hatch opens. Leaving Kaftan and Victoria behind, the others descend down the hatch. They find a vast chamber beneath, with a multistorey structure containing cells of frozen Cybermen, entombed in suspended animation. Back in the control room, Kaftan has drugged Victoria's coffee and shuts the hatch. Kleig, in the meantime, has activated more controls in the tomb and the ice begins to melt. Kleig shoots Viner when the latter tries to stop him, and holds the rest at bay while they watch the Cybermen return to life. Kleig reveals his real agenda. He and Kaftan belong to the Brotherhood of Logicians, who possess great intelligence but no physical power. He is certain the Cybermen will be grateful for their revival and ally themselves with him, providing that physical power.
Victoria awakes, notices the sealed hatch and confronts Kaftan, who threatens to shoot her if she tries opening it. However, the cybermat in Victoria's handbag revived at the same time the Cybermen did, and attacks Kaftan, rendering her unconscious. Victoria grabs Kaftan's pistol and shoots the cybermat. However, she does not know which lever opens the hatch, and leaves the city to find Hopper. Down in the tombs, the Cybermen file past the humans, ignoring them, and free their leader, the Cybercontroller from his cell. When Kleig steps forward to take the credit for reviving them, the Cybercontroller grabs him by the throat, forcing him to his knees and declaring, "You belong to us. You will be like us." The Cybermen recognize the Doctor, whose involvement in prior invasion attempts were recorded in their computer records. The Doctor realizes that the tombs were an elaborate trap. The Cybermen were waiting for beings intelligent enough to decipher the controls needed to free them. The expedition will be converted into Cybermen in preparation for a new invasion of Earth and Kleig, to his horror, will be the first.
In the control room, Hopper and Callum have figured out the electronics that will open the hatch. Hopper descends into the tombs, and uses smoke grenades to distract the Cybermen while the humans make their escape. They barely manage to scramble back to the control room and shut the hatch before the Cybermen can follow. Toberman, however, is left behind. Kleig and Kaftan are moved into the testing range to keep them out of mischief while the others decide on their next course of action. There, Kleig prises a weapon out of the hands of the Cyberman target, an X-ray laser he calls a cybergun. Outside, the expedition is threatened by cybermats released by the Cybermen below. The Doctor manages to rig electrical cables from the control panel to create a magnetic field that disables the cybermats. Even as one threat is eliminated, Kleig and Kaftan step out armed with the cybergun, which Kleig uses to shoot Callum in the shoulder.
Kleig still believes he can negotiate with the Cybermen. He opens the hatch and calls for the Cybercontroller, who climbs up the ladder with Toberman, who unknown to the others has been partially cyberconverted and under Cyberman control. The Cybercontroller moves slowly, as his energy is running low - in fact, most of the Cybermen have been ordered back to their tombs to conserve power. Holding the cybergun on the Cybercontroller, Kleig says he will allow it to be revitalized in the sarcophagus if the Cybermen help him conquer the Earth. The Cybercontroller agrees. Parry, Jamie and the Doctor are forced by Kleig into the revitalizing room, while Victoria is held as a hostage. The Doctor actually helps the Cybercontroller into the sarcophagus, but to try and trap it there. Unfortunately, a revitalized Cybercontroller is too strong and breaks out of the sarcophagus. Telepathically signaling Toberman, the latter reveals his true allegiances and knocks Kleig unconscious. The Cybercontroller, in turn, picks up Kleig's cybergun and kills Kaftan when she tries to block its return to the tombs.
The death of his mistress, however, seems to shake Toberman out of his controlled state. Toberman struggles with the Cybercontroller and hurls it into a control panel, apparently killing it. Jamie shoots two more Cybermen as they try to climb out of the hatch. The Doctor wants to make sure the Cybermen are no longer a threat, and goes back down into the tombs with Toberman, where the Cyberman are in their cells, unfrozen, but dormant. Kleig regains consciousness and sneaks down with the cybergun while the others tend to Callum. He forces the Doctor away from the controls that will refreeze the Cybermen, declaring that he will be the new Controller. Kleig keeps the cybergun trained on the Doctor, Toberman and Jamie (who followed the Doctor down) while he revives the Cybermen once again. Kleig intends to turn the three over to the Cybermen for spare parts, but even as he says this, a revived Cyberman throttles from Kleig behind and kills him. Toberman fights and kills this Cyberman and the Doctor freezes the other Cybermen, hopefully for good this time.
The Doctor, Jamie and Toberman return to the control room. Hopper's crew have repaired the ship and they can leave at any time. The Doctor ushers the others out as he sets up a circuit to electrify the control panel and the doors, to prevent anyone from entering the city again. The Cybercontroller, however, is still alive, and lurches forward. Everyone tries to help to shut the outer doors on the Cybercontroller, using spars of wood to insulate themselves from the electrification that will occur when the doors close, but the Cybercontroller is too strong. Toberman comes forward, pushing the others aside and using his bare hands to shut the doors, struggling with the Cybercontroller one last time. In the end, Toberman succeeds, completing the circuit, and both he and the Cybercontroller are electrocuted and killed.
Parry is shaken by the events, and he and Hopper return to their ship after saying good-bye to the Doctor and his companions. Jamie asks the Doctor if this is the end of the Cybermen, and the Doctor says it is, but adds that he does not like to make predictions. As they return to the TARDIS, no one notices a lone cybermat, moving along the ground outside the doors to the city...
Notes
- This serial was believed lost in 1978 (when the BBC's film archive was first properly audited) until film telerecordings of all four episodes were returned to the BBC by the Hong Kong television company RTV in 1992. The serial was released, to much fan excitement and with a specially recorded introduction by director Morris Barry, on video cassette that same year. A digitally restored version on DVD with extra features was released in 2002.
External links
- Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/tombcybermen/castcrew.shtml)