Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series which has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Patrick Troughton. He is traveling with companions Jamie and Victoria (portrayed by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling). Victoria is new to all of this time travel stuff, having just joined the Doctor and Jamie at the end of their last adventure.

The TARDIS lands on the planet Telos. There, they find a team or archaeologists hard at work excavating a tomb inside a mountain. They inform the Doctor they are looking for the remains of the Cybermen. One of the team was killed when he tried to open doors to the tomb, and the archaeological team is suspicious of the Doctor and his companions.

Of course, the Cybermen are eventually located and resurrected. From then on, it's a game of cat and mouse as the archaeological team along with the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria battle for their lives.

Let me get out of the way what’s wrong with The Tomb of the Cybermen. Cheese effects and costumes are a part of the charm of the Doctor Who universe. Fans have come to expect it, and although some episodes are better than others, we suspend our disbelief and generally marvel at how much they did with so little. The Tomb of the Cybermen hits an all-time low in this regard. The costumes of the Cybermen are so terrible it’s laughable. Compared to the Cybermen we've seen lately, these are more pathetic than the tin man from the Wizard of Oz.

What makes up for all of that is a well-crafted story. It’s amazingly similar to Aliens. I just couldn't get over how similar it was when I watched it, right down to the plant from the company who has an ulterior motive.

You see, the Doctor doesn’t just end up battling the Cybermen, but the archaeologists as well. One in particular, Eric Klieg, is determined to not only resurrect the Cybermen from their frozen state, but seems to be under the misguided notion that he can somehow subjugate and control them. Of course, he’s eventually proven wrong, but not before inadvertently unleashing the Cybermen on the galaxy once again.

Patrick Troughton was one of the actors who portrayed the Doctor that I was most unfamiliar with (the other being William Hartnell). I was surprised at how much I liked him here compared to other performances I’d seen. He’s not at all silly or clown-like, but has a wry sense of humor that only seems to ebb through now and then. He has some serious, tender moments, especially when paired with Victoria who doesn’t mind prying into territory that’s been left alone - the Doctor’s background. He’s sympathizing with her and the conversation seems to flow naturally between them as a little of the curtain he hides behind is dropped for a while. At the same time, he’s not as indecisive as later Doctors. He seemed to have no qualms about what he knew he had to do to keep the universe safe from the Cybermen. There were none of those moments with crisis of conscience as he would later exhibit with the Daleks.

Deborah Watling still seemed to be trying to get the feel of this new role, but she is fine as a sidekick who provides a moral mirror to the Doctor at times. Frazer Hines is fine as Jamie. Both of them seem to take a backseat to the guest cast, especially George Pastell as Eric Kleig. He’s menacing enough to come across as someone we should be fearful enough while at the same time also seeming a bit crazy.

There are a few moments with one of the archaeologists’ crew that made me want to cringe a bit. Toberman (portrayed by Roy Stewart) was an attempt at the time to give a black man a place in a universe that up until now had pretty much been lily white. Unfortunately, they have him act as quite a stereotypical oaf. He’s pretty much all brawn and no brains, which is a huge shame, especially considering the inroads minorities were making in science fiction at the time on a little show across the pond known as Star Trek.

As usual, there are some great special features on this disc. The most interesting had to be where they show how they cleaned this up from the original print. The prints used for this DVD were found in Hong Kong. Remastering it for DVD release meant that over 16,000 different faults in the print were meticulously reviewed and fixed. The attention to detail in the painstaking process to bring this back to a quality where we can see and hear what is happening is fascinating. The work the audio track alone needed was incredible. And yet, it all seems like it comes together with ease in the end. Te black and white picture might have allowed for some of the mistakes to be not quite as evident, but from what they had to work with, it was still quite a process to restore.

I love to listen to commentary and here bits and pieces about these shows when they were made, particularly the older ones. However, I was incredibly frustrated with the commentary on this show. Deborah Watling and Frazier Hines did the commentary, and it seemed like Ms. Watling was whispering or mumbling quite a bit of the time.

While it has its flaws, The Tomb of the Cybermen is classic Doctor Who. Patrick Troughton is at his strongest here in the role and it works well for the most part. Even the most dedicated fan can’t deny that the costuming here is pretty hideous, and there are a few other flaws that do detract from a pretty good story. It’s definitely worth checking out for the dedicated fan. All others will probably be too busy laughing at the Cybermen and wondering why in the universe anyone could be afraid of them.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Deborah Watling & Frazier Hines
• Title Sequences Tests
• Late Night Line-Up: Special Effects
• Photo Gallery
• The Final End - has to do with the ending of the previous story about the Daleks
• Tombwatch
• Remastering for DVD
• Morris Barry Intro
• Information Text
• Who's Who




© 2008 Patti Aliventi


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD