The Moonbase Episode 1

The one where the Doctor and friends go walking on the moon...

After a reassuringly trad bumpy TARDIS landing, the Doctor and friends discover that they haven't arrived on Mars, as planned, but the Moon, approximately 200 million miles away (as Ben impressively observes). The Doctor elects to take off straight away (he has a habit of wanting to leave straight away in this body), but the typically excitable Polly wants to stay and explore the Moon. And why not?

I like how Jamie finds it difficult to swallow the fact that they're on the Moon, which he only knows as a huge orb in the night sky, not a place you can actually go (of course, when The Moonbase was transmitted in February 1967, nobody had actually been to the Moon!). Jamie wonders if they'll get to meet the Old Man in the Moon, which is a nice touch for a character who really wouldn't find it easy to grasp what's going on. The fact he accepted the existence of Atlantis rather more readily is glossed over!

The Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie wander out onto the lunar surface in some rather flimsy looking spacesuits, and lark about with the low gravity like kids in a playground. This is exactly how Doctor Who should be - Ben, Polly and Jamie have never been to the Moon before, so it's obvious that they'd want to mess about and have fun (in fact, Ben and Polly have only actually been to one alien planet so far during their time aboard the TARDIS). Doctor Who is a fun family programme, and seeing the Doctor's companions having fun on their travels is an important moment to show, otherwise it's not realistic (fun would be something the Doctor's friends would struggle with in the 1980s!). We even get some accompanying comedy sound effects!

It's not all fun and games though, as Jamie manages to overdo it a little and go flying over the next crater, knocking himself unconscious in the process. He's taken into a magnificent looking lunar base by two strangers, and so the Doctor, Ben and Polly duly follow.

So far it's all felt very similar to Kit Pedler's previous serial, The Tenth Planet - the TARDIS landing in a harsh landscape and the Doctor and friends making their way into a nearby base run by a rather belligerent leader. This time however, leader Hobson comes to accept the strangers' presence rather readily. Admittedly, he is expecting the arrival of a replacement medical doctor from Earth following the recently incapacitated Dr Evans, but he doesn't actually assume that the Doctor is the doctor until the Doctor says that he's the Doctor (if you follow me). Until that point, he rather breezily accepts the arrival of the four strangers at face value, and it's a little convenient that our heroes manage to inveigle themselves into the Moonbase's community with next to no trouble. Still, it's refreshing to have this second Doctor willingly get involved in events, as previously he's not seemed too keen on intervening. Perhaps this is the real beginning for this new incarnation?

It appears this Moonbase is a very important and strategically crucial place, and really should have tighter security controls than we've witnessed. The Gravitron device has the power to cause or prevent major environmental disasters on Earth's surface (a hurricane could destroy Hawaii, London could somehow be lifted into space, or the Atlantic water level could rise 3ft). So it's also a surprise that so many billions of lives on Mother Earth are at the mercy of the health of around 20 men (no women, you'll note) in the Moonbase.

Several of the Moonbase's crew have taken ill with a mystery virus, but not the type of virus which gives you a runny nose or causes you to throw up. This is the type of virus which etches thick black lines into your flesh: you know the sort. It's all very worrying, because if the virus is contagious or incurable, the entire Moonbase crew will be wiped out and Mother Nature will get her wicked way with Mother Earth.

Writer Pedler wastes little time in building up the tension and mystery. What is the virus, and where has it come from? Who is in the unidentified spaceship spotted on the lunar surface? Who or what is the mysterious figure people keep spotting, and which likes casting suspiciously familiar silhouettes onto walls?

As the episode drew to its cliffhanger conclusion, I started to ask myself whether the audience at the time would have clocked that it was the Cybermen lurking around the Moonbase? First of all, these Cybermen look significantly different to those seen in The Tenth Planet just four months earlier. If you actually compare the two Cyber-designs side by side, there's not an awful lot similar between them beyond the traditional handlebar helmet. Dr Evans feverishly talks of "the silver hand", but the Cybermen we already know had fleshy human hands. They didn't even have silver bodies or faces, they were white and clothy!

When the Cyberman looms into shot at the end of the episode, we're not told it's a Cyberman. The only thing which really ticks the Cyber-boxes is the handlebar helmet and the use of Martin Slavin's wonderful Space Adventure Part 2 on the soundtrack, as it was used in The Tenth Planet.

I do like the way director Morris Barry approaches the slow reveal of the Cybermen here though, with clever, telling lighting choices from Dave Sydenham. Because this episode is missing from the archives, it's not clear how much of the Cybermen we see before the cliffhanger (do we really see their arms as clearly as we do in the animated version, for instance?). We see fleeting, lingering silhouettes, and characters talk of silver hands and the Phantom Piper. Barry builds an atmosphere of unease and mystery by having Polly glimpse "something", by having Jamie talk feverishly about seeing something from Scottish legend, and having poor old Ralph murdered by an unseen marauder in the food stores. It's tantalising and unnerving and intriguing. Just don't ask me what the piece of silver paper the Doctor finds means in the grand scheme of things!

First broadcast: February 11th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Director Morris Barry builds the atmosphere beautifully, with some help from lighting designer Dave Sydenham. There's also a lovely little scene between Patrick Troughton and Anneke Wills where the Doctor tries to explain the Moonbase's time cycle to Polly, and she admits she might be making fun of him!
The Bad: The Doctor and friends inveigle themselves into Moonbase life far too easily. Hobson needs to be a lot tighter on security, with so much at stake!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 2...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-moonbase.html

The Moonbase is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Moonbase-Patrick-Troughton/dp/B00H7WX790/