The Moonbase Episode 3

The one where the Cybermen are (temporarily) defeated by nail varnish remover...

At last, a Cyberman speaks! I've always believed they work far more effectively when they say as little as possible (such as in The Invasion), but these new look Cybermen have some seriously unsettling voices. Peter Hawkins achieves a cold, calculating, robotic chill in these electronic vocals, and they sound absolutely terrifying. The voice (as well as their new design) perfectly reflects their implacable, unfeeling, cybernetic presence, and although sometimes they're hard to make out, I like that. I like that the Cybermen speak in a way that does not cater for the listener, but still gets their message across - cold, calmly and just a little bit calculating...

These Cybermen are scarily ruthless and focused. They don't take any nonsense from lesser humans, and proceed to carry out their plan with efficiency and determination. They also proceed to explain their plan, and are breezily open about their intentions. "We are Cybermen. You will listen."

These chatty Cybermen don't mind filling the humans in on their intention, which is to destroy the Earth by taking control of - and wreaking havoc with - the Gravitron. Writer Kit Pedler sets out the entire raison d'etre of his Cybermen in one scene where the humans accuse the invaders of being childish for wanting revenge for the events of The Tenth Planet. But the Cybermen have no concept of revenge, or childishness, or feelings - they simply want to remove all dangers. "But you'll kill every living thing on the Earth!" exclaims Hobson. "Yes. All dangers will be eliminated," replies the Cyberman. If only the Cybermen were always written this well, and didn't degenerate into highly emotional creatures (as they did in the 1980s). There's definitely something terrifying about a monster that has no idea of good or bad, right or wrong - just a plan that has to be carried out, no matter what. "Clever, clever, clever..."

I find these Cybermen such an improvement on their predecessors. The conversion of Franz, Ralph and Dr Evans is chilling (wouldn't it be great to be able to see it?), and the slow-motion chase on the Moon's surface, as the Cyberman pursues Benoit, is gripping because the monster is unaffected by the lower gravity, as the Frenchman is. I bet that would be pretty edge-of-the-seat stuff to watch too! And when Ben manages to destroy the Cyberman, we see it melt down to nothingness, in eerie silence. The description in the Doctor Who Magazine telesnap special for this moment is genius: It's screaming but no-one can hear.

Unusually, Patrick Troughton takes a back seat in this episode, with much more screen time taken up by the Cybermen, and the companions. This is no bad thing at all, and at least we do get some quality Doctor scenes, such as when he has a conversation with his own inner thoughts about the Cybermen's weakness. There's also that very brief moment at the start where the Cybermen seem to recognise the Doctor, despite looking totally different the last time we saw them meet. Are we to assume there's an untelevised Cyber-adventure between The Power of the Daleks and The Moonbase? If there is, it must take place before The Highlanders, as Jamie doesn't recognise the Cybermen. I'm not aware of any spin-off fiction which fits this bill...

There's some juicy material for Ben and Polly at last, as Polly demonstrates her resourcefulness once again by coming up with the idea of the "Polly Cocktail", ie a mixture of solvents to melt down the Cybermen's plastic life support units. However you look at it, that's clever thinking on Polly's part, and with Ben's gung-ho willingness to put her plan into action, the pair make a formidable duo (despite Ben's somewhat chauvinist outlook - "This is men's work"). And then there's poor old Jamie, who wants to get involved and help out, but is told to just keep out of the way (because there's just too many companions, basically). There's a lovely moment of friction between the two young men when Ben accuses Jamie of trying to impress Polly, and they almost come to blows. It's an interesting masculine rivalry that could have been played with a little more, but sadly just fizzles out.

The Polly Cocktails succeed in destroying the Cybermen just in the nick of time - seconds later, and the Doctor would be a goner. But what I love about this episode is that the Cybermen barely bat an eyelid. The Cybermen may have been defeated in the Moonbase, but the ones in the spaceship outside simply decide to send more men to finish the job. Cold, efficient and logical, they spill out onto the lunar surface as a refreshed army, approaching the Moonbase with renewed determination. There really is no stopping them. "It's them!" cries Hobson. "They're coming!"

Still no word on what relevance the Doctor's silver paper has which he found in episode 1 though...

First broadcast: February 25th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Cybermen! The new look, the emotionless voice, the implacable plan of action, the fact they fail, but just send more men... This is what Cybermen should always be like.
The Bad: Jamie. He's been in 11 episodes of Doctor Who so far, and has been superfluous to all of them.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 4...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; 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/