Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
Silver Nemesis
By Kevin Clarke

“It's all over, Ace. My battle, all my battles, I've lost. I can only surrender.”

The Doctor and Ace are sitting and relaxing while they listen to a Jazz jam session when The Doctor’s alarm goes off.  It appears that he set it to remind him of a catastrophic event that would affect a planet but he doesn’t remember which one. It turns out to be the planet they are on Earth and The Doctor set it back in the 17th Century where we find Lady Peinforte making up a conncotion to get her and Richard to 1988 as that is where her astrologer has predicted that the comet Nemesis will crash back to Earth.  Lady Peinforte has the arrow and along with the bow, which a bunch of Nazi’s have, combined with the statue will grant that person ultimate power over everything.

To make matters worse there is another factor thrown in to disrupt The Doctor’s attempts to secure all three items and send Nemesis back into space, The Cybermen.  The Cybermen want the statue also to help their battle fleet, which is hidden from radar orbiting the Earth, to turn Earth into the new Mondas.  With this new X – Factor The Doctors game of chess might have to many players and it might be too much for him to save the Earth from the power of the Nemesis statue and the power that goes with it.  If the Doctor fails the Cybermen will win and be the true masters of the universe.

Doctor Who - Earthshock Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
Earthshock
By Eric Saward

DOCTOR: Emotions have their uses.

CYBERLEADER: They restrict and curtail the intellect and logic of the mind.

DOCTOR: They also enhance life! When did you last have the pleasure of smelling a flower, watching a sunset, eating a well-prepared meal?

CYBERLEADER: These things are irrelevant.

DOCTOR: For some people, small, beautiful events is what life is all about!

The Doctor and Adric are having quite the argument.  Adric is tired of being teased and being considered an outsider and wants to go home.  The Doctor is furious over this as it would require going back into E – Space and through a CVE and would be really tricky if not disastrous.  So The Doctor materializes the TARDIS in an underground cave and decides to go outside and calm down leaving Adric to plot the course to his own destruction.

While looking at dinosaur fossils The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan come across mining equipment and soon the military who are investigating an attack on the expedition that was working there.  Put there are problems as The Doctor is accused of killing the expedition and is trying to tell his side when the group is attacked by androids.   It appears these androids are the ones responsible for killing the expedition and a group of Lt. Scotts men.  They successfully destroy the Androids but realize that they were equipped with cameras and that whoever controls the androids knows what is going on.

Doctor Who - The Wheel in Space Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
The Wheel in Space
By David Whitaker 
and Kit Pedler

“You know our ways. You must be destroyed.”

After saying their farewells to Victoria The Doctor makes an emergency landing, due to the mercury fluid link exploding, on what appears to be an abandon spaceship. The pair end up exploring the ship in hopes of finding some Mercury when The Doctor suspects they are not alone after all.  The ship is being controlled by the Servo Robot and he is doing what his masters have programmed to do.  Pilot the ship to the Wheel and release debris towards the Wheel.  The Servo Robot notice there are others on the ship and proceeds to handle the situation as it pilots the ship hard off course causing The Doctor to lose his balance and hit his head taking him out of commission.

Jamie is on his own to deal with the Servo Robot but not before it accomplishes its orders and starts the activation of two strange spherical objects in the ship.  Jamie and The Doctor are soon saved by the crew of the Wheel and Jamie gets himself in trouble by sabatoging the lazer as he was trying to save the TARDIS from being destroyed inside the spaceship.  Unfortunately that act by Jamie was poorly timed as the two figures in the sphere are Cybermen and they plan on taking over the Wheel as a launching point to invade Earth.  As usual it’s up to The Doctor to save the day and stop the Cybermen from taking over the Wheel.

Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

Doctor Who:
The Tomb of the Cybermen
By Kit Pedler and
Gerry Davis

“Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing. You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake.”

The Tomb of the Cybermen is the earliest complete story to survive featuring Patrick Troughton.  It was found in Hong Kong back in 1991 and was until The Enemy of the World was found with The Web of Fear (minus ep 3) the only complete story from Season 5 of Doctor Who.  The Tomb of the Cybermen opens up Season 5 and also brings back The Cybermen yet again last seen in The Moonbase (which is out on DVD with animated missing episodes 1 &3).  What is a pretty cool side bar for Season 5 is that it is known as The Season of Monsters.  The Cybermen start off the Season of Monsters in The Tomb of the Cybermen and also finishes it with the Cybermen returning in The Wheel in Space.   So in essence Season 5 is bookend with Cybermen stories.

I remember when this story was found back in 1991 and was really excited to see this story as I had read the Target novelization way back in the 80’s and enjoyed it.  So when the VHS copy of the story was finally released in the US in 1992 I headed for the video store right after my college course was over for the day to purchase it and watch it that day and well the studies took a  back seat to my parents dismay.  Well there wasn’t a test to study for so the homework could wait an hour or two.

Doctor Who - The Moonbase Review

Continuing Our Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Cybermen

DoctorWho:
The Moonbase
By Kit Peddler

“Funny. Funny. Go to all that trouble to make the men do the work. Why? Do it themselves, easy. They're using the men as tools. Why? Don't know. Yes, I do though. There must be something in here they don't like. Pressure? Electricity? Radiation? Maybe. Gravity! Now there's a thought. Gravity. Oh, yes. Gravity.”

After the events of The Underwater Menace The Doctor makes the attempt to get Ben, Polly and Jamie to Mars.  Where they ended up was not Mars but in fact the moon.  The travelers have fun experiencing the low gravity of the moon until Jamie gets hurt.  Luckily there is a base on the moon that is there to help control the weather on Earth.  But there is a problem in the base.  A mysterious plague has swept over the base only infecting a certain few.  The Doctor has no idea what is causing the crew of the moonbase to get infected but once The Cybermen have been seen sneaking around it becomes all the more obvious what is going on.