43: The Wheel In Space - Is There Anything Good To Say About It?

Written by: David Whitaker 

Companions: The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon.

Monsters/Villains: Cybermen, Cybermats, Servo Robot.

Brief Synopsis: Using Cybermats, the Cybermen attempt to take over a Wheel shaped space station in an effort to conquer the Earth.

Rating: 2/10.

So the streak of really good stories had to end at some point and here it is. I think The Wheel In Space is the first real turkey from the Troughton era, which after thirteen stories really isn't that bad. I didn't love all the Troughton that went before, but there was at least something charming or some worthy idea in all the other stories that came before and then there's The Wheel In Space. David Whitaker is at it again...

The TARDIS is still floating on the sea. Jamie watches Victoria as the TARDIS dematerialises. They arrive in a new location but the scanner doesn't seem to work. The TARDIS shows them 'nice' places to warn them to go elsewhere. Randomly the fluid link explodes, vaporising the mercury. As they flee the TARDIS, the Doctor opens a hatch and removes a golden rod. The rooms and walls begin to shimmer and fold in on themselves, they make it out of the shrinking TARDIS interior. The Doctor explains that he has removed the Time Vector Generator, which once removed alters the size of the interior making it just a normal telephone box. Much like when on his first visit to Skaro the Doctor needs some more mercury in order to get the old girl working again.

The Silver Carrier.

They discover they are in a rocket and the Doctor offers a hungry Jamie not a Jelly Baby but a lemon sherbet. They discover some track marks on the floor leading through the door and follow. They cannot enter the rocket's control room but the doctor uses a monitor to see what's inside. We can see a small coffin shaped pod and a large mental crate. A small Servo Robot roams the rocket and uses a laser to seal off the Doctor and Jamie. The Robot changes the rocket's course and the Doctor and Jamie are thrown against a wall. They try to get back to the TARDIS, but the door is sealed. 

The Servo Robot.

The coffin like pod opens and reveals a row of small, white spheres. The inner and outer airlocks open and the cabin depressurises. The spheres drift into space, the hatch closes and the cabin re-pressurises as the rocket comes to a halt by a space station, yet another base that will come under siege.

The Doctor uses the Time Vector Generator to create a torch like beam which vaporises the door's seal but the Servo Robot appears behind the Doctor and tries to attack. Jamie throws a metallic blanket over the robot and they close themselves back in the cabin. The robot lasers its way through but Jamie somehow manages to destroy it. The Doctor is knocked unconscious.

The Wheel In Space.

Aboard the Wheel, we meet the gang of assorted minorities we have come to expect to staff each besieged base, including more importantly Leo Ryan communications officer, Doctor Gemma Corwyn, and Commander Javis Bennett. They turn their attention on the rather aptly named rocket, Silver Carrier. The egg-like spheres hit the station and absorb their way inside. Bennett is concerned the rocket will endanger the station and elects to turn the station's x-ray laser on the Silver Carrier to eliminate the threat. 

Jarvis Bennett.

Anne Ridler as Dr. Gemma Corwyn.

Troughton is totally absent from episode two and to be honest we might as well be too. In a nut shell: Jamie alerts the crew of the wheel and they don't destroy the rocket. Jamie and the Doctor are brought aboard the Wheel where Dr. Gemma Corwyn examines the Doctor and Jamie who lies saying the Doctor's name is John Smith. 

So that's where he got the name.

Jamie takes a tour of the wheel guided by the para-psychology librarian, Zoe Heriot who shows him a greenhouse and some interstellar flora, which oddly enough is located right next to the controls for the station's laser gun. 

Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot.

This episode feels like such a hiatus that everyone is actually asking, "when the Doctor is gonna be about?" Corwyn gives her report to Jarvis who believes the two travellers are stowaways or saboteurs. Jarvis jumps to conclusions desperately trying to find an explanation, he is expositionally revealed as a man who relies on routine ordinariness, used to emergencies, who can't handle mysteries. Zoe shows Jamie the communications room, and explains the point of the Wheel, which is so dull even Jamie doesn't want to know. Jamie learns of Jarvis' plan to destroy the Silver Carrier, slips away and sabotages the laser. Finally, aboard the Silver Carrier, two large egg like spheres come to life and a silver, three fingered fist bursts out.

Zoe calculates that a star is about to go nova causing a meteorite storm which would threaten the Wheel. We see the Cybermen with the rather groovy added design feature of the tear ducts and also the odd looking Cyber Planner. The voices have changed again and this time they're a bit rubbish.

The Cyber Planner.

Finally the Doctor wakes up. The small pods sent to the Wheel contained Cybermats, sent to consume Bernalium rods in the Wheel’s stores. The Bernalium is essential to power the X-Ray Laser. An engineer called Duggan finds a Cybermat, but totally ignores it, thinking maybe it's space fauna?

Corwyn introduces the Doctor to Zoe who using logic has deduced that the rocket could not have drifted so far off course but must have been piloted. The Doctor responds, "Logic merely enables one to be wrong with authority." The engineers discover that all the Bernalium is gone, and Kemel Rudkin (an insignificant engineer) is killed by a Cybermat. No one seems to care much. The Doctor x-rays an unopened pod and identifies it's contents as a Cybermat however Jarvis is disbelieving and his behaviour becomes stranger and stranger. Two men from the Wheel are sent to investigate the rocket but are taken over by two Cybermen, who order the two humans to take them to the Wheel.

The Doctor warns Jarvis of the Cybermen but strangely they have never heard of the Cybermen. This story is meant to be set in the 21st century. Even if it were the late 21st century it couldn't be more than 130 years since the Cybermen attacked the Moonbase. They've clearly got rubbish memories.

Laleham and Vallance, the two controlled humans successfully bring the Cybermen aboard the Wheel in crates of Bernalium. Engineer Chang (another insignificant engineer, who is Chinese) is sent to the loading bay to get some Bernalium from the crates when he is attacked and killed by the two Cybermen with a shot from their chest units. Laleham and Vallance are sent with the Bernalium in Chang's place. Duggan (a slightly more significant engineer) is taken over too and sent to smash the communications desk. He succeeds but is shot dead by Leo Ryan.

The Doctor gets Corwyn to coordinate the use of basic transistor systems attached to each of the crewmen to block the Cybermen's control technique. Jamie and the Doctor go to investigate the crates only to find the Cybermen. They escape but encounter two Cybermats. Leo Ryan uses a sonic wave which disables and destroys all of the Cybermats aboard the Wheel. They show Jarvis an inactive Cybermat, but he still refuses to accept what is happening.

Zoe expresses a lack of belief in her logic based background, noting, "What have I got left? A blind reliance on facts and knowledge." A Cyberman kills another crew member. Laleham and Vallance try to kill Flannigan (an Irish Engineer), Vallance tries to shoot him but kills Laleham. A Cyberman emerges and takes over Flannigan.

The crew begin to defend the wheel against the Meteorites, with the recently repaired laser. The Doctor realises that the Cybermen made the star go nova in order to gain access to the Wheel and use it to conquer Earth and harvest it's mineral wealth.

Stupidly/conveniently Jamie left the Time Vector Generator aboard the Silver carrier, so he and Zoe make a space-walk to recover it. Gemma hides as she sees a Cyberman order Vallance to poison the wheels oxygen generators turning the oxygen to pure ozone. Dr. Corwyn warns the Doctor via video link and he witnesses her being cut down by a Cyberman. Meanwhile in space the meteorites are heading straight for Jamie and Zoe

Shocked at Gemma's death (it's good to see someone is), Jarvis goes to confront the Cybermen but is strangled, thrown and shot. The Meteorites are destroyed, Zoe and Jamie make it to the Silver Carrier and find the Time Vector Generator.

Vallance tries to poison the oxygen but they have switched over to the emergency oxygen supply. A massive Cybership arrives at the Wheel. 

The Cybership.

Jamie and Zoe return with the Time Vector Generator and step over Gemma Corwyn's body except it isn't her body as the BBC didn't employ Anne Ridler, so they just show still photographs of her lying there. The pair find Cyber controlled Engineer Flannigan, who tries to overpower them but is ambushed by Leo Ryan and Enrico Casali (an Italian engineer) freeing him from his conditioning.

The Doctor takes a secret route to the power room through the air tunnels and picks up some mercury, and some radio spares they need. 

The Doctor is confronted by the two Cybermen and learns that the Cybermen want the Wheel in order to enable their ships to enter the atmosphere by homing on a radio beam (ummm... right! Technobabble much?) He manages to electrocute one of the Cybermen, and Jamie brings him the Time Vector Generator which he uses to boost the power of the 

x-ray laser to destroy the Cyber ship. 

In the hangar bay Jamie frees Valance while Flannigan immobilises the remaining Cyberman somehow using a fire extinguisher. The laser destroys the Cybership and the force field is reactivated sending a few Cybermen at the airlock drifting into space. 

The Cybermen do a sort of funny space dance...

And... It is so anti-climactic. All this slow, dull build and everything is resolved in two seconds.

Leo Ryan, the new Commander.

Leo Ryan takes over as commander and reports to Earth. No one seems that fussed that loads of people have died, they all look pretty happy to be honest.

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor puts the mercury into the console using a funnel, noting, "I've even got some left over." So hopefully that won't happen again, ay David Whitaker?

The Doctor spies Zoe hiding in a crate, attempting to stow-away. She says wants to go with them. For some reason unlike every other time before or after when he just let people join him the Doctor decides to test Zoe's resolve, and uses a mental device to project images from his mind to show her of his and Jamie's encounter with the Daleks in their search for the Dalek Factor. This was used as a clever segue in to the first ever repeat of Doctor Who, with The Evil of The Daleks.

The Wheel In Space just doesn't really have much going for it; it's heavy on pointless technobabble, the direction is very flat, but more-over the story is dull. I always try to find some positive points in each story; the best bits I can take from this one are: the precursor to Jelly Babies in the form of Sherbet lemons, the origin of the Doctor using the pseudonym John Smith, the establishment of the Cybermen's groovy tear duct eye design and the introduction of Wendy Padbury as the new companion, Zoe Heriot; she doesn't get much to do in this story but she'll stick around and prove herself in time to come. Those few moments aside, there really isn't much on offer here. I think I might go as far as to say this is Troughton's worst story, but you know what? Even after watching this claptrap I think Troughton may be becoming my favourite Doctor...

Not the best end to the season and in my case this year. The Wheel In Space aside It's been a cracker of a season. We saw the Cybermen return twice, we met for the first time, the Ice Warriors and the Yeti, again twice. We also saw a Mexican Doctor doppleganger and of course the infamous Weed creature! We said goodbye to one companion but also gained one. We saw just 13 episodes out of 40, with 27 missing ones. All in all it and even with all of the missing episodes this probably should be the best season yet, shame it had to fizzle out right at the end. My favourite for this season is tied between The Web Of Fear and Fury From The Deep. My least favourite is this story, The Wheel In Space. Out of a possible 70 I scored this season 49/70, giving it a high average score of 70/100 beating Season 4 by just 1 point.

I will be drawing the Winner and runner up for The Great Big Doctor Who Christmas Give-Away tomorrow, so get your entry in while you still can by clicking here and leaving a comment.

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Join me next time, and indeed next year for The Dominators.

37: The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Base-Under-Siege Reversal.

Written by: Kit Pedlar and Jerry Davis.

Companions: The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield.

Monsters/Villains: The Cybermen, Cybermats, Cyber Controller, Kaftan, Eric Klieg.

Brief Synopsis: On the planet Telos an archaeological team penetrates the lost Tomb of the Cybermen.

Rating 9/10.

Well, Ladies and Jellyspoons, we've actually made it. Only eight stories in and we have finally arrived at Troughton's first story that actually exists in it's entirety, The Tomb of The Cybermen. I won't lie it has been a tough slog through some of the audio only stories and there are still quite a few to go, but do not loose heart, we shall not be halted. In honesty we are very lucky to have the audio for every missing story.

The episode, and indeed the Season, establish with a great newcomer-watcher's jumping on point as the Doctor and Jamie introduce Victoria to the TARDIS. The Doctor reveals that he is 450 years old in earth terms.

On the surface of the planet Telos an Earth archaeological expedition arrives and blows some explosives revealing a large pair of doors. The team consists of: Professor Parry, his assistants John Viner and Peter Haydon, the ship's captain, Captain Hopper, his crew including Jim Callum and Ted Rogers, the expeditions financier Kaftan, her colleague Eric Klieg and her manservant Toberman.

Kaftan promises £50 to the man who opens the doors. A crewman tries to open the doors but gets electrocuted. They hear the TARDIS land and see the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria appear around a corner. At first the group thinks the Doctor is a rival, Parry even notes that the Doctor has got "archaeologist written all over him." The Doctor proudly retorts, "Oh really, does it show?" Which is somewhat of a departure from what Tennant's Doctor says when he first meets River Song in the Library. 

Professor Parry.

Parry admits that they are searching the universe for the last remains of the Cybermen. Telos became their home after Mondas was destroyed in The Tenth Planet. Captain Hopper, along with his terrible American accent and his men return to the ship. The Doctor claims that he can open the door, and touches it. Toberman opens the doors as the Doctor reveals that the man who died drained all the electricity. It's an interesting and fairly uncharacteristic decision for the Doctor to precipitate the group's access to the Cybermen. Later he will claim he knew all along and just wanted to reveal Klieg's plans. Personally I think he just let his curiosity get the better of him.

Past the giant door the only exits are a large hatch and two smaller doors. Parry recommends that they split up to cover more ground; rookie mistake. Viner, Kaftan and Victoria find a room for revitalising Cybermen. Meanwhile, Jamie and Haydon enter the other room and find a Cybermat. The Doctor and Klieg remain at the hatch. The Doctor explains that the base is controlled via symbolic logic and thus enables Klieg to crack the code and reactivate the power.

Eric Klieg

In the Cyber revitalising chamber Victoria stands in the place where a cyberman would to be reinvigorated and Kaftan pulls a lever trapping her inside. In the other room Haydon pulls a lever on a control console and the lights go out and mesmeric shapes congregate on the wall. Jamie starts to become hypnotised. Haydon saves him, and against Jamie's better judgement they continue to experiment with the machinery. The Doctor frees Victoria and begins to distrust Kaftan. Following Haydon's curiosity Jamie presses a big button on the console, the Doctor and co burst into the weapons testing room, but too late. A fake Cyberman target and a large weapon are revealed. The weapon discharges, killing Haydon instantly.

Peter Haydon.

Everyone begins to leave the room when Victoria picks up the Cybermat thinking it's a fossil. The Doctor pulls out his 500 year diary and finds that it is called a Cybermat. Victoria stupidly puts it in her bag. 

Kaftan.

After Haydon and the crewman's death, Parry is ready to abandon the expedition when Hopper arrives and says there is something wrong with the fuel pumps on their ship and that it will take 72 hours minimum to fix the ship. The Doctor implies that Toberman could have been strong enough to cause a fair amount of damage.

Toberman.

Klieg continues to crack the symbolic logic codes and manages to open the hatch. Everyone goes down except for Kaftan and Victoria.The group stand in awe as they realise the have discovered the Tomb of the Cybermen. Kaftan slips something in to Victoria's drink causing her to fall asleep. Kaftan closes the hatch. Klieg operates a sequence pretending to try to open the hatch, but as he is well aware it is actually to defrost the Tombs. 

The Cybermen start to awake ready to breakout but Viner shuts down the machine. Angry, Klieg shoots and kills Viner and restarts the defrost sequence allowing the Cybermen to begin to break free. Klieg explains that he wants to learn the power of the Cyberman to harness it and aid the Brotherhood of Logicians: an assemblage of intelligent humans who emphasise pure logic.

Viner.

The Cybermat in Victoria's bag starts to reactivate. She awakens to see that the hatch is closed and tries to open it but Kaftan shows her hand and threatens Victoria with a gun. The Cybermat emerges from the bag, Victoria tries to warn Kaftan, but she doesn't believe her. It jumps to Kaftan's neck, but Victoria throws it off and shoots it with Kaftan's gun and runs to fetch help from Captain Hopper.

The Cybermen awaken the Cyber Leader, who has a bad case of camel toe. Klieg introduces himself and explains that he has resurrected them. The Cyber Leader pushes him to the ground and exclaims quite simply, "You belong to us, you shall be like us."

The Cyber Leader.

The Cybermen knew that someone would come in search of them one day, and they purposefully made it difficult to enter their Tomb in order to bring only intelligent people for conversion. The Doctor asks why they submitted to be frozen. The Cyber Leader explains that it was to survive and that they know of the Doctor, mentioning the attack on the Moonbase which took place as the Doctor had destroyed their first planet. The Leader says they will be converted into Cybermen, unhappy with this conclusion Toberman attacks. Unfortunately or perhaps comically you can clearly see the wires used to make it appear that a Cyberman is lifting Toberman with ease.

Captain Hopper.

Victoria returns to the tomb with Hopper and Jim Callum in tow. Kaftan awakes but pretends to be unconscious. She grabs her gun and orders them to keep the hatch closed. Victoria screams, looking to the destroyed Cybermat, this time Kaftan falls for it and Hopper knocks the gun from her hand and they open the hatch. Hopper goes down to investigate, whilst Jim holds the gun on Kaftan.

The Cyber Leader says that Klieg will be the first and the leader of the new race of Cybermen when Hopper arrives and throws smoke bombs allowing everyone to escape. It takes three Cybermen to hold down Toberman, and two bursts of lighting from the Cyber Leader's hands to knock him out. The group escape up the ladder and out of the hatch, closing it behind them. Toberman is still down in the tomb. They lock Klieg and Kaftan inside the weapons testing room, where Klieg finds the Cyber gun from the target model.

The Cyber Leader orders the activation of the Cybermats. The crew rest while they wait for the ship to be repaired, and Victoria takes the first watch, and lets the Doctor sleep an extra half an hour, because he is 450 and needs his rest. We then get what is all to rare in these early episodes: an emotional scene allowing the characters to reflect on what has already passed. Victoria misses her father and the Doctor comforts her, "I can remember my family when I want to. 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. Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."

A beautiful moment of reflection...

A Cybermat enters the room, it goes for Callum but the Doctor knocks it off. They avoid the Cybermats by standing behind a power cable that looks like a washing machine pipe which gives the Cybermats a "full metal breakdown."

That was easy...

Klieg and Kaftan emerge and Klieg fires the Cyber gun at the Doctor, but Callum gets in the way of the blast. Klieg opens the hatch and the Cyber Leader and a controlled Toberman appear. The Leader claims to have released Toberman, but he is clearly still under Cyber control. Klieg plans to conquer the Earth and the Leader pledges Klieg some of their power devices. Klieg allows the Leader to enter the revival room and sends everyone else in to the room apart from Victoria who he keeps as a hostage.

The Doctor agrees to help the Leader to revive but traps him inside the machine. Jamie ropes up the machine with the Leader inside, but it still manages to burst out. The Leader sends a command to Toberman who strikes Klieg with a metal arm, allowing the Leader to capture the Cyber gun. 

The Leader opens the hatch. Kaftan tries to close it and shoots the leader with her normal gun. It has no effect and the Leader kills her with the Cyber gun. Meanwhile the Doctor appeals to Toberman's humanity, he has a change of heart and picks up the Cyber Leader and throws him at the controls. Jamie picks up the Cyber gun and shoots two emerging Cybermen.

Look Ma, no wires!

Klieg uses Kaftan's trick and awakes but pretends to be unconscious, while the Doctor and Toberman go back into the Tomb, he grabs the Cyber gun and follows them unseen. The Doctor begins to refreeze the Cybermen, but Klieg stops him, still believing he will be the new controller. 

The Doctor flatters Klieg and pretends he want to serve Klieg, the all powerful, Master of the world to test how mad he really is. The Doctor challenges Klieg to kill them, but just as the madman decides to leave them to the Cybermen, he is attacked by one of the silver giants. Toberman uses the Cyber arm he has been given to destroy the Cyberman's chest unit. The Doctor begins the refreezing process and escapes out of the hatch.

The Doctor plans to re-electrify the main doors and also the hatch and the control panel, but the doors must be closed. The group are ready to leave for the repaired Rocket when the Leader lurches back to life. They try to close the doors but will get shocked if they touch them, so Toberman bravely closes the doors but not before a Cybermat escapes unnoticed. 

Toberman redeems himself.

The doors are closed leaving both the Leader and Toberman dead. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria say their farewells with only Parry, Hopper and Callum left alive. Jamie tempts fate by saying "It's the end of the Cyberman" and we are left with the foreboding images of the escaped Cybermat, Toberman's Cyber arm and finally the Cyberman markings framing the tomb.

Not the end of the Cybermen.

The Tomb of The Cybermen is an interesting variation on the base-under-siege structure we see so often in the Troughton era. In this iteration the Doctor and his colleagues are the ones besieging the base of the Cybermen. Reversing the normal style. Some don't believe that Tomb lives up to it's hype, as for many years it was believed lost until it was discovered by a Hong Kong television company ATV (formerly called RTV) in late 1991. The serial was released on VHS, to much fan excitement in May 1992. To me it makes me think of Egyptian archaeology, like Indiana Jones, with it's traps, hidden passages and lost secrets. It may not have the strongest plot but it has all the staples of a classic episode of Doctor Who and for that I love it. Matt Smith, shares my praise and has stated several times that this serial is his favourite Doctor Who story.

Join me next time for The Abominable Snowmen and the first introduction of what would go on to become a classic Doctor Who villain, the Yeti.