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Doctor Who - Cybermen, The Early Years [VHS]

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Even in a fragmentary state, the four episodes (from 'The Moonbase' - episodes 2 and 4 - and 'The Wheel in Space' - episodes 3 and 6) on this tape represent two of the most genuinely eerie stories ever made. Don't believe me? Try watching in a darkened house at about 11pm with your suspension of disbelief lurking somewhere in the corner behind the cat. Still some of my all-time favourites, and something no fan of the early days of Doctor Who should miss. And after you've finished with Cybermen, go find 'Daleks: the Early Years' and 'the Troughton Years'. Well worth the time.

(by the bye, if you really enjoy these, search the web for 'doctor who telesnap reconstructions' if you'd like a taste of what the full stories were like...)

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This special documentary was done in the same vein as the Dalek-The Early Years special. This time, Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, is the host, who like Davison, presented this in the Museum of the Moving Image, next to some Cybermen heads.

The Cybermen, the second most popular Dr. Who monsters after the Daleks, basically came about because then-producer Innes Lloyd wanted some new monsters. Enter Dr. Kit Pedler, whose scientific knowhow combined with storywriter Gerry Davis, and together they created the Cybermen, who were humans who replaced their bodies with mechanical parts, but at the cost of losing their human qualities. Roy Skelton again was assigned to do the Cyberman voices and the vocal talents of this man, who did the Dalek voices, cannot be understated. Other commentary comes from Morris Barry, director of the Cyber stories The Moonbase and Tomb Of The Cybermen.

The real treat is of course the episodes from incomplete stories. They are Episodes 2 and 4 from The Moonbase and Episodes 3 and 6 from The Wheel In Space. Judging from these stories, they seem to be among the best in the series. The Moonbase is about a weather station on the moon whose personnel are suffering from an unknown disease. These people then vanish! The station director Hobson suspects the Doctor and his companions, Jamie, Ben, and Polly. The Doctor is given 24 hours to find out what's going on. One of his best lines here: "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." In Episode 4, the Cybermen attack from the lunar surface and from Moonbase personnel they control. The Cyber march music, consisting of booming kettle drums and staccato horns, makes its appearance at the beginning of this episode.

The Cybermen attack a space station, the "Wheel In Space" via Cybermats. It also sees the debut of the diminutive, super-smart astrophysicist, pure math major with honours, cute-as-a-button Zoe Herriot, played by Wendy Padbury. She is even criticized by the communications officer on that second attribute: "just like a computer, facts and figures... proper little brain child. All brain and no heart." The Doctor says it more gently: "Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority." Other interesting characters include a pretty Russian, Tanya, going on about her nose, and a practical doctor, Gemma Corwyn, who kind of resembles Glenda Jackson. The Cybermen's voices sound like Daleks with severe bronchitis, while their Coordinator Sphere maintains the Cyber voice heard in Tomb Of The Cybermen.

The personable Wendy Padbury gives her recollections and I don't know when this was taken, but she still has her looks, and is a remarkable contrast without the Zoe-style bangs and pear-shaped hairdo.

Despite being the second most famous Who monsters, the Cybermen did established their reputations in five adventures in less than three years--(1966-1968)--something to think about.

The BBC were very shortsighted when they methodically erased a great number of old Doctor Who episodes one by one. But what's done is done, and until unknown copies rear their heads (just happened a couple months ago) this is a wonderful way to see incomplete stories. There is unfortunately nothing more than a couple clips from "The Tenth Planet", but what remains of "The Moonbase" and "The Wheel in Space" is very fun to watch. The Cybermen truly blossomed in the Troughton years and this documentary/compilation truly expresses that. This is a good video to ahve, particularly if you are one of the many who loves "Tomb of the Cybermen", "The Invasion" and the Cybermen in general.

Praise to the BBC for giving us this long awaited glimpse into the long lost tombs of the Cybermen. With so little of Patrick Troughton's episodes still in existence, this video offers an exciting chance to turn back the hands of time and enjoy Doctor Who at its finest, battling his creepiest cyborg foes in four wonderfully retro episodes culled from the missing serials "The Moonbase" and "The Wheel of Space". Although the storylines are incomplete, it does not take long figure out what's going on. It's like watching "The Empire Strikes Back" without the benefit of having seen "Star Wars" or "Return of the Jedi". You may miss some of the details but you'll be thoroughly entertained.

The Cybermen first appeared in the last story of William Hartnell of the "Tenth Planet" which is not included in this video except in excerpts and may make it to video for only one episode of it is missing from the BBC but its the final episode thats missing and may be the reason why so little of the "Tenth Planet" is on this Cybermen video. A rumour of a private collector had the last mising episode of "The Tenth Planet" existed when this video came out which didn't pan out. So instead the remains of "The Moon Base" and "The Wheel In Space" are seen. "The Moon Base" is disease and cybermen missing the episode when the disease first starts as well as the episode where the Cybermen become the known enemy of the moon base . Episode 1 and 3 are missing in this 4 episode story of "The Moon Base" and is one of the few remaining episodes with Polly and Ben companions. "The Wheel In Space" also has only two remaining episodes from this 6 episode story which episodes 1,2, 4, and 5 are missing which the missing first two episodes has the Doctor's bout with a robot on a spaceship and his being taken to the space station missing and the end missing episodes the rise of the Cybermen's attack on the space station missiing. But what is not missing is sabatoge and Cybermats and the end battle between the space station with the Cybermen. "The Wheel In Space" is also the first story of one of the more liked campanions of Zoe. These incomplete stories are good stories and its good they survived partially for both are better than the worse episode of the Seventh Doctor that didn't suffer from such lost of work like the Second Doctor which is featured in both these stories. This is a good video but its incomplete.