Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Cyril Shaps, Michael Kilgarriff
• Directors: Morris Barry
• Writers: Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis
• Producers: Peter Bryant
• Format: Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: August 6, 2002
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000067FPD
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,416 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen (Story 37)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"The Tomb of the Cybermen" brought the Doctor, Patrick Troughton, into conflict with his silver cyborg nemesis for a third time, following "The Tenth Planet" (1966) and "The Moonbase" (1967). The Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Victoria (Deborah Watling) join an archaeological expedition to explore the planet Telos, where they encounter death traps, betrayal, and a waiting army of frozen Cybermen. Scripted by Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis, who would later write Doomwatch (1970-72), many of the essentials of the plot anticipate James Cameron's blockbuster Aliens (1986): the barren planet with abandoned city, the tense wait for a rescue ship, the human traitors, the implacable, more powerful enemy. There are a few flaws, but this is a superior Doctor Who adventure of its time and a thoroughly entertaining piece of classic television. --Gary S. Dalkin

Product Description

Aided by his two assistants Jamie and Victoria, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on Telos, last resting place of the infamous Cybermen. There he discovers a band of archaelogists on a secret expedition to unearth the reason for his old enemies' extinction. In the underground shadowy depths, they find the icy tomb. A whole army in hibernation. A threat to no one, if the temperature remains low. But if the traitor in their midst gets his way, things could really heat up. Originally broadcast in 1967 and then lost, this unique four part adventure starring Patrick Troughton - the Doctor's 2nd incarnation - was only recently discovered. It is now available for the first time on this special BBC Video which includes an exclusive interview with director Morris Barry.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:by actors Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling
Biographies
Documentaries: Tombwatch (panel of the cast and crew). Behind the scenes at BBC Visual Effects
Outtakes:unused title sequence and 8mm cine footage
Production Notes:Optional caption stream

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff June 24, 2006

By Garrett Fagan

Format:DVD

The second doctor is the least known, since all but 5 of his stories were destroyed or mutilated by a house-cleaning at the BBC in the 1970s (the other intact Troughton stories are: "The Seeds of Doom," "The War Games," "The Mind Robber," and "The Dominators"). Troughton's doctor is one of the most appealing incarnations of the character. He's smart (of course), but also vaguely vulnerable and child-like. He has a good sense of humor and fun. And he handles all sorts of evil monsters with aplomb. It is a crying shame so many of his stories are gone completely, or mostly gone.

I was only a kid when this aired, and I can't recall it all (but I do remember the Ice Warriors from "The Seeds of Doom"). Now I have 6-year-old myself,and he *loves* Dr. Who, esp. this doctor, despite the fact that it's in black and white. Also, the title music during this phase of the show was at its very best. My son rocks out to it when it comes on!

Don't listen to the nay-sayers who complain about lack of production values. This is 40 years old, for f**** sake! What matters in Dr. Who is not set-design or the tiny budgets, but the active use of your imagination, great writing, appealing characters, thorougly evil monsters, and solid acting. "Tomb" has all of these traits in abundance. I love this version of the Cybermen, with their metallic voices and three fingers. They may be the best yet (though I've not seen the newest version of them yet).

All in all, an unreserved recommendation. I've watched it (with my lad, and a second who is approaching Who-worthy age) at least three times and loved every minute of it.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Doctor remastered August 14, 2002

By A Customer

Format:DVD

This is the first story featuring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor to make it on to DVD, and it's a classic! Unfortunately, very few of his stories have survived in the BBC archives, and indeed, this particular four part adventure, broadcast in the UK in the fall of 1967, was wiped and presumed lost after it's one and only UK transmission. Remarkably, prints of the tapes turned up in Hong Kong in 1992 and were returned to BBC Video, who cleaned them up and rush released them on home VHS. This edition has been digitally remastered and transformed once more, allowing for a very sharp picture and soundtrack which must be as good as the original ever was. A demonstration of the clean-up and results is included as an extra on the disc. The other extras are somewhat disappointing in certain respects. First of all, the commentary provided by Frazer Hines and (the irritatingly theatrical) Deborah Watling, who star alongside the second Doctor as his companions Jamie and Victoria. Newcomers to the show will doubtless be entertained by the warm and jovial chit-chat between the two, but those of us familiar with the world of Doctor Who will recognize their dialogue from numerous interviews the two have given over the years. Indeed the contrived "spontaneity" of their banter is now beginning to irritate me. This is highlighted by another extra on the disc, a taped panel discussion recorded in 1992, with virtually all the surviving cast and production team. Here Deborah and Frazer go through almost exactly the same "spontaneous" routine once more. This thirty minute background to the show is fascinating, if only to see how all the cast have aged over the years! Also here is an introduction from Director Morris Barry, a brief piece to camera originally recorded for the video tape release. There are a couple of fun "Easter Eggs" to find, one of which shows a scene from the show that has been restored to almost the original broadcast video quality. I'm confused as to why the entire story hasn't been restored in this way, since the picture is considerably better in this clip than the entire DVD. Test titles, a brief look at the visual effects modelling and a clip from the preceding story are also included. The story itself is very tense and well constructed, and the Cybermen very menacing. The technology of the day means that there are the inevitable fluffs and goofs, but that's almost what makes Doctor Who the cult classic that it is. The on screen captions and the commentary help to identify some of the biggest blunders. It's certainly the best Troughton story available in its entirety, which doesn't bode well for future DVD releases.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent early Second Doctor story! December 9, 2011

By Chris Swanson TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

It's unfortunate that so many of the Second Doctor's adventures are now lost to us, possibly forever. It's very fortunate, however, that one of the surviving stories is this one, recovered back in the 1990s. It's got the Second Doctor, Victoria, Jamie and the Cybermen!

The story consists of a team of archaeologists who arrive on Telos, with the Doctor showing up shortly thereafter. They all wind up going into the titular tomb where they find stacks of frozen cybermen, waiting to be revived. That this happens is something of a given, and things get very nasty very fast.

This is a good, simple story with some wonderful scenes, especially one between the Doctor and Victoria where he talks about the loss of family members, and makes the point that they aren't ever really gone as long as he can remember them. Also noteworthy, though not in the most positive way, are the American accents that a couple of the actors try on for size. Imagine having John Wayne trying to sound Cockney and you'll get some idea of what happens.

This disc was released back in the early 2000s, but now it's getting the special treatment. In addition to the previous features, you also get:

* New Commentary
* Tomb and the Magic of VidFIRE documentary
* All four episodes VidFIREd for the first time
* Sky Ray promotional TV spot
* Lost Giants documentary
* Curse of the Cybermen's Tomb documentary
* Cybermen (extended edition of the documentary that appeared on a box-set of more recent episodes)

(all information comes from a review on Amazon's UK site)

This is an excellent, if not entirely perfect, story and a great example of what the Second Doctor was like. It's also, if I remember right, the only intact story with Victoria, so for that reason alone, it's a must-have.