Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

Doctor Who The Moonbase: Episode Four Quick, Polly! Jamie’s had another attack of spacewind! About the only thing this story has going for it is Troughton and the redesign of the Cybermen. I suspect it’s been treated with kid gloves for so long because of the latter. In the opening scene there seems an attempt to qualify why the Cybermen haven’t full-on invaded the base yet, but like everything else it lacks coherence. Hobson tells the Doctor that they can’t just march in as he discovered how they got in last episode (if by “ discovered ” he means that a Cyberman volunteered the information, I guess he’s right). Cyberman : You are surrounded. All resistance is useless. You must open the entry port. Hobson : We’ve discovered your passageway and blocked it. You cannot enter now. How have they blocked it, I wonder? With sandbags? Why not just march up and use their Cyberstrength to open the airlock doors (or, as I suggested earlier, they could all have fi

Doctor Who The Moonbase: Episode Three Bob is shot dead (“ You devils! You killed him! ” – the dialogue emphasises that these are horror movie monsters, not science fiction ones) and we see not one but two Telosians (apparently Telos was referenced in the script although it didn’t make the televised programme). When the Cybermen actually start talking it does nothing to make their plan sound any more convincing. The men they have been abducting are alive. Cyberman : No, they are not dead. They are altered… They are now controlled. I’ve been wondering how many crewmen have been stricken, since every time a Cyberman enters there seem to be more bodies on the benches. They recognise the Doctor. Cyberman : You are known to us. The Doctor : And you to me. Do they know him from The Wheel in Space ? Or The Invasion ? Or can they recognise a regenerated Time Lord? Fortunately for Ben and Polly the Cybermen leave them unguarded to hatch a plan of resistance,

Doctor Who The Moonbase: Episode Two If Enid Blyton tried her hand at science fiction, it would probably turn out something like a Kit Pedler script. But with fewer foreigners. Episode Two is now the third-earliest surviving Troughton installment, and visually it’s as shoddy as the script. The best you can say about this story is that it’s fairly pacey. Even though this is crap of the first order it zips along. But pretty much every scene features a groan-inducing moment(s) of disbelief at a character beat, a line of dialogue or a ridiculous plot point. The bizarre antics of the roaming Cyberman bear less and less scrutiny. Having broken cover recklessly, he rears up to Jamie then decides to grab another invalid. And then Polly walks in, screams, and drops a cup, bringing the others running. What a silly sodding Cyberman. The comment of the missing crew, “ They can’t just disappear in a place this size ” is the tip of the iceberg in failings of logic. There’s an a