Revenge of the Cybermen
Revenge of the Cybermen is the fifth and final serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 19 April to 10 May 1975. It was the first to feature the Cybermen since The Invasion (1968) and the last until Earthshock (1982).
| 079 – Revenge of the Cybermen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Who serial | |||
| Cast | |||
Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Michael E. Briant | ||
| Written by | Gerry Davis Robert Holmes (uncredited) | ||
| Script editor | Robert Holmes | ||
| Produced by | Philip Hinchcliffe | ||
| Incidental music composer | Carey Blyton Peter Howell (uncredited) | ||
| Production code | 4D | ||
| Series | Season 12 | ||
| Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
| First broadcast | 19 April 1975 | ||
| Last broadcast | 10 May 1975 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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The serial is set on Space Station Nerva, now called Nerva Beacon, and the "planet of gold" Voga, thousands of years before The Ark in Space. In the serial, the Cybermen plot to destroy Voga, as the gold there is lethal to them.
Plot
Following on from Genesis of the Daleks, the Fourth Doctor, Harry and Sarah use the Time Ring to return to Space Station Nerva. They land back in the control room, but Sarah notices the TARDIS is not there. The Doctor tells Sarah that it is drifting back in time towards them and they just need to wait for her to catch up. A door slides open, revealing a dead body, and many more beyond in the outer ring of the station.
In a communications room, crewman Warner warns an approaching spaceship away from the station, which is under quarantine due to a plague. Professor Kellman, a planetary surveyor, asks Commander Stevenson how long they can run a 50-man station with three men, but the other young officer, Lester, thinks they will manage. Nerva is on a 30-year assignment to warn ships away from Voga, the new asteroid it is orbiting, until its presence is updated on all the starcharts of inbound ships.
The time travellers find a sealed door leading to Section Q. The Doctor surmises that this is the same station they left, but thousands of years in the past, before the solar flares that devastated Earth. As the Doctor tries to get through the door, the trio fail to see a silver, snake-like creature – a cybermat – crawling around the bodies behind them.
Somewhere else, an alien tries to contact Nerva, and barely gets through to Warner before he is shot by two more of his own kind. The only place the signal could have come from is Voga, but Kellman tells Warner that he set up the transmat station there and spent six months cataloguing its rocks. Voga had drifted into the solar system 50 years before and had been captured by Jupiter's gravity. An asteroid of that size drifting between star systems could not support life and he warns against going down to Voga and spreading the plague. Warner logs the call anyway. The Doctor opens the sealed door, activating an alarm warning the Commander, Lester and Warner of the intruders.
On Voga, Vorus, leader of the Guardians of the mines, orders his men to bury the dead Vogan that was shot earlier. Magrik, his aide, tells him that the Vogan was frightened of Vorus's plan. Vorus tells him that they can trust their agent on Nerva. Gold buys humans, and they have more gold on Voga than in the rest of the galaxy. He also points out that the reason the agent had not contacted them is probably because the Cybermen are monitoring transmissions.
In the communications room, the cybermat attacks Warner, biting him before it is thrown off. Warner collapses, glowing veins appearing on his face while Kellman enters and pulls the magnetic log tape from the console. The Doctor, Harry and Sarah have reached the forward control room, seconds before Lester and Stevenson enter levelling their weapons at them. The door behind them slides open to reveal the communications room, and Kellman brings Stevenson to Warner's fallen form.
When Stevenson sees that Warner has the plague, he prepares to shoot him to stop the infection from spreading, but the Doctor stops him. The Doctor says that they are a medical team sent from Earth, and convinces Stevenson to let Harry examine Warner. They take Warner to the crew quarters as Kellman returns to his own room and spies on the Doctor and Stevenson in the communications room using an assembled camera. Stevenson tells the Doctor about the asteroid, formerly named Neo Phobos, but renamed Voga by Kellman. The Doctor recognises the name: Voga, the Planet of Gold, and realises that Cybermen are involved. Stevenson says the Cybermen died out centuries before, but the Doctor points out they merely vanished after attacking Voga at the end of the last Cyber-War. Hearing all this, Kellman contacts a Cybership nearby, its crew commanded by a Cyber Leader with a black helmet. The ship moves towards Nerva.
After Warner dies, the Doctor examines the body and finds two puncture wounds, indicating that Warner was injected with poison and confirming the Doctor's suspicion that there is no plague. The Doctor says that if he had seen Warner earlier he might have been able to use Nerva's transmat to filter out the poison from his system. The Doctor has another suspicion; investigating Kellman's quarters, he finds the communications device as well as some gold. The Doctor hides when Kellman returns, but Kellman realises that someone has been there. He sabotages the room, electrifying the floor and sending gas pouring up from it. Keeping off the floor, the Doctor reaches the door to open it with his sonic screwdriver. Meanwhile, Sarah is attacked by the cybermat.
The Doctor escapes Kellman's room and hears Sarah screaming. He throws the cybermat to the floor and kills it with some gold dust, but Sarah has already been bitten. The Doctor carries her to the transmat chamber, handing her to Harry, and prepares to beam them down to Voga and back. However, Kellman has taken the transmat's pentalium drive. The Doctor reconfigures the transmat to bypass the sabotaged system while Stevenson and Lester confront Kellman. On Voga, Vorus observes a giant rocket, the Sky Striker. He tells Magrik that his agent has informed them that the Cybermen are heading for the beacon. Vorus wants the Sky Striker fitted with its bomb head in four hours.
The Doctor jury rigs the transmat, and Harry and Sarah beam down to Voga. With the poison filtered out, Sarah instantly recovers. As Harry notices that the cavern floor is littered with gold, Vogans arrive and capture them. They are brought before Vorus, who wants to know who is still alive on Nerva. However, Harry doesn't respond. They are taken away while Vorus answers a call from Tyrum, chief Councillor of Voga, who arranges for them to meet.
Lester and Stevenson capture Kellman. The Doctor explains that the Cybermen fear Voga because gold plates their breathing apparatus and suffocates them. The Doctor cannot get Harry and Sarah back without the pentalium drive, but Kellman feigns ignorance, trying to buy time until the Cybermen arrive. The Doctor uses a control box he found in Kellman's room to activate a cybermat, threatening Kellman with it until he reveals that the drive is around his neck.
Harry and Sarah are chained up in a cave, where Harry notes that the chains are solid gold, a soft metal that perhaps they can file through. Tyrum tells Vorus that he knows that aliens have come to Voga. He also knows that Vorus wants Voga to emerge as a trading power again and not hide from the Cybermen, who disappeared centuries ago. Because of this, Tyrum no longer trusts Vorus or the Guardians, and will send his Militia to take over the mines. Vorus is furious, but Tyrum says his troops have orders to crush any resistance.
Fighting breaks out in the mines between the Guardians and the Militia. Vorus tells Magrik to keep Tyrum from finding out about the Sky Striker, and to kill the two humans immediately. Harry and Sarah have managed to free themselves, however, and escape before the execution team arrives. They are pursued by more Guardians, who fire at them. Harry and Sarah are cornered when Militia troops appear in the galleries, forcing the Guardians to stand down.
The Doctor has repaired the transmat, but is unable to lock on to Harry and Sarah as they have left the receptor circle. Lester detects an incoming ship, but it does not respond to their signals. As the Cybership docks, the Doctor recognises it for what it is, but is unable to lock the hatch. The Cybermen come through, impervious to gunfire, and shoot all three men down. The Cyber Leader tells Kellman that the three men are not dead, merely neutralised, as they are necessary to their plan.
Harry and Sarah meet Tyrum down on Voga and start to talk about their plan to find the TARDIS.
Kellman explains that he set the transmat receptors near a shaft that leads into the core of Voga. As the environment is hostile to Cybermen, the three men will carry explosives down to Voga and destroy the asteroid. Kellman insists on going down first to check that the transmat is functioning properly. There, he runs into some Militia. Not realising the distinction between them and the Guardians, he demands to see Vorus and is taken away while trying to warn them that they are all in danger. Meanwhile, when Harry and Sarah mention Cybermats, Tyrum decides to take them to the gold mines to confront Vorus.
The Doctor wonders what Kellman's reward is, if it is not Voga's gold. He taunts the Cyber Leader, saying that the Cybermen were finished once humans discovered their weakness to gold and ended the Cyber-Wars. The Cyber Leader tells the Doctor that is the reason why Voga must be destroyed before the Cybermen begin their campaign again. The Cyber Leader says that Kellman was promised the rule of the solar system after the Cybermen had conquered it.
With Cyberbombs strapped to their backs, the Doctor, Lester and Stevenson are briefed. They are to plant the bombs in the planet's core, after which they have 14 minutes to return and escape via transmat. If they try to remove their harnesses before they reach the target zone, a secondary explosion will kill them. Their progress will be followed by radar, so if they go off course the Cybermen can use manual controls to explode the bombs. The three beam down, accompanied by two Cybermen, one of them holding a timer. Militia arrive and start to fire on the Cybermen. The Doctor, Lester and Stevenson run away as the two Cybermen kill two out of three Vogans, the other running away. The two Cybermen climb under a rock and enter a chamber with a staircase going up the side. Vogans who were stationed on the stairs open fire on the Cybermen but their weapons are useless and they are all killed by the Cybermens lasers.
None of the three men believe that the Cyber Leader will keep his word about letting them escape, but they have to keep moving towards the target zone as they are being monitored. On Nerva, the Cyber Leader declares that Kellman is of no further use to them.
Tyrum questions Kellman, who tells him that he and Vorus were working to lure the Cybermen to the beacon, which Vorus has targeted with a rocket. At that moment, a Militia man arrives to tell Tyrum about the arrival of the Cybermen, and how their weapons are useless. Although Kellman urges them to use the rocket, Tyrum orders his men to use every weapon they can while he speaks to Vorus. Harry tells Sarah to get back to Nerva and warn the Doctor while he tries to stop the rocket from being fired.
When Tyrum tells Vorus about the Cybermen on Voga, he shows Tyrum the Sky Striker. However, with the Cybermen already on Voga, they have no time to get it ready. Vorus claims his plans were to just free his people from the fear of the Cybermen and bring them back into the light. Tyrum scoffs, seeing as Vorus has allied himself with Kellman, a double agent and murderer, motivated only by the promise of gold. Harry suggests finding another way into the core to stop the bombs.
The Cybermen continue their slaughter of the Vogans as the bomb timer ticks down. Sarah uses a motor boat and transmats back to Nerva, where she overhears the Cybermen monitoring the three men's progress. However, as they descend, the heavier concentration of gold interferes with the radar. The men continue onward, however to the centre of the asteroid.
Meanwhile, Harry and Kellman are crawling down a cross shaft towards the same location. With the exit blocked, Harry pushes against the rocks, causing a rock slide. Kellman pushes Harry out of the way, but is crushed to death by a boulder, while on the other side, rocks rain down on the Doctor. Harry exits the shaft and finds the Doctor unconscious. Not realising the danger, Harry tries to unbuckle the Doctor's harness.
Fortunately, Harry is stopped by Lester. The Doctor awakens and conceives a plan. Stevenson will continue on and create a radar trail, while the rest use the cross shaft to surprise and attack the Cybermen with gold. The Doctor and Harry jump the two Cybermen, trying to push gold dust into their chest plates. However, the Cybermen are too strong, and Harry and the Doctor are forced to retreat. Lester leaps onto the Cybermen and undoes his harness, the explosion killing both himself and the Cybermen in a burst of flames.
With the loss of contact, the Cyber Leader orders immediate detonation. Sarah tries to stop them but is thrown to the floor. However, when the button is pressed, no explosion follows. The Doctor has managed to disarm the countdown device, which allows him to release his harness safely. With Sarah tied up, the Cyber Leader now plans to send Nerva, loaded with more Cyberbombs, to crash into Voga to destroy it.
Magrik tells Vorus that the Sky Striker is now ready, but before he can launch it, the Doctor asks them to give him 15 minutes to transmat to Nerva and deal with the Cybermen himself, armed with a bag of gold dust. If he does not contact them by that time, then they can launch the rocket.
The Doctor reaches Nerva and frees Sarah while the Cybermen are loading the bombs. He takes the cybermat and its control box, filling the cybermat with gold dust. The Doctor sends the cybermat to attack a Cyberman, injecting him with the dust and killing him. As Nerva begins to move towards Voga, Vorus sees this and attempts to fire the rocket. Tyrum shoots Vorus, but as the Guardian dies, he triggers the launch.
The Doctor and Sarah's attack on the remaining Cybermen fails; The Doctor is forced by the Cyberleader to tie himself and Sarah up and they are left to perish in the crash. However, the Sky Striker is approaching just as fast. The Doctor manages to untie them both with a trick learned from Harry Houdini, and contacts Voga, instructing them to steer the rocket towards the Cybership. The Sky Striker veers away from Nerva and destroys the Cybership. However, the beacon is still on a collision course. The Doctor unlocks the gyro controls, skimming Nerva just above Voga's surface until they reach the other side of the asteroid and open space.
The TARDIS materialises just as Harry arrives via transmat. The Doctor tells his companions to hurry up; he has received a message from Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart through the space-time telegraph the Doctor left him, which means it is a grave emergency. Although Harry asks if they should say good-bye to the Commander, Sarah tells him not to argue. They rush into the TARDIS and it dematerialises.
Production
Writing
Gerry Davis wrote the initial script, titling it Return of the Cybermen. Robert Holmes' rewrite added the Vogan elements and changed Return to Revenge.[1] Producer Philip Hinchcliffe was new to the programme; this serial was commissioned by his predecessor Barry Letts. Letts and Holmes felt that with a new Doctor coming in and at that stage little idea of how he would be played, it would be best to play safe by using familiar big-name monsters such as the Daleks and Cybermen in the first season. The script was modified as production developed to incorporate Tom Baker's style, and also had to be rewritten to modify how writer Gerry Davis had envisaged the new Doctor – as a more timid, reserved figure much in the manner of Patrick Troughton, which happened to be rather unlike Baker's portrayal. Rewrites by Robert Holmes made the Cybermen more emotional than writer Gerry Davis was happy with. Davis was also unhappy with the story's title.[2]
"Curse"
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The story was shot on the same set as The Ark in Space – representing a substantial cost saving – with location filming in Wookey Hole Caves. It was also shot in the production block immediately after Ark, which explains why the production code is out of broadcast sequence. The location filming at Wookey Hole was plagued by a series of problems which the crew blamed on a curse.[3] The curse apparently was brought about when the production staff found a small rock formation that the locals called "The Witch". Despite warnings, they proceeded to put a witch hat and cloak on it. Briant encountered an individual in spelunking gear which the Wookey Hole staff had no knowledge of, whom Briant was convinced was the spirit of a potholer who had died in the caves, three years earlier. The assistant floor manager suffered a severe attack of claustrophobia, another crew member fell ill, and an electrician suffered a broken leg when a ladder collapsed. During the scene when Sarah Jane rides one of the water skimmers, the boat went wild and Sladen was forced to jump off, treading water despite heavy boots until her rescue by Terry Walsh, the programme's longtime stuntman. Both required precautionary vaccinations at a local hospital but were otherwise unhurt. The boat disappeared and was never seen again.
Costumes and props
The secret radio transmitter disguised as a clothes brush, used by Kellman, is the same prop that appears in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die. The prop was handed over by Bond star Roger Moore when he visited the BBC in 1973. He later told the Radio Times that the props master, not recognising Moore, had paid him two shillings and sixpence for the item: "I'd popped into the Beeb [BBC] for a cup of tea and spotted a notice about an upcoming "Doctor Who", so I thought the darlings would be so cash-strapped they'd need anything they could get their hands on. It wasn't MGM, after all. But I didn't expect to walk out with two and six!"[4]
The masks for the principal actors playing the Vogans were specially moulded to their faces, but for the non-speaking artists the BBC had to cut costs. According to actor David Collings on the DVD commentary, who played Vorus, the masks for the extras were made using a facial mould of Dad's Army star Arnold Ridley. Originally, Cyber-costumes from the 1968 serial The Invasion were to have been used, but only two had survived, and in poor condition. This necessitated entirely new outfits, which included chest panels constructed from the innards of old television sets and trousers which, for the first time since The Moonbase, were not tucked into the Cyber-boots. Director Michael E. Briant opted to put the characters on the Nerva Beacon into contemporary clothing and have them use modern machine guns rather than attempt to depict the future through fashion.
Another first appearance is the symbol which would eventually be known as the Seal of Rassilon. In this story, however, it is a symbol of the Vogans. Designer Roger Murray-Leach reused the Vogan symbol for the Time Lords in The Deadly Assassin and it has remained associated with the latter ever since (most recently in 2007's The Sound of Drums). A Vogan costume was later reused for the Blake's 7 episode "Warlord", still sporting the "Seal of Rassilon".
Cast notes
Kevin Stoney appeared in The Daleks' Master Plan and The Invasion (1968). Michael Wisher was in The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks and Planet of Evil. Ronald Leigh-Hunt previously appeared in The Seeds of Death. William Marlowe appeared in The Mind of Evil. David Collings would later return in Mawdryn Undead and The Robots of Death.
Music
Carey Blyton composed the incidental music for this serial, his final work for the series. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe asked the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to enhance the score, which was done by Peter Howell by adding some synthesiser cues to Blyton's score. This was Howell's debut on the series but it was uncredited.[5] Howell would go on to arrange the 1980 Doctor Who theme music and provide incidental music for the series from The Leisure Hive (1980)[6] to The Two Doctors (1985).
Broadcast and reception
| Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Part One" | 24:19 | 19 April 1975 | 9.5 |
| 2 | "Part Two" | 24:24 | 26 April 1975 | 8.3 |
| 3 | "Part Three" | 24:32 | 3 May 1975 | 8.9 |
| 4 | "Part Four" | 23:21 | 10 May 1975 | 9.4 |
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a negative review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), describing it as "a contradictory, tedious, and unimaginative mess", and considered the title to be "rubbish" too.[8] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker said that the story was neither good nor bad, but was a "disappointing way to end the season". They praised the new look of the Cybermen, the direction, and some of the supporting characters, but said "a story with a weak script and a poor plot is always going to have a struggle to impress the viewer, and Revenge of the Cybermen is no exception."[9] In 2010, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times gave Revenge of the Cybermen one star out of five, calling the gold revelation "a ridiculous development" and said that the Cybermen returned with "an overall lapse of scripting, performance, design and direction". However, Mulkern felt that the location work for Voga allowed the story to "occasionally gleam with life".[10]
SFX reviewer Ian Berriman called the story a "blandly competent, meat-and-potatoes action-adventure fare". On the other hand, Berriman was positive towards the camp appeal of the Cyber Leader, the Doctor being strapped to a bomb, and the "reliably brilliant" main cast.[11] DVD Talk's John Sinnot felt that not all of the story's criticism was warranted, and gave it three and a half out of five stars. Sinnot wrote that the Vogans were interesting and the Cybermen were "menacing" if not at their best. He still noted plot holes, and criticised the cybermats and Harry's "bumbling buffoon" character.[12]
In a 2010 article for Den of Geek, while choosing Philip Hinchcliffe as the greatest producer of Doctor Who, Alex Westthorp cited Revenge of the Cybermen as the least successful story of his tenure.[13]
Commercial releases
In print
 | |
| Author | Terrance Dicks |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Chris Achilleos |
| Series | Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
Release number | 51 |
| Publisher | Target Books |
Publication date | 20 May 1976 |
| ISBN | 0-426-10997-X |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1976. A Polish translation was published in 1994. In the USA, a novelisation was printed by Pinnacle Fiction in January 1989.
Home media
This story was the very first Doctor Who serial to be commercially released on VHS in October 1983.[12] It was initially released in an edited omnibus format, with the opening and closing titles of each episode removed. This omnibus was also released on Betamax and Laserdisc. It was one of the very few Doctor Who releases on Video 2000.[14] It was later released in an unedited, episodic format in May 1999 in the United Kingdom only.
The DVD of this story was released on 9 August 2010 as part of the Cybermen box set, along with the Seventh Doctor serial Silver Nemesis. It would later be released in the US as a standalone story on DVD in early November 2010. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 111 on 3 April 2013.
References
- Howe, David J; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen J (3 December 1992). The Fourth Doctor Handbook. Doctor Who Books. p. 64.
- "Gerry Davis – Doctor Who Interview Archive". drwhointerviews.wordpress.com.
- Michael Briant, "The Tin Men and the Witch" documentary, Revenge of the Cybermen DVD release.
- Radio Times, "Roger Who?" feature, 14 April 1978.
- "BBC – Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide – Revenge of the Cybermen – Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
- "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - the Leisure Hive - Details".
- "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "Revenge of the Cybermen". The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-426-20442-5.
- Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (1998). Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1st ed.). London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-40588-7.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Mulkern, Patrick (21 June 2010). "Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen". Radio Times. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- Berriman, Ian (6 August 2010). "DVD REVIEW Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Cybermen/Silver Nemesis". SFX. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- Sinnott, John (2 December 2010). "Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen". DVD Talk. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- Westthorp, Alex (1 April 2010). "Top 10 Doctor Who producers: Part Two". Den of Geek. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
- "gallifreyone.com".
Bibliography
- Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "Revenge of the Cybermen" (reprinted on BBC Doctor Who website). The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Books. pp. 176–178. ISBN 0-426-20442-5. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
- Haining, Peter. Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years W H Allen (1988) ISBN 1-85227-021-7
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Fourth Doctor |
Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database