The Tomb Of The Cybermen (1967) Review

The Tomb Of The Cybermen is visually the most impressive story yet, but the writing is nonsense, the characters are caricatures and it just feels like the Troughton era is constantly failing to live up to the hype(the previous story not included).

PLOT

The TARDIS materialises on the planet Telos, where an expedition is trying to break into a Cyber tomb. Curious himself, the Doctor gets them in, only to find that two nutballs on the team are trying to revive the Cybermen.

CHARACTERS

Besides some dumb moments where he inadvertently tells the villain vital information(like this Doctor seems to do often), Patrick Troughton shines again. I loved the scene between him and Victoria to bits.
Actually, the TARDIS crew are going pretty strong now. There's a great rapport between them all.

How characters like Kliegg and Rousseau(Lost reference) even got on the expedition is a complete mystery to me. Same for the American buffoon. The only genuinely nice guy was the nervous wreck, as you could sympathise with him. When you weren't mixing him up with Kliegg(they look very similar).

The Cybermen aren't scary. When they first appeared, I could look past the cobbled together suits because of a) They looked cybernetic, b) Their voices had a lot of character and c) they didn't squawk all the time.
The new Cybermen in their silver suits just look... messy, in a bad way. They're still Cybermen and always will be, but I'd take David Banks any day. And seriously, what's with the random noises when they're fighting? And worst of all, how come smoke affects them? Shouldn't they have perfect memory or something?

NOTES

*The story is full of memorable moments, but all cobbled together like the sketches in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

*Toberman SMASH!!

*I love how the Doctor refuses to acknowledge the final end of the Cybermen because he hates to make predictions, but only declared the end of the Daleks in the last story.

*Like last time, there's no real explanation as to how this group of Cybermen even exist. I mean, where were all these guys in the previous Cyber story?

*The Cybermen's plan to draw in new people is ridiculously complex. Wouldn't it be easier to compile a distress signal, wait for someone to respond and steal their spaceship?

*I did like the unexpected reveal that the Cybermen also operate on a digital level, as shown by the wordless communication between the Cyber Controller and Toberman.

*How does one Cyber-gun get the Cybermen's cooperation, limited or not? Do they seriously not have weapons or defence systems in their tombs?

*I didn't expect to see a Cyber-gun til Earthshock.

*The beloved Episode 2 cliffhanger might've super-excited me, might have, if I hadn't seen it on YouTube a while ago. I don't know. As it stands, it was just really cool.

*Cybermen: They're running out of energy, yet have enough left to put their new insignia everywhere.

*The Doctor: He plans to stop the Cyber Controller by powering him up to 100%(why not just let him shut down, he could barely move!!) and tying him up with ropes.

*When they enter the cold Cyber tombs, where does the First Doctor's old cloak come from? I didn't see the TARDIS crew carry anything.

*It's a shame they didn't have Troughton wear his astrakhan.

*Why do the Cybermen use valuable Cyber suits for dummies?

*The TARDIS crew could've tried something else to convince Kliegg of their side of the story. All they say is "Are you sure this is a good idea." a hundred times over. No wonder he thought they were idiots.

*Why on Gallifrey does the Doctor open the Cyber tombs' hatch, especially knowing there are shady fellows along?! Wouldn't his time better have been spent on finding the Cybermen's database?

*The fake snow looks much like the explosive mineral from Attack Of The Cybermen. Ah, the irony.

*The fake snow doesn't melt after the tombs warm up.

*The tombs frost up again way too fast. Rewinding footage always, always looks bad, btw.

*The opening scene was so great, but why did the Doctor and Jamie recap the premise? Was Doctor Who being shown somewhere for the first time or was it just to remind the audiences what the heck they're watching?

*And why was the TARDIS so echo-ey. It added to the cold atmosphere of the story, but seemed very odd. Where has that lovely hum gone to?

*The Doctor shows a remarkable lack of caring when he announces he's made the doors the equivalent of an electric chair again.

*Symbolic logic??

BEST LINE

"Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting part, that nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."

CONCLUSION

There is gorgeous stuff in this(most of all set design and camera direction), but it's so clumsily put together that it becomes distracting. Plus, there's very little actual entertainment here. It's nearly soulless. And surprisingly, that isn't a good thing.