Review of Revenge of the Cybermen (#79)
DVD Release Date: 02 Nov 10
Original Air Date: 19 Apr – 10 May 1975
Doctor/Companion: Four, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter
Preceding Story: Genesis of the Daleks (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)
Succeeding Story: Terror of the Zygons (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)

Continuing my exploration of Cybermen stories featuring Doctors who have been under-represented in my reviews over the years, this month I consider the Fourth Doctor’s only encounter with these iconic enemies in Revenge of the Cybermen.

Aside from being the first time in nearly six and a half years that the Cybermen had appeared on screen (and the last time for another seven), Revenge had the dubious honor of falling between what became two of the most highly regarded stories of the pre-Hiatus (and some would say any) era: Genesis of the Daleks and Terror of the Zygons. How, then, does a mild-mannered serial make its mark on the world? With a fabulous TARDIS team and a plot that has just enough twists to keep it interesting, of course.

The story opens—as every story in T. Baker’s first season—following directly on from the end of the prior one. The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry are all gripping the Time Ring, hoping to land back on Space Station Nerva where they began. Although they arrive intact, the TARDIS has not yet made the temporal adjustment to meet them. Obviously, they decide to look around while they wait.

To their dismay, they find dead bodies scattered everywhere. It turns out that Nerva Beacon, as it is currently known, has been under quarantine the last few months, as all but three crew members and one civilian (an exographer, there to study the asteroid the beacon is orbiting) have succumbed to a mysterious plague. However, what’s really behind all the deaths is even more sinister.

Review of The Ark in Space: SE (#76)
DVD Release Date: 12 Mar 13
Original Air Date: 25 Jan – 15 Feb 1975
Doctor/Companion: Four, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter
Preceding Story: Robot (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: The Sontaran Experiment (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)

For someone who didn’t grow up with Doctor Who, especially when watching out of sequence or without paying specific attention to such details, it can be hard to remember that Ark in Space was so incredibly early in Tom Baker’s tenure (only his second story to be broadcast). He has already so thoroughly settled into the role, and the whole TARDIS crew – Harry only just having joined in the final moments of the preceding serial – has such a wonderful rapport, it feels like they’ve been together forever.

The only thing that doesn’t feel quite right is the holdovers from Pertwee’s characterization when Sarah Jane tries to tell the Doctor something, and gets thoroughly shushed: “Doctor, look!” “Not now, Sarah.” or “Doctor, will you listen?” “Sarah, we’re trying to make a plan.” Clearly even a writer as skilled as Robert Holmes didn’t yet know how to write for this new Doctor.

In retrospect, this story is an odd combination of the wonderfully timeless and the terribly dated. The general plot, the horror of a man’s body and mind being taken over while he is powerless to stop it, the brilliant set and lighting design, and the unbeatable characterizations and acting all fall in the former category. Some of the effects (most notably the bubble wrap) and the choice of “microfilm” for the storage of the sum of knowledge from human history are among the latter. To give it its due, though, the green painted bubble wrap would have worked well at the time, as hardly anyone in the general public knew what it was yet. It simply makes for an unfortunate effect decades on. (One has to wonder how bad Tennant’s episodes will look to viewers in the 2040’s.)