PRODUCTION CODE

HH

 

WRITTEN BY

KIT PEDLER (& GERRY DAVIS, UNCREDITED)

 

DIRECTED BY

MORRIS BARRY

 

RATINGS

8.3 MILLION

 

WORKING TITLES

RETURN OF THE CYBERMEN

 

RECOMMENDED 

PURCHASE

'THE MOONBASE'

DVD (BBCDVD3698)

RELEASED IN JANUARY 2014.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE IN COLOUR

 

BLURB

The year is 2070, and Earth's weather is controlled by a device called the Gravitron, based on the Moon and Manned by an international TEAM of experts. The TARDIS arrives to find the base in the grip of a plague epidemic which is drastically reducing the personnel. Before long, an even greater menace is proved to be responsible - an invasion force from the planet Mondas, home of the Cybermen...

 

 

BBC ARCHIVE

EPISODES ONE AND THREE ARE MISSING.

 

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The Moonbase

11TH FEBRUARY 1967 - 4TH MARCH 1967

(4 EPISODES)

 

 

                                                       

   

 

Despite half of its episodes having been lost in time, The Moonbase boasts such a wealth of surviving photographic and audio material that one can enjoy it almost as it was originally intended. As was the case with The Crusade, the Lost in Time DVD contains both existing episodes of the serial together with the soundtracks to both missing episodes, which the BBC Radio Collection had previously released on CD, buoyed by the linking narration of Frazer Hines.

 

 

For a television show that aired in 1967, The Moonbase has a surprisingly realistic feel. The weather control device on the moon is manned by a remarkably cosmopolitan crew, and the design of the place is not as cringeworthy as some other 1960s’ takes on the future. Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis’ script is very well-written too; fast-paced and exciting. For the most part a tense and claustrophobic tale, the plot revolves around the Doctor and his companions investigating a strange plague that is slowly killing the base’s crew, and their subsequent attempts to convince that sceptical crew that the plague is of Cyber origin, carried by ‘Cybermats’, before the Cybermen arrive en masse to prove them right.

 

 

Morris Barry’s direction of this serial was incredibly stylish too. The first episode sets things up tantalisingly, skilfully using shadows of the Cybermen to successfully build up the suspense – Joe Ahearne used a similar trick with the Daleks recently in Bad Wolf to the same effect. Better still, whilst images of the Cybermen unhurriedly emerging from the sewers near St Paul’s Cathedral or their Ice Tombs of Telos are burned into the memories of so many Doctor Who fans, I would argue that the Cybermen marching across the surface of the moon with that evocative stock music (the same piece recycled in The Tomb of the Cybermen) playing is just as enduring an image.

 

 

As with the preceding story, Frazer Hines’ Jamie is given little to do as the result of being thrown into the mix at the last minute. He’s unconscious for the first episode, and then spends half the serial in sickbay with a fever. However, Anneke Wills’ Polly enjoys one of her most memorable outings – albeit one of her most misunderstood. The Moonbase is notorious for the sexist treatment that Polly has to put up with in it, not only from the “Make a cup of coffee, Polly” Doctor, but also from just about everyone else that she encounters. As a result Doctor Who is hammered by critics for being sexist, which on occasion is a fair criticism – but not here. It is Polly alone who creates the “Polly Cocktail” that destroys many of the invading Cybermen. If anything, in having Polly play such a significant part in saving the day having endured such treatment, the writers of The Moonbase were actually striking a blow against chauvinism, not endorsing it.

 

 

“Not you, Polly. This is men’s work!”

 

And so, whilst it’s hard to be completely sure when considering a partially-lost treasure, I’d be tempted to put The Moonbase up there on a pedestal besides The Tomb of the Cybermen. Fast, sophisticated and surprisingly droll, this oft-neglected four-parter should be considered one of the second Doctor’s finest.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

 

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