Day 173: The Tomb of the Cybermen Episode 4

One of the vaguely unsettling subtexts in this episode is not the conversion of people into metal creatures, but instead the way that others will appear to be treated in the future, and by others, I mean one person in particular. His name is Toberman, and he is the strongman for the archaeological expedition that is being undertaken. His role would seem to be being bossed about by his superiors and to carry things. He doesn't really have a character beyond that, the most interesting thing that happens to him is that he is converted by the Cybermen and then later overthrows them completely, only to be killed at the story's conclusion. And that's a nice little idea, that uses the idea of someone being converted fighting back against their original programming, and it will occasionally be used again in later stories (cf Doomsday, Closing Time). But here's the annoying thing: Toberman is a person of colour. And that means that the story has an uncomfortable slavery subtext beneath it. For all that it portrays itself as a futuristic version of a mummy movie, occasionally it too strays into uncomfortable stereotypes, showing us a white crew where a black man is told to do things for them as a slave. Does this mean that the writers (Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis) were racist? In my opinion, no, because it is less individuals that are racist and more the time that the story is made in. When people will search for characters, often they will do so with a certain stereotype in mind, and it just so happened that Toberman was the stereotype associated with strongmen, generally being from outside of Britain, from far off regions such as Africa or Europe. But all of this means that when we come back to the story, we can see all of the cracks that are associated with it, be it in the writing or how some of the effects come across, or in how the characters are portrayed. This story is undeniably a product of its time, the only problem is seeing whether it is still relevant today, or whether things have just become too uncomfortable.

Day 172: The Tomb of the Cybermen Episode 3

The Cybermen are now back to their roots, after their Moonbase interlude where they just provided a known monster and nothing much else. Here, their emotionlessness is part of the core of their plan, as is their wish to conquer the Earth through conversion. Indeed, it's only really now that this is brought up with the Cybermen, as The Moonbase failed to mention it and The Tenth Planet had it as a disturbing subtext, but here it is presented to us front and centre: they wish to convert the human race and remove all of their emotions. And the effect of this is it allows a climate of fear to be created around these creatures, because conversion is not a process that is performed quickly, like shooting someone in the face, for instance, instead it is done slowly, with a build up to the main event. This means that the Cybermen have more time to extend tension, thus making it tenser for the audience and creating a more exciting programme. But what happens to the cyber-convertees? We'll find out next time

Day 171: The Tomb of the Cybermen Episode 2

Dr Eric Klieg is one of the men on this expedition, and he comes across as an interesting character. Driven by science and logic to his goals, he is actually quite poor at his work and frequently received the help of the Doctor in order to achieve his goals. And the Doctor is quite willingly helping as well, as Troughton plays the role in his slightly dark and devious character that we've seen him develop over the past couple of stories. But Klieg is also of interest here, because it transpires that he has been in search of the Cybermen to revive them and use their power for his own devices. And the surprising fact here is that he appears to be competent, an evil character out for his own motives and not those of his fellow archaeologists. But he is mercilessly crushed by the Cybermen, a plotline that looks as if it is over. Pedler and Davis, the writers of this story, clearly know that the arrival of the monsters means that everything else needs to move aside, because they need the audience's full attention on the threat, drawing more attention to the fear that the Cybermen bring. The Cybermen have been awoken, and we shall now see how they will work in this story.

Day 170: The Tomb of the Cybermen Episode 1

New story, new series, new companion. We were introduced to Victoria in the previous story, but there she was just a Princess Peach character, existing mainly to be rescued by other characters within the story. However, at the story's conclusion, she was invited aboard the TARDIS, a position which she took with little choice, given that everything that she was even remotely close to had been destroyed by the Daleks. And so, we see her in her first adventure here, and what comes across is just how absurd everything seems to her. And it's not that she's from Victorian times, it's that she's just been taken away in a magical box to distant worlds, and it's a bit too much for her. And so, the Doctor and Jamie are left to look after her, to comfort her through this period. It's the first time since Ian and Barbara that we've had this sort of reaction, everyone else has either taken it in their stride, or remained skeptic, only to discover that they have travelled in time, at which point everything becomes normal again. But Victoria is able to have problems with accepting this fact, and this makes the audience be able to sympathise with her, because she represents the realistic reaction to everything that's about to happen. And whilst a lot of what Victoria will do will not be realistic for a Victorian girl to do, there is a great deal of realism in how she reacts to everything, giving good signals for how she shall fare over the rest of her time aboard the TARDIS.

Day 169: The Evil of the Daleks Episode 7

The ending of this episode is quite big, featuring lots of destruction as the Daleks rebel against each other, half of them being pure Dalek and the other half having the Human Factor implanted within them. And as it ends, we realise that this is it, the Daleks have finally been destroyed for the last time. And to an extent that's true, it'll be years before we encounter them again, and so we have to realise how interesting this move in the series is. It's because the Daleks have been intrinsically linked with Doctor Who, ensuring that the series remained reasonably popular over the past couple of years, and by taking them away, the series is going to have to resort to other means to draw viewers in. Fortunately, it's got Patrick Troughton, who over the course of his first year in the role, has made the show more interesting, making him into a more mercurial figure and thus giving the show a new life. Also, the writing has remained strong, and there are probably other methods that the show will go down in order to ensure its survival. We'll just have to wait and see what comes up.

Day 168: The Evil of the Daleks Episode 6

One of the most interesting characters that we've encountered so far in this serial is Theodore Maxtible. Once again, it's not so much the performance or the direction that causes interest here (although both are very good indeed), instead it's the writing of the character. Maxtible is a man who appear to have been forced by the Daleks to follow their orders. However, there are hidden depths to the character, as he is far more willing to work with the Daleks than everyone else, due to his greed for power and his pursuits in trying to find equipment that will turn base metals into gold. He represents the antithesis to the Human Factor that the Doctor searches for, and finds in Jamie, as Maxtible brings with him the less desirable aspects of the human condition, and this allows the story to have depth. It's not a story about how all humans are better than Daleks, instead it's able to show the true Human Factor, why the humans are able to defeat the Daleks for the most part, and also why they are able to occasionally win. But now we wait for the serial's inevitable conclusion...

Day 167: The Evil of the Daleks Episode 5

One of the best things about this serial is the conclusion to this episode. It's not a cliffhanger, but it's still thrilling nonetheless because it represents a key movement forward in the plot of the story. The Daleks have just been injected with the human factor and they pick the Doctor up and carry him away. But not in the sort of Evil Dalek way that we've come to expect from these diabolical pepperpots. No, instead, they're more playful, as the Doctor says "They're playing a game!". Suddenly, everything that we know about the Daleks is wrong because they have gained playfulness, emotion, they have become human. This is the thing that Whitaker is not afraid to do: have cliffhangers without action. This cliffhanger doesn't feature a scare, but it does develop the plot in such a way as to ensure that interest is held. The audience may not want to tune in next week to find out how our heroes will get out of this sticky situation, but they might tune in to see how the plot develops, and what will happen now that things have changed completely. The Evil of the Daleks has somehow become The Playfulness of the Daleks, and this viewer can't wait to see what happens next.