Slight Spoilers to all four episodes of which only two exist
The Tardis lands on the Moon and the crew ( which includes 18th Century Highland rebel Jamie MaCrimmon ) find a moonbase that contains the Graviton , a machine that controls the Earth's weather system . They find that the Moonbase crew are being struck down by a strange virus and suspicion falls on these new arrivals . The Doctor finds that an enemy he thought defeated has been behind this
Producer Innes Lloyd was so impressed by the Cybermen that he quickly commissioned Kit Pedlar to write another story featuring them and they reappeared just over three months after they made their debut . There was a slight problem in that the costumes were hell on the actors especially under the hot studio lights that occasionally saw the cast playing the Cybermen faint so the costume designers went back to the drawing board and designed something similar to a metallic skeleton with new electronic voices . This new costume is very impressive but at the same time loses a bit of the original concept where the Cybermen were literally Cybernetic men
The story itself is no hold barred horror material and is the first story in the show's history to be termed " base under siege " . This involves a formula where a remote group of humans find themselves being surrounded /infiltrated by alien menace , similar in feel to QUATERMASS set in space . It became so much part of the whole ethos of DOCTOR WHO that it's shocking to realise no Hartnell story had this type of feel with the possible exception of he Cybermen debut story . and the real debut of DOCTOR WHO might very well have started here . I was actually quite surprised how scary some scenes were such as the resurrected humans in the final episode which are pure zombie horror and when people talk about hiding behind the sofa as children you can see why . I knew what the cliffhanger to the second episode was and though I could see it coming still had an impact that greatly surprised me
There is of course a new Doctor in charge and thankfully we don't get Patrick Troughton playing the second Doctor in the same manner as Hartnell would have . The Doctor isn't James Bond he's an entirely separate character and is a warmer personality with a impish almost childlike sense of humour . He also spends much of the story acting as a detective trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of the virus striking down the Monnbase crew in the manner of Sherlock Holmes
One aspect that's maybe not so successful is the main bugbear of Classic DOCTOR WHO . The Graiviton base is of course a couple of very small sets , some of the costumes are laughable such as that rubber helmet and being a Moonbase full of foreigners we're treated some accents that no matter where that character is from consistently sound like Renee from ALLO ALLO . There is of course supposed to be dozens and dozens of Cybermen on the lunar surface and this is achieved by having the same half dozen Cybermen walking past the camera in a circle
But whatever the flaws - which is a bit like saying water is too wet - The Moonbase is a story that firmly establishes both the format of DOCTOR WHO and Cyberman whose popularity was the only real rival to the Daleks as the show's iconic monsters
The Tardis lands on the Moon and the crew ( which includes 18th Century Highland rebel Jamie MaCrimmon ) find a moonbase that contains the Graviton , a machine that controls the Earth's weather system . They find that the Moonbase crew are being struck down by a strange virus and suspicion falls on these new arrivals . The Doctor finds that an enemy he thought defeated has been behind this
Producer Innes Lloyd was so impressed by the Cybermen that he quickly commissioned Kit Pedlar to write another story featuring them and they reappeared just over three months after they made their debut . There was a slight problem in that the costumes were hell on the actors especially under the hot studio lights that occasionally saw the cast playing the Cybermen faint so the costume designers went back to the drawing board and designed something similar to a metallic skeleton with new electronic voices . This new costume is very impressive but at the same time loses a bit of the original concept where the Cybermen were literally Cybernetic men
The story itself is no hold barred horror material and is the first story in the show's history to be termed " base under siege " . This involves a formula where a remote group of humans find themselves being surrounded /infiltrated by alien menace , similar in feel to QUATERMASS set in space . It became so much part of the whole ethos of DOCTOR WHO that it's shocking to realise no Hartnell story had this type of feel with the possible exception of he Cybermen debut story . and the real debut of DOCTOR WHO might very well have started here . I was actually quite surprised how scary some scenes were such as the resurrected humans in the final episode which are pure zombie horror and when people talk about hiding behind the sofa as children you can see why . I knew what the cliffhanger to the second episode was and though I could see it coming still had an impact that greatly surprised me
There is of course a new Doctor in charge and thankfully we don't get Patrick Troughton playing the second Doctor in the same manner as Hartnell would have . The Doctor isn't James Bond he's an entirely separate character and is a warmer personality with a impish almost childlike sense of humour . He also spends much of the story acting as a detective trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of the virus striking down the Monnbase crew in the manner of Sherlock Holmes
One aspect that's maybe not so successful is the main bugbear of Classic DOCTOR WHO . The Graiviton base is of course a couple of very small sets , some of the costumes are laughable such as that rubber helmet and being a Moonbase full of foreigners we're treated some accents that no matter where that character is from consistently sound like Renee from ALLO ALLO . There is of course supposed to be dozens and dozens of Cybermen on the lunar surface and this is achieved by having the same half dozen Cybermen walking past the camera in a circle
But whatever the flaws - which is a bit like saying water is too wet - The Moonbase is a story that firmly establishes both the format of DOCTOR WHO and Cyberman whose popularity was the only real rival to the Daleks as the show's iconic monsters