CinemaSerf
7.0/10Jul 12, 2024
The ever unreliable TARDIS dumps the travellers on the planet of "Telos" where they encounter an expedition of humans dynamiting the landscape looking for something. What? Well that's what the "Doctor" (Patrick Troughton) asks and he doesn't much like the answer. They are looking for the tomb of the long extinct "Cybermen". Almost immediately, they discover something abutting the hillside and after a shocking start find themselves inside a control room with some pretty menacing self-defence mechanisms. The leader of the explorers "Parry" (Aubrey Richards) is a little gung-ho and starts pressing buttons, pulling levers and so starts to defrost the "Cybermen" just as two of their number - "Klieg" (George Pastell) and his cohort "Kaftan" (Shirley Cooklin) appear to have an ulterior motive for being on this mission. With the menacing tin men on one side and the treacherous plotters on the other, the "Doctor" with "Jamie" (Frazer Hines) and "Victoria" (Deborah Watling) has to do some good old fashioned evil thwarting. This is probably the best iteration of the "Cybermen" with less awkward rigidity, some fun synthetic voices and plenty of pouncing "Cybermat" to help keep the adventure moving along quickly and entertainingly. Pastell was always good as the duplicitous baddie and Troughton is getting his feet more comfortably under the Time Lord's table now. Plenty of science and action - one of the best.
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