Doctor Who: the Tomb of the Cybermen

The Tomb of the Cybermen opened the fifth season of Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton's second season as the Doctor) with the return of the silver nemesis, which had been introduced the previous season (Tomb was the Doctor's third encounter with the Cybermen). This story shows a great deal of influence from several Mummy movies, including Hammer's The Mummy (starring George Pastell, who plays Eric Klieg in this adventure) and The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb.

The Doctor and his companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) arrive on Telos where an archaeological expedition from Earth is attempting to uncover the lost tombs of the Cybermen. After the destruction of their original home world of Mondas, the Cybermen adopted Telos as their new home, and that planet is believed to be their final resting place. After the Doctor and the archaeologists enter the tombs, two members of the party are revealed as traitors. Klieg and his business partner Kaftan are members of the Brotherhood of Logicians, and they seek to revive the Cybermen who are not dead, but in fact, hibernating in the tombs.

Michael Kilgarriff, who plays the Cyber Controller in this story, would reprise the role in 1985's Attack of the Cybermen with Colin Baker as the Doctor. The Tomb of the Cybermen is the earliest intact cyber story from the classic Doctor Who series, and it is perhaps my favorite Cyber Story overall. Tomb is well written (Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis) and directed (Morris Barry). George Pastell makes a great villain as logician Eric Klieg.

One of my big gripes with Cyber stories from the 1970's and 80's was the fact that the Cybermen often showed emotion, while the stories of the 60's presented them as the cold, emotionless machines they were supposed to be. The Cybermen are very much like a forerunner to Star Trek's Borg, and they remain one of my favorite DW enemies/monsters of all time.

In addition to being one of the Doctor's most popular enemies in the classic DW series, they made their return to the small screen in the new series during the second season. Tomb's bonus features include the ever-popular pop-up production notes, plus the commentary track with Fraser Hines and Deborah Watling, plus a photo gallery and Tombwatch, a making-of featurette. The Tomb of the Cybermen is not only my favorite cyber story, it's also my favorite Second Doctor story.