The Moonbase (TV story)

"There are some corners of the Universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

- The Doctor

The Moonbase was the sixth story of Season 4 of Doctor Who. The return appearance of the Cybermen solidified their place as one of the series' key villains. This story was the first in Doctor Who history with sequences taking place on Earth's Moon.

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives in 2070 AD on the Moon, where a weather control station under the command of a man named Hobson is in the grip of a plague epidemic - in reality the result of an alien poison planted by the Cybermen.

Polly realises that as the Cybermen's chest units are made of plastic they must be vulnerable to attack by solvents. She and her friends manage to destroy all the Cybermen on the base with a 'cocktail' of such chemicals shot at them through fire extinguishers.

A second wave of Cybermen advances across the lunar surface but, prompted by the Doctor, Hobson uses the base's gravity-generating weather control device, the Gravitron, to send them flying off into space.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Hobson - Patrick Barr
 * Benoit - Andre Maranne
 * Nils - Michael Wolf
 * Sam - John Rolfe
 * Voice from Space Control - Alan Rowe
 * Ralph - Mark Heath
 * Dr. Evans - Alan Rowe
 * Scientists - Barry Ashton, Derek Calder, Arnold Chazen, Leon Maybank, Victor Pemberton, Edward Phillips, Ron Pinnell, Robin Scott, Alan Wells
 * Voice of Controller Rinberg - Denis McCarthy
 * Cybermen - John Wills, Sonnie Willis, Peter Greene, Keith Goodman, Reg Whitehead
 * Cybermen Voices - Peter Hawkins

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Lovett Bickford
 * Costumes - Sandra Reid, Mary Woods, Daphne Dare
 * Designer - Colin Shaw
 * Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
 * Film Editor - Ted Walter
 * Make-Up - Gillian James, Jeanne Richmond
 * Producer - Innes Lloyd
 * Production Assistant - Desmond McCarthy
 * Script Editor - Gerry Davis
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Dave Sydenham
 * Studio Sound - Gordon Mackie
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer

Cybermen

 * Cybermat

Earth technology

 * The Moonbase was established around 2050 to control the Earth's weather via the Gravitron.
 * The Gravitron runs on thermonuclear power and manipulates gravity.

Food and Beverages

 * The virus is in the sugar.
 * Polly serves much Coffee and Tea.

Planets

 * The Moonbase is on the Moon.

Science

 * The Cybermen shoot a hole in the Moonbase, suddenly making it lose oxygen.
 * The Cybermen's chest unit appears to be made of a kind of plastic.

Timeline

 * The Doctor mentions that he studied under Lister in Glasgow in 1888.

Story Notes

 * Working title; The Return of the Cybermen.
 * This is the first story in which John Levene (who later played Sergeant Benton) appears.
 * In an early edit of the script the Cybermen had names.
 * Talkback from the headphones of the crew on the studio floor is clearly audible at times during episode four (the same problem as had earlier caused the opening episode of the first Dalek story to have to be remounted) - for example, a voice can be clearly heard saying 'cue' at the start of the scene where the controlled scientists are first activated by the Cybermen.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 8.1 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 8.9 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 8.2 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 8.1 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations

 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London
 * Lime Grove Studios (Studio D)

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The Cybermen's spaceships look like paper plates held up by string. They probably were.
 * In episode four, when Evans sneaks into the Gravitron control room, he puts the cloth helmet on back to front (in the next scene it's the right way round).

Continuity

 * The final clip of the episode leads into DW: The Macra Terror.
 * The Cybermen shoot energy from their hands, this style is later repeated in DW: Rise of the Cybermen.
 * There are various references to DW: The Tenth Planet.
 * A flashback to this story appears in DW: Earthshock.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

 * The two surviving episodes (2 and 4) were released on the Cybermen: The Early Years video.
 * The surviving episodes were also released on the Lost in Time DVD, along with full audio of the two missing episodes.

Target Novelisations

 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Cybermen by Gerry Davis in 1975.