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The
Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive on the moon in the year
2070, where they discover a weather-control station whose
crew has been stricken by a deadly plague. The Doctor suspects
that this mysterious disease is not entirely natural...
This
story marks a pivotal point in the Troughton era. It would
be the first of four encounters between the Second Doctor
and the Cybermen (although Troughton briefly appeared at the
end of their debut story, The Tenth Planet). The
Moonbase also sees Troughton's portrayal settle down from
the more overtly comical, and sometimes downright irritating,
personality of his first three stories. Aside from one scene
in which the Doctor removes all manner of bizarre samples
for clinical analysis - including a crewman's boot and a piece
of someone's trousers - Troughton's performance is decidedly
straight. Indeed, his sombre speech, about the need to fight
the evils that have been spawned by the universe, virtually
sets out his mission statement for the programme's next two
and a half years.
Kit
Pedlar's script may not be the most original in the show's
history, rehashing as it does the Cybermen's siege of an isolated
outpost from The Tenth Planet, as well as their interference
in the trajectory of a spacecraft, causing it to plummet into
the sun. However, this serial also establishes trends for
many future stories, including Revenge of the Cybermen,
which reused the notion of a "plague" that is selective enough
to attack medical staff members first. Relatively little narration
is required from Frazer Hines in order to bring this partially
wiped story back to life.
The
stock Cybermen theme and the eerie background sound effects
of the moonbase convey the story's creepy atmosphere at least
as effectively as they did on TV. Indeed, the audio medium
actually benefits the production in certain respects, by hiding
some of its visual shortcomings. For instance, Hines describes
the Gravitron operators as donning "acoustic helmets" - which,
to those of us who have seen Episodes Two and Four (released
on video as part of The Cybermen: The Early Years),
looked suspiciously like swimming caps! Unfortunately, nothing
could be done to make the Cybermen's modulated voices any
less incomprehensible.
All
in all, though, this tale makes a very successful Cyber-conversion
to audio.
Richard
McGinlay
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