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| Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen |
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $8.99
You Save: $ 10.99 (55%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: BBC Warner
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790770987
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0790770989
Label: BBC Warner
Manufacturer: BBC Warner
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: BBC Warner
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2002-08-06
Running Time: 95
Studio: BBC Warner
Theatrical Release Date: 1975-09-29
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Editorial Reviews:
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Aided by his two assistants Jamie and Victoria, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on Telos, last resting place of the infamous Cybermen. There he discovers a band of archaelogists on a secret expedition to unearth the reason for his old enemies' extinction. In the underground shadowy depths, they find the icy tomb. A whole army in hibernation. A threat to no one, if the temperature remains low. But if the traitor in their midst gets his way, things could really heat up. Originally broadcast in 1967 and then lost, this unique four part adventure starring Patrick Troughton - the Doctor's 2nd incarnation - was only recently discovered. It is now available for the first time on this special BBC Video which includes an exclusive interview with director Morris Barry. DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:by actors Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling
Biographies
Documentaries: Tombwatch (panel of the cast and crew). Behind the scenes at BBC Visual Effects
Outtakes:unused title sequence and 8mm cine footage
Production Notes:Optional caption stream
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Yay Doctor Who no. II
Comment: I can't tell how much I enjoyed this. I am a fan of Patrick Toughton's work and would love to see more of his work available soon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The 2nd Doctor Tackles The Cybermen
Comment: Patrick Troughton heads up a solid cast in "The Tomb of the Cybermen." In it, the Doctor (Troughton), Jamie (the excellent Frazer Hines) and the strongheaded Victoria (the lovely Deborah Watling) land on Telos, the home of the Cybermen. They run into an archaelogical crew hoping to find the tomb of the last Cybermen. The majority of this expedition is hoping to find out why the Cybermen have seemingly vanished from the universe. Others in the crew are hoping to exploit the Cybermen's secrets. It's up to the Doctor and his companions to decide who's who and try to stop the revived Cybermen!
This is the third story to feature the Cybermen and the earliest known complete serial in existence that they are a part of. The story itself is pretty stock, although it is highlighted by the wit of not only Troughton, but Hines and Watling as well. They play off of each other exceptionally well, but can hold their own when they are broken up. Watling in particular takes the spotlight whenever she's separated from the Doctor and Jamie.
As every episode of "Doctor Who" before and after it, this one is plagued by poor special effects. Fans of the classic series know what I mean, but fans only familiar with the new "Doctor Who" might be taken aback by the effects. Just know that the story is solid enough to make you forget about them.
This DVD is packed with wonderful special features. It comes with the standard commentary (provided by Hines and Watling), outtakes, pop-up production notes, Who's Who and a photo gallery. Of special note are "Tombwatch," a panel discussion of the serial and a wonderful sampling of the episodes before and after they were cleaned up. If you watch the serial first (which I suggest), you won't really notice the changes made to update the story. After you watch the clean-up process segment, though, you'll gain a new appreciation of the fine folks who updated the show. They did an excellent job.
If you're a fan of classic "Who," I highly recommend picking up this DVD. If you've never watched any of the original series, get this one to see just how far the show has come over the years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Tomb of The Toberman"/"Toberman of The Cybermen"
Comment: My little joke for an alternative title for this story. Both would be appropriate, since Toberman was the first and only human tranformed into the "new" race of Cybermen, as was their intention, thus, Toberman of The Cybermen. Plus, considering Toberman bought it at the end, that's where the Toberman Cyberman is entombed, thus, Tomb of the Toberman. Confused? Good! Considering the second Doctor defeats his enemies using confusion as his weapon of choice, acting silly and lulling them into a false sense of security.
I love 60's Doctor Who, however I couldn't give this story five stars. For one thing, the villains Kleig and Kaftan have to be crazy to want to revive the Cybermen, thinking they could bargain with them. Not smart at all. But perhaps this is totally justifiable because, as the Doctor points out in ep. 4, they are mad. A demented mind causes one to perform acts which are very inadvisable. There's also a third villain, Toberman, but he shouldn't count. The most intelligent line this lump of brainless brawn had in the whole serial was, "ME TOBERMAN". Not a very formidable foe. Also, why exactly did the Doctor manipulate Klieg into dethawing the Cyberman? He even secretly aided him at one point. He could have left things alone, and they would have been on their way, no harm no foul. Could it be that the Doctor is so bored that he merely wanted to create a situation to solve and be able to accuse someone else of creating it? Incidentally, the scene when Jamie picks off Cybermen as they are coming out of the lift would have been crucified had it been in the Colin Baker era, much like when the sixth Doctor shoots that Cyberman in his TARDIS. However, nary a word is mentioned about this. This clearly illustrates that the sixth Doctor era does not own a monopoly of violence. All eras are equally violent.
All that stated, Tomb of The Cybermen is a very 60s Doctor Who story, possessing a certain charm. Despite its flaws, it represents an era of Doctor Who that is forgotten by many, and thanks to the BBC's wiping of stories, most of the Troughton era will likely never be seen. Patrick Troughton was a genius, so enjoy the very little we have of him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: When I say "run"... oh, you know the rest
Comment: One of the great tragedies of "Doctor Who" is the dearth of Second Doctor episodes caused by the BBC purging their archives back in the 1970's. The Second Doctor was clearly one of the best. His "comsic tramp" persona masking a cunning individual who was always willing to use his brains over any brawn. Further he had an amazingly good chemistry with his companions (most notably Jamie and Zoe), as well as having some very good, well-writen stories.
Thankfully, though there are, if I recall, only about six complete stories from the Second Doctor's era, one of those is "Tomb of the Cybermen". Yes, boys and girls, before the Cybermen were creatures from another dimension designed in part by Rose's dad, they were aliens from Mondas, here to do nasty things to you.
For reasons unclear to me, the Daleks have always been the popular advesary. I like them fine, but I think they're overrated and, especially with the new series, very overused. The Cybermen were like the Borg precursors. Plus they not only managed to kill one of the Doctor's companions, albiet indirectly, but they were also the cause of death for the First Doctor! Not too shabby.
"Tomb of the Cybermen" features an archeological team that's attempting to explore... well... a tomb... of Cybermen. Uhm. Anyhow, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria appear just in time to get involved (interestingly, someone apparently spots the TARDIS "landing", which I think is the only time that's happened).
The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, and the archeologists get into the tomb. By the time the story is over, we've met the Cyber Leader, seen a cybermat, watched a lot of people die (yes, this is one of those "fun" stories where, Les Mis-style, just about everyone dies), seen the Doctor advise Jamie to run when he says so, and gotten the impression that our heroes didn't gain any sort of lasting victory; they just got away by the skin of their teeth.
The story is very excellent, and really does stand up well to the test of time, even if the SFX don't (not that they're bad. Actually, they're pretty decent). The acting is decent all around. The music is a little jarring, but not too bad.
Like usual, there's plenty of extras on the DVD, including information about the recovery of the tapes for this episode back in the early 1990's (so long ago... yet I remember seeing PBS up in Seattle broadcast this episode not long after they found the tapes... now I feel old...). Also of note is the wonderfully entertaing commentary.
This is the best of the existing Second Doctor stories, at least of the ones I've seen, which ain't many, and a must-have for any "Doctor Who" fan.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing."
Comment: Okay, there are times when "Doctor Who" is an unabashedly superior science fiction program, and there are times when it's embarrassingly and yet lovably campy. "Tomb of the Cybermen" definitely gravitates towards the latter extreme. No, scratch that. It practically defines that extreme, it's the perfect showcase for it. And hence loads of good fun.
Patrick Troughton's performance as the Doctor is the number one saving grace for this episode arc. He's flawlessly convincing as a superhumanly intelligent yet quaintly absent-minded and slightly whimsical cosmic hobo, eccentric and curious as always and incredibly warm-hearted and reassuring in a strangely detached way. The number two saving grace is the overall premise of the plot, which is simply ingenious. It has all the elements of a classic horror film, though here the horror is technological rather than supernatural. An army of Cybermen slumbering for centuries until a hapless band of archaeologists unearth them, awakening a threat the universe had consigned to its history books--the stuff of greatness.
And the whole idea of the Cybermen is chilling as ever: beings who have traded in their biological and emotional vulnerabilities along with their individuality in exchange for cold, impervious mechanical bodies and ruthlessly logical, computerized minds, all of a uniform, mass-produced design--and, by the way, who are thoroughly driven to share these "blessings" with the rest of us regardless of any "irrelevant" objections we might have. In many ways they, like the Daleks, are perfect foils for an oddball, unique character like the Doctor, and they cast the show's sci-fi humanism in stark relief here as always. Speaking of which, this DVD has quite a bit of historical value, for while this is the Cybermen's third appearance out of many over the decades, this is the first one that's complete and preserved (barely!).
Still, while the Cybermen make for great, techno-creepy villains and while the overall plot premise is excellent, the actual lineaments of the plotline itself are riddled with a host of little implausibilities, meanderings, and assorted incongruities that all kind of add up to make the whole presentation goofier than intended, an effect amplified by the totally hammed-up, B-Movie acting style of much of the supporting cast. And where some of the dialogue, mostly the Doctor's, is inspired, some of it is cliched or, as with an exchange between Vicki and the "American" rocket pilots, downright awkward. Still, in most cases I found myself laughing with rather than at the show whenever these and similar infelicities arose. In any case, it's a good old classic from the 1960's that we nearly lost forever, so we might as well enjoy it for what it is, strokes of brilliance and flatfooted gaffs and all.
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