BBC Audio adventure, Feb. 11 - March 4, 1967
The Hobson guy, commander of the base, is a bit pigheaded on the whole idea of Cybermen being on the moon. Of course it doesn’t help that the Doctor and friends appear just before trouble starts. Typical timing for the Doctor! The mysterious disease is supposed to decimate the crew of the weather control station, allowing the Cybermen to take over and control the Earth, destroying everyone there. Infecting the base is the goal. The tension just mounts like crazy and everything goes crazy as the Cybermen take control.
That is, until their squeaky voices come out! Oiy vey but they’re rather comical, aren’t they? It turns a menacing, hulking figure into a squeaky toy for the dog to play with, put through a synthesizer. It’s actually difficult to understand them at times... Might be a bit hard on the teeth, though. The one thing that I’ve always found disappointing with the appearance of the Cybermen is that they’re never as gigantic on the screen as described. They are my favorite villain so I enjoy it but after the success of the first half of the story, the second half is just not as good.
At least Hobson is working towards keeping the Cybermen out once he finds out about the Cybermen. The Doctor doesn’t stop Evans in the gravitron room as he did before, which is the problem towards the end. But it is difficult to tell who is running around where at the end. I like that the Cybermen don’t speak much and find a way in through the storage room. The plot moves along nicely in this episode, except that Jamie is out of it for awhile. He’s really sick and can’t be moved then in the next episode, he’s feeling much better. He didn’t get poisoned at least! Just a concussion. And the Piper isn’t coming to get him anymore! Polly isn’t doing much during this episode except asking questions and Ben’s running around protecting people. Once Jamie wakes up, he helps Ben, too, but they don’t really do things to add to the solution, except for the Polly cocktail. And they only use that on a few Cybermen and done. Weird.
Patrick Troughton, Anneke Willis, Michael Craze, and Frazer Hines
writer: Kit Pedler
director: Morris Barry
read by: Frazer Hines