In 1966, Doctor Who changed forever.
William Hartnell was in failing health and having difficulty remembering his lines. He was also not getting along with the current production team and was unhappy with the direction of the show. (He felt that it was getting too violent and dependent upon the bug-eyed monsters who he had originally been told would have no part of the show.) It became obvious that Hartnell would not be able to continue as the Doctor. At the same time, Doctor Who was an unqualified hit and one that the BBC wanted to keep going.
Producer Innes Lloyd and story editor Gerry Davis decided that since the Doctor was an alien, they could just say that he could transform himself physically at will, which would allow them to recast the role. Hearing the news, Hartnell is said to have replied, “There’s only one man in England who can take over, and that’s Patrick Troughton.”
William Hartnell was correct. Patrick Troughton, 46 at the time, was a stage-trained character actor who had become a television mainstay. As opposed to Hartnell, whose Doctor was stern and stubborn, Troughton played the Doctor as being “a comic hobo,” (to quote show creator Sydney Newman). The Second Doctor enjoyed his travels and had an unquenchable curiosity. Like an interstellar Lt. Columbo, The Second Doctor often played the fool to get the better of his enemies. He also become a father figure to many of his companions, a role that Troughton also played offscreen as well.
Unfortunately, many of the Second Doctor’s adventures are missing or are only available in audio form. When I was growing up, my father and I would watch Doctor Who on PBS. PBS started with the Fourth Doctor and the Fifth Doctor before then going back to the Third Doctor and then finally broadcasting what they had of The First and Second Doctor. There were so few of the Second Doctor’s serials available that it only took PBS a month and a half to finish up with Troughton. People like me got to know Troughton’s Doctor more through his later guest appearances (The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors) than through his original adventures.
The Tomb of the Cybermen is the earliest serial known to exist in its entirety to feature Troughton as the Second Doctor. In this 4-epiosde serial (which also launched the show’s fifth series), The Doctor and his companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) materialize on the desolate planet Telos and discover an expedition of humans are trying to enter the Tomb of the Cybermen.
In those days before The Master, The Cybermen were one of the Doctor’s main recurring enemies. Former humanoids who sacrificed their emotions and individual personalities to become cyborgs, the Cybermen were relentless and ruthless and just as dangerous as the Daleks. (The Cyberman also had something Daleks lacked, the ability to climb stairs.) In Tomb of the Cybermen, the expedition assumes that the Cybermen buried in the underground tomb are no longer functioning. It turns out that the Cybermen are just waiting for someone to revive them.
Tomb of the Cybermen is a classic Doctor Who serial. The plot borrows considerably from the legends about mummies and cursed Egyptian tombs. The expedition arrogantly enters the tomb, despite being warned not to. It turns out that the expedition’s leaders want to use the Cybermen as their own army and their willing to sacrifice everyone with them to try to achieve that goal. The revived Cybermen aren’t interested in an alliance. The Doctor and his companions try to escape the crypt while also ensuring that the Cybermen will never escape again. The plot is simple but exciting. The Second Doctor pretends to be baffled by the tomb and its technology but later reveals that he always understood more than he let on.
The Tomb of the Cybermen is not only a great Troughton showcase. It’s also historically important as one of the first serials to really upset Britain’s moral guardians. Reportedly, British children were left terrified and unable to sleep after witnessing the Cybermen bursting forth from their tombs. The infamous Mary Whitehouse would often cite Doctor Who as being detrimental programming for children. The Tomb of the Cybermen was one of the serials that she often cited as just being too violent and frightening.
It’s a shame that we don’t have more of Patrick Troughton’s serials to watch because The Tomb of Cybermen reveals him to be the prototype for almost every Doctor who would follow. (There’s a small moment where The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria hold hands while stepping into the Tomb and it says so much about who the Doctor was, post-Hartnell.) I’m glad, though, that we do have this showcase of the Second Doctor at his best.
Through the Shattered Lens 