The Moonbase Episode 4

The one where the Moonbase is saved by a plastic tea tray...

I have to admire the tenacity of the Cybermen in The Moonbase. There's just no stopping them, is there? Throw anything at them, and they just come back for more! Assault them with plastic-melting solvents? They'll just send some more men to replace them. Call for help from a rescue ship from Earth? They'll just deflect them into the Sun! Seal up the secret tunnel they made into the food store? They'll just shoot a hole into the Moonbase dome to let out all the oxygen!

These Cybermen are unwavering in their determination to see their plan through, and as the episode opens, and we see their silver boots marching inexorably toward the Moonbase across the squidgy lunar surface, you have to wonder how the humans are going to stop them. Both the Doctor and Polly seem obsessed with asking Hobson if they can get into the base, but Hobson reckons not. If I were them, I'd assume that they can!

Talking of Polly, it's a damn good job she's there, otherwise everybody would be dead by the end of The Moonbase. She was the one who came up with the lethal Polly Cocktails in episode 3 which saw off the first wave of Cybermen, and in this episode, if it weren't for Polly's seemingly innocuous coffee-making skills, the base would have all of the air sucked out of it through the shattered dome. Polly's plastic tea tray saves the day! Ignoring the scientific bunkum employed here, the Cybermen really do slip up here - why don't they just continue to shoot holes into the dome until the humans run out of tea trays?

It's a shame that the Cybermen are dispensed with so easily because they've posed a credible threat throughout the first three episodes. They're at their best in episode 3 where they have control of the Moonbase and the Gravitron, and all seems lost. Zapping them off into space using gravity is a pretty nifty example of using the tools at your disposal to your best advantage, but there's nothing to stop the Cybermen trying the same plan all over again.

A few more observations about this episode:

• When the Cybermen set about destroying the aerial on the lunar surface, the plinky-plonky music makes it look like they're playing the aerial like a piano!
• When the Cybermen advance en masse (there's at least a dozen of them) toward the Moonbase, I love how the lead Cyberman spreads his arms wide in front of them all, like a Michael Jackson tribute act about to launch into a rendition of Beat It.
• I also love the diddy Cyberman who transmits the control signal to Dr Evans. It's a good foot shorter than the others. Maybe it's a baby Cyberman, or a Cyberlady?
• The fate of the rescue ship from Earth is actually pretty horrible. Catapulted into the Sun's gravitational orbit, Benoit points out that there's no stopping it's fateful journey, even if it takes a week to get there. Harsh.
• Dr Evans is a master of stealth, managing to infiltrate first the control room, then the Gravitron room, without anybody clocking him and saying: "Oi, Dr Evans! You're supposed to be in the sick bay!" Maybe he thinks his black-veined visage becomes invisible now that he's swiped Becket's tunic, and he may well be right. Actor Alan Rowe may not know how to wear a Gravitron shower cap the right way round, but he does know how to turn around menacingly at just the right moment to reveal that "yes, it's me!"
• Ben and Jamie's efforts to stop the Cyber slaves exiting the sick bay is a little unconvincing when you see just how flimsy the sets are, wobbly door and all. It's fun seeing Michael Craze and Frazer Hines ram future Doctor Who script editor Victor Pemberton with a gurney though!
• The Cybermen assert their favourite catchphrase several times in this episode: "Resistance is useless"!

As became tradition with the Second Doctor, once the menace has been thwarted, our heroes make a quiet exit unnoticed, making their way back to the TARDIS so that the remaining humans can get on with pulling Earth's weather systems back under control. I had to chuckle when Hobson called after the Doctor, only to see a door not closing behind him!

Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to employ the Time Scanner to see what lies ahead for the adventurous foursome. It's an instrument that would come in extremely useful most times they land, so why he doesn't use it regularly I don't know. He does say it's unreliable, but seeing as the first thing it shows them is a huge crab-like claw (and the next story is due to include some huge crab-like claws), he'd be wise to stick with it. Mind you, who's to say that it's not an extreme close-up of a tiny crab's claw in a rock pool on Cromer beach?

The Moonbase is a well-directed B-movie tale which doesn't deliver quite as much as it promises, but there's loads of fun to be had along the way. Morris Barry and Dave Sydenham's early work with moody lighting builds tension, and the guest cast (apart from Arnold Chazen) are great. It's a shame the companions don't have more to do, but at least Polly has some key moments, and the Cybermen are simply magnificent. Bring on their next crazy plan!

Oh, and we never did find out the relevance of the piece of silver paper which the Doctor finds in episode 1...

First broadcast: March 4th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Using a plastic tea tray to plug the escape of oxygen from the dome is a memorable image, if scientifically crackers.
The Bad: The plastic tea tray.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (story average: 8 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Macra Terror...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-moonbase.html

The Moonbase is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Moonbase-Patrick-Troughton/dp/B00H7WX790/