Line #8 Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''Second Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Season 4:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers 1]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet 2]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks 3]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E4TheHighlanders 4]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace 5]] \| '''6''' \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E7TheMacraTerror 7]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes 8]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks 9]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 <<< Season 3]]''' \| '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen Season 5 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5	!The Moonbase
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cybermanjamie_941.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:[[WebVideo/JonTron Bad touch! Bad touch! Stranger danger!]]]]
8	->Written by Kit Pedler\
9	Directed by Morris Barry\
10	'''Production code:''' HH\
11	'''Air dates:''' 11 February - 4 March 1967\
12	'''Number of episodes:''' 4
13
14	->''"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."''
15	-->-- '''The Doctor'''
16
17	JustForFun/TheOneWith coffee.
18
19	Cybermen on the Moon, as the perennial favourites make their second appearance in essentially a retread of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet their first]]. And in the same season to boot!
20	----
21
22	It's 2070 AD and Earth's weather is controlled from a station on the Moon by means of the Gravitron. The crew of the station are coming down with a disease that turns out to be a Cyberman-engineered poison. Polly and Ben realise that as Cybermen are part-plastic, solvents ought to harm them, and mix up a cocktail of chemicals which they use in fire extinguishers to defeat the Cybermen on the base.[[note]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen Gold]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock will be]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis used later]].[[/note]]
23
24	A second wave of Cybermen invade across the Moon's surface but the Gravitron quickly sends them flying off into space and the travellers go on their merry way.
25
26	Called ''Doctor Who and the Cybermen'' in the 1974 novelization.
27
28	!!Tropes
29	* AllThereInTheManual: Later expanded universe sources, ''Doctor Who: Cybermen'' and its audio adaptation ''AudioPlay/TheArcHiveTapes'', identify the Cybermen seen here as descendants of the space-faring [=CyberFaction=] who left Mondas behind, their earlier InUniverse forms seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]". These Cybermen ultimately [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen settle on the planet Telos]] and are recognised by historians as a new subspecies, the [=CyberTelosians=].
30	* AllThereInTheScript: The Cybermen originally had names as in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]". For example, the lead Cyberman was named Tarn. The omission of names in the final product would carry over to all later Cyberman stories, with the greater homogeneity tying into their CyberneticsEatYourSoul overtones.
31	* ArtisticLicenceChemistry: As ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' later pointed out, Polly's "cocktail" of solvents would end up reacting against each other and turn into a thick brown gunge, totally different from the clear liquid presented in this story. That issue also guessed that she was throwing any solvent she could at them in the hopes that something would work.
32	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: The base is staffed with an international group of scientists, all white except for one black man. He is the first to be killed, getting bumped off in Episode 1, although it is later revealed that he was just kidnapped by the Cybermen and made a partially-converted slave.
33	* ChromosomeCasting: Polly is the only female character in the story.
34	* ContinuityNod: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet International Space Command, the Cyberman invasion of 1986 and the destruction of Mondas are referenced]].
35	* ContinuousDecompression: This story features the subtrope of characters struggling to seal the hole as the air rushes out. One fan actually did the calculations to see how long it should have actually taken for decompression to happen. The results were something on the order of a few seconds. The scene in the fourth episode lasted much longer, obviously.
36	* CostumeEvolution: Due to the original costumes being prohibitively uncomfortable, the Cybermen see their first of many substantial redesigns in this story, replacing the BodyHorror cyborg appearance from "The Tenth Planet" with a cleaner and more purely robotic look. The Cybermen also go from five-fingered hands to three-fingered ones, a change that would remain in place until [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]] two seasons later.
37	* CreepyMonotone: Because the AccentOnTheWrongSyllable singsong voice from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]] made it difficult for Peter Hawkins and Roy Skelton to tell where their lines began and ended, this story does away with it in favor of a buzzing, mechanical voice provided by electrolarynxes.
38	* DigitalDestruction: The Region 1 disc was incorrectly mastered at 23.98 progressive fields per second rather than the correct 59.94 interlaced fields per second, which both causes the release to lose its restored videotape look and to play roughly 4% slower. Fortunately, the Region 1 "Lost in Time" DVD transfer does not have this issue.
39	* MultinationalTeam: The crew of the Gravitron station.
40	* NaturalDisasterCascade: The Cybermen briefly take control of the Moonbase's WeatherControlMachine and attempt to use it to kill all life on Earth by playing havoc with the planet's weather.
41	* NightmareFuel: InUniverse--Jamie, slipping in and out of consciousness, mistakes an approaching Cyberman for [[TheGrimReaper the [=McCrimmon=] Piper]]; given the circumstances, [[FateWorseThanDeath the Piper would be the better option]].
42	* NotHimself: Personnel under cyber-control.
43	* NotThatKindOfDoctor: The Doctor actually claims to have received a medical degree...from Joseph Lister in 1888. Polly is ...skeptical about its continued applicability.
44	* {{Novelization}}: Was novelized as ''Doctor Who and the Cybermen'' by Gerry Davis.
45	* OhCrap: The Doctor, followed slowly by everyone else in the room has a rather epic one at the conclusion of Episode Two when the base leader argues that there can't be any Cybermen in the base because they've searched every single room for them...except the one they're in right now. Guess where the Cyberman turns out to be hiding?
46	* OneSteveLimit: Benoit was originally called Jules but was changed Roger due to another character named Jules.
47	** This is also why he wears a scarf, his shirt was designed before the name change and has letter J on it and the scarf was used to cover it up (for the most part).
48	* ResistanceIsFutile: The Cybermen warn the humans in the base that "resistance is useless" on three separate occasions.
49	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The moon setting was inspired by the Space Race of the mid 1960s.
50	* SequelEpisode: To "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]".
51	* SequelHook: A deleted line mentioned the tombs on Telos. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen Guess where the Doctor's next encounter with the Cybermen takes place?]]
52	* TheSiege: Mainly happens in Episode 4 when the infiltration of the Moonbase has already been exposed. The Cybermen throw subtlety to the wind and march in force, openly attacking the base.
53	* SmartBall: Ben Jackson suddenly has considerable knowledge of chemistry, physics, and medicine that he never displays again. This was due to the fact that the story was written before it was decided to have Jamie be a regular, so to accommodate his inclusion, dialogue that was intended for the Doctor was given to Ben.
54	* StayInTheKitchen: Polly gets coffee for the weather machine operators (leading to the Doctor solving how some people were getting a disease), and there is one specific moment where she's planned a clever ScienceHero way of defeating the Cybermen. Ben tells her to stop because 'this is no job for a bird,' but she refuses to listen.
55	* TaintedVeins: Victims of the Cybermen's plague develop prominent black veins.
56	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: The Cyberman spike the base's sugar supply as a means of spreading their virus.
57	* TapOnTheHead: Averted. Jamie's bump on the head is treated very seriously and keeps him bedridden for the first two episodes. Jamie wasn't meant to stick around at first, and the writers had to rush to put him in the script.
58	* TrueCompanions: From the scenes where we see Captain Hobson and Second-In-Command Benoit conversing together, you can see that they care about each other.
59	* WeaksauceWeakness: After being ridiculously vulnerable to radiation in the previous story, this story has the Cybermen dying unpleasantly if you pour organic solvent over them.
60	* WeatherControlMachine: The Gravitron, which is situated on the moon and controls the weather on the Earth.
61	* YouGetMeCoffee: The Doctor telling Polly to make some coffee is often used out of context in clip shows as an example of early ''Doctor Who'' being sexist. In context, it's a means of distracting Hobson from blaming them for the problems, and it's Polly who later in the story comes up with the idea of attacking the Cybermen with solvents.
62	* {{Zeerust}}: The story's version of 2070 depicts a highly advanced human base on the moon with technology capable of controlling the planet's weather from afar. Not only would manned moon missions stop altogether after 1972, but come the actual 21st century, and technology that can directly control the weather would still be a wishful thought.

Context Recap / DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase