[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\\
'''First Doctor Era'''\\
'''Season 4:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers 1]] | '''2''' | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks 3]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E4TheHighlanders 4]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E7TheMacraTerror 7]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes 8]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks 9]]\\
'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 <<< Season 3]]''' | '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen Season 5 >>>]]''']]-]]]
!The Tenth Planet
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tenth_cyber_3548.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference The early models]] ''never'' look as good as the later releases. As it applies for cars, it also applies for Cybermen.]]
->Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis[[note]]Only credited for parts 3 and 4, but contributed to all four parts[[/note]]\\
Directed by Derek Martinus\\
'''Production code:''' DD\\
'''Air dates:''' 8 - 29 October 1966\\
'''Number of episodes:''' 4

->'''Cyberman:''' [[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Feeeee-lings? I do nooot unn-derstand that word. ]]
\\
'''The Doctor:''' Emotions! Love. Pride. ''Hate. Fear!'' Have you no emotions, sir?\\
'''Cyberman:''' [[/folder]]

[[folder: Come to Mondas and youuuu wiill have no need of ee-motions. You-will become like us. ]]


JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor says goodbye... for the first time. Also the first one with the [[Characters/DoctorWhoCybermen Cybermen]].

The first overwhelming WhamEpisode of the series. The Doctor embarks on his final adventure, having reached the precipice of his body's lifespan. But it turns out there can be... a ''[[TheNthDoctor second]]'' Doctor?
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The TARDIS materialises at the South Pole in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the far future of 1986]], where a manned space probe is being talked down to Earth by a Space Tracking Station. The capsule is in difficulty, the Doctor realises, because of the gravitational pull of another planet that is moving toward Earth.

This planet, a dead upside down version of Earth, turns out to be Mondas, Earth's lost "twin planet" from long ago, which drifted away from orbit and is now the home of the Cybermen, a race of human-like beings who have over many centuries replaced their limbs and organs with metal and plastic. The Cybermen attack the tracking station while Mondas starts to drain Earth's energy. Ben stops General Cutler, in command of the station, from launching a powerful "Z-Bomb" to destroy the Cybermen and Mondas eventually disintegrates from absorbing too much energy. The Cybermen are apparently entirely dependent on their planet, as once it is gone they all collapse and die. [[ForegoneConclusion This wasn’t the end of them]], [[JokerImmunity naturally]].

But it isn't all over. It's far from being all over.

The weakened Doctor hurries back to the TARDIS without Ben and Polly, where he collapses and the TARDIS takes off of its own accord, Ben and Polly having caught up. Before the humans' astonished eyes, the Doctor's face glows and becomes that of [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor a completely different man]]...
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This was Creator/WilliamHartnell's last story as the incumbent Doctor, his tenure ending at twenty-nine stories and 134 half-hour episodes (placing him at second only to his distant successor Creator/TomBaker in terms of televised minutes spent in the role) and the debut of Creator/PatrickTroughton as the Second Doctor, in the first instance of regeneration on screen. Since this was just an experimental plot element at the time, the changeover occurred early on in Season 4. Later regenerations would normally not take place until a respective season finale or end-of-year special to cap off that Doctor's tenure (with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani one exception]]). A few of the Doctor's regenerations have been depicted under unique circumstances, when they were sudden plot twists or "[[PutOnABus past due]]", so to speak. Regeneration was not an ability exclusive to the Doctor, as it would be explained as a feature of the Doctor's species and demonstrated by others like him as well.

Episode 4 is, unfortunately, one of the missing ones (although footage of the regeneration itself survives). An animated reconstruction of the fourth episode has been produced for the story's [=DVD=] release, initially in June 2013 as part of a LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition box set of all the Doctor's final stories, and later on its own. A brief segment was also faithfully remade for the 2017 Christmas special "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon a Time]]", which itself takes place within the final moments of this serial and expands on the circumstances behind One's regeneration.
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!!Tropes
* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: The Cybermen speak in a bizarre singsong accent, influenced by early experiments with speech synthesis. Later Cyberman stories drop this in favour of a regular MachineMonotone (as the singsong voice made it difficult for Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins to figure out where their lines began and ended), but the original inflection would reappear in the audio drama [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho034SpareParts "Spare Parts"]] and the Revival Series two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]], which involve the original models of Cybermen seen here.
* AirVentPassageway. Used by Ben to get to the missile to sabotage it. According to the DVDCommentary[[invoked]], the first example in the history of ''Doctor Who''.
* AliensStealCable: The original concept for the Cybermen was that they had learned human speech through radio and TV broadcasts, which explains their strange, synthesized speech and the way they opened their mouths and dispensed it like a recording (weirdly presaging automated phone robots). It wasn't explained on screen, however, and subsequent appearances did not follow up on the idea.
* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Being Earth's twin, Mondas has continents identical to ours.
* AllThereInTheManual: Later expanded universe sources, most notably ''Doctor Who: Cybermen'' and its audio adaptation AudioPlay/TheArcHiveTapes, have InUniverse historians identify the Cybermen seen here as [=CyberMondasians=] (or [=CyberMondans=]), which leads to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime Twelfth Doctor]] being able to recognise their origin on sight. The fact [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion a more advanced race of Cybermen appear to have invaded Earth earlier]] is explained as being a group of Mondasian Cybermen called the [=CyberFaction=] who took their upgrades up to eleven and left Mondas for space, while the remaining Mondasians only replaced what was needed and remained based on their homeworld.
* AllThereInTheScript: The script to the story says that the power drain from Mondas is also the cause of the Doctor's weakness (and thus regeneration), but this is never actually stated in the story itself. A better explanation as to what's happening to One is given in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon A Time]]".
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: '''Twice''' at Snowcap, and at the space agency HQ and [[TakeOurWordForIt reportedly other major government and military sites]] in the final episode.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: The lead Cyberman makes a point worth reflecting upon when Polly asks why he doesn't care that some humans are going to die without help.
--> "I do not understand you. There are people dying all over your world, yet you do not care about ''them''."
* ApocalypseHow: Somewhere between Classes 4 and X, according to the Cybermen, although the Cybermen offer to rescue what humans they can as long as they accept Cyberconversion once they get to Mondas. Mondas itself suffers a Class X at the conclusion of the story.
* ArtisticLicenceSpace: Exactly how the Z-Bomb would make Mondas explode like a supernova is never explained, nor is there any major gravitational effect on the Earth from a planet of equal size coming close enough to distort the orbits of spacecraft in low earth orbit, or how the disintegration of said planet left the Earth unaffected.
* BenchedHero: Happens to William Hartnell frequently during the third season, but it is especially apparent here. The Doctor is absent entirely from Episode 3 due to Hartnell's health that week, and even in the episodes where he appears his role is much reduced as he sits on the sidelines for much of the story, held prisoner either by the Cybermen or by General Cutler. The overall effect [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools works in the story's favour]], as it emphasises the Doctor's near-death exhaustion and fatalism. In addition to Hartnell's health, another factor was that he had already been removed from the series--this was actually the first story of Patrick Troughton's first production block [[note]]Hartnell's other story this season, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers The Smugglers]]", was actually a holdover from the Season 3 production block[[/note]], and Hartnell was hired solely as a guest star. The scripts were written to not ask too much of him, given what was expected to be his mixed feelings about guest starring on his own show.
* BigBad: Gern, the Cyberman who takes over Geneva, is said to be in charge of their forces on Earth.
* BittersweetEnding: The Cybermen were defeated and the Doctor once again saved the day, but at the end of the serial, he regenerates for the first time.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Cybermen at least started out as having a morality which felt alien to humans, thanks to their emotionless logic. Here, they intend to destroy Earth. When Polly screams out that they are killing people, the Cyberman merely points out how illogical her outburst is, as people die all over the world constantly, and she does not display any distress over that. The Cybermen are not even actively malicious in the story. Their survival simply means that Earth has to be destroyed, so they set about to do that. They even make an offer to the nearby humans of being able to continue their existence as Cybermen, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable proposal to the Cybermen themselves.
* BodyHorror: The point of the Cybermen's cloth faces and bare arms.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The Cyber-voices changed to an ordinary MachineMonotone because these original voices, with unusual pauses and inflections, made it hard for the actors to tell where their lines began or ended.
* ChestBlaster: Actually a gun kept on a chest bracket when not it use. And a bit lower than the chest, which sometimes leads to unintentional humour.
* ConflictBall: For no apparent reason -- other than the fact that Cutler's death at the start of the fourth episode means the writers needed someone else to cause conflict among the human characters -- Dyson suddenly starts demanding that they surrender to the Cybermen near the end of the story, despite his having shown no such behaviour during the Cybermen's first take-over of the base.
* CreepyMonotone: Quasi-example — the Cybermen talk in bizarre, alternating, almost singsong tones which nonetheless carry no emotion.
* CultureClash: The Cybermen genuinely don't understand why the Humans don't wish to cooperate with their plans.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: The Cybermen in this story have many more visible humanoid parts (most notably their hands and, if observed more closely, their eyes) than in any later story, making them look less streamlined but adding extra BodyHorror, particularly when compounded by the white cloth facial coverings (which, due to their resemblance to surgical masks, arguably accentuate the grotesqueness of the Cybermen through implicitly painting them as the products of crude cybernetic 'operations') they don in this serial, a marked visual and conceptual contrast from the more generalized robotic aesthetics of their later designs, which were introduced due to the original costumes being too uncomfortable to wear again.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In this story, the Cybermen all possess individual names, with the first faction led by Krail, and consisting of Talon and Shav, while the second group is led by Krang, consisting of Jarl, while Gern assumes control of the Earth.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: The major threat for both planets during the final two episodes.
* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: The Cybermen speak in a creepy, broken singsong voice.
* ExtyYearsFromPublication: The story is set twenty years in the future.
* FacialHorror: The Cybermen have cloth facemasks, black void eyes, and mouths that just sort of hang open while they talk, implying severe facial disfigurement going on underneath. It's part of why they are so disturbing.
* FakeShemp: The "Doctor passes out at the start of an episode for no clearly explained reason" plot device gets one last outing at the start of Episode 3. Creator/WilliamHartnell collapsed with bronchitis and had to take a week off. As a result, Gordon Craig plays the Doctor for Episode 3, and the lines originally written for the Doctor were given to Ben, Polly and Barclay. Craig also doubles for Hartnell in the "exterior" scenes in Episode 1 as the TARDIS crew are arrested and taken into the base. Hartnell's absence for Episode 3 actually works in the story's favour, as it means the Doctor summoned enough energy for a "once more unto the breach" and you can tell he's dying as Episode 4 progresses.
* FiveRoundsRapid: Averted! The Cybermen are ImmuneToBullets, but the Snowcap personnel quickly manage to get hold of some Cyberguns, which work perfectly well. Played straight, however, with Cutler's death.
* GeneralRipper: General Cutler is a perfect Ripper type. He wants to destroy the cybermen's planet with a planet-busting "Z-Bomb" to avenge his own son and is ready to disobey orders to do it (the Doctor realizes that doing nothing is the better course of action; and most of the story is his companions trying to stop the out-of-control general).
* HeroicFatigue: The Doctor is out of commission for Episode Three. He rallies briefly in Episode Four, but is clearly exhausted by the end, staggering back to the TARDIS to set the ship in motion before he regenerates.
* HomeworldEvacuation: To try and clear up the Cybermen's MultipleChoicePast, the novelization says that they originated on the planet Telos and had to evacuate to Mondas.
* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: It has three main points about it that get very important later. It introduced the "Base under Siege" formula that would dominate the Second Doctor era and influence the show's slide from a GenreRoulette format into MonsterOfTheWeek; introduced the Cybermen, who would become one of the most iconic villains in the series; and ended with a shock twist of the Doctor suddenly turning into a totally different person, with a new actor in the role. All of these at the time were just decisions being made for this particular story and RealLifeWritesThePlot, but due to the show's KudzuPlot nature all became very significant (although some in terms of the show's feel rather than in plot points).
* {{Irony}}:
** Episode 3 is the last surviving episode from the Hartnell era, and Hartnell's not in it. The episode that features him regenerating is the only one missing from this story (though it got reconstructed).
** The story that is supposed to focus on the demise of the First Doctor doesn't do much to explain why he's dying or give him much of a sendoff- he just admits he's growing weak and then drops down dying at the end. Instead, the story that ''actually'' focuses on him wrestling with the prospects of his life ending is explored over 50 years later, long after the death of the original actor and overlapping with [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime the end of another Doctor's tenure who is a spiritual successor to how the First Doctor generally composed himself.]]
* KeystoneArmy: The Cybermen on Earth still draw their power from Mondas and stop moving when it's destroyed.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: A twist. The Cybermen debuts on William Hartnell/the First Doctor's last serial.
* LiteralMinded: Krail, when asked by Polly if he has a heart, in a figurative sense, responds "No. That is one of the weaknesses we have removed."
* MatrixRainingCode: The serial uses this in its {{Episode Title Card}}s, evoking listening stations.
* MultinationalTeam: At both Snowcap and the space agency headquarters.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ben after he kills a Cyberman in self-defence.
* NationalStereotypes: The Italian soldier has pin-up photos all over his bunk and pervs over Polly, and the American General is a trigger-happy nut.
* NoEndorHolocaust: Mondas explodes at a close enough range where its gravity has already begun to affect Earth, but our planet suffers no ill effects from its destruction.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Played with: the Cybermen draw power from Mondas, thus it makes sense that its destruction means their death. But rather than simply falling down dead when Mondas is destroyed, their organic parts out-and-out ''disintegrate''. While it's said they were wholly dependent on power from Mondas, thus explaining why they died alongside it, not only do they drop dead almost instantly, but their organic parts, for almost no reason, disintegrate completely.
* {{Novelization}}: Was novelized as ''Doctor Who And The Tenth Planet'' by the televised story's script writer, Gerry Davis.
* TheNthDoctor: The trope-naming, trope-codifying moment ends the story. A combination of old age and the draining effects of Mondas results in the Doctor seemingly dropping dead in the TARDIS. However, to the surprise of his companions (and the viewers at home), he instead transforms into a completely different, much younger man, allowing Creator/PatrickTroughton to take over the role from the similarly-ailing Creator/WilliamHartnell.
* NukeEm: Cutler's plan in Episode 3, despite what would have been catastrophic results for Earth.
* OffScreenMomentOfAwesome: While Ben and Polly are trying to catch up with him at the end of the story, the First Doctor has [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime bumped into the Twelfth Doctor.]]
* OutOfGenreExperience: This is a First Doctor story that feels strongly like a Second Doctor story. It follows the "Base Under Siege" format associated with the Second Doctor era, primarily emphasizes the Troughton era's more bracing, action-oriented tone, as opposed to the mannered theatrical aesthetic underlying the majority of Hartnell's tenure and features the Cybermen, antagonists subsequently used heavily in Patrick Troughton's tenure.
* PeopleInRubberSuits: The original Cybermen were guys in a balaclava and a (somewhat loose) catsuit, carrying plastic stuff suspenders-like. Plus a funnel on their heads. And a serious speech impediment. It actually worked; they were terrifying instead of being ridiculous.
* PhlebotinumOverload: Mondas drains Earth's energy to revitalize itself and gets a little greedy. EarthShatteringKaboom ensues.
* PinballProtagonist: The First Doctor ironically is this in his last story, but the script plays with this trope in an interesting way. The Doctor has limited screentime in the story because Creator/WilliamHartnell's health was failing, and even spends a whole middle episode asleep (apparently for no reason- until five decades later a [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime proper explanation comes into play that his body is gravely weak from old age]]). His plan for dealing with the evil planet draining the Earth's energy is incredibly passive: simply to wait for it to die, which he says it will do in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, his expansive apparent knowledge followed by his sudden absence ramps up the paranoia among the humans to fever pitch to the point where everyone turns against him and the General even accuses him of killing his son. Even after his prediction turns out to be right and the planet dies, it's a hollow victory, as the Doctor's unconsciousness is revealed to be a ChekhovsGun foreshadowing his regeneration.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Kit Pedler was asked to write about something in the science world that concerned him. Early robotic prosthetic limbs and implantable artificial pacemakers were emerging at the time and so he chose to create a race of Cyborgs that had replaced most of their human bodies with machinery.
* SettingUpdate: The 1976 novelization changes the year from 1986 to 2000.
* ShaggyDogStory: General Cutler really goes off the deep end when he thinks his son has been killed. He tries to kills the Doctor, whom he blames for the disaster, only to be killed by the Cybermen. It's later revealed that his son is alive and well.
* SheatheYourSword: Mondas blows up on its own, killing all the Cybermen, and Cutler's attempts to take more aggressive action would have led only to disaster.
* ShoutOut: Ben calls Polly "''Film/NanookOfTheNorth''" because of her fur coat.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Aside from Polly, the only female character in the story is an unnamed Geneva technician.
* SpecialEditionTitle: The story title, episode number and writer are given in a specially made sequence '60s computer graphic sequence, unique to this story.
* StayInTheKitchen: The space programme has men from all over the world (as opposed to a purely American or British programme) but no women whatsoever.
* TapOnTheHead: Ben gets knocked out after sabotaging the missile and has to watch the countdown when he wakes up not able to remember whether he did it or not.
* TemporarySubstitute: Creator/WilliamHartnell sits out the third episode due to illness. As a result, his lines were assigned to Ben and other characters (aware of how ill Hartnell was, the scripts had been written with the possibility of this happening in mind, so it is not as noticeable as it might sound).
* TemptingFate: The news broadcast reporting that there is absolutely no danger from the mysterious new planet.
* ThickerThanWater: Cutler's more irresponsible actions are driven by the desire to save his son.
* UncannyValley: The original design for the Cybermen is this, with the mouths that open and make no further movements as their inhumanly sing-song voices drone on. The empty eyehole sockets contribute to this as well. Compared to later versions, these Cybermen look more like [[Franchise/StarTrek Borg drones]] or cybernetic versions of [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein's monster]]. The freakiest thing about them might be that ''their hands are still human''.
* VillainousRescue: Cutler is on the point of murdering the Doctor and friends when the second Cyberman squad burst into the base and kill him. The Doctor is generous enough to thank them. Also a big part of their plans for the people of Earth, [[TheAssimilator for a given value of "rescue."]]
* WeaksauceWeakness: These Cybermen are much more vulnerable than humans to radiation, despite their bionics.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The people of Mondas sought to ensure their survival by converting themselves into Cybermen, and upon invading Earth, they propose doing the same thing to humankind out of a warped sense of altruism that overlooks the fact that, even if it prolongs their lives, most people don't ''want'' to become cold, emotionless cyborgs.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Averted: the Cybermen here uniquely have individual names, and Ben feels guilty after killing one of them in self-defence.
* WhamEpisode: Introduction of the Cybermen, regeneration debuts, Hartnell leaves.
* WhamShot: The final moments of Episode 4. The Doctor wordlessly staggers back into the TARDIS, collapses as it takes off, and mysteriously appears to become a completely different person.
* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: The Doctor ultimately does nothing and the Cybermen and their planet are destroyed by absorbing too much energy. The invasion could potentially have played out exactly the same way if the Doctor and his companions had not been there, depending on whether or not the base's personnel had been able to prevent Cutler from using the Z-Bomb and potentially killing half the population of Earth along with Mondas.
* WriterOnBoard: Dr. Kit Pedler based the Cybermen on his fear of dehumanizing medicine -- specifically [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul mechanical things]] such as pacemakers.
* YouCantFightFate: The first time that this trope is applied to something that ''the Doctor'' evidently knows as being a historical fact, but which is still in the "future" of the viewers watching at home. Once he recognises where he is and what's going on, the Doctor subsequently treats all events in the story as being inevitable. Of course, since the power drain will ''destroy'' Mondas before it threatens Earth, and the plan to destroy Earth to stop the drain in time requires human help (apparently, they never invented radiation suits) the Doctor knows that the proper course is to sit back and wait for the Mondasians' time to run out. It's less "you can't fight fate" and more "don't screw with fate when it's on your side." Though near the end they must stall to prevent the Cybermen from killing anyone else, most of the drama isn't fighting the Cybermen, but stopping General Cutler from using his doomsday weapons that could leave Earth an irradiated wasteland -- or from killing the Doctor and company in punishment afterward.
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->''"Ah yes, thank you, it's good, keep warm."''[[note]]The last words of the First Doctor, at least in ''[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime this]]'' story.[[/note]]
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