History Recap / DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen

'''Production code:''' MM

Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis. This four-episode serial first aired from September 2-23, 1967.

* {{Novelization}}: Was novelized as ''Doctor Who And The Tomb Of The Cynermen'' by the story's script writer, Gerry Davis.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Inverted. Toberman is the ''last'' (well, joint last) character to die.

* JustForPun: See LamePunReaction below.

-> ''"Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."''

The one with killer silverfish.

Toberman is captured and partially Cyber-modified, but the party manages to escape the tomb area and stall off the (still weakened) Cybermen. The Doctor also uses electricity to disable the Cybermats and later the group finds a single Cyber-prototype weapon to keep the Cybermen at bay. At the same time, the Cyber-Controller orders his Cybermen to return to their cryogenic tombs (as they are very low on energy), while Kaftan and Klieg attempt to betray the Doctor and friends by stealing their weapon and using it to seize control over the Cybermen, causing a very uneasy (and very temporary) alliance between the Doctor and the Controller to ensure their mutual survival. Kaftan and Klieg end up being massacred by a lone Cyberman and with the mutual threat gone, the Cyber-Controller turns against the Doctor's group, but Toberman's willpower allows him to temporarily overcome his Cyber-conditioning and destroys one Cyberman, giving everyone the chance to escape. Finally, Toberman makes a HeroicSacrifice by closing the entrance to the tomb and activating the door's defence mechanism, which electrocutes both him and the Cyber-Controller, leaving the remaining Cybermen locked inside forever. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E1AttackOfTheCybermen Or so it would seem]]. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria part ways with the surviving expedition's members and each go on their way.

[[caption-width-right:350:Music/DaftPunk, the early years!]]

As bad an idea as this would be, it turns out to be irrelevant anyway, as the tomb is just a giant logic puzzle designed to weed out everyone but the smartest people, whom the Cybermen judge worthy to be upgraded. The Cybermen punch their way out of the refrigerated tombs and the big-brained Cyber-Controller seems they will become Cybermen themselves. They soon end up attacking the party while accompanied by little slug-like Cybermats.

Toberman is captured and partially Cybermodified, but the party manages to escape the tomb area and stall off the (still weakened) Cybermen. The Doctor also uses electricity to disable the Cybermats and later the group finds a single Cyber-prototype weapon to keep the Cybermen at bay. At the same time, the Cyber-Controller orders his Cybermen to return to their cryogenic tombs (as they are very low on energy), while Kaftan and Klieg attempt to betray the Doctor and friends by stealing their weapon and using it to seize control over the Cybermen, causing a very uneasy (and temporary) alliance between the Doctor and the Controller to ensure their mutual survival. Kaftan and Klieg end up being massacred by a lone Cyberman and with the mutual threat gone, the Cyber-Controller turns against the Doctor's group, but Toberman's willpower allows him to temporarily overcome his Cyberconditioning and destroys one Cyberman, giving everyone the chance to escape. Finally, Toberman makes an HeroicSacrifice by closing the entrance to the tomb and activating the door's defence mechanism, which electrocutes both him and the Cyber-Controller, leaving the remaining Cybermen locked inside forever. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria part ways with the surviving expedition's members and each go on their way.

This serial would mark a crucial turning point for the Cybermen's place in ''Doctor Who''. Having previously killed off the Daleks in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks the last story]] with the intention of keeping it permanent (a plan which was ultimately for naught come [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks "Day of the Daleks"]]), the Cybermen emerged as a suitable replacement for the megalomaniacal pepperpots. Starting with this story, they would become the Second Doctor's closest equivalent to an arch-enemy, facing off against him [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace twice]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion more]] and marking a total of four appearances during the Creator/PatrickTroughton years (compared to just two Dalek stories).

Also, this story turned Creator/MattSmith (i.e. The Eleventh Doctor) into a fan of the show, and he has stated that it was watching this serial that inspired his own costume as the Doctor, most notably wearing a bowtie.

Though the Cybermen made only [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen one full appearance]] (plus [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E2CarnivalOfMonsters a cameo]]) during the next decade, owed in part to a concerted effort by the show's staff to reduce the number of clashes with returning villains, by the '80s they would emerge as a direct counterpart to the Daleks, a trait exploited by the show's marketing. The fact that the Cybermen were to the Second Doctor what the Daleks were to the First Doctor didn't go unnoticed by the writers, either, and as soon as season 7 they started envisioning a hypothetical face-off between the two, an idea which would ultimately be realized in the Revival Series episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]].

All four episodes of this story were thought to be lost for decades, until a complete copy was discovered in 1991 in Hong Kong -- Prior to October 2013, it was the ''only'' complete story of Season 5, of Victoria, and of the first two years of Troughton.

* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: When Victoria asks the Doctor how old he is, he replies "Well, if we count ''in Earth terms'', I suppose I must be about 400, yes, about 450 years old".

Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis. This serial first aired September 2-23, 1967.

* TakeOverTheWorld: Kaftan and Klieg plan to use the Cybermen technology to do this.

* PlayingPossum: First Kaftan fakes being unconscious (though not dead), and later on the Cybercontroller plays possum.

* LastVillainStand: After the Cybermen have either been sealed back in their Tombs or destroyed, the Cyber Controller makes a last attempt to leave the Tombs. This is stopped by the HeroicSacrifice of Toberman, who [[YouShallNotPass closes the doors]] giving them both an electric shock. Although it is revealed in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E1AttackOfTheCybermen "Attack of the Cybermen"]] that the Controller survived.

* TemptingFate: Jamie is confident the ropes he's tied will keep the Cybercontroller down.

* VillainousBreakdown: Klieg just can't seem to grasp that the Cybermen never will cooperate and that his plan was doomed to fail from the start. At the end, he names himself the new Cybercontroller, right before he is killed by a Cyberman.

* YouShallNotPass: The Doctor and Jamie attempt to close the electrified doors to the tombs, sealing the Cyber Controller inside. When they realize that doing so would kill them as well, even if they could overcome the Controller's attempts to force its way out, the enormous Toberman pushes them aside, declares, "You shall not pass Toberman: The door is closed," and forces the doors shut, killing himself and (apparently) the Cyber Controller.

The TARDIS lands on the planet Telos, where a group of Earth archaeologists is trying to uncover the fabled Tomb of the Cybermen. The Doctor helps them get in, where they discover the creepy silent remains of the Cybermen's city.

The Doctor helps them to open the way down to the tombs of the Cybermen, whereupon Kaftan and logician Klieg awaken the Cybermen from their cryogenic sleep and reveal that they are in fact there to revive the Cybermen, using their brains and the Cybermen's strength to conquer the universe.

As bad an idea as this would be, it turns out to be irrelevant anyway, as the tomb is just a giant logic puzzle designed to weed out everyone but the smartest people, whom the Cybermen judge worthy to be upgraded. The Cybermen punch their way out of the refrigerated tombs and attack the party accompanied by little slug-like Cybermats.

Toberman is captured and partially Cybermodified, but the party manages to escape the tomb area and stall off the (still weakened) Cybermen. The Doctor also uses electricity to disable the Cybermats and later the group finds a single Cyber-prototype weapon to keep the Cybermen at bay. At the same time, the Cybercontroller orders his Cybermen to return to their cryogenic tombs (as they are very low on energy), while Kaftan and Klieg attempt to betray the Doctor and friends by stealing their weapon and using it to seize control over the Cybermen, causing a very uneasy (and temporary) alliance between the Doctor and the Cybercontroller to ensure their mutual survival. Kaftan and Klieg end up being massacred by a lone Cyberman and with the mutual threat gone, the Cybercontroller turns against the Doctor's group, but Toberman's willpower allows him to temporarily overcome his Cyberconditioning and destroys one Cyberman, giving everyone the chance to escape. Finally, Toberman makes an HeroicSacrifice by closing the entrance to the tomb and activating the door's defence mechanism, which electrocutes both him and the Cybercontroller, leaving the remaining Cybermen locked inside forever. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria part ways with the surviving expedition's members and each go on their way.

* BigBad: The domed Cyber Controller. As Cyber Leaders hadn't been invented yet, this was the first time we saw a chain of command with the Cybermen. Also Klieg and Kaftan who serve as the human antagonists.