History Recap / DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: [=Theeee CYbermen have A biZARRE singSONG ACcent.=]

* 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.

* PantyShot: In Episode Three, when Polly climbs up into the bunk, you get a flash of her knickers.

Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis. This serial first aired October 8-29, 1966.

* AirVentPassageway. Used by Ben to get to the missile to sabotage it. According to the DVDCommentary, the first example in the history of ''Doctor Who''.

This planet, a dead upside down version of Earth [[note]] ([[Series/StrangerThings No, not that one.]])[[/note]], 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]].

* AbsenteeActor: 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).

* ExtyYearsFromNow: The story is set twenty years in the future.

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 Tom Baker 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.

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 Tom Baker 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.

This was Creator/WilliamHartnell's last story as the incumbent Doctor, his tenure ending at twenty-nine stories, 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.

* 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 used heavily in Patrick Troughton's tenure.

* EarlyInstalmentCharacterDesignDifference: 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 failed cybernetic 'operations') they don in this serial, a marked visual and conceptual contrast from the more generalized robotic aesthetics of their later designs.

* EarlyInstalmentCharacterDesignDifference: The Cybermen in this story have many more visible humanoid parts than in any later story, making them look less streamlined but adding extra BodyHorror.

* 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 and features the Cybermen, a villain used heavily in Patrick Troughton's tenure.

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: 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.

* 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.

* ArtisticLicenceAstronomy: 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.

* AbsenteeActor: Creator/WilliamHartnell sits out the third episode due to illness. As a result, his lines were assigned to Ben and other characters.

->''[[FamousLastWords "Ah yes, thank you, it's good, keep warm."]]'' [[note]]The last words of the First Doctor, at least in ''this'' story.[[/note]]

->''[[FamousLastWords "Ah yes, thank you, it's good, keep warm."]]''[[note]]The last words of the First Doctor, at least in ''this'' story.[[/note]]

->''[[FamousLastWords "Ah yes, thank you, it's good, keep warm."]]''[[note]]The last words of the First Doctor, at least in ''this'' story.[[note]]

----->''[[FamousLastWords "Ah yes, thank you, it's good, keep warm."]]'' (The last words of the First Doctor, at least in ''this'' story)

This planet, a dead upside down version of Earth [[note]] ([[Series/StrangerThings No, not that one.]])[[/note]], turns out to be Mondas, Earth's "twin planet" from long ago, 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]].

This planet, a dead upside down version of Earth [[note]] ([[Series/StrangerThings No, not that one]]!)[[/note]], turns out to be Mondas, Earth's "twin planet" from long ago, 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]].

This planet, a dead upside down version of Earth [[note]] [[Series/StrangerThings (No, not that one]]!)[[/note]], turns out to be Mondas, Earth's "twin planet" from long ago, 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]].