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Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 22 Reviews)

Unwatchable
Like much poor quality TV, this one is "geared towards kids." Theme song notwithstanding, it bears no resemblance to episodes from the Tom Baker era. It utterly lacks an intellectual component! The central conceit here is a bunch of lackwits who, having stumbled upon a tomb full of computer equipment, can't resist throwing random levers and pushing random buttons while the Doctor stands back saying "Don't touch that! You shouldn't have touched that!" Inevitably, one of the levers rejuvenates the cybermen. It just gets worse from there. Abysmal.

Telling the tale of Telos. (With Symbolic logic.)
Without doubt the best story in the series's history (closely followed by Evil of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep). After landing on Telos* the story speeds along, with the best ever Doctor and the best ever villains.
(60's Cybermen)
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The story is rather clever, it transpires that the Cybermen had built the Tombs as a intelligence test. Instead of searching the Galaxy for the most intelligent lifeforms they let the most intelligent lifeforms come to them where capture was imminent.
(After they had solved some logic problems).
Luckily for the expedition the Doctor was on hand to save the day.
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I was so pleased when I'd heard this story had been found (In a bank vault in Hong Kong?)that I bought it on it's release day in VHS format then again 10 years later on DVD, again on it's release day.
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*(The Cybermens adopted planet since Hartnell's Doctor destroyed their original home Mondas in the story The Tenth Planet.)

~The scene where the Doctor attempts to comfort Victoria by telling her about his family is rather moving.

~Watch out for the scene at the beginning of episode 2 when the Doctor tells everyone they can leave the room if they wish and the only one who means to leave is Jamie,and the Doctor says "Not you Jamie". Priceless.

~The new 2006 Cybermen are rather impressive ! But that's another story.

Originally broadcast BBC 1 :~2/9/67-23/9/67
ENJOY!

Poorly written, but surprisingly entertaining.
During all the years that "Tomb" was missing, it developed a reputation as one of the best episodes... or at least one of the best Troughton episodes. And, since we don't have most of the Troughton episodes, it way well BE one of the best, for all we know! However, it isn't one of the best Who's, and isn't nearly as good as it's reputation.

On the positive side, the remastering of the DVD is excellent, and, as with all the Who DVD's, there are lots of interesting extras. The acting from the regulars is great, I especially enjoyed Victoria in this one. There is some good dialogue. The Cybermen themselves, while obviously men in silver suits, are suitably eerie. The special effects, by and large, are fine for the era and the budget. Oh, and the Cybemats are SOOO cute!

On the negative side, however, there are a LOT of problems.

The acting from the guests is, almost without exception, awful. Everyone hams and mugs for the camera, rather than getting into their roles. Or maybe it's just that the characters, as written, are so shallow and two dimensional that the actors couldn't do anything with them.

And the plot and writing is, frankly ... nonsensical, with the characters running around doing things that make NO sense whatsoever. I mean ... did they really travel several thousand lightyears, planning to spend only a few hours on the planet before turning around and going home again? These archeologists have, apparently, no supplies or equipment. How do they plan on actually doing any sort of archeological work? Locking the prisoners in the weapon's testing room? Come on. And, did the villian (who's name escapes me at the moment) REALLY believe that the Cybermen would instantly agree to work with him? Or rather, work for him? And then, the moment they refuse and hurt him a bit, he's suddenly babbling about how he had no idea how powerful they would be and that he had 'completly underestimated them!!!' Hardly a logical sequence of actions for a man who claims to be well versed in Logic! Why did Victoria leave the gun behind when she went to fetch the captain?
And so much more ...

Despite all the problems, the story really is quite entertaining. I just wish that the writers of the time would have put a little more thought and effort into their scripts.

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