 This story marks the end of an era as it is William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor. It is also the first story to feature the Cybermen and Patrick Troughton makes his first, uncredited appearance as the Second Doctor.
William Hartnell's departure from Doctor Who came after many months' discussion about William Hartnell's deteriorating health. When this came to a head, Producer Innes Lloyd decided not to renew Hartnell's contract. It is unclear if Hartnell was contractually obliged to appear in this story or if he agreed to do so after being informed of Lloyd's decision. Despite this The Doctor does not appear in Episode 3 as William Hartnell was unwell during the week when it was recorded. Gerry Davis rewrote the script to explain The Doctor's absence (his sudden collapse) and gave his dialogue to other characters, most noticeably Ben Jackson.
For the only time in the Cybermen’s history in the television show the Cybermen have names. This was done perhaps to highlight the last vestiges of their individuality. The brains of the Cybermen are 'human', but lack emotions, and, despite having 'normal' hands, their bodies are impervious to bullets and extremes of temperature, but not to radiation.
When the Cybermen’s planet, Mondas, first appears it is vaguely said to be between Mars and Venus. Its continental land masses are similar to Earth's, and The Doctor is aware of the existence of the planet.
The Doctor attributes his seeming 'illness' to his body 'wearing a bit thin', perhaps accelerated by 'an outside force of some kind' – possible the effects of Mondas on Earth especially considering that the astronauts close to Mondas suffered from fatigue as well. Just before he regenerates he says 'No, I can't go through with it! I can't. I will not give in' - indicating that he has, perhaps, clung onto his first body for too long. Story Editor Gerry Davis later stated that it was intended for the energy drain from Mondas to be the cause of the regeneration, but that it didn't come across clearly on screen.
All four episodes of this story feature a specially designed graphics sequence used for the opening titles and closing credits. Designed by Bernard Lodge, they were intended to resemble a 'computer tape' printout.
Episodes three and four were co-written by Gerry Davis. Interestingly the writing credit for the first episode has Kit Pedler is incorrectly identified as 'Kitt Pedler' and title music is incorrectly identified to 'Byron Grainer'; for episode three, Gerry Davis is incorrectly identified as 'Gerry Davies'.
Sometimes the Cybermen start to talk before their mouths open.
This story was originally filmed as part of the third season bloc. Along with "The Smugglers", these stories were held over to Season Four.
The 8th October 2006 marked the end of William Hartnell's tenure on Doctor Who. The first scene recorded on this day was the renewal sequence itself. Originally, this would have simply seen William Hartnell collapse on the floor of the TARDIS Console Room with his cloak covering his face; in the first episode of the next story, "The Power of the Daleks", the cloak would have been pulled back to reveal Troughton. However, vision mixer Shirley Coward was able to design a way to actually depict the renewal. This took advantage of a malfunctioning mixing desk, which tended to cause the image to flare noticeably, to create an effect by which the image of the First Doctor became overexposed almost to a white-out, then settled down again to reveal the Second Doctor. Patrick Troughton was therefore asked to sign a new contract on 16th September so as to appear in the final episode. Once this was completed, the remainder of part four was taped, whereupon the cast and crew retired to a farewell party in William Hartnell's honour at Lloyd's home.
While The Doctor regenerates at the end of this story, the process was unnamed. In the subsequent programme, "The Power of the Daleks", The Doctor states that he had been ‘renewed’, implying a restoration of youth rather than a change of body. The concept was not called ‘regeneration’ until the
Third Doctor’s final story "Planet of the Spiders". (The Doctor would again use the term ‘renewal’ as a synonym for ‘regeneration’ in "The Twin Dilemma").
Ben and Polly Wright, having returned to their own lives in 1966, meet again in 1986 to sit through the same events in the spin-off short story "Mondas Passing" by Paul Grice.
The Sixth Doctor story, "Attack of the Cybermen", takes place in 1985, a year before the events of this story.
The events leading up to this story, from the Cybermen's perspective, are heard in the Big Finish Productions audio story "Spare Parts" with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.
William Hartnell would reprise the role of the First Doctor on only one occasion: the 1973 Tenth Anniversary Special "The Three Doctors", although a clip of him would be seen briefly at the start of Patrick Troughton's first story, "The Power of the Daleks", as well as at the beginning of the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special, "The Five Doctors" (where Richard Hurndall would play the First Doctor during most of the episode). A clip from this episode was also used in "Earthshock". His return to the show in "The Three Doctors" was far more limited than he had originally aspired due to ill health. "The Three Doctors" turned out to be William Hartnell's final performance. Crippled by a series of strokes, William Hartnell passed away on 24th April 1975.
Unfortunately the final episode of this story is missing. It is possibly the most sought-after of the missing episodes, because it contains the historic first regeneration scene (even though a low-quality, truncated copy of this sequence survives and is held in the BBC Archives), and also because it is William Hartnell's final episode. In fact, it is included in a list of the ten most wanted missing programmes, alongside the BBC studio footage from the Apollo 11 landings (which is currently held only in soundtrack form). Because of this in 1992 rumours started that a videotape recording of this missing episode existed. Before this was revealed as a hoax, the BBC produced a special introduction for an intended VHS release of the story, hosted by Michael Craze; two versions of which were filmed: one explaining that episode four was still missing, the other introducing the story as if it were complete.
From the last episode only the regeneration sequence remains (retrieved from footage used in the children’s programme Blue Peter) and about 78 seconds of 8mm footage, taped off air by a fan, and Australian censor clips. Telesnaps (off-air camera photographs) from this story exist in both the BBC archives as well as the hands of private collectors.
A novelisation of this story, written by Gerry Davis, was published by Target Books in February 1976. It was the first William Hartnell-era novelisation to be commissioned by Target, and the first new adaptation of a First Doctor adventure to be published in nearly ten years. It would take until 1990 for the complete First Doctor era to be novelised. The novelisation largely follows the original script and so places the action in the year 2000 as well as restoring The Doctor to the third episode.
This story was released on DVD, in December 2013, with an animated version of the fourth episode along with the original soundtrack.
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The Firsts:
The first appearance of the Cybermen.
The very first regeneration scene.
Patrick Troughton's first (albeit uncredited) appearance as the Second Doctor.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis.
Gillian James' first involvement in the show as Makeup Artist.
Sandra Reid's first involvement in the show as Costume Designer.
The first William Hartnell-era serial novelisation to be commissioned by Target, and the first new adaptation of a First Doctor adventure to be published in nearly ten years.
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(Position = 26 out of 159)
(Position = 55 out of 200)
