 This story saw the return of the Cybermen for the first time as major villains since the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Invasion" – an absence of over six years.
The original script was written by Gerry Davis (with the original title "Return of the Cybermen") but Script Editor Robert Holmes rewrote it extensively, adding the Vogan subplots.
Kevin Stoney (who played Tyrum) previously appeared as Mavic Chen in the 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan" and as Tobias Vaughan in the previous Cyberman story "The Invasion" in 1968.
Christopher Robbie (who played the Cyber Leader) previously appeared as the Karkus in the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Mind Robber".
Ronald Leigh-Hunt (who played Commander Stevenson) previously appeared as Commander Radnor in the 1969 Second Doctor story "The Seeds of Death".
William Marlowe (who played Lester) previously appeared as Mailer in the 1971 Third Doctor story "The Mind of Evil".
Michael Wisher (who played Magrik) appeared as Davros, in the previous story "Genesis of the Daleks". He also was in the Third Doctor stories; "Terror of the Autons" (as Rex Farrell), "Ambassadors of Death" (as the TV commentator) and "Carnival of Monsters" (as Kalik). He had also voiced the Daleks in "Frontier in Space" and "Death to the Daleks". He went on to play Morelli in "Planet of Evil".
Alec Wallis (who played Warner) previously appeared as Telegraphist Bowman in the 1972 Third Doctor story "The Sea Devils".
Melville Jones (the first Cyberman) previously appeared as a guard in the 1972 Third Doctor story "The Time Monster".
Pat Gorman (a Cyberman) previously appeared as a Thal Soldier in "Genesis of the Daleks" and appeared in a total of 75 episodes of Doctor Who.
David Collings (who played Vorus) later appeared as Poul in "The Robots of Death" and as Mawdryn in the 1983 Fifth Doctor story "Mawdryn Undead". He would also go on to play an alternate Doctor in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who Unbound audio story "Full Fathom Five".
Brian Grellis (who played Sheprah) later appeared as Saffran in "The Invisible Enemy" and the Megaphone man in the 1983 Fifth Doctor story "Snakedance".
Jeremy Wilkin (who played Kelman) later appeared as Tarrant in the first episode of Blake's 7.
"Revenge of the Cybermen" forms part of a continuous series of adventures for the TARDIS crew, beginning from the end of "Robot" and continuing through to "Terror of the Zygons", although the Virgin Books’ The Missing Adventures novel "A Device of Death" takes place in a possible gap between "Genesis of the Daleks" and "Revenge of the Cybermen", and the BBC Books The Past Doctor Adventures novel "Wolfsbane" is set in another such gap between "Revenge of the Cybermen" and "Terror of the Zygons".
This story was directed by Michael E Briant, who had last worked on "Death to the Daleks" the season before. After deciding against re-using the remaining Cyberman costumes left over from "The Invasion" due to their antiquated appearance, Michael E Briant had four new suits made for "Revenge of the Cybermen" including, for the first time, the Cyber Leader whose rank was distinguished from the other Cybermen by having the ‘handlebar’ section of his helmet black rather than silver.
The Cybermen's voices were provided for the first time by the actors inside the costumes.
This is the only Fourth Doctor story to feature the Cybermen and is the last appearance (barring flashbacks) of the race for seven years until the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock".
It is revealed that Sarah Jane Smith has heard of the Cybermen (presumably from their attempted invasion in 1969 ("The Invasion")) and that they were meant to have been wiped out ages ago.
The Cybermen don't recognise The Doctor, and it is revealed that they are bullet-proof, have hydraulic muscles and can fire weapons from their head units. The non-corrodible metal gold clogs up their breathing apparatus and suffocates them. Interestingly in the 1967 Second Doctor story, "The Moonbase", they don't need to breathe so enabling them to walk on the Moon’s surface.
This is the first reference to gold as a vulnerability of Cybermen, and its use to kill the cyber-enhanced creatures. This vulnerability remained a plot point in some subsequent adventures (namely in "Earthshock" and the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "Silver Nemesis").
Despite the fact that Cybermen are emotionless beings, The Doctor easily provokes the Cyberleader into strangling him. Other emotions expressed by the Cybermen include glee, satisfaction (the Cyberleader's hands-on-hips body language), humour ('Nice sense of irony', The Doctor says concerning the Cyberleader's joke about him not being around to see the 'magnificent spectacle' of Voga's destruction), irritation ('I think you've riled him', says Harry), hatred, fear, and enough pride to refer to themselves as 'warriors'.
This story features a new form of Cybermat. However, this is the last on-screen appearance for these cyber-rodents.
The Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan have been on the Nerva Space Station before. However in this story they have travelled back in time before their previous visit where the Space Station is being used as a beacon and before it became The Ark.
This story was shot on the same set as "The Ark in Space" which was filmed out of sequence immediately before this story (which explains why the production code is out of broadcast sequence). Reusing previously used sets represented substantial cost saving.
The location filming in the Wookey Hole Caves, in Somerset, was extremely problematic, including Elisabeth Sladen falling out of a powerboat, the illness of stuntman Terry Walsh an electrician suffering a broken leg when a ladder collapsed. All these problems were attributed to the legendary ‘Witch of Wookey Hole’.
Wookey Hole was later used as a location in the ninth episode of Blake's 7, "Project Avalon".
The incidental music for this story was composed by Carey Blyton. This would be his final work for the show. However, Producer Philip Hinchcliffe tasked the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to enhance the score, which was done by Peter Howell by adding some synthesiser cues to Carey Blyton's score. Peter Howell though did not receive an on-screen credit. Peter Howell would go on to arrange the 1980 Doctor Who theme music and provide incidental music for the show from the 1980 Fourth Doctor story "The Leisure Hive" to the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "The Two Doctors".
The launching of the Skystriker is represented by rather obvious NASA stock footage of a Saturn V rocket taking off. In addition a very obvious spinning roll of lunar landscape simulates a near miss between the beacon and the asteroid.
In this story, Jupiter has twelve moons (as was believed to be the case at the time). However, since this story was broadcast many more moons have been discovered orbiting Jupiter (sixty-three at the last count). This discrepancy is explained in the 2005 BBC Books The Eighth Doctor Stories novel "To the Slaughter", written by Stephen Cole, where the additional moons were destroyed between the present and the time of "Revenge of the Cybermen" to improve the solar system's feng shui and attract business investment. In his endnote to this book, Stephen Cole admits that the idea for this story came about specifically to explain away the ‘error’ in "Revenge of the Cybermen".
This story includes the first appearance of the symbol which would eventually be known as the Seal of Rassilon. In this story, however, it is a symbol of the Vogans. Designer Roger Murray-Leach reused the Vogan symbol for the Time Lords in the 1976 story "The Deadly Assassin" and it has remained associated with the Time Lords ever since including in the revived show, where it can be seen in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords".
"Revenge of the Cybermen" was the fifth and final story of Season Twelve - although it was not originally intended as the finale. It had long been planned that, despite the order in which they were recorded, "Revenge of the Cybermen" would succeed "Genesis of the Daleks" in the broadcast schedule, making it the fifth adventure of Season Twelve. However, the season was originally planned to contain 26 episodes but was cut short by a change in the start date for the following season – which would now begin in the autumn - the first time this had transpired since 1968. This was done in order to get a jump on rival ITV's lavish new science-fiction drama, Space: 1999. Therefore "Terror of the Zygons", the final story to be made as part of the twelfth recording block, became the first story in Season Thirteen and the broadcast of the final episode of "Revenge of the Cybermen", on the 10th May 1975, brought an end to Doctor Who's truncated twelfth season.
Sadly between the broadcast of the first and second episodes William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor, passed away. Ironically he died during the broadcast of a story that served to re-introduce the Cybermen. His final solo appearance as The Doctor occurred, in 1966, at the end of "The Tenth Planet" - the story that introduced the Cybermen.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1976. Differences between the televised version and this novelisation include; the lines on the plague victims being black (as in "The Moonbase"), the Cybermen discharge green gunge when dying, the Cybermen carrying blasters instead of projectile headsets and the character of Magrik surviving at the end.
"Revenge of the Cybermen" has the peculiar distinction in the programme's history when it was chosen to be the very first Doctor Who story released for public consumption on videocassette. It was released, in an edited omnibus format (with the opening and closing titles of each episode removed) on VHS, Betamax and Video 2000, by BBC Home Video in 1983. It was also one of the select Doctor Who stories to be released on laserdisc. This story was later released in an unedited, episodic format in May 1999. The Video 2000 and Betamax releases are very rare.
The honour of being the first Doctor Who story released on videocassette was more than a little dubious. Although touted as the choice of attendees at the ‘Twenty Years of a Time Lord’ event at Longleat House that April, "Revenge of the Cybermen" was actually selected by BBC Video to replace the fans' true choice: "The Tomb of the Cybermen", which at that time was missing from the BBC Archives. Nonetheless, "Revenge of the Cybermen" spearheaded a range which would grow to encompass more than 130 titles before coming to an end - having essentially exhausted its supply of material and on the verge of being superseded by the DVD format - twenty years later.
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The Firsts:
The first appearance of the Cybermen for 6 years - since the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Invasion".
The first (and only) Fourth Doctor story to feature the Cybermen.
The first Cyberman story made in colour.
The first time the Cybermen's voices were provided by the actors inside the costumes.
The first apearance of a Cyber Leader.
The first reference that the Cybermen are vulnerable to gold.
The first appearance of the symbol which would eventually be known as the Seal of Rassilon.
Peter Howell's first involvement in the show providing the incidental music.
The first Doctor Who story released for public consumption on videocassette.
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(Position = 109 out of 159)
(Position = 130 out of 200)
