 This story featured the second appearance of the very popular creations of Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis - The Cybermen. This story marks the first redesign, of these recurring villains.
It was commissioned before the last episode of "The Tenth Planet" was broadcast, to take advantage of the strong positive response to the Cybermen. Perhaps because of this, the script writer, Kit Pedler, chose to reuse a number of elements of "The Tenth Planet", and the two stories have a number of marked similarities.
In one scene, as a reference to "The Tenth Planet", Hobson is heard to say 'There were Cybermen, every child knows that. But they were destroyed ages ago'.
The use of the Moon – the first Doctor Who story to be set their – was due to Producer Innes Lloyd capitalizing on the recent interest in our only natural satellite – It would be nearly two years after the this story was broadcast until NASA would send Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to land there.
A final clip, used to carry the story into the next story, "The Macra Terror", was filmed separately during the making of that story as the Macra prop was too large to be brought into the studio.
This story features the debut of actor John Levene (who would go on to become the semi-regular character Sergeant Benton) as one of the Cybermen in the third and fourth episodes. He was not credited for this role. John Levene would also return as a Yeti in the 1968 story "The Web of Fear".
John Wills, who also plays one of the Cybermen in this story, earlier appeared as 'Frankenstein' in the 1965 story "The Chase" under the name John Maxim.
As the first draft of the script was written before it was decided that Frazer Hines would be a regular cast member the character of Jamie McCrimmon was consigned to unconsciousness in sickbay, after an accident due to the low gravity, for the first half of the story. In the last two episodes, some of Ben Jackson's dialog was given to him.
In this story the Cybermen are seen to have three digits and shoot electricity from their wrists. In their first story they had bare hands.
For the first time The Doctor and his companions are seen to wear space suits with breathing apparatus.
The Moonbase was established around 2050 to control the Earth's weather via the Gravitron as apparently Earth has become environmentally unstable. This story seems to take place before "The Seeds of Death", when a Moonbase is being used to control Earth's travel system and weather control has been moved to the Earth.
There is an unusual sequence in episode three where The Doctor debates with himself what the Cybermen might be afraid of; this was achieved by pre-recording his whispered 'thoughts' and playing them back in the studio with Patrick Troughton muttering the responses in between.
Much to Innes Lloyd's disappointment, part three marked the end of Doctor Who's residence at Riverside Studios. The show would now move back to the more cramped and antiquated confines of Lime Grove D, which had housed the show during its first year in production. The difficulties of working in Lime Grove D immediately became apparent when, reviewing the part four footage the week after filming. Director Morris Barry discovered that the sound equipment had picked up some of the chatter from the floor manager's headphones. Since there was no possibility of the episode being rerecorded due to the need to broadcast it the following Saturday, Morris Barry was forced to edit out this ‘talkback’ as much as possible.
The return of the Cybermen was judged to be a huge success, and so plans were already being made to bring them back again for Season Five.
Unfortunately, only the second and fourth episodes currently exist in the BBC Archives. This story was released on DVD, in January 2014, with animated versions of the missing episodes 1 and 3 along with the original soundtrack.
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The Firsts:
The first time The Second Doctor confronts the Cybermen.
The first Doctor Who story to be set on the Moon.
The first time there has been a significant redesign of a Doctor Who monster and the first of many for the Cybermen.
The debut of actor John Levene (as an uncredited Cyberman). John Levene would return to the show as semi-regular character Sergeant Benton.
The first time The Doctor and his companions are seen to wear space suits with breathing apparatus.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Morris Barry.
The first Doctor Who story to be recorded back at Lime Grove.
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(Position = 75 out of 159)
(Position = 112 out of 200)
(Position = 113 out of 241)
