Would You Stay in Dracula's Castle Overnight?
Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
Doctor Who Series five serial one
Episode 1 transmitted BBC1 2 September 1967
Episode 2 transmitted BBC1 9 September 1967
Episode 3 transmitted BBC1 16 September 1967
Episode 4 transmitted BBC1 23 September 1967
The
TARDIS lands on the planet Telos, where
The Doctor, Jamie and new companion Victoria join an archaeological expedition who have found the lost Tombs of the Cybermen. However, a crewman is electrocuted and killed when attempting to open the main doors.
The Doctor helps them, but once inside they find the hatch to the underground crypt is closed, and the team must crack the code on the control board to open it. But
The Doctor warns them not to.
The first serial of a whole season starring Troughton as the
Second Doctor, it is the first complete serial to feature
Deborah Watling as Victorian girl Victoria Waterfield. She'd been introduced in the previous serial
The Evil of the Daleks, missing from the archives, which followed on from
The Faceless Ones. The first episode only managed 6 million viewers, though this quickly rose to 7.4 for the last, representing a mixed reception that had marred those two earlier serials, where viewing figures lurched alarmingly from 5.1 to 8.1 million.
It is the earliest serial starring Troughton as the Second Doctor, as well as the only Cyberman story produced in the 60s, known to exist in its entirety. It also introduces the Cyber Controller and the Cybermats, as well as the concept that the Cybermen intended to use humans to create new cybermen (like they had with other races). Originally, they merely planned to destroy the Earth buy absorbing its energy for their home planet, and then once that had been destroyed to depopulate the Earth for themselves. But in this serial they threaten to turn the expedition and TARDIS crew into cybermen, which makers the story that much more frightening.
Despite the horror and deaths in the serial (and there are quite a few), there's also some lovely if pawky humour. In the opening episode where the group are at the main entrance of the tomb, Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines worked out in secret, without the knowledge of director Morris Barry, the brief sequence where both The Doctor and Jamie go to take Victoria by the hand and end up taking each others. This was in the knowledge that, with the recording schedule and the likelihood that re-takes would not be possible, it would have to be left in. In episode 3 Jamie audibly moans at The Doctor's pun at the death of the Cybermats when he says "they've had a metal breakdown", to which The Doctor apologises. And of course there's Victoria's arched bemusement when The Doctor says he's aged 450. Make sense of him having a 500 year diary (as seen in The Power of The Daleks). Although the Second Doctor is often seen as the Cosmic Hobo, helped by the likeable persona of Troughton's, in contrast to the crabby acerbic First Doctor (and yes, he gets to say to Jamie "when I say run, run"), notice how he is quite manipulative in this serial. For instance, he warns Klieg not to mess with controls, but helps him solve the logic problems, and he pushes a button missed by Klieg to successfully open the hatch to the Tombs. Perhaps he's secretly interested in whether the Cybermen (whom he though he'd destroyed) had indeed survived, in which case he could arrange for their disposal. Or maybe he wanted to know whether the expedition was indeed scientific and honourable, or whether Klieg had ulterior motives, in which case he would only discover them once they'd found the Cybermen. The script is superb, aided by Morris Barry's taut claustrophobic direction. Episode 1 is in fact quite mysterious with its logic problems problems and tests. I've always liked Tomb Raider kind of adventures, and this wasn't the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last Doctor Who story to use this narrative device (Terry Nation was quite fond of it). Episode 2, with the iconic scene of the Cybermen emerging from their tombs is genuinely scary. The emergence is a brilliant sequence, justly famous. I like the discovery by The Doctor that the symbolic logic tests were simply a trap, as the Cybermen needed an intelligent race they could use, to reanimate them. In Episode 4 The Doctor discovers the full extent of Klieg's megalomania. When Klieg agrees with his plan for Universal domination he says "Now I know you're mad, I just wanted to make sure". Excellent. The excellent script and direction is greatly supported by a universally excellent cast, all giving great performances. Troughton has rarely been better as The Doctor, moving from humour to fear, manipulation to consoling with apparent ease. Among the great cast, George Pastell, a Cypriot actor who was a regular villain in Hammer horror films and ITC TV shows, is superb as the Magician Klieg, malevolent, megalomaniac, magisterial. His utterly bemused confusion when the Cybermen refuse to accept his plan is a joy to behold, as is his vindictive revenge on them. His willingness to sacrifice the other humans is completely believable. In complete contrast, another Hammer/ITC regular, that great character actor, Cyril Shaps, is all fear and anxiety, indeed he manages just to keep his performance on the right side of hysteria. And is a nice foil to Pastell in his utter horror at the Cybermen and his fear-induced but practical response to refreeze them and get the hell out of there. Among the supporting cast, Aubrey Richards captures the slight pomposity induced by his administrative duties, as the scientist ostensibly in charge of the expedition, moving from curiosity to affront, to concern for the safety of his team. Shirley Cooklin is simply evil, and relishes a rare major role for a woman in a Doctor Who story, making up for Deborah Watling's rather callow performance as Victoria. This was only her second serial and was probably feeling her way into an admittedly rather underwritten role. After the joke about the scandalously short skirt (it isn't for 1967) the writers seem to forget she's a Victorian orphan. Frazer has by now built a strong working relationship with Pat, and they get on like a house on fire (as witness their larking about, mentioned earlier). To add to the aforementioned strengths, it's also helped by excellent production design and set design. The giant honeycombed Tombs are great, built vertically which helps with framing. The control room, control boards, power room, and the testing range are all great sets which aids credibility enormously. The fact that there's only five main sets (plus the outside doors) helps with the claustrophobic feeling of imminent and impending doom. The director starts on location with the outside planet Telos, which is clever as once they blast open the entrance and, with The Doctor's help, open the main doors. This is clever because once they enter the Tombs, we feel trapped inside, especially as the writers cleverly include sabotage of the rocket ship, which strands them on Telos for 72 hours. The plot's only weakness is that they quickly close the hatch, trapping the Cybermen, but that's more than compensated for by the machinations of Klieg and Kaftan. My only criticism of the show is in Episode 3 where the Kirby wires are plainly evident on Toberman when he's lifted by the Cyber Controller. Otherwise, this deserves its reputation as a Doctor Who classic. Strong acting, scripting, plotting, direction, production design all combine in a short four part story that's tautly plotted and contained, with echoes of those great 50s B-movies like The Thing From Another World. For me, this first complete surviving serial of The Second Doctor is also the first bona-fide Second Doctor classic.
DALEK rating: 5/5.
Credits
Doctor Who ........................................................... PATRICK TROUGHTON
Jamie McCrimmon ................................................ FRAZER HINES
Victoria ................................................................. DEBORAH WATLING
Kaftan ................................................................... SHIRLEY COOKLIN
Toberman ............................................................. ROY STEWART
Klieg ..................................................................... GEORGE PASTELL
Professor Parry .................................................... AUBREY RICHARDS
Viner ..................................................................... CYRIL SHAPS
Haydon ................................................................ BERNARD HOLLEY
Captain Hopper .................................................... GEORGE ROUBICEK
Callum .................................................................. CLIVE MERRISON
Rogers ................................................................. ALAN JOHNS
Crewman .............................................................. RAY GROVER
Cyber Controller ................................................... MICHAEL KILGARRIFF
Cybermen Voices ................................................. PETER HAWKINS
Title Music By ......... RON GRAINER and realised by DELIA DERBYSHIRE
Incidental Music .................................................... None (Stock music)
Special Sound ........ BRIAN HODGSON and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Designer ................................................................GEOFF KIRKLAND
Story Editor ............................................................VICTOR PEMBERTON
Costumes .............................................................. SANDRA REID
Make-up ................................................................ GILLIAN JAMES
Lighting .................................................................. GRAHAM SOTHCOTT
Sound .................................................................... BRIAN HILES
Film Cameraman ................................................... PETER HAMILTON
Fim Ediitng ............................................................ ALAN MARTIN
Producer ............................................................... PETER BRYANT
Directed by ............................................................ MORRIS BARRY
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