Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen

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The Tomb of the Cybermen is the first serial of Season 5 of the classic Doctor Who series. Originally broadcast in four episodes from September 2 to 23, 1967. It was written by Gerry Davis and directed by Morris Barry. It stars Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon, Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield, George Pastell as Eric Klieg, and Shirley Cooklin as Kaftan.

The TARDIS arrives on Telos, where an eager archaeological team opens the long-sealed tombs of the Cybermen and unleashes a chilling plan for revival. The Doctor tries to keep curious minds from waking old dangers, while Jamie and Victoria face traps, Cybermats, and the towering Cyber-Controller.

Long thought lost, the serial was rediscovered in 1992 and remains a fan favourite.

Episode 1

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrive on Telos, where an Earth expedition hunts for the legendary tomb of the Cybermen. The party includes Dr Parry’s scholars, the rocket crew under Captain Hopper, and the wealthy backers Kaftan and the cool, calculating Klieg. They have stalled at a door of logic puzzles and lethal traps. The Doctor pretends to bumble, then casually solves the sequence and warns everyone that some doors are better left closed.

Inside lies a vast ceremonial hall: silver sigils, sealed control rooms, and a floor plan that feels like a snare. Victoria tries to understand her place among strangers; Jamie keeps close, suspicious of Kaftan’s hulking servant, Toberman. Viner and Haydon test panels; sparks spit from hidden circuits. Kaftan quietly hustles Victoria toward a side chamber and slams the hatch, but the Doctor and Jamie drag it open before any harm is done.

Through a gallery window they glimpse stacked honeycombs of transparent “tombs,” each cradling a motionless Cyberman in clear ice. Klieg’s eyes shine with private ambition. He believes the Brotherhood of Logicians can bargain with these giants. The Doctor reads the room: curiosity is about to become worship. When Klieg re-enters the code, a deeper mechanism thunders awake. Below, the ice begins to glow.

Episode 2

Exploration turns into an audition. The expedition splits: Parry takes notes, Hopper grumbles about damage to his rocket, and Kaftan sponsors bold “tests” in the control room. Haydon steps into a projector chamber for a demonstration and is killed in a heartbeat by a beam that knifes from the wall: proof the tomb defends itself. The Doctor maps the circuitry and sees the pattern: this place is not a memorial; it is bait.

Meanwhile, small metallic shapes skitter in the shadows: Cybermats, mindless scouts that sniff at power. Kaftan drugs Victoria in the rest area, angling to keep her out of the way; the Doctor arrives in time to rouse her and throw Kaftan out at gunpoint. Klieg deciphers a final sequence and opens a hatch to the lower level. In the frozen crypt, rows of Cybermen stand like statues, frost-webbed and towering.

Jamie’s breath fogs in the bitter air as he and Toberman haul levers under shouted instructions. The Doctor pleads to seal everything and leave, but Klieg cannot resist the last control. He diverts more power to the revitaliser. Coils hum. The ice panes vibrate. Behind their glass, great steel hands flex. One helmet turns a fraction toward the light. The tombs begin to thaw.

Episode 3

The Cybermen wake and pour from their cells, slow at first, then implacable, filing past the humans who thought they could command them. A taller figure strides among them: the Cyber Controller, smooth-domed head gleaming, voice a cold pressure in the air. Klieg steps forward to bargain and is dismissed like an equation with the wrong answer.

The Controller selects raw material (Toberman)to be taken for “improvement.” The Doctor herds the survivors back to the control room, flinging power through an electrified cable to snap a Cyberman off its feet. Night falls on Telos. Cybermats swarm into the rest area; Polly would have called for solvents on Mondas, but here the Doctor rigs a live field around the bunks and the things twitch and die. In a quiet corner, Victoria admits she misses her father; the Doctor talks of memory and time, tender amid the dread.

Hopper promises a rescue attempt after repairing the rocket. Below, Klieg and Kaftan reconvene, emboldened by survival. If they can isolate the Controller’s power feed, perhaps they can seize the tombs after all. A heavy tread answers their hope. The Controller rises at the doorway, recharged and vast, as the lights gutter and the locks fail.

Episode 4

Everything closes. Klieg makes a final play with a captured weapon and is cut down for his arrogance. Kaftan lunges to hold the hatch and is killed in the crossfire she helped create. The Controller forces the Doctor to open the revitaliser; the Doctor pretends to comply and lures him inside, then slams the clamps and overloads the cabinet. Sparks tear across the dome; the giant slumps, starving for power but not dead.

Toberman returns, partly cybernised, metal shining at his wrist, and fighting it. Faced with Victoria’s terror and the Doctor’s steady faith, he turns on his makers and hurls a Cyberman aside. The survivors retreat through the great hall. One by one the tomb circuits are thrown into reverse; frost floods the galleries; steel bodies stiffen behind sealing glass. The Controller staggers after them and meets Toberman at the doors.

With a roar, Toberman drags the massive panels together as lethal current crackles over his body. The doors crash home; the locks fuse. The tomb is a tomb again. Parry thanks the travellers; Hopper readies the rocket. On the threshold, the Doctor lays a gentle hand on Toberman and bows. As the party departs, far below, an iced gauntlet twitches in its cradle.

Themes

As gothic sci-fi archaeology, The Tomb of the Cybermen is a cornerstone. It is sleeker and grander than The Moonbase, if not as sprawling as The Invasion or as gut-punch shocking as Earthshock.

Its chilly sets, the unforgettable awakening of the Cybermen, and Patrick Troughton’s quiet authority make it one of Season 5’s defining achievements, right alongside The Web of Fear and The Ice Warriors. In the Cyber canon it sits just below the very top tier, but it’s the image-maker: the story that forged much of the race’s menace in fans’ imaginations.

Linking past and future, it follows the “final end” of The Evil of the Daleks, bedding in Victoria Waterfield before the TARDIS turns to The Abominable Snowmen. It deepens the threat first posed in The Tenth Planet and refines the siege tactics that later blossom in The Invasion, while Telos and the Cyber Controller echo forward to Attack of the Cybermen.

Its themes (cold logic, body horror, and vaults that should stay sealed) reverberate into Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. In short, The Tomb of the Cybermen is both museum and warning label: a monument to past terrors and a blueprint for battles yet to come.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Second Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Second Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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