Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen

Attack of the Cybermen is the first serial of the 22nd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 5 and 12 January 1985.

The Doctor, who has been trying without much success to fix the TARDIS’s chameleon circuit, picks up a distress signal from Earth in the year 1985. Unbeknownst to him, the signal has been sent by Lytton, a mercenary formerly in the employ of the Daleks, who has since begun a new life as a London gangster.

Lytton dupes a bunch of fellow gangsters into attempting a fake diamond heist, actually intending to hand them over to the Cybermen, who have set up a base in the city’s sewers. The Doctor tries to investigate the signal, but he, Peri, and the TARDIS are captured by the Cybermen, and is forced to take them and Lytton to the Cybermen-controlled planet of Telos.

After the Doctor sabotages the TARDIS, it materialises on Telos, but in the depths of the Cyber-Tombs, which have been sabotaged by Telos’s native species, the Cryons. Peri, Lytton, and his right-hand man Griffiths escape when the group is attacked by a damaged, maddened Cyberman, and the Doctor is imprisoned with the Cryon leader, Flast, who tells him that the Cybermen intend to use a time ship that they have captured to prevent the destruction of their original homeworld, Mondas.

Lytton and Griffiths make contact with the time ship’s original crew, Bates and Stratton, who turn out to have been failed victims of conversion into Cybermen. The group tries to retake control of the time ship, but Lytton is captured by the Cybermen, while Griffifths, Bates and Stratton are killed by a squadron guarding the time ship.

Flast helps the Doctor prepare an explosion that will destroy the Cybermen’s base before assisting him with escaping, but is executed by the Cybermen when they discover that the Doctor is missing. Peri, having been taken into the care of another group of Cryons, is re-united with the Doctor and informs him that Lytton had actually been working with the Cryons all along, in order to drive the Cybermen off Telos.

The Doctor lands the TARDIS in the Cybermen’s control room, but finds Lytton almost fully converted into a Cyberman. The Cyber-Controller then arrives and prepares to kill the Doctor, leading to a firefight which claims the lives of the Cyber-Controller and other top-ranking Cybermen, but also Lytton.

Unable to do anything to help Lytton, the Doctor and Peri narrowly escape before the explosion the Doctor and Flast had earlier set up detonates, and completely destroys the Cyber-Tombs. While Peri reassures the Doctor that he stopped the Cybermen, he nonetheless berates himself for having misjudged Lytton.

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

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

Step aboard the TARDIS and journey across the universe with every incarnation of The Doctor in this series of unofficial Doctor Who episode companions.

This collection of twelve books explores every televised adventure of the Time Lord’s lives.

Each volume in the series delves into a different Doctor’s era, offering detailed episode guides, behind-the-scenes insights, character profiles, and story synopses.

Once you have clicked the link, choose which book you want, and then whether you want to buy the Kindle (eBook) or Paperback versions.

Previews are available before you buy.

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