4.6 The Moonbase

 

We knew it wouldn't be too long before the Cybermen returned.  They're just too popular.  They've redesigned the Cybermen in this just a bit.  Gone are the clunky chest pieces; they're a bit smaller this time around.  Also, their face coverings were made of cloth, but this time they are made of steel.  The light bulbs on top of their heads are much smaller.  They don't go spelunking much anymore.  Gone are the heavy duty light bulb weapons. They've been replaced by weapons that emit some sort of electricity?  My expert viewer and I were wondering why they have claw like hands.  Aren't they supposed to be more efficient than humans?  Claws instead of fingers seem like a downgrade to me.

Poor Jamie gets to lie around this time.  He's been struck with an illness, as has some of the scientists on a base on Earth's moon.  It is the year 2070.  Humans have a found a way to inhabit the moon.  My expert viewer thinks this is cool.  He would go to the moon if he had a million dollars.  I guess Jamie was not really intended as a companion, so they had to work him into the script a bit, before they could use him much.  So they just made him unconscious through the whole episode? That seems a bit lazy.

This episode used a lot of scientific terminology, which made me feel vaguely uncomfortable, and a little stupid.  All over the moon base, scientists are collapsing from a mysterious illness, and disappearing.  The Cybermen are poisoning the sugar, and then stealing the sick bodies, for an unknown purpose.  Can't they abduct them without poisoning them first?  What's the problem? Well, they are placing some sort of mind control over the sick humans, and are using them for their nefarious plot. Mind control seems much more efficient than turning them into Cybermen, don't you think?

What is the goal of the Cybermen? From what I gather, the moon base has a gravity machine called the graviton which the humans are using to control the weather on the moon.  The Cybermen want to steal the graviton, and use it to destroy the Earth.  Ah, the whole 'destroy Earth' ploy. We're not familiar with that.  I'm peeved because the Cybermen have become Dalek like, and are trying to destroy Earth for no particular reason.  They just want to destroy everything. 

Ben, Polly and Jamie use their smarts and create a 'bomb' that destroys the Cybermen and their ridiculous suits.  The Cybermen really want that graviton machine, so they send gaggles of Cybermen to take over the base.  But the humans are clever. They know how to deal with these horrid creatures.  The Doctor uses his clever brain, and they point the graviton machine at the Moon so that all the Cyberman float off the Moon's surface and go flying into space. 

Is it me, or are the Cybermen difficult to understand?

Astronaut suits, epic failure.

Next Up: The Macra Terror