Doctor Who 5.01 Tomb of the Cybermen
DOCTOR: "Remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."
Overview
This is the earliest Second Doctor story I've seen so far - the earliest Second Doctor story to exist in its entirety, in fact, as all his preceding stories have at least one or more episodes missing. Tomb of the Cybermen has a lot wrong with it, but I enjoy it anyway - I always enjoy the dynamic between the Doctor and Jamie, and I find I really like what we see of Victoria in this her first trip in the Tardis. For a sheltered young girl from Victorian London, she's reassuringly independent and strong-willed.
I haven't seen the story that precedes this one, The Evil of the Daleks - only one episode is still available, the other six exist as audio only. During that story, as I understand it, Victoria lost her scientist father, who asked the Doctor to look after her for him. So the Doctor decided to discharge that duty in his own inimitable fashion: by sweeping the girl away from the life she'd always known. The story, I'm going to guess from context, ended with Victoria entering the Tardis. This one picks up exactly where that one left off: with Victoria seeing the Tardis console room for the very first time and being suitably astounded by it. That's one of the things I enjoy about Classic Who: that each episode picks up where the last one left off. It can cause continuity problems, sure, but I like it anyway - it lends a sense of cohesion to a season.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
It amuses me that practically the first thing the Doctor does upon welcoming Victoria aboard the Tardis is suggest that she change out of her long, many-layered and immensely impractical Victorian gown.
It also amuses me that Victoria almost immediately siezes upon the issue of how old the Doctor is - around 450, he claims, but I'm not sure we believe that any more than we believe him any other time he offers an age. Having learned that he has reached what to her is an impossibly venerable age, she promptly starts regarding him as something of a grandfather figure, to be cosseted accordingly! Which, in turn, prompts him to reassure her that he's 'quite lively really', and his delivery of that line is golden.
I've seen this story a couple of times now, yet I'm still surprised to hear Professor Parry's Welsh accent every time. I'm glad he survives the story, being my compatriot, and all!
There are quite a lot of guest characters in this story - and a number of different factions within the archaeological party. It can take a while to sort through who is who and get to grips with the internal politics, but I do like that there are so many distinct personalities and motivations at play.
Miss Kaftan offers £50 to whoever can open the doors to the newly discovered tomb of the Cybermen. £50? Come on, Show. If this is meant to be the far future, at least try to acknowledge that currency is likely to have changed by then, or at least inflated vastly!
Hopper's American accent is woeful. He is easily the weakest character in the mix in this story.
Why does Miss Kaftan have a slave? Shouldn't the future be more enlightened than that? It's dreadfully stereotyped, as well, to have the slave be a big, strong black man who rarely speaks. Not the show's most shining moment.
Jamie is already familiar with the Cybermen by the time of this adventure. He's been with the Doctor for about a full season at this point, although I've not seen (listened to) any of his earlier stories. Clearly there was at least one Cyberman adventure in the mix somewhere in his first season. The Second Doctor seems to encounter them rather a lot.
This story hasn't been VidFIREd and that shows, the tracking is a little jerky in places, but the director has done a decent job - there are some really creative shots. There are also, however, some really lousy shots to balance it out and the whole doesn't hang together as well as it might. The editing could have been tighter.
I like how independent Victoria is. She might have been raised a prim little Victorian maid, but she knows her own mind and isn't afraid to stand up for herself - and won't be wrapped up in cotton wool or left behind just because she's a girl. Good for her. She does keep getting thwarted in that determination, though, whether through misguided notions of chivalry or plain old-fashioned chauvinism. You've got to sympathise with her exasperated grumble of "oh, who'd be a woman!"
On the one hand, I really like what we see of the Doctor's personality here - so paternal toward his young companions, so clever, so good at appearing to be mild-mannered and bumbling while actually manipulating those around him for all he's worth. On the other hand, I find myself deeply frustrated that despite telling the archaeological party not to try to unearth the tomb of the Cybermen, he gives them the means to do so at every turn. Every time they are stymied, he solves the problem for them. If he didn't want them to succeed, surely he should be putting obstacles in their way rather than helping them! Maybe he feels they would get in eventually anyway, so it's better if they do so under his guidance than alone, but still.
The Cybermen have been frozen for 500 years - the archaeologists believe them to have died out long ago. I would stop to ponder how that fits in with Cybermen chronology, except that I have no wish to give myself that kind of headache!
I like how readily the true archaeologists on the team accept the Doctor and his companions into their midst - Viner is genuinely frantic about Victoria when she gets trapped in the Cyber re-charging booth, not because he knows her or has reason to care about her but because she is a fellow human being in danger. You've got to like him for that. Ditto the unfortunate Hayden with Jamie when he gets temporarily hypnotised in the testing suite.
Poor Viner is so nervous and panicky. He really wasn't built for this kind of adventure and danger!
I can't help wondering why Victoria is wearing a nurse's watch pinned to her chest.
Ooh look, a Cybermat! Is this their first appearance on the show? They've certainly popped up a fair few times since.
I like that Parry does the right thing and decides to abandon the mission after Hayden's death. Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple on this show and the sabotaged rocket means the group is effectively trapped, but I like that Parry made that decision anyway. Indiana Jones wouldn't have been able to prioritise the lives of his group over the chance to solve an archaeological mystery like that.
I don't understand why Hopper gets so snotty about the group wanting to return to the rocket before it is repaired. Okay, so having passengers underfoot might slow the repairs, but he doesn't have to be so snotty about it. He's very belligerent.
The Doctor could, of course, leave any time, since he has his own transport. But he won't leave while there are people who may be in danger or while there is a risk of the Cybermen being disturbed. That's so very him.
Hopper brought anoraks for everyone, since it apparently gets very cold on this planet overnight. Fair enough. But why does the Doctor get a cape instead? I mean, don't get me wrong, it looks fabulous and is perfectly him, it just puzzles me.
There are so many sequences in this story that get repeated over and over, namely the defrosting and then emerging Cybermen - they filmed the whole bit once and then just replay it over and over.
I really like Victoria's determination and bravery - she stands her ground brilliantly against Miss Kaftan, from a very weak position, even saving the woman's life by shooting the Cybermat (and what a good shot that is!). It's a shame she then spoils it by leaving the gun behind for Miss Kaftan to reclaim when she runs to get Hopper.
Man, for a so-called logician, Klieg really is dumb. He really believes that the Cybermen will be grateful to him and that he'll be able to control them. It's the same mistake that Vaughn makes in The Invasion - they both fail to understand the true nature of the Cybermen, to their cost.
I do not like the design of the Cybermen in this story. They look much cooler in The Invasion, a season later. The voices are woeful in this one, too.
I really like the way the first two episodes of this story fade out on a slowly darkening image of a Cyberman's face while the end credits roll. Very nice.
I don't really understand the supposed trap the Cybermen have set. They imprisoned themselves in ice in the hope that someone really clever would come along and free them? Why? As a strategy, it seems rather self-defeating, to me.
I do like that the idea is seeded early on that the Cybermen need to recharge their batteries regularly, as this will become relevant later.
I like how frustrated Victoria gets with all these dumb men she is surrounded by - especially when Hopper and Callum insist on calling her 'Vic' all the time, even after she asks them not to.
Ooh, Jamie got zapped by a Cyberman! Good thing they weren't shooting to kill. Jamie seems to get shot quite a lot, in fact. I think he's been shot in almost every story I've seen him in so far, both by stun guns and real bullets!
I like that Hopper and Callum pull the control panel apart to take a look at the wiring in order to figure out which lever opens the hatch - it makes for a good contrast with the way the Doctor and Klieg figured it out logically. I'm not sure, though, why they were yammering on about needing the right sequence earlier, when it later becomes clear that just the one lever is needed to open and close that hatch.
Okay, so when Hopper throws his smoke bombs to confuddle the Cybermen so the others can escape, the Doctor and Jamie are tending to Toberman, who is barely conscious. Why, then, since they know he's injured, do they just leave him to fend for himself while they make a dash for freedom? That's not very in character at all! It is completely their fault he gets left behind to be partially converted. Poor Toberman.
It kills me that the Cybermen have got images of themselves stencilled all over the walls.
Why do the Cybermats come in different sizes? There are definitely at least two distinct sizes - the tiny one that was inert and the larger ones that move. Why not just make the one size for all?
Ooh, look at Victoria go, attacking that Cyberman as it tries to drag the Doctor back down through the hatch - you go, girl! Victoria is brilliant.
Miss Kaftan does seem to be genuinely attached to Toberman and is very concerned for him when he is left behind. It's her one vaguely redeeming feature.
I really, really love the little scene between the Doctor and Victoria in the middle of the night, where they discuss Victoria's grief for her father and the Doctor's memories of his own family. I think it might just be my all-time favourite Second Doctor scene. It's just beautiful. And also teaches us a lot about the Doctor's ability to compartmentalise his emotions.
As weapons go, the Cybermats aren't the most effective.
I do like the effect used for the Cyber gun in this story - it's much better than the usual effects. I just wish our protagonists would stop putting weapons down where their enemies can reclaim them!
What's up with the Cyber Controller smashing through the door of the re-charging booth? Don't the rest of his Cybermen need to use that, too? Also, the Doctor's little games in this story don't always come off - he's making this up as he goes along, and it doesn't always work. In fact, most of his meddling succeeds only in making things worse! He really is having an off day.
The plot gets terribly messy and rushed toward the end.
I like that the Doctor manages to get the partially-converted Toberman to switch sides again by appealing to his humanity - that's a ploy he has used time and again over the years. It seems to work more often than not.
Hmm. So Cybermen can be killed with their own weapons in this story. What will or won't work against them isn't terribly consistent from story to story.
I really like the scene where the Doctor plays along with Klieg's delusions of grandeur just to confirm how insane the man really is.
Poor Toberman. He really got a rough deal in this story, and then he sacrifices his life to save everyone else and to seal the Cybermen back into their tomb. The party seems to have left quite a number of corpses behind - I suppose there wasn't time or opportunity, in the crisis, to retrieve them, but I can't help wondering what the next archaeological party to happen along will make of them (come on, you know it's going to happen).
I love how snarky Victoria is with Hopper at the end there, getting a good dig in. You go, girl.
Quotable Quotes
VICTORIA: "Where are we?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, it's the Tardis. It's my home. At least, it has been for a considerable number of years."
DOCTOR: "Well, if we count in Earth terms, I suppose I must be about four hundred...yes, about four hundred and fifty years old."
VINER: "Look at him. Archaeologist written all over him."
DOCTOR: "Really? Does it show?"
DOCTOR: "You look very nice in that dress, Victoria."
VICTORIA: "Thank you. Don't you think it's a bit...?"
DOCTOR: "A bit short? Oh, I shouldn't worry about that. Look at Jamie's."
DOCTOR: "Oh, I use my own special technique."
KLIEG: "Oh really, Doctor? And may we know what that is?"
DOCTOR: "Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut."
PARRY: "I think the women had better remain here."
VICTORIA: "Oh, rubbish."
DOCTOR: "You see, if you take any progressive series it can be converted into binary notation. If you take the sum of the integrants, and express the result as a power series, then the indices show the basic binary blocks. Only I wouldn't do it if I were you."
VICTORIA: "I'm coming too."
HOPPER: "Later, maybe. Not this trip."
VICTORIA: "Who'd be a woman?"
HOPPER: "How would you know, honey?"
VICTORIA: "Well, if you are 450 years old, you need a great deal of sleep."
DOCTOR: "Well that's very considerate of you, Victoria, but between you and me, I'm really quite lively actually, all things being considered."
DOCTOR: "Are you happy with us, Victoria?"
VICTORIA: "Yes, I am. At least, I would be if my father were here."
DOCTOR: "Yes, I know, I know."
VICTORIA: "I wonder what he would have thought if he could see me now."
DOCTOR: "You miss him very much, don't you?"
VICTORIA: "It's only when I close my eyes. I can still see him standing there, before those horrible Dalek creatures came to the house. He was a very kind man, I shall never forget him. Never."
DOCTOR: "No, of course you won't. But, you know, the memory of him won't always be a sad one."
VICTORIA: "I think it will. You can't understand, being so ancient."
DOCTOR: "Eh?"
VICTORIA: "I mean old."
DOCTOR: "Oh."
VICTORIA: "You probably can't remember your family."
DOCTOR: "Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."
DOCTOR: "The power cable generated an electrical field and confused their tiny metal minds. You might almost say that they've had a complete metal breakdown."
JAMIE: "Ohhhh."
DOCTOR: "I'm so sorry, Jamie."
DOCTOR: "Don't you see what this is going to all mean to all the people who come to serve Klieg the All Powerful? Why, no country, no person would dare to have a single thought that was not your own. Eric Klieg's own conception of the, of the way of life!"
KLIEG: "Brilliant! Yes, yes, you're right. Master of the world."
DOCTOR: "Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
HOPPER: "Well, anybody coming along for the ride?"
VICTORIA: "We have our own flying machine."
HOPPER: "Flying machine?"
VICTORIA: "At least it works."
The Verdict
Overall, this one is more than a little messy - the plotting and pacing leave a lot to be desired and some of the character beats for the Doctor are off. Troughton's performance is excellent, however, and the dynamic between the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria is great.
Overview
This is the earliest Second Doctor story I've seen so far - the earliest Second Doctor story to exist in its entirety, in fact, as all his preceding stories have at least one or more episodes missing. Tomb of the Cybermen has a lot wrong with it, but I enjoy it anyway - I always enjoy the dynamic between the Doctor and Jamie, and I find I really like what we see of Victoria in this her first trip in the Tardis. For a sheltered young girl from Victorian London, she's reassuringly independent and strong-willed.
I haven't seen the story that precedes this one, The Evil of the Daleks - only one episode is still available, the other six exist as audio only. During that story, as I understand it, Victoria lost her scientist father, who asked the Doctor to look after her for him. So the Doctor decided to discharge that duty in his own inimitable fashion: by sweeping the girl away from the life she'd always known. The story, I'm going to guess from context, ended with Victoria entering the Tardis. This one picks up exactly where that one left off: with Victoria seeing the Tardis console room for the very first time and being suitably astounded by it. That's one of the things I enjoy about Classic Who: that each episode picks up where the last one left off. It can cause continuity problems, sure, but I like it anyway - it lends a sense of cohesion to a season.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
It amuses me that practically the first thing the Doctor does upon welcoming Victoria aboard the Tardis is suggest that she change out of her long, many-layered and immensely impractical Victorian gown.
It also amuses me that Victoria almost immediately siezes upon the issue of how old the Doctor is - around 450, he claims, but I'm not sure we believe that any more than we believe him any other time he offers an age. Having learned that he has reached what to her is an impossibly venerable age, she promptly starts regarding him as something of a grandfather figure, to be cosseted accordingly! Which, in turn, prompts him to reassure her that he's 'quite lively really', and his delivery of that line is golden.
I've seen this story a couple of times now, yet I'm still surprised to hear Professor Parry's Welsh accent every time. I'm glad he survives the story, being my compatriot, and all!
There are quite a lot of guest characters in this story - and a number of different factions within the archaeological party. It can take a while to sort through who is who and get to grips with the internal politics, but I do like that there are so many distinct personalities and motivations at play.
Miss Kaftan offers £50 to whoever can open the doors to the newly discovered tomb of the Cybermen. £50? Come on, Show. If this is meant to be the far future, at least try to acknowledge that currency is likely to have changed by then, or at least inflated vastly!
Hopper's American accent is woeful. He is easily the weakest character in the mix in this story.
Why does Miss Kaftan have a slave? Shouldn't the future be more enlightened than that? It's dreadfully stereotyped, as well, to have the slave be a big, strong black man who rarely speaks. Not the show's most shining moment.
Jamie is already familiar with the Cybermen by the time of this adventure. He's been with the Doctor for about a full season at this point, although I've not seen (listened to) any of his earlier stories. Clearly there was at least one Cyberman adventure in the mix somewhere in his first season. The Second Doctor seems to encounter them rather a lot.
This story hasn't been VidFIREd and that shows, the tracking is a little jerky in places, but the director has done a decent job - there are some really creative shots. There are also, however, some really lousy shots to balance it out and the whole doesn't hang together as well as it might. The editing could have been tighter.
I like how independent Victoria is. She might have been raised a prim little Victorian maid, but she knows her own mind and isn't afraid to stand up for herself - and won't be wrapped up in cotton wool or left behind just because she's a girl. Good for her. She does keep getting thwarted in that determination, though, whether through misguided notions of chivalry or plain old-fashioned chauvinism. You've got to sympathise with her exasperated grumble of "oh, who'd be a woman!"
On the one hand, I really like what we see of the Doctor's personality here - so paternal toward his young companions, so clever, so good at appearing to be mild-mannered and bumbling while actually manipulating those around him for all he's worth. On the other hand, I find myself deeply frustrated that despite telling the archaeological party not to try to unearth the tomb of the Cybermen, he gives them the means to do so at every turn. Every time they are stymied, he solves the problem for them. If he didn't want them to succeed, surely he should be putting obstacles in their way rather than helping them! Maybe he feels they would get in eventually anyway, so it's better if they do so under his guidance than alone, but still.
The Cybermen have been frozen for 500 years - the archaeologists believe them to have died out long ago. I would stop to ponder how that fits in with Cybermen chronology, except that I have no wish to give myself that kind of headache!
I like how readily the true archaeologists on the team accept the Doctor and his companions into their midst - Viner is genuinely frantic about Victoria when she gets trapped in the Cyber re-charging booth, not because he knows her or has reason to care about her but because she is a fellow human being in danger. You've got to like him for that. Ditto the unfortunate Hayden with Jamie when he gets temporarily hypnotised in the testing suite.
Poor Viner is so nervous and panicky. He really wasn't built for this kind of adventure and danger!
I can't help wondering why Victoria is wearing a nurse's watch pinned to her chest.
Ooh look, a Cybermat! Is this their first appearance on the show? They've certainly popped up a fair few times since.
I like that Parry does the right thing and decides to abandon the mission after Hayden's death. Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple on this show and the sabotaged rocket means the group is effectively trapped, but I like that Parry made that decision anyway. Indiana Jones wouldn't have been able to prioritise the lives of his group over the chance to solve an archaeological mystery like that.
I don't understand why Hopper gets so snotty about the group wanting to return to the rocket before it is repaired. Okay, so having passengers underfoot might slow the repairs, but he doesn't have to be so snotty about it. He's very belligerent.
The Doctor could, of course, leave any time, since he has his own transport. But he won't leave while there are people who may be in danger or while there is a risk of the Cybermen being disturbed. That's so very him.
Hopper brought anoraks for everyone, since it apparently gets very cold on this planet overnight. Fair enough. But why does the Doctor get a cape instead? I mean, don't get me wrong, it looks fabulous and is perfectly him, it just puzzles me.
There are so many sequences in this story that get repeated over and over, namely the defrosting and then emerging Cybermen - they filmed the whole bit once and then just replay it over and over.
I really like Victoria's determination and bravery - she stands her ground brilliantly against Miss Kaftan, from a very weak position, even saving the woman's life by shooting the Cybermat (and what a good shot that is!). It's a shame she then spoils it by leaving the gun behind for Miss Kaftan to reclaim when she runs to get Hopper.
Man, for a so-called logician, Klieg really is dumb. He really believes that the Cybermen will be grateful to him and that he'll be able to control them. It's the same mistake that Vaughn makes in The Invasion - they both fail to understand the true nature of the Cybermen, to their cost.
I do not like the design of the Cybermen in this story. They look much cooler in The Invasion, a season later. The voices are woeful in this one, too.
I really like the way the first two episodes of this story fade out on a slowly darkening image of a Cyberman's face while the end credits roll. Very nice.
I don't really understand the supposed trap the Cybermen have set. They imprisoned themselves in ice in the hope that someone really clever would come along and free them? Why? As a strategy, it seems rather self-defeating, to me.
I do like that the idea is seeded early on that the Cybermen need to recharge their batteries regularly, as this will become relevant later.
I like how frustrated Victoria gets with all these dumb men she is surrounded by - especially when Hopper and Callum insist on calling her 'Vic' all the time, even after she asks them not to.
Ooh, Jamie got zapped by a Cyberman! Good thing they weren't shooting to kill. Jamie seems to get shot quite a lot, in fact. I think he's been shot in almost every story I've seen him in so far, both by stun guns and real bullets!
I like that Hopper and Callum pull the control panel apart to take a look at the wiring in order to figure out which lever opens the hatch - it makes for a good contrast with the way the Doctor and Klieg figured it out logically. I'm not sure, though, why they were yammering on about needing the right sequence earlier, when it later becomes clear that just the one lever is needed to open and close that hatch.
Okay, so when Hopper throws his smoke bombs to confuddle the Cybermen so the others can escape, the Doctor and Jamie are tending to Toberman, who is barely conscious. Why, then, since they know he's injured, do they just leave him to fend for himself while they make a dash for freedom? That's not very in character at all! It is completely their fault he gets left behind to be partially converted. Poor Toberman.
It kills me that the Cybermen have got images of themselves stencilled all over the walls.
Why do the Cybermats come in different sizes? There are definitely at least two distinct sizes - the tiny one that was inert and the larger ones that move. Why not just make the one size for all?
Ooh, look at Victoria go, attacking that Cyberman as it tries to drag the Doctor back down through the hatch - you go, girl! Victoria is brilliant.
Miss Kaftan does seem to be genuinely attached to Toberman and is very concerned for him when he is left behind. It's her one vaguely redeeming feature.
I really, really love the little scene between the Doctor and Victoria in the middle of the night, where they discuss Victoria's grief for her father and the Doctor's memories of his own family. I think it might just be my all-time favourite Second Doctor scene. It's just beautiful. And also teaches us a lot about the Doctor's ability to compartmentalise his emotions.
As weapons go, the Cybermats aren't the most effective.
I do like the effect used for the Cyber gun in this story - it's much better than the usual effects. I just wish our protagonists would stop putting weapons down where their enemies can reclaim them!
What's up with the Cyber Controller smashing through the door of the re-charging booth? Don't the rest of his Cybermen need to use that, too? Also, the Doctor's little games in this story don't always come off - he's making this up as he goes along, and it doesn't always work. In fact, most of his meddling succeeds only in making things worse! He really is having an off day.
The plot gets terribly messy and rushed toward the end.
I like that the Doctor manages to get the partially-converted Toberman to switch sides again by appealing to his humanity - that's a ploy he has used time and again over the years. It seems to work more often than not.
Hmm. So Cybermen can be killed with their own weapons in this story. What will or won't work against them isn't terribly consistent from story to story.
I really like the scene where the Doctor plays along with Klieg's delusions of grandeur just to confirm how insane the man really is.
Poor Toberman. He really got a rough deal in this story, and then he sacrifices his life to save everyone else and to seal the Cybermen back into their tomb. The party seems to have left quite a number of corpses behind - I suppose there wasn't time or opportunity, in the crisis, to retrieve them, but I can't help wondering what the next archaeological party to happen along will make of them (come on, you know it's going to happen).
I love how snarky Victoria is with Hopper at the end there, getting a good dig in. You go, girl.
Quotable Quotes
VICTORIA: "Where are we?"
DOCTOR: "Oh, it's the Tardis. It's my home. At least, it has been for a considerable number of years."
DOCTOR: "Well, if we count in Earth terms, I suppose I must be about four hundred...yes, about four hundred and fifty years old."
VINER: "Look at him. Archaeologist written all over him."
DOCTOR: "Really? Does it show?"
DOCTOR: "You look very nice in that dress, Victoria."
VICTORIA: "Thank you. Don't you think it's a bit...?"
DOCTOR: "A bit short? Oh, I shouldn't worry about that. Look at Jamie's."
DOCTOR: "Oh, I use my own special technique."
KLIEG: "Oh really, Doctor? And may we know what that is?"
DOCTOR: "Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut."
PARRY: "I think the women had better remain here."
VICTORIA: "Oh, rubbish."
DOCTOR: "You see, if you take any progressive series it can be converted into binary notation. If you take the sum of the integrants, and express the result as a power series, then the indices show the basic binary blocks. Only I wouldn't do it if I were you."
VICTORIA: "I'm coming too."
HOPPER: "Later, maybe. Not this trip."
VICTORIA: "Who'd be a woman?"
HOPPER: "How would you know, honey?"
VICTORIA: "Well, if you are 450 years old, you need a great deal of sleep."
DOCTOR: "Well that's very considerate of you, Victoria, but between you and me, I'm really quite lively actually, all things being considered."
DOCTOR: "Are you happy with us, Victoria?"
VICTORIA: "Yes, I am. At least, I would be if my father were here."
DOCTOR: "Yes, I know, I know."
VICTORIA: "I wonder what he would have thought if he could see me now."
DOCTOR: "You miss him very much, don't you?"
VICTORIA: "It's only when I close my eyes. I can still see him standing there, before those horrible Dalek creatures came to the house. He was a very kind man, I shall never forget him. Never."
DOCTOR: "No, of course you won't. But, you know, the memory of him won't always be a sad one."
VICTORIA: "I think it will. You can't understand, being so ancient."
DOCTOR: "Eh?"
VICTORIA: "I mean old."
DOCTOR: "Oh."
VICTORIA: "You probably can't remember your family."
DOCTOR: "Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."
DOCTOR: "The power cable generated an electrical field and confused their tiny metal minds. You might almost say that they've had a complete metal breakdown."
JAMIE: "Ohhhh."
DOCTOR: "I'm so sorry, Jamie."
DOCTOR: "Don't you see what this is going to all mean to all the people who come to serve Klieg the All Powerful? Why, no country, no person would dare to have a single thought that was not your own. Eric Klieg's own conception of the, of the way of life!"
KLIEG: "Brilliant! Yes, yes, you're right. Master of the world."
DOCTOR: "Well now I know you're mad. I just wanted to make sure."
HOPPER: "Well, anybody coming along for the ride?"
VICTORIA: "We have our own flying machine."
HOPPER: "Flying machine?"
VICTORIA: "At least it works."
The Verdict
Overall, this one is more than a little messy - the plotting and pacing leave a lot to be desired and some of the character beats for the Doctor are off. Troughton's performance is excellent, however, and the dynamic between the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria is great.