Doctor Who (9 page)

The Cybermen

“Aeons ago, our planets were twins. Then we drifted away from you on a journey to the edge of space. Now we have returned.”

—Cyberman, from “The Tenth Planet” (1966)

 

The Cybermen debuted in “The Tenth Planet,” going on to make several more appearances in the next few years. In the same story, we learn that their home planet Mondas had been a twin of our own world, sharing its orbit on the opposite side of the sun and giving rise to its own human race. But its orbit shifted, leading to environmental chaos. Before their planet completely broke free of Earth's solar system, the people of Mondas adapted to the new deadly environment by upgrading their bodies, finally becoming cyborgs wrapped in life-support suits, their brains surgically altered to remove pain and emotion. Now reborn as Cybermen, they converted Mondas into a planet-sized mobile fortress and set off to cyber-convert others.

The Cybermen were a quick hit with viewers, rivaling the Daleks. Sophie Aldred, who later played the Doctor's companion Ace, discussed the monsters in the documentary
The Story of Doctor Who.
“The Cybermen scared me [as a child] because they were vaguely human. They had these horrible mouths . . . and they were so sort of inhumanly human. I had nightmares about them, and my mum actually stopped me watching [
Doctor Who
] for a while.”

“There's an almost vampiric quality to them,” Peter Davison said at New York Comic Con 2012 in an interview for this book. “They were once like us, and now they're cold, and they want us all to be like them. Once it happens, once you become a Cyberman, you're not coming back. You can't just put your organs and the bits of your brain they took out back in. It's a terrifying idea, losing your identity as you become a killer.”

Like the Daleks, they were monsters who couldn't be reasoned with. Seeing themselves as superior beings existing without fear or weakness, the Cybermen have often told their prey “You belong to us,” and
“Resistance is useless.” (On rare occasion, they said “Resistance is futile,” which will strike a chord with fans of
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
)

While subtle details of the Daleks' appearance changed over the years, Cybermen have sported a wide variety of styles. The original version seemed like humans in life support gear, but starting with the second model the Cybermen were more robotic, with metal masks. A couple of models added a teardrop design to the eyes, reflecting the tragedy inherent in each Cyberman.

In the 1980s, the villains started to lose their robotic nature. Cyber-Leaders now gleefully declared, “Excellent,” when things went well. Their life support coverings loosened and their helmets now had transparent portions that showed part of the human face underneath.

In the modern-day program, comic book artist Bryan Hitch helped design new Cybermen, who came from a version of Earth in a parallel universe. Aside from their brains and synthetic nervous systems, these Cybermen had no organic parts and often told their enemies, “You will be deleted.” In the 2013 episode “Nightmare in Silver,” they became more formidable than ever, now able to instantly upgrade themselves during battle. The episode also established that Cybermen now exist as part of a collective intelligence network called the Cyberiad.

As with all technology, the Cybermen are sure to continually evolve, making them threats for years to come.

7

Li
fe Is Renewal

“There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought.”

—Second Doctor, from “The Moonbase” (1967)

 

For decades, it has been traditional on
Doctor Who
to end a lead actor's tenure at the close of a season, giving the audience months to prepare for a fresh start with the next Doctor. But this was the first such change to happen and the audience didn't yet know about the concept of “regeneration” (which wouldn't even be named until 1974). Viewers needed to be quickly sold on this new plot contrivance, so only a week passed after Hartnell's final episode before viewers learned what happened. When the next story, “The Power of the Daleks,” starts, Ben is confused about the stranger who somehow has switched places with the Doctor. But Polly realizes the truth.

 

POLLY:
“Ben, do you remember what he said in the tracking room? Something about, ‘This old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.'”

BEN:
“So he gets himself a
new
one?!”

POLLY:
“. . . Well, yes.”

 

The stranger rises, groaning as he holds his head, stumbling around like a toddler unfamiliar with gravity. His clothes are too large, and the First Doctor's ring slips off his finger. He looks into a mirror; the First Doctor stares back but then the reflection changes to his own face. This new Doctor explains that he has undergone a process similar to when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. “Life depends on change and renewal,” he points out.

The TARDIS lands, and the Doctor ventures out, testing his new body and realizing that his vision has improved enough not to need glasses
anymore. Only a few minutes pass before he finds himself involved in a new mystery. Ben parallels the skeptical viewer, not yet convinced that he likes this new version of the hero. As the story goes on, things start to feel familiar again, especially when Daleks appear and recognize the Doctor, despite his new face. By story's end, Ben and Polly accept that this man is indeed the same strange scientist they know and love, helping many viewers to do so as well. The era of the Second Doctor begins.

The Same Time Lord

“I was dying. To save my own life, I changed my body, every single cell. But it's still me.”

—The Tenth Doctor, from the 2005 Children in Need mini-episode

 

In the hours following his transformation, the Second Doctor not only suffers partial amnesia—reading over a 500-year diary to remind himself of his past—but he also initially refers to his previous incarnation in the third person. By the end, he connects to his old memories and identifies as the Doctor, the same man as before. But why the initial confusion?

Dr. Travis Langley, a professor of psychology at Henderson State University, is also an avid
Doctor Who
fan and author of
Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight.
When we discussed the Second Doctor's initial identity confusion, Dr. Langley said, “We know from ‘The Three Doctors' that Hartnell's Doctor is the first one; he didn't have previous versions of himself we didn't see. So when the Second Doctor arrives, this is someone who's just experienced regeneration for the first time and wasn't really expecting it that day. It makes sense that, at least at first, he feels disconnected from his old self. People who've had serious facial reconstructive surgery can experience a depersonalization effect. When people change their names, it can take a while to adjust to that concept emotionally. The temporary, partial amnesia that usually happens during regeneration can also enhance this. People who've suffered amnesia or brain damage will sometimes refer to who they were before the change as a different person. As his memories settle back into place, he feels more connected to his past.”

Enter Patrick Troughton

Today, people are far more used to recasting roles. But this was 1966, before anyone argued about the best James Bond and soap operas made a regular practice of replacing actors. While adults might understand, would the children react badly to a new Doctor?

If the Doctor were centuries old and came from a race of time traveling telepaths, who was to say he couldn't also alter his appearance under the right circumstances? Perhaps a side effect would be a slight alteration in personality, giving the next actor some freedom to do his own take on the character. You couldn't complain that the new Doctor wasn't exactly like the previous one if he wasn't supposed to be. Newman approved the idea and the team came to forty-six-year-old Patrick Troughton, who had been considered for the role of Johnny Ringo in the First Doctor adventure “The Gunfighters.”

Born just north of London, Troughton attended the Embassy School of Acting at Swiss Cottage and entered the Leighton Rallius Studios on Long Island, New York, on scholarship. When World War II broke out, he took a ship back to Britain, but it hit a mine and sank. Fortunately, Troughton escaped on a lifeboat and enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1940. After the war, he delved into theater and television, becoming the first man to play Robin Hood on the small screen in 1953. Producer Innes Lloyd contacted Troughton about
Doctor Who
while the actor was shooting the film
The Viking Queen
in Ireland. He refused repeatedly, saying the audience wouldn't accept him and thinking the show couldn't last much longer than three years. As he told
Whovian Times
in 1984, “The phone kept on ringing, and they were saying, ‘Come and play Doctor Who.' And I said, ‘No, no, I don't want to play Doctor Who. . . . It wouldn't last more than six weeks more with me!' In the end, they kept on pushing the money up so much every day that at the end of the week I said, ‘What am I doing? Of course, I'll do this part!' ”

Who Is the Second Doctor?

They had their actor, but now the production team had to figure out what kind of man this new Doctor was. The new incarnation's debut story was “The
Power of the Daleks.” Writer David Whitaker had to write it before Troughton had been cast, so he left much of the Doctor's actions and dialogue vague. Once on board, Troughton suggested becoming a bearded figure, so he could shave when the role finished and avoid typecasting. The production team veered toward an alien version of Sherlock Holmes, a sardonic, suspicious man fond of disguise, disconcerting to his companions, haunted by memories of the galactic war that had inspired him to flee his own people. These traumatic recollections were now fresh in his mind again, thanks to the experience of his transformation into a new man—which at that point was described as a “metaphysical change which takes place every five hundred or so years” for members of his race, when their bodies wear out with age.

Troughton wasn't keen on this new characterization, arguing it made the Doctor a verbose autocrat. He saw the figure as a great listener, attentive to everything and everyone around him, quickly sorting out information to draw his conclusions. Newman also disliked the idea of an outer space Sherlock Holmes and suggested that the new Doctor be a joking, whimsical “cosmic hobo” to contrast against Hartnell's gruff, serious nature. Troughton agreed and developed the idea with the production team, adding that he wanted to do a Charlie Chaplin-esque character that his own children would find entertaining. The Second Doctor would be mercurial, prone to outburst when excited, sometimes playing the coward or fool to manipulate his enemies. He would be warmer than his first incarnation, more a patient uncle than a moody grandfather.

At the same time, Troughton didn't want to dismiss completely the arrogance and danger Hartnell established. As he told
Doctor Who Magazine
in 1984, “I don't think [the Doctor] was a goody. He was a bit naughty, wasn't he? Of course, you've got to be on the right side when there's a villain about, but he was naughty all the same. If you're going to be totally moral, it's boring, so you have to color it a bit.”

Script editor Gerry Davis later explained: “I thought it would be very interesting to have a character who never quite says what he means, who, really, uses the intelligence of the people he is with. He knows the answer all the time; if he suggests something, he knows the outcome. He is watching, he's really directing, but he doesn't want to
show
he's directing like the old Doctor.”

Many changes happened behind the scenes during Troughton's second year. During “The Evil of the Daleks,” Davis had worked with Peter Bryant as co-script editor. Davis then stepped down, with Victor Pemberton taking over for the fifth season's first story. Bryant took over as script editor for three stories before replacing Innes Lloyd as producer for the rest of the fifth season. At the same time, Derrick Sherwin became new script editor. In the middle of all of this, Sydney Newman left as head of Drama in 1967. Shaun Sutton, who had been one of Newman's first choices to produce
Doctor Who,
replaced him.

Newman joined the Associated British Picture Corporation as a producer, but after eighteen months none of his projects had been produced, and he counted the experience a waste of time. The BBC offered him a position as executive producer, but he decided instead to return to Canada, quickly gaining attention for his battles against content regulations on TV and radio. He died in 1997.

The New Life Begins

“Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing, that nobody in the universe can do what we're doing.”

—Second Doctor, from “Tomb of the Cybermen” (1967)

 

“I was shy to tell him while he was alive,” Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, admitted to me at New York Comic Con 2009, “but Patrick was my favorite Doctor. We had stern Old Grumpy for a while, and we quite liked him. But suddenly, ooh, look at this. It's strange, old, impish Fun Uncle! And he had the hardest task of any of us later Doctors because he was the first who had to convince the audience that you could have a different version of the character suddenly appear—with a different actor—and it was still all right. That was quite a big thing, especially when people, young or old, can be quite territorial with an actor playing the role.”

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, I asked Matt Smith, “Who is your favorite Doctor?” Without hesitation, he answered: “I love Patrick Troughton. ‘Tomb of the Cybermen' is one of my favorite stories. It's so creepy. What I think is wonderful about Troughton is he's weird and peculiar, but
he never asks you to find him weird and peculiar. He was a great actor, and I think the Cybermen are as scary as they've ever been in that one story. . . . There's something to love about all the Doctors, but when I went back and watched the older stories finally, Patrick Troughton quickly became my favorite. He's always prodding people into action and smiling as he thinks ahead.”

Writer Dan Abnett reflected, “It's funny to think now what a risky idea that must have been to try. Because, of course, debating which version of the Doctor works for you and understanding that other people will have their own favorites, which is perfectly fine, is part of the joy of being a fan of
Doctor Who.
Anyone who thinks there's only one version that properly works is really saying they want to limit their enjoyment of the program.”

While the First Doctor often double-checked the TARDIS console readings to make sure that the outside environment was safe, the Second Doctor absorbed this information with barely a glance and simply walked outside. The First Doctor occasionally tried to blend in, but the Second Doctor never minded standing out with his odd wardrobe.

The Second Doctor also carried a handy tool that hadn't been seen before: a sonic screwdriver. Through the use of sonic manipulation, it acted as a handy lock pick and cutting tool. In “The War Games,” he actually used it simply as a screwdriver.

The New Companions

In his second adventure, “The Highlanders,” the Second Doctor befriends Jamie McCrimmon, a feisty Scottish bagpipe player from the eighteenth century. Jamie stayed with the Second Doctor for the rest of his incarnation, which, including a few later appearances, put 117 episodes under his belt, more than any other companion. In the 2006 episode “Tooth and Claw,” the Doctor arrives in nineteenth-century Scotland and says his name is “Dr. James McCrimmon.”

From the get-go, actor Frazer Hines gave a new take on the companion, acting more like a younger brother rather than an assistant. While he did occasionally long to return home, Jamie enjoyed his strange adventures and felt an obligation to keep the Doctor out of trouble.

In addition to Cybermen and corrupt humans, the Second Doctor and his crew fought fish people, shape shifters who had lost their identities, giant crab conquerors known as the Macra (encountered again in 2007), a group of robotic yeti, and a non-corporeal being called the Great Intelligence.

During the penultimate story of the program's fourth season, “The Faceless Ones,” the TARDIS lands in London just before Ben and Polly had left with the First Doctor. Realizing they are now home and have lost no time at all, the two say their goodbyes. In the next story, “The Evil of the Daleks,” the archenemies find Professor Waterfield, a nineteenth-century scientist developing his own form of time travel through the use of mirrors. This adventure was intended to serve as the possible last story of the Daleks, as Terry Nation was trying to sell the Daleks as a stand-alone series for US television and thought he needed to end their association with
Doctor Who.
The story also introduced the Dalek Emperor for the first time on-screen (with a very different design from the Emperor seen in the Dalek comic strips). The monsters force the Doctor to help with their experiments in improving their race. The Doctor winds up introducing a “human factor” into a select group of Daleks, granting them full emotional capacity. These friendly, peaceful Daleks even adopt names: Alpha, Beta, and Omega. The Doctor hopes they will spread the human factor to the rest of their race, but learns that he has been tricked. The Emperor will now use his research and time travel to introduce a “Dalek factor” into humanity's past, rewriting Earth history and making it another Dalek world.