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{{Infobox TV|
{{title dab away}}
story name= Attack of the Cybermen |
{{real world}}
image= [[Image:Attack_title.jpg|250px]] |
{{ImageLinkTV}}
series=[[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[TV stories|TV Stories]] <br> [[Season 22]]|
{{Infobox Story SMW
number= 138 |
|novelisation          = Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)
doctor=[[Sixth Doctor]] |
|image                 = AOTC.JPG
companions= [[Peri]] |
|series                 = [[Doctor Who television stories|''Doctor Who'' television stories]]
enemy= <ul><li>[[Mondasian Cyberman|The Cybermen]]</li><li>[[Cybercontroller]]</li></ul> |
|season number          = Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|
year= <ul><li>[[London]]; [[1985]]</li><li>[[Telos]]</li></ul>|
|season serial number   = 1
writer= [[Paula Moore]]|
|story number          = 137
director= [[Matthew Robinson]]|
|doctor                 = Sixth Doctor
producer= [[John Nathan-Turner]]|
|companions             = [[Peri Brown|Peri]]
broadcast date= [[5th January]] - [[12th January]] [[1985]] |
|featuring              = [[Gustave Lytton|Lytton]]
format= 2 45-minute episodes|
|enemy                  = The [[Cyber-Controller (The Tomb of the Cybermen)|CyberTelosian-Controller]]
production code= [[List of production codes|6T]] |
|setting                = {{il|[[London]], [[1985]]|[[Telos]]}}
previous story= [[The Twin Dilemma]] |
|writer                 = Paula Moore
next story= [[Vengeance on Varos]] }}
|director               = [[Matthew Robinson]]
|producer               = [[John Nathan-Turner]]
|epcount                = 2
|broadcast date         = 5 - 12 January 1985
|network                = BBC1
|format                 = 2x45-minute episodes
|serial production code = [[List of production codes|6T]]
|prev                  = The Twin Dilemma (TV story)
|next                   = Vengeance on Varos (TV story)
|thwr = 173
|thwr2 = 190
}}
'''''Attack of the Cybermen''''' was the first serial of [[Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|season 22]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]''.


'''Attack of the Cybermen''' was the first story of [[Season 22]].  This story features the return of [[Lytton]], last seen in "[[Resurrection of the Daleks]]," and also introduced the [[Cryon]]s, the native race of [[Telos]], whose world had been occupied by the [[Mondasian Cybermen|Cybermen]].
The story features the return of [[Gustave Lytton|Lytton]], last seen in ''[[Resurrection of the Daleks (TV story)|Resurrection of the Daleks]]''. It was the first ''Doctor Who'' story to be produced in forty-five-minute episodes, and the first since ''Resurrection of the Daleks'' to be aired in the format. Both methods would see their end in the 1963 series with ''[[Revelation of the Daleks (TV story)|Revelation of the Daleks]]''; 45-minute episodes would not reappear until ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]'', the first episode of the show's 2005 revival. From that point on, the 45-minute format would become the norm for ''Doctor Who''.


==Synopsis==
The story also returned to [[Telos]], the setting of the [[Second Doctor]] TV story ''[[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|The Tomb of the Cybermen]]'', also reintroducing its [[Cyber-Controller (The Tomb of the Cybermen)|Cyber-Controller]], albeit redesigned to fit with the [[CyberNeomorph|then-current Cyberman design]]. In the process, ''Attack of the Cybermen'' attempted to reconcile Telos's depiction as the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]]'s homeworld in ''Tomb of the Cybermen'' with the claim in [[TV]]: ''[[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|The Tenth Planet]]'' that the Cyberman homeworld was [[Mondas]]. In this case, Telos was redefined as a planet temporarily colonised by the Mondasian Cybermen, with a new native Telosian race, the [[Cryon]]s, being introduced. Ironically, [[PROSE]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Cybermen (novelisation)|Doctor Who and the Cybermen]]'' had earlier posited the opposite explanation, purporting that Telos was the original Cyberman homeworld and that Mondas has been the first of their colony-planets. [[TV]]: ''[[The Doctor Falls (TV story)|The Doctor Falls]]'' would later posit yet a third incompatible explanation, alleging that Cybermen evolved separately on Mondas ''and'' Telos through [[parallel evolution]].
While attempting to fix the [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]]'s [[chameleon circuit]], [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] returns to [[76 Totter's Lane|Foreman's Yard]] on [[Totter's Lane]] in [[1985]], where he meets up with his old enemies the [[Cybermen]], who have come from the future to attempt to change history by sending [[Halley's Comet]] crashing into [[Earth]]. [[Lytton]], last seen working for the [[Dalek]]s, is also caught up in the Cybermen's plot. But is Lytton working for the Cybermen, himself, or someone else?


==Plot==
This episode is also notable for featuring the first televised instance where the [[chameleon circuit]] within [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] is shown operational - since [[An Unearthly Child (episode)|the very first episode]] of the series, it was known to have suffered from a fault that left it in the shape of a police box. Now temporarily repaired, the outer shell of the TARDIS is witnessed changing shape for the first time on-screen. However, the repairs are imperfect and the TARDIS assumes random forms against the Doctor's will, some of which do not blend well with the places it lands and make it hard to tell where to re-enter the machine. The chameleon circuit soon breaks down and the TARDIS becomes locked in its police box form once again.


===Part One===
It was also a prime example of an occasion where the Doctor greatly misjudged someone's pure motives, namely he assumed that Lytton was working with the Cybermen instead of against them. His actions here indirectly led to Lytton's death, and the Doctor stated that he's never quite misjudged someone that badly before, and swore never to do so again.
In the [[London]] sewer system, two sewer workers called [[Bill]] and [[David]] are discussing that even though they have both worked down there for years, everything looks as though it has been shuffled around overnight. As Bill is speaking, he notices that David has disappeared without a trace. Calling after his friend, he finds himself accosted by a tall creature, who effortlessly and efficiently beats him to death...


[[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] is repairing circuitry in the [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]]'s roundels, using his new [[sonic lance]]. After he undergoes several technical difficulties, [[Peri Brown|Peri]] enters after putting on a new dress ([[apple]] in hand) and wonders what he is doing; the Doctor is finally repairing the [[chameleon circuit]] - a task he wonders why he never found the time to do before. Peri inquires why he is suddenly so energetic and affirmative in his actions - after all, he has [[The Caves of Androzani|recently regenerated]], and he has proven since then to have a penchant for unstable behaviour. The Doctor seems genuinely hurt by this, but he assures her that he is as stable as he could ever hope to be, and he would never dream of hurting her.
== Synopsis ==
While trying to fix [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]'s [[chameleon circuit]], the [[Sixth Doctor]] returns to [[76 Totter's Lane|Foreman's Yard]] on [[Totter's Lane]] in [[1985]], where he meets his old enemies the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]]. They have come from the future to change history by sending [[Halley's Comet]] crashing into [[Earth]]. [[Gustave Lytton]], last seen working for the [[Dalek]]s, is involved in the Cybermen's plot. Is Lytton working for the Cybermen, himself or someone else?


[[Lytton]] is organising what he claims is a £10 million [[diamond]] heist on the [[Bank of England]]. He explains the plan: his merry band of four shall go into the sewers, and use [[plastic explosive]]s to blow a hole in the wall of the vault, escaping with the diamonds, and no-one (in theory) should get hurt. Down they go into the sewers, with [[Payne]] agreeing to stand on lookout by the manhole. As the others move away, no-one notices the tall, black figure silently advancing behind Payne...
== Plot ==
=== Part one ===
Two workmen are inspecting a [[London sewers|London sewer]]. They find a new brick wall where none should be. One of them wanders off and vanishes, while his colleague is attacked by an unseen assailant.


The Doctor says he is taking Peri somewhere nice and peaceful, to treat her after the awful time they both had on [[Jaconda]]. After a very difficult trip through the [[Time Vortex]], he shows [[Halley's Comet]] to her, inadvertently revealing that he plans to take her to [[Earth]]. It is soon clear that being so close to the [[comet]] upsets her (as does, undoubtedly, the fact that they nearly crash into it), so he steers away from it. The TARDIS then picks up a distress signal coming from [[London]], in [[1985]]; they both agree that they have to investigate this.
The [[Sixth Doctor]] is performing repairs to [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]'s [[chameleon circuit]], something he has meant to do for years, but [[Peri Brown|Peri]] is worried that he is over-exerting himself following his recent [[regeneration]]. She suggests he get some rest. He responds that she could also use some relaxation and steers the TARDIS towards [[Earth]]. Something begins to draw them off course.


The TARDIS lands in [[76 Totter's Lane]], London, a scrapyard that the Doctor [[An Unearthly Child|finds oddly familiar]]. As he and Peri begin to leave the scrapyard the chameleon circuit turns the time machine into a stove with an attractive (or cloying) floral pattern (much to Peri's mirth). The Doctor, slightly defensive, says that the TARDIS is slightly out of practice when it comes to choosing new forms. (They both fail to notice two [[police|policemen]], who are walking past them.) As the pair move through the streets, the Doctor scanning for the signal, Peri reveals how worried she is for him: his memory is in pieces, and he keeps calling her the names of his previous [[companion]]s. He assures her he is fine. After tracing the signal to an abandoned warehouse that does not contain anyone; he remarks how foolish he was for not realising what has happened. After dashing back to the scrapyard, they eventually find a door in the TARDIS's new form and take off.
Back in London, the stranded [[mercenary]] [[Gustave Lytton|Lytton]] now leads a small gang of criminals. They are planning their next job, a [[diamond]] heist. One man, [[Russell (Attack of the Cybermen)|Russell]], is sent to procure explosives, but instead phones someone to tell them what Lytton is planning.


Meanwhile, Lytton's group are not faring well in the sewer: [[Russell]] has cold feet, and [[Griffith]] is doing all of the wall-demolishing single-handedly (much to his annoyance). Lytton does not seem to be noticing these things, and seems almost to be waiting for someone.
The TARDIS is undamaged and now following [[Halley's Comet]] towards Earth in [[1985]]. The Doctor decides to investigate what affected their flight, despite Peri's misgivings about the comet's reputation as a signal of impending doom. Lytton's gang enters the sewers via a prepared entrance concealed beneath a garage, planning to blow their way into the diamond vault from below. Before he joins them, Lytton adjusts a piece of advanced technology, while his two police allies patrol the street.


Onboard the TARDIS, the Doctor explains that the [[alien]] has put relays around the city, making it hard for them to trace his signal (and thus help him). Peri points out a vital clue: such an extraterrestrial would surely leave a time trace; the Doctor starts tracking down that very thing.
The TARDIS lands in the scrapyard at [[76 Totter's Lane]], having tracked a distress signal nearby. To Peri's amusement, the chameleon circuit alters the appearance to a painted french dresser, inconsistent with a junkyard. As the Doctor and Peri search for the signal's source, they are silently stalked by the policemen.


[[Image:Tardis8.JPG|thumb|125px|The TARDIS disguised as a pipe organ]]
[[File:Delight.jpg|thumb|The Doctor is delighted to find himself back at [[76 Totter's Lane]].]]
The TARDIS then lands, disguised as a pipe organ, in the garage containing the manhole down which Lytton's crew have descended. There, the two policemen seen earlier accost them, but the Doctor (unseen) knocks one of them out in the sewer, and Peri handcuffs the other to a railing and takes his gun. They then descend the manhole.
In the sewers, Russell hears someone following the four thieves. Lytton orders [[Joe Payne|Payne]] to remain behind to "deal" with whoever is following them while he, Russell and [[Charles Griffiths|Griffiths]] proceed into the dark tunnels. Payne is attacked and killed by the shadowy assailant. When he realises the distress signal is relayed via multiple points in the city, the Doctor decides someone must be observing the transmitter to determine when help arrives. The TARDIS, now a pipe organ, materialises at the garage. When he sees the absurd form his TARDIS has assumed, the frustrated Doctor remarks, "This is getting ridiculous". In a moment of whimsy, he plays the opening notes of J. S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor", before Peri puts him back on task. The Doctor and Peri find the sewer entrance and the armed policemen, whom they overcome before venturing into the sewers. In the dark, they soon find Payne's body.


In the sewer, Lytton's trio discover a tall, black figure advancing towards them. Although Lytton insists that all is fine, Griffith panics and shoots his (previously unseen) gun at the tall figure; prompting Lytton to take out his own firearm and threaten Griffith, in order to stop him firing at the figure. Suddenly, the wall behind them slides open and an entire army of silver giants is revealed. Then Lytton offers their Leader his weapon, saying that he offers his life to the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]]. The [[Cyber Leader]] effortlessly crushes Lytton's gun, eliciting a scream from Griffith...
When Lytton's gang reach the newly built wall, Griffiths begins to knock down some of the old brickwork to reach the vault. When the black figure appears in the tunnel, Russell flees while Griffiths shoots at it. Lytton forces Griffiths not to panic as the new wall slides back to reveal [[Cyberman|Cybermen]] in a hidden command centre. Lytton surrenders. He explains his [[Alien|extra-terrestrial]] nature to the [[Cyber-Leader]] and offers to serve the Cyber race. The leader states the [[Cyber-Controller]] on [[Telos]] will determine their fate.


Lytton's two policemen comrades - as well as the two sewer workers we saw at the beginning - are being converted into Cybermen. Lytton manages to talk his way out of the same procedure, explaining that he detected the Cybermen's transmissions and deliberately contacted them, bringing along [[human]]s for them to convert as a sign of goodwill. He identifies himself as a warrior mercenary from [[Riften 5]] and points out that he could easily have alerted Earth authorities to the Cybermen's presence but chose not to. The Cyber Leader accepts the logic of his argument and decides to report to the [[Cybercontroller|Controller]] on [[Telos]].  
[[File:Attack_3.jpg|thumb|left|Prisoners and guards.]]
On Telos, a group of partially [[Cyber-conversion|cyber-converted]] prisoners toil in a [[quarry]] under Cyberman guards. Three of the prisoners attempt an escape, killing a Cyberman in the process. Only two make it out alive. The men, [[Bates (Attack of the Cybermen)|Bates]] and [[Stratton]], need a third to operate the ship they plan to leave Telos in. Despite this setback, they continue with their plan and head for the [[Cyber-Control (Telos)|Cyber-control]] building. They accost a [[Cyber-Scout|Cyber-scout]] on the way and decapitate him, planning to hollow out his head for a disguise.


On Telos, a work party of slaves plants explosives in the ground. Three of the slaves make a break for it, but one is killed and the decapitated Cyber-head, which they require for the next stage of the escape, is destroyed. The two survivors, [[Bates]] and [[Stratton]], hide nearby, but without a third pilot and a Cyber-head, they're still as good as prisoners. The other slaves' spirits have been completely crushed; nobody else has tried to escape. In Cyber Control, the Controller receives a report of the escape attempt, and decides to analyse Bates and Stratton's behaviour as they attempt to survive and escape.  
Russell finds the Doctor and Peri. He reveals he is an undercover [[police officer]]. The Doctor disarms him and learns he was investigating Lytton, who appeared suddenly a year earlier and committed several daring crimes with great skill to build his transmitter and who the Doctor had dealt with before during an incident with the Daleks. They return to the TARDIS, disabling the black Cyber-scout with a [[sonic lance]] on the way. However, some Cybermen are already inside the TARDIS and kill Russell. The leader, flanked by several other Cybermen, herds Lytton and Griffiths in the ship. The leader orders one of the Cybermen to destroy Peri at once...


The Doctor and Peri are captured by Russell, who frisks the Doctor and finds Payne's gun. The Doctor manages to surprise and overpower Russell, who eventually admits that he's an undercover policeman who infiltrated Lytton's gang to find out who he was. After a raid on an electronics warehouse -- which the Doctor and Peri realize supplied Lytton with the parts he needed for his intergalactic transmitter -- the police heard Lytton's name whispered on the streets, but could find no records of his existence at all. It was as if he'd just arrived from another planet. The Doctor warns Russell that this is exactly what he did -- and he's a ruthless, professional killer...  
=== Part two ===
The Doctor agrees to co-operate with the Cybermen if Peri is spared on the word of the leader and Cyber-Controller, whom the Doctor [[The Tomb of the Cybermen|believed dead]]. He sets the TARDIS coordinates for Telos and is placed in another room with Peri, Griffiths and Lytton. Lytton explains that the Cybermen have captured a timeship that landed on Telos and have great plans for that ship and the TARDIS as well. The Doctor asks how Lytton knows so much about Telos and the Cybermen's plans, but he does not answer. The Doctor explains to Peri and Griffiths that the Cybermen came to Telos and annihilated the native [[Cryon]]s to use their refrigerated cities to store cyber troops after the [[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|destruction]] of [[Mondas]], partially at the Doctor's hand, in [[1986]].


Bates and Stratton use their mining tools to destroy and decapitate a Cyberman sent out to recapture them. Bates intends to clean out the head so Stratton can use it as a disguise; as prisoner and escort they stand a better chance of getting into Cyber Control. But the destruction of the scout is detected, and the Controller decides that Bates and Stratton are too resourceful and must be destroyed.  
The Doctor sabotages the navigational controls with the sonic lance, causing the TARDIS to land in the [[Cyber-tomb|catacombs]], rather than Cyber-control, whereupon it assumes the shape of a gateway. The Cybermen are attacked by a rogue Cyberman, one of many driven insane by faulty tombs. The distraction allows Peri, Lytton and Griffiths to escape. Peri is rescued by Cryon freedom fighters, more of whom find Lytton and Griffiths, explaining that they answered Lytton's distress call and he manipulated the Cybermen into bringing him to Telos. The Cryons have hired him to help them stop the Cybermen from destroying Telos when they have revived all their troops and left. Lytton's mission is to steal the time vessel to prevent the Controller's plan from succeeding. He, in turn, needs Griffiths to keep him alive long enough to make it to the ship, paying him with a fortune in diamonds, which are very common on Telos.


Back on Earth, the Cybermen detect temporal distortion nearby, and send scouts to investigate. The Doctor, Peri and Russell encounter one, and the Doctor destroys it by plunging his sonic lance into its chest unit. The Cybermen detect this, and the Leader decides to close down this base and send the partially converted humans to their mothership. The Leader himself takes a squad out to investigate the scout's destruction, and when they find an alien artefact was responsible Lytton soon guesses who the "alien" is. He's surprised to learn that the Cybermen already know of the Doctor. The Cyber Leader decides to alter his plans and capture the Doctor and his TARDIS.  
Meanwhile, the Doctor is confined in a cold storage room, where he meets a Cryon prisoner, [[Flast]]. Flast says a few Cryons survived the Cybermen purges. They are fighting a guerrilla war, sabotaging the tombs to delay the revivals. She outlines the Cybermen's plan to prevent Mondas' destruction by travelling back in the time vessel and diverting Halley's Comet into Earth before Mondas has absorbed too much energy.


The Doctor, Peri and Russell emerge from the sewers, closely followed by the Cybermen. But the Doctor has accidentally left the TARDIS doors open and Cybermen have already entered the ship. Russell destroys one by shooting it through the weak point in its mouth panel, and shoots another with the first Cyberman's gun. But before Peri can shut the doors the Cyber Leader and his patrol arrive, and while Russell is distracted a third Cyberman emerges from the corridors and strikes him upon his neck, killing him instantly. Peri approaches Russell and the Cybermen then close in on Peri who screams...
Lytton and Griffiths track down the two escaped prisoners outside the city and convince the groups to ally themselves with each other to capture the time vessel, which needs at least three crewmen to operate. Lytton explains that the ship is their only hope and that it will arrive soon. They head into a hidden tunnel, which leads to Cyber-control. As they approach the landing pad, Lytton is captured by a Cyberman patrol while the others continue without him.


===Part Two===
The Doctor is outraged at the Cybermen's plan. Saving Mondas would contravene the [[Laws of Time]]. He is surprised the [[Time Lord]]s are not doing something to stop it. He realises it must have been his own people who sent the TARDIS off course and manipulated him into place to be their [[Celestial Intervention Agency|agent]] yet again. Flast shows the Doctor what is in the storeroom - boxes of [[vastial]], a common Telosian mineral, highly volatile above freezing. The Doctor uses a small amount to escape the room and kill the guard, leaving his sonic lance with Flast. She cannot leave the room without being boiled alive by the above-zero temperatures in the corridor, but volunteers to use the lance to detonate the vastial and destroy cyber-control.


The Doctor threatens to destroy the TARDIS unless the Cyber Leader agrees to spare Peri's life. He does so, giving the word of the Cyber Controller that she will not be harmed -- and the Doctor realizes that, by implication, not only did the Controller survive their last meeting but these Cybermen have somehow travelled through Time. He sets the co-ordinates for Telos, and he, Peri, Griffiths and Lytton are locked up in a nearby storeroom. Lytton returns the Doctor's sonic lance so he can sabotage the navigational controls and shift the TARDIS slightly off course, and reveals that the Cybermen haven't developed their own theories of Time travel; they simply stole a ship which was forced down on Telos for repairs. The Doctor, attempting to explain the history of the Cybermen to Griffiths and Peri, is forced to admit that their home world [[Mondas]] was destroyed while attacking Earth -- in [[1986]], which in their terms is next year. The Doctor assures them that Earth survived with minimal damage; the surviving Cybermen evacuated to Telos, wiped out the indigenous [[Cryon]]s and transformed their refrigerated cities into cryogenic tombs in which to hibernate and recover their strength. Bates and Stratton continue to approach Cyber Control despite Stratton's conviction that the plan will never work. The reactivation of dormant Cybermen is halted when too many are found damaged or dead; some are going rogue in the tombs and destroying everything they encounter.  
[[File:Cyber-distress.jpg|thumb|left|The Doctor activates a Cyberman's distress beacon.]]
Lytton is tortured by the Cyber-controller for information before being forced to undergo cyber-conversion. The Doctor and Peri make their way separately to the TARDIS where to lure the Cyberman guards out, the Doctor activates a distress beacon on the body of a dead Cyberman. Before being forced into the corridor and perishing, Flast hides the sonic lance in a box of vastial where it slowly warms up. When the time vessel lands at the platform, the would-be hijackers try to board it but are mercilessly cut down by the Cybermen inside. As the guards leave the TARDIS, the Cryons destroy them at the cost of their leader's life.


The Doctor is forced to switch off the distress call he'd surreptitiously activated, but thanks to his earlier sabotage the TARDIS (in the form of a set of iron gates) materializes in the tombs rather than in Cyber Control. While the Cyber Leader reports for further instructions, the Doctor notices a stench of decay in the air -- and realizes that Lytton knows more about it than he's saying. A rogue Cyberman suddenly bursts out of a tomb and attacks them, and in the confusion Peri, Lytton and Griffiths escape. Peri, separated from the others, is attacked by yet another rogue Cyberman -- and is rescued by two Cryons...  
The new Cryon leader, [[Rost]], urges the Doctor to leave before Flast's explosion is triggered. The Doctor prepares to go, but Peri urges him to go back and rescue Lytton who, for once, was helping the right side. The TARDIS materialises in the conversion centre, taking the form of a police box, but it is too late to save Lytton, who begs the Doctor to kill him. The Cyber-Controller arrives to stop the Doctor, who surreptitiously puts a scalpel in Lytton's hand. Lytton waits until the Controller is next to him and stabs him in the arm, which is the distraction the Doctor needs. He takes the Controller's [[Cyber-gun|weapon]] and kills the Leader, the Lieutenant and the Controller himself, but not before Lytton is killed. The TARDIS leaves moments before Cyber-control explodes, leaving the Doctor to reflect on his misjudgment of Lytton.


Griffiths and Lytton hide in the tunnels outside the tombs, where they are contacted by a Cryon named Threst -- who welcomes Lytton by name. Lytton admits that he's been working for the Cryons all along; it was they who picked up his distress call from Earth, and on their behalf he intends to steal the Cybermen's time machine. Since the Cryons can only survive in sub-zero temperatures they will be unable to help, and Lytton thus brought Griffiths along to act as his bodyguard, in return for which the Cryons will pay him the equivalent of two million British pounds in uncut diamonds. Griffiths is reluctant to risk his life, but Lytton points out that his only two alternatives if captured are death -- or conversion into a Cyberman.
== Cast ==
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
* [[Gustave Lytton|Lytton]] - [[Maurice Colbourne]]
* [[Charles Griffiths|Griffiths]] - [[Brian Glover]]
* [[Russell (Attack of the Cybermen)|Russell]] - [[Terry Molloy]]
* [[Joe Payne|Payne]] - [[James Beckett]]
* [[Cyber-Leader (Attack of the Cybermen)|Cyber Leader]] - [[David Banks]]
* [[Cyber-Controller]] - [[Michael Kilgarriff]]
* [[Flast]] - [[Faith Brown]]
* [[Varne]] - [[Sarah Greene]]
* [[Eregous Bates|Bates]] - [[Michael Attwell]]
* [[Lintus Stratton|Stratton]] - [[Jonathan David]]
* [[Cyber-Lieutenant (Attack of the Cybermen)|Cyber-Lieutenant]] - [[Brian Orrell]]
* [[Cyberman]] - [[John Ainley]]
* [[Bill (Attack of the Cybermen)|Bill]] - [[Stephen Churchett]]
* [[David (Attack of the Cybermen)|David]] - [[Stephen Wale]]
* [[Rost]] - [[Sarah Berger]]
* [[Threst]] - [[Esther Freud]]


The Doctor is locked up in a storeroom with a Cryon prisoner, [[Flast]], and upon learning that some Cryons survived the Cybermen's attempt at genocide he also realizes that they must be responsible for the damage to the Cybermen in the tombs. He's less pleased by Flast's revelation of the Cybermen's plans -- since they stole their time machine they don't fully understand the principles of Time, and intend to change history by preventing Mondas from being destroyed...
=== Uncredited cast ===
* Policemen - [[Michael Jefferies]], [[Mike Braben]]
* Cybermen - [[Ian Marshall-Fisher]], [[Roger Pope]], [[Thomas Lucy]]
* Rogue Cyberman/Cyberman/Worker - [[Pat Gorman]]
* Stunt Cyberman - [[Ken Barker]] (all [[DWM 207]])


Lytton and Griffiths emerge onto the surface of Telos, where Bates and Stratton confront them. Griffiths is shocked to learn that Bates and Stratton are partially cybernetic; they were sent to the work parties when the conversion process failed. Lytton points out that the time vessel requires a crew of three and suggests that they join forces. Meanwhile, Peri is held in the Cryon base by [[Rost]] and [[Varne]], who are unable to help her rescue the Doctor as they would perish in the heat of Cyber Control. They tell Peri she will need to run fast in the near future, they roll up Peri's trouser legs and her high heels then fall off her feet, Peri sees them fall on the floor and then disappear. They admit that Lytton is working for them to prevent the Cybermen from leaving Telos -- upon abandoning the planet the Cybermen intend to destroy it to observe the effect on its atmosphere.
== Crew ==
* [[Assistant Floor Manager]] - [[Pennie Bloomfield]]
* [[Camera supervisor|Camera Supervisor]] - [[Alec Wheal]]
* [[Costumes]] - [[Anushia Nieradzik]]
* [[Designer (crew)|Designer]] - [[Marjorie Pratt]]
* [[Film Cameraman]] - [[Godfrey Johnson]]
* [[Film Editor]] - [[M A C Adams]]
* [[Film sound|Film Sound]] - [[Barrie Tharby]]
* [[Incidental Music]] - [[Malcolm Clarke]]
* [[Studio Lighting|Lighting Director]] - [[Henry Barber]]
* [[Make-Up]] - [[Linda McInnes]]
* [[Producer]] - [[John Nathan-Turner]]
* [[Production Assistant]] - [[Llinos Wyn Jones]]
* [[Production Associate]]s - [[June Collins]], [[Sue Anstruther]]
* [[Production Manager]] - [[Andrew Buchanan]]
* [[Script Editor]] - [[Eric Saward]]
* [[Special Sounds]] - [[Dick Mills]]
* [[Studio Sound]] - [[Andy Stacey]]
* [[Technical co-ordinator|Technical Co-ordinator]] - [[Alan Arbuthnott]]
* [[Theme Arrangement]] - [[Peter Howell]]
* [[Doctor Who theme|Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]]
* [[Title Sequence]] - [[Sid Sutton]]
* [[Video effects|Video Effects]] - [[Dave Chapman]]
* [[Videotape editor|Videotape Editor]] - [[Hugh Parson]]
* [[Vision Mixer]] - [[Nigel Finnis]]
* [[Visual Effects Designer]] - [[Chris Lawson]]


Flast explains to the Doctor that the Cybermen intend to divert the course of Halley's Comet, causing it to collide with Earth. The Doctor suddenly realizes that the [[Time Lord]]s have once again manipulated him into this situation so he can clean it up for them. Flast points out a potential weapon; the storeroom contains canisters of [[vastial]], an unstable mineral which explodes upon reaching fifteen degrees above zero, and she's managed to open one. The Doctor uses his sonic lance to pick the lock of the storeroom door, and uses a small amount of vastial to destroy the guard outside. Flast takes the sonic lance, turns it on and buries it in the open canister of vastial, hoping to spark an explosion which will destroy Cyber Control. She is unable to leave the sub-zero storeroom but urges the Doctor to escape without her.
=== Uncredited crew ===
* [[Film sound assistant|Film Sound Assistant]] - [[Gordon Lester]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Film camera assistant|Film Camera Assistant]] - [[Eric Samuel]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Film operations manager|Film Operations Manager]] - [[Graham Richmond]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Grip]]s - [[Gray Hutchings]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Film lighting|Film Lighting]] - [[Paul Eveny]], [[Max Foster]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Costume assistant|Costume Assistant]] - [[Julie Godfrey]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Booker]] - [[Sarah Bird]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Bookings assistant|Bookings Assistant]] - [[Sheila Hodges]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Design assistant|Design Assistant]] - [[Adele Marolf]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Production secretary|Production Secretary]] - [[Sarah Lee]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Studio engineer|Senior Studio Engineers]] - [[Selwyn Allen]], [[John Billett]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Effects cameraman|Model Film Cameraman]] - [[Remi Adefarasin]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Visual effects assistant|Visual Effects Assistant]] - [[Graham Brown]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Model lighting|Model Film Lighting]] - [[Brian Beaumont]], [[Billy Burn]], [[Joe Ryan]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Grams operator|Grams Operator]] - [[John Doyes]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Lighting chargehand|Lighting Chargehand]] - [[Bert Smith]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Make-up assistant|Make-Up Assistant]] - [[Sharon Walsh]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Production ops supervisor|Production Ops Supervisor]] - [[John Pearson]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Props buyer|Props Buyer]] - [[John Charles]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')
* [[Floor assistant|Floor Assistant]] - [[Lynda Pannett]] ([[INFO]]: ''Attack of the Cybermen'')


Lytton and his companions enter Cyber Control, but as Lytton is guarding their backs he is attacked and overpowered by Cybermen and the others have no choice but to carry on without him. Lytton is taken back to the control room and tortured, and when he refuses to speak he is taken to be converted into a Cyberman. Rost and Varne learn of Lytton's capture while taking Peri back to the TARDIS.  
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Individuals ===
* [[Gustave Lytton|Lytton]] says that he comes from a satellite of [[Vita 15]] ([[Riften 5]]) in the [[star system 690]].


The Doctor returns to the TARDIS, where he finds two Cybermen on guard and is reunited with Peri. Rost and Varne help him break into a tomb which they have already sabotaged, and the Doctor activates the distress call in the dead Cyberman inside, luring the two guards away from the TARDIS and into a trap. In the ensuing battle, Varne is killed but both Cybermen are destroyed. As the Doctor prepares to leave, Peri insists that they rescue Lytton first, and the Doctor, who was fully prepared to leave Lytton to his fate, is startled to learn that he was working for the Cryons all along. He agrees to see what he can do.  
=== Species ===
* [[Cryon]]s are native to Telos.


Bates, Griffiths and Stratton finally reach the landing pad, but just as they're within sight of their goal Bates is killed by an electrified door -- which opens to reveal a Cyberman who guns down Griffiths and Stratton. Meanwhile, the Cybermen detect the Doctor's escape and question Flast; when she refuses to speak they fling her into the corridor, where her body boils away in the heat. As the Cybermen begin checking the vastial stores, the Cyber Controller learns that the TARDIS has been moved and returns to the control room. The sabotaged vastial container, hidden in the back of the storeroom, has begun to steam...  
=== Technology ===
* The Doctor almost fixes [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] [[chameleon circuit]]. It becomes an ornamental wardrobe, a pipe [[Organ (music)|organ]], and a metal gateway.
* The Cybermen still make use of 'tombs.'
* When converting people, the Cybermen use a drug to affect the brain.


The TARDIS, once again in the form of a [[police box]], materializes in the control room. The Doctor emerges to find Lytton partially converted, and as he tries to free him from the processing machine Lytton, drugged and partially converted, begs the Doctor to kill him. The Cyber Controller arrives, having guessed that the Doctor's emotional weaknesses would draw him back to rescue his friend. As the Controller approaches, however, Lytton attacks him, puncturing his hydraulic valves with the knife the Doctor was using to pry him free from the processing machines. The Controller strikes back, snapping Lytton's neck, while the Doctor grabs the Controller's gun and shoots the Cyber Leader, who staggers back into his Lieutenant, causing him to accidentally shoot both himself and the Leader (again). The Doctor then shoots the Cyber Controller, destroying him once and for all. Peri emerges from the TARDIS and practically drags the Doctor away from Lytton's body.  
=== References from the real world ===
* The Doctor and Peri view [[Halley's Comet]] from the TARDIS.
* The Doctor plays the opening of J. S. Bach's "[[Toccata and Fugue in D minor]]" on the TARDIS "organ".
* Peri tells the Doctor he doesn't have to play the [[Lone Ranger]].
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] finds her and the [[Sixth Doctor]]'s [[destination]] of [[London]] to be an [[anticlimax]].


As the TARDIS dematerializes, the sonic lance finally heats the vastial to ignition point, and the resulting chain reaction destroys all Cyber Control and the stolen time machine as well. The Earth is safe and the web of Time has been preserved... but at a great personal cost, as the Doctor blames himself for misjudging and failing to save Lytton.
== Story notes ==


==Cast==
* This is the only Cybermen story of the 1980s to feature the word "Cybermen" in the title.
*[[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
*[[Peri]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
*[[Lytton]] - [[Maurice Colbourne]]
*[[Griffiths]] - [[Brian Glover]]
*[[Russell]] - [[Terry Molloy]]
*[[Payne]] - [[James Beckett]]
*[[Cyber Leader]] - [[David Banks]]
*[[Cyber-Controller]] - [[Michael Kilgarriff]]
*[[Flast]] - [[Faith Brown]]
*[[Varne]] - [[Sarah Greene]]
*[[Bates]] - [[Michael Attwell]]
*[[Stratton]] - [[Jonathan David]]
*[[Cyber-Lieutenant]] - [[Brian Orrell]]
*[[Cyberman]] - [[John Ainley]]
*[[Bill]] - [[Stephen Churchett]]
*[[David]] - [[Stephen Wale]]
*[[Rost]] - [[Sarah Berger]]
*[[Threst]] - [[Esther Freud]]


==Crew==
* There is some contention over who exactly wrote ''Attack of the Cybermen'' — it was written under the pseudonym [[Paula Moore]]. [[Paula Woolsey]] and [[Eric Saward]] apparently worked together to write the story, with contributions from [[Ian Levine]]. However, Levine claims that he wrote the narrative, which was then developed into a script by Saward. Saward denies this and affirms that he wrote the final script and the majority of the narrative, with contributions from Levine, and to a very minor extent, Woolsey. This is also the most recent story to be written under a pseudonym.
*[[Assistant Floor Manager]] - [[Pennie Bloomfield]]
* ''Attack of the Cybermen'' was first broadcast in two weekly parts; beginning with this serial and continuing for the remainder of Season 22, episodes were forty-five minutes in length (as opposed to previous episodes which were twenty-five minutes long) for syndication. In some markets, this serial was re-edited into four twenty-five-minute segments. The cliffhangers to parts one and three are the emergence of the Cybermen from sewer control and Flast's revelation that the Cybermen intend to prevent Mondas' destruction, respectively.
*[[Costumes]] - [[Anushia Nieradzik]]
* Atypically for the title sequence used from [[Season 18 (Doctor Who 1963)|Seasons 18]] through [[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|23]], the story title and author credit are rendered in all capital letters.
*[[Designer]] - [[Marjorie Pratt]]
* Working tiles for this story included ''Return to Telos'' and ''The Cold War''.
*[[Film Cameraman]] - [[Godfrey Johnson]]
* This is [[Terry Molloy]]'s only on-screen appearance in ''Doctor Who'' playing a character other than [[Davros]].
*[[Film Editor]] - [[M A C Adams]]
* The ''[[Radio Times]]'' programme listing for part one was accompanied by a black and white photograph of a Cyberman, plus a full-length black-and-white photographic cut-out image of the Doctor, topped with the neon ''Doctor Who'' logo, with the accompanying caption "A sinister subterranean encounter in the sewers of London between the Doctor and his old adversaries, the Cybermen / BBC1, 5.20 p.m. Doctor Who". ''(original published text)''
*[[Incidental Music]] - [[Malcolm Clarke]]
* This story reuses some incidental music from ''[[Earthshock (TV story)|Earthshock]] ''to establish the presence of the Cybermen.
*[[Make-Up]] - [[Linda McInnes]]
* This story introduced the [[Sixth Doctor]]'s spiritual equivalent of the [[The Doctor's sonic screwdriver|sonic screwdriver]], a portable [[sonic lance]], after the screwdriver had been written out in [[TV]]: ''[[The Visitation (TV story)|The Visitation]]''.
*[[Producer]] - [[John Nathan-Turner]]
* When the Doctor and Peri observe Halley's Comet, the background music is [[Malcolm Clarke]]'s music for the 1981 BBC documentary ''The Comet is Coming''. The original music can be heard on the CD {{wi|BBC Radiophonic Workshop – A Retrospective}}.
*[[Production Assistant]] - [[Llinos Wyn Jones]]
* When the TARDIS lands in the junkyard, the music playing is a distorted version of the theme music to {{wi|Steptoe and Son}} (1962-1974), a BBC sitcom about a father and son rag-and-bone business. The original music was written by [[Ron Grainer]], who also wrote the ''Doctor Who'' theme.
*[[Production Associate]] - [[June Collins]], [[Sue Anstruther]]
* This story was chosen by fans to represent the Colin Baker era by fans to be rebroadcast for [[Doctor Who @40]].
*[[Script Editor]] - [[Eric Saward]]
* In ''[[A History of the Universe (reference book)|A History of the Universe]]'' and the first two editions of ''[[aHistory]]'', the scenes set on Telos are arbitrarily dated to [[2530]], as it is set after ''[[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|The Tomb of the Cybermen]]''. The third edition redates it to circa [[2495]], based on evidence from the ''[[Cyberman (audio series)|Cyberman]]'' audio series.
*[[Special Sounds]] - [[Dick Mills]]
* The rasping, heard by Payne, in the sewers is a unique addition to the Cybermen on television who are noticeably silent. However, Ian Marter's ''[[Earthshock (novelisation)|Earthshock]]'' novelisation made frequent use of the quirk, making this the first of a handful of allusions to the [[Target Books]] adaptations. Others include rectifying the conflicting information surrounding the Cybermen's home planet and the Doctor's initial confusion over whether or not [[Second Doctor|his second self]] had a flute or a recorder in ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'' (a misapprehension inherited from Terrance Dicks's ''[[The Three Doctors (novelisation)|The Three Doctors]]'').
*[[Studio Lighting]] - [[Henry Barber]]
* Though he went uncredited, this is [[Pat Gorman]]'s last performance in ''Doctor Who''.
*[[Studio Sound]] - [[Andy Stacey]]
* This story was rated "M 15+" in Australia for low level violence.
*[[Theme Arrangement]] - [[Peter Howell]]
* The role of Griffiths was written as a [[Cockney]], but had to be rewritten when Yorkshireman [[Brian Glover]] was cast.
*[[Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]]
* [[Brian Glover]] was considered for Russell before being cast as Griffiths.
*[[Visual Effects]] - [[Chris Lawson]]
* The regular Cyber Lieutenant actor, [[Mark Hardy]], was unavailable for this story and was replaced by [[Brian Orrell]].
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koo_Stark Koo Stark] was originally cast as Varne, after having originally been offered the role of Rost. She even appeared in a photocall with [[Colin Baker]] and [[Faith Brown]]. Two days later, she was fired due to a contract dispute and issues with her costume. She was replaced by [[Sarah Greene]], a friend of [[Matthew Robinson]]'s.
* In the original script, it was revealed that a colony of Cryons is living inside Halley's Comet. Lytton's job was to convince the Cybermen to use the comet as the agent of the Earth's destruction in order to lure the Cyber Controller there, where he would be ambushed by the Cryons. This scheme is uncovered by the Cybermen, who then turn against Lytton.
* Griffiths was initially killed at the closing minutes of this serial but an under-running part two meant his character was not killed and expanded.
* [[Nicola Bryant]] recalled being uncomfortable wearing a skimpy outfit in November in Britain. [[John Nathan-Turner]] claimed that her nipples had to be taped down, as "they were obscene".
* [[Brian Blessed]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bates Ralph Bates], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Hill Bernard Hill] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Woodward Edward Woodward] were considered for Russell.
* [[Donald Pleasence]] turned down the role of Griffiths.
* It was planned that the Cybermen on Telos would be dressed in blue overalls and globular helmets, to imply the hostile nature of the planet's surface. However, it was found that these additions made the monsters look ridiculous, and they were dropped.
* The costume and make-up for the Cryons continued to evolve during this time; the silvery wisps of hair near the mouth were a particularly late addition, suggested by [[John Nathan-Turner]] to help conceal the join between the mask and the actor's skin.
* Trevor Raymond was originally cast as Statton, but he suffered a broken arm and had to drop out of the production. He was replaced by [[Jonathan David]], who had been hired to play the Cyber Lieutenant. David, in turn, was replaced by [[Brian Orrell]], while Orrell's original role as a Cyberman was taken by [[John Ainley]].
* For the tombs on Telos, the production returned to the same gravel quarry in Gerrards Cross where ''[[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|The Tomb of the Cybermen]] ''was filmed, at the insistence of [[Ian Levine]]. It looked suitably barren on the recce, but when it came to filming, all kinds of flora had sprouted up in the spring weather. As the story was missing from the archives at the time, Levine meticously researched the sets to get the details right and was disappointed that they weren't recreated. [[Matthew Robinson]] was sympathetic to Levine's concerns, but [[John Nathan-Turner]] felt that so few viewers would be aware of the discrepancy, especially since ''The Tomb of the Cybermen'' was missing from the BBC Archives at the time, that he could not justify the added expense of replicating the earlier serial's design.
* [[Michael Kilgarriff]] reprised his role as the Cyber Controller from ''[[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|The Tomb of the Cybermen]]''',''' ''despite having gained a considerable amount of weight since then. [[Matthew Robinson]] said, "There wasn't enough silver foil in the world to disguise the girth".
* [[Michael Kilgarriff]] was confused by the plot and worried about the violence.
* According to Patrick Mulkern of ''[[Radio Times]]'', [[Matthew Robinson]] "fought the lighting crew to keep the sewer scenes dark and effectively creepy" and had the idea of changing the Cryons from male to female.
* The repair to the chameleon circuit was in part a publicity effort by [[John Nathan-Turner]] to drum up more interest in the series. He hinted publicly that it might be a permanent development, but never pursued the idea beyond this story.
* [[Eric Saward]] tried to define the Cryons as individuals by giving them distinct character traits, rather than attributing monolithic personalities.
* [[Pennant Roberts]] was originally supposed to direct, but was unavailable.
* It was initially planned that all of the Telos material would be recorded in the studio. However, late in the day, additional money was made available for location filming. This prompted [[Eric Saward]] to introduce Stratton and Bates, bringing Telos into the plot in Episode One, rather than deferring the setting to Episode Two.
* [[Matthew Robinson]] was concerned about the lack of female characters, and decided that all of the Cryons should be women; Varne and Flast were initially male.
* [[Matthew Robinson]] originally offered [[David Banks]] the role of the Cyber Controller, but he declined in favour of returning as the Cyber Leader. [[Ian Levine]] convinced Robinson to get [[Michael Kilgarriff]] to reprise his role from [[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|''The Tomb of the Cybermen'']].
* [[John Ainley]] was cast at the recommendation of his uncle [[Anthony Ainley]].
* The silvery wisps of hair near the Cryon's mouths were a particularly late addition, suggested by [[John Nathan-Turner]] to help conceal the join between the mask and the actor's skin.
* For a time, it was thought that [[Cyber Module|the Cyber Director]] from ''[[The Invasion (TV story)|The Invasion]]'' would be included in the sequences set on Earth.
* In the original script, the Doctor made a quip upon seeing the burnt-out remains of a Cyberman - "A blacked-up Cyberman. I wonder if he was planning to audition for a minstrel show?"
* [[Esther Freud]]'s husband [[David Morrissey]] would later face the Cybermen in ''[[The Next Doctor (TV story)|The Next Doctor]].''


==References==
=== Ratings ===
===[[:Category:Individuals|Individuals]]===
* Part one - 8.9 million viewers
*[[Lytton]]
* Part two - 7.2 million viewers
*During one of the Doctor's rants he calls Peri the [[Terrible Zodin]].


===[[:Category: Planets|Planets]]===
=== Myths ===
*[[Halley's Comet]]
* This story replaced one called ''The Opera of Doom'', featuring [[Henry Gordon Jago|Jago]] and [[George Litefoot|Litefoot]], [[Padmasambhava]], [[Omega]], [[the Master]], the [[Rill]]s and the Cybermen. ''(This was a rumour deliberately started by fans and printed as fact in the news magazine DWB.)''
*[[Mondas]]
*[[Telos]]


===[[:Category:Races and Species|Races and Species]]===
=== Filming locations ===
*Lytton previously worked for the [[Dalek]]s
* Glenthorne Road (UCI House), Hammersmith, London
*[[Cybermen]]
* Davis Road, London, W3
*[[Cryon]]s
* Birkbeck Road, Acton
* Becklow Road, London, W12
* Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry, Gerrards Cross
* [[BBC Television Centre]] ([[List of stories recorded at BBC Television Centre|TC6]]), Shepherd's Bush, [[London]]


===[[:Category:Technology|Technology]]===
=== Production errors ===
*The Doctor (briefly) fixes the [[Chameleon circuit]].
{{discontinuity}}
* The scorch mark on the TARDIS wall, caused by Russell firing one of the Cybermen's weapons, is present several scenes before the actual event takes place.
* When Flast is being dragged out of the refrigerated chamber, a couple of the floor crew can be seen kneeling behind some boxes on the right hand of the screen.
* Near the end of part one, a Cyberman gets shot in the mouth by Russell. When the Cyberman falls, the back of the actor's head is clearly visible.
* During the fight in Cyber-Control near the end of part two, the wires used to set off the explosive charges on both [[Michael Kilgarriff]] and [[David Banks]] are clearly visible throughout.


===[[:Category: Music|Music]]===
== Continuity ==
* When the Doctor and Peri observe Halley's Comet the background music is [[Malcolm Clarke]]'s music for the 1982 BBC documentary, [http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0960106/ "The Comet is Coming"].
* The Doctor decides to find a pleasant destination as a break from "the bleakness of [[Jaconda]]." ([[TV]]: ''[[The Twin Dilemma (TV story)|The Twin Dilemma]]'')
* When the TARDIS lands in the junkyard, the music playing is a distorted version of the theme music to [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/steptoeandson/index.shtml "Steptoe and Son"], a BBC sitcom about a couple of rag-and-bone men. The original music was written by [[Ron Grainer]], who also wrote the Doctor Who theme.
* Once the chameleon circuit begins functioning again, the TARDIS lands at [[76 Totter's Lane]], the location where its [[police box]] exterior was imprinted on it. ([[TV]]: ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'')
* The Doctor plays the opening of J. S. Bach's "Toaccato and Fugue in B Minor" on the TARDIS/organ. This piece had already been use in the film "[[Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD]]".
* The Doctor, still confused by his regeneration, has called Peri the names of his past companions: [[Tegan Jovanka|Tegan]], [[Zoe Heriot|Zoe]] and once even [[Jamie McCrimmon|Jaimie]]. When he notices the Totter's Lane sign, he calls Peri "[[Susan Foreman|Susan]]".
* Peri claims the Doctor accidentally referred to her as [[Terrible Zodin|Zodin]] at one point. The Doctor exclaims he hadn't thought about Zodin for years. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'')
* The Cybermen are [[CyberNeomorph]]s. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Ultimate Cybermen (audio story)|The Ultimate Cybermen]]'')
* The Cybermen attempt to prevent the upcoming destruction of Mondas in [[December]] [[1986]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|The Tenth Planet]]'')
* The Doctor and the Cybermen discuss their previous interaction on [[Telos]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)|The Tomb of the Cybermen]]'')
* The Cybermen once again utilise the [[London]] [[sewer]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Invasion (TV story)|The Invasion]]'')
* The Doctor recalls meeting Lytton while he was working for the [[Dalek]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[Resurrection of the Daleks (TV story)|Resurrection of the Daleks]]'')
* The Cybermen have a spaceship on the dark side of [[the Moon]]. They previously had a base there. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Invasion (TV story)|The Invasion]]'')
* Shortly afterwards, the Doctor and Peri would return to the London sewers as the Doctor detected a [[Time Wake]] in the [[Time Vortex]], which linked London in [[January]] [[1986]] to London in [[1720]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Time Wake (short story)|Time Wake]]'')
* Peri claims that this is her first visit to London, although she previously visited the city in the company of the [[Fifth Doctor]] and [[Erimem]] in both [[1597]] and [[1483]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Kingmaker (audio story)|The Kingmaker]]'') However, from Peri's point of view, it was the first time that she visited London in her own era.
* The Doctor and Peri would later encounter time travelling Cybermen from the distant future at [[Fell's Point]], [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], [[United States of America|USA]] in [[September]] [[1984]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Reaping (audio story)|The Reaping]]'')
* The Doctor temporarily repairs the TARDIS's chameleon circuit. His [[Fourth Doctor|fourth incarnation]] considered the idea of his future self repairing it "vulgar", ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Light at the End (audio story)|The Light at the End]]'') though he would try to repair it himself close to the end of his life. ([[TV]]: ''[[Logopolis (TV story)|Logopolis]]'')
* The Doctor kept a Cryon pendant in his [[C chest]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Carrionite Curse (audio story)|The Carrionite Curse]]'')


==Story Notes==
== Home video releases ==
*There is much contention over who exactly wrote '''Attack of the Cybermen''', it was written under the pseudonym [[Paula Moore]].  
=== VHS release ===
:* [[Paula Woolsey]] and [[Eric Saward]], supposedly together wrote the story.
* ''Attack of the Cybermen'' was released in a tin boxed set with ''[[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|The Tenth Planet]]'' in 2000 on VHS.
:* However [[Kit Pedler]] and [[Gerry Davis]] can/could also be credited as the inventors of the [[Cybermen]].
* Editing for the VHS and DVD releases was completed by the [[Doctor Who Restoration Team]].
:* There is also some argument whether [[Ian Levine]] also contributed to the story.
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
* '''Attack of the Cybermen''' was first broadcast in two weekly parts; beginning with this serial and continuing for the remainder of Season 22, episodes were 45 minutes in length (as opposed to previous episodes which were 25 minutes long) for syndication, in some markets, this serial is re-edited into four, 25-minute segments.
Attack of the Cybermenuk.jpg|UK VHS cover
*Atypically for the title sequence used from [[Season 18|Seasons 18]] through [[Season 23|23]], the story title is rendered in all capital letters.
Attack of the Cybermenus.jpg|US VHS cover
===Ratings===
Attack of the Cybermen VHS Australian cover.jpg|Australian VHS cover
''to be added''
Attack of the Cybermen & The Tenth Planet.jpg|Limited Edition box set
</gallery>


===Myths===
=== DVD release ===
''to be added''
''Attack Of The Cybermen'' was released on DVD in the [[UK]] in March 2009.


===Location Filming===
==== Special features ====
''to be added''
* Commentary by [[Colin Baker]] ([[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]]), [[Nicola Bryant]] ([[Peri Brown|Peri]]), [[Terry Molloy]] ([[Russell (Attack of the Cybermen)|Russell]]) and [[Sarah Berger]] ([[Rost]])
* ''[[The Cold War (documentary)|The Cold War]]'' - Cast and crew look back on the making of the story, featuring writer [[Eric Saward]], director [[Matthew Robinson]], continuity advisor [[Ian Levine]] and film cameraman [[Godfrey Johnson]]
* ''[[The Cyber Story (documentary)|The Cyber Story]]'' - A brief history of the [[Cybermen]] in the classic series
* ''[[Human Cyborg: The Cybernetic Experiments (documentary)|Human Cyborg]]'' - An interview with Professor [[Kevin Warwick]]
* ''The Cyber-Generations'' - A gallery of Cybermen throughout the history of the series
* PDF Materals - ''[[Radio Times]]'' listings for ''Attack of the Cybermen'' and ''[[The Invasion (TV story)|The Invasion]]'', plus a [[1969 (releases)|1969]] article from ''The Listener'' (PDF DVD-ROM)
* Isolated score
* Trails and Continuity
* Photo Gallery
* Production Information Subtitles
* Coming Soon Trailer - ''[[Image of the Fendahl (TV story)|Image of the Fendahl]]''
* [[Easter Egg]]: ''[[The Cybernetic Autonomous Dalek (documentary)|The Cybernetic Autonomous Dalek]]''. To access this hidden feature, press left at ''The Cyber-Generations'' on the Special Features menu to reveal a hidden ''[[Doctor Who]]'' logo.


===Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors===
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
* The sign for the junkyard at [[76 Totter's Lane]] says "I.M. Forman", a misspelling as the original (in ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'') read "I.M. Foreman". ''Such errors occur all the time in real life; presumably in the 20-or-so years between the two stories, the sign was repainted by someone who couldn't spell.''
Bbcdvd-attackofthecybermen.jpg|Region 2 cover
Attack of the Cybermen DVD Australian cover.jpg|Region 4 cover
Attack of the cybermen.jpg|Region 1 cover
</gallery>


==Continuity==
=== Britbox ===
* This story revisits the setting of [[An Unearthly Child]].
* The story was made available on the UK version of the streaming service [[BritBox]] on [[26 December (releases)|Boxing Day]] [[2019 (releases)|2019]].
* This story references: [[The Tenth Planet]] (first mention of Mondas), [[The Tomb of the Cybermen]] (First mention of Telos), [[The Invasion]] (Cybermen in the sewers of London).
* Lytton last appeared in [[Resurrection of the Daleks]].
* This is [[Peri]]'s first visit to [[London]].
*This is [[Cybercontroller]]'s second and last appearance in the classic series.


==DVD, Video and Releases==
=== Blu-Ray ===
* Attack of the Cybermen was released in a tin boxed set with [[The Tenth Planet]] in 2000 on VHS.
The story was released on Blu-ray as part of [[The Collection]]: [[Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 22]] on [[20 June (releases)|20 June]] [[2022 (releases)|2022]]
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
Doctor Who The Collection Season 22.jpg|[[Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 22]]
</gallery>


==Novelisation==
== External links ==
[[Image:Attack of the Cybermen novel.jpg|right|75px]]
* {{bbcepguideclassic|attackcybermen/|Attack of the Cybermen}}
: ''Main article: [[Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)]]''
* {{radiotimes|2012-04-18/attack-of-the-cybermen}}
{{dwcast}}
{{dwrefguide|who_6t.htm|Attack of the Cybermen}}
* {{briefhistory|serials/6t.html|Attack of the Cybermen}}
* {{locguide|attackofthecybermen|Attack of the Cybermen}}
{{DWTV}}
{{Cyberman stories}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[de:Attack of the Cybermen]]
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* Novelised by [[Eric Saward]] in [[1989]].
[[Category:Articles that were originally Wikipedia forks]]
 
[[Category:Doctor Who (1963) television stories]]
==See Also==
[[Category:Stories set in Shoreditch]]
''to be added''
[[Category:Season 22 stories]]
 
[[Category:Stories set on Telos]]
==External Links==
[[Category:Stories set in 1985]]
* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_6t.htm The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of ''Attack of the Cybermen'']
[[Category:Two part serials]]
*[http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/6t.html A Brief History of Time (Travel): '''Attack of the Cybermen''']
[[Category:Cyberman television stories]]
 
[[Category:Television stories in which the Doctor is on a mission for the Time Lords]]
{{season 22}}
{{Cyberman stories}}
{{Wikipedia|Attack_of_the_Cybermen}}
{{TV stub}}
[[Category:Sixth Doctor episodes]]
[[Category:Cybermen episodes]]
[[Category:1985 television stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in London]]

Latest revision as of 17:48, 3 November 2024

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Attack of the Cybermen was the first serial of season 22 of Doctor Who.

The story features the return of Lytton, last seen in Resurrection of the Daleks. It was the first Doctor Who story to be produced in forty-five-minute episodes, and the first since Resurrection of the Daleks to be aired in the format. Both methods would see their end in the 1963 series with Revelation of the Daleks; 45-minute episodes would not reappear until Rose, the first episode of the show's 2005 revival. From that point on, the 45-minute format would become the norm for Doctor Who.

The story also returned to Telos, the setting of the Second Doctor TV story The Tomb of the Cybermen, also reintroducing its Cyber-Controller, albeit redesigned to fit with the then-current Cyberman design. In the process, Attack of the Cybermen attempted to reconcile Telos's depiction as the Cybermen's homeworld in Tomb of the Cybermen with the claim in TV: The Tenth Planet that the Cyberman homeworld was Mondas. In this case, Telos was redefined as a planet temporarily colonised by the Mondasian Cybermen, with a new native Telosian race, the Cryons, being introduced. Ironically, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen had earlier posited the opposite explanation, purporting that Telos was the original Cyberman homeworld and that Mondas has been the first of their colony-planets. TV: The Doctor Falls would later posit yet a third incompatible explanation, alleging that Cybermen evolved separately on Mondas and Telos through parallel evolution.

This episode is also notable for featuring the first televised instance where the chameleon circuit within the Doctor's TARDIS is shown operational - since the very first episode of the series, it was known to have suffered from a fault that left it in the shape of a police box. Now temporarily repaired, the outer shell of the TARDIS is witnessed changing shape for the first time on-screen. However, the repairs are imperfect and the TARDIS assumes random forms against the Doctor's will, some of which do not blend well with the places it lands and make it hard to tell where to re-enter the machine. The chameleon circuit soon breaks down and the TARDIS becomes locked in its police box form once again.

It was also a prime example of an occasion where the Doctor greatly misjudged someone's pure motives, namely he assumed that Lytton was working with the Cybermen instead of against them. His actions here indirectly led to Lytton's death, and the Doctor stated that he's never quite misjudged someone that badly before, and swore never to do so again.

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

While trying to fix the TARDIS's chameleon circuit, the Sixth Doctor returns to Foreman's Yard on Totter's Lane in 1985, where he meets his old enemies the Cybermen. They have come from the future to change history by sending Halley's Comet crashing into Earth. Gustave Lytton, last seen working for the Daleks, is involved in the Cybermen's plot. Is Lytton working for the Cybermen, himself or someone else?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

Two workmen are inspecting a London sewer. They find a new brick wall where none should be. One of them wanders off and vanishes, while his colleague is attacked by an unseen assailant.

The Sixth Doctor is performing repairs to the TARDIS's chameleon circuit, something he has meant to do for years, but Peri is worried that he is over-exerting himself following his recent regeneration. She suggests he get some rest. He responds that she could also use some relaxation and steers the TARDIS towards Earth. Something begins to draw them off course.

Back in London, the stranded mercenary Lytton now leads a small gang of criminals. They are planning their next job, a diamond heist. One man, Russell, is sent to procure explosives, but instead phones someone to tell them what Lytton is planning.

The TARDIS is undamaged and now following Halley's Comet towards Earth in 1985. The Doctor decides to investigate what affected their flight, despite Peri's misgivings about the comet's reputation as a signal of impending doom. Lytton's gang enters the sewers via a prepared entrance concealed beneath a garage, planning to blow their way into the diamond vault from below. Before he joins them, Lytton adjusts a piece of advanced technology, while his two police allies patrol the street.

The TARDIS lands in the scrapyard at 76 Totter's Lane, having tracked a distress signal nearby. To Peri's amusement, the chameleon circuit alters the appearance to a painted french dresser, inconsistent with a junkyard. As the Doctor and Peri search for the signal's source, they are silently stalked by the policemen.

The Doctor is delighted to find himself back at 76 Totter's Lane.

In the sewers, Russell hears someone following the four thieves. Lytton orders Payne to remain behind to "deal" with whoever is following them while he, Russell and Griffiths proceed into the dark tunnels. Payne is attacked and killed by the shadowy assailant. When he realises the distress signal is relayed via multiple points in the city, the Doctor decides someone must be observing the transmitter to determine when help arrives. The TARDIS, now a pipe organ, materialises at the garage. When he sees the absurd form his TARDIS has assumed, the frustrated Doctor remarks, "This is getting ridiculous". In a moment of whimsy, he plays the opening notes of J. S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor", before Peri puts him back on task. The Doctor and Peri find the sewer entrance and the armed policemen, whom they overcome before venturing into the sewers. In the dark, they soon find Payne's body.

When Lytton's gang reach the newly built wall, Griffiths begins to knock down some of the old brickwork to reach the vault. When the black figure appears in the tunnel, Russell flees while Griffiths shoots at it. Lytton forces Griffiths not to panic as the new wall slides back to reveal Cybermen in a hidden command centre. Lytton surrenders. He explains his extra-terrestrial nature to the Cyber-Leader and offers to serve the Cyber race. The leader states the Cyber-Controller on Telos will determine their fate.

Prisoners and guards.

On Telos, a group of partially cyber-converted prisoners toil in a quarry under Cyberman guards. Three of the prisoners attempt an escape, killing a Cyberman in the process. Only two make it out alive. The men, Bates and Stratton, need a third to operate the ship they plan to leave Telos in. Despite this setback, they continue with their plan and head for the Cyber-control building. They accost a Cyber-scout on the way and decapitate him, planning to hollow out his head for a disguise.

Russell finds the Doctor and Peri. He reveals he is an undercover police officer. The Doctor disarms him and learns he was investigating Lytton, who appeared suddenly a year earlier and committed several daring crimes with great skill to build his transmitter and who the Doctor had dealt with before during an incident with the Daleks. They return to the TARDIS, disabling the black Cyber-scout with a sonic lance on the way. However, some Cybermen are already inside the TARDIS and kill Russell. The leader, flanked by several other Cybermen, herds Lytton and Griffiths in the ship. The leader orders one of the Cybermen to destroy Peri at once...

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor agrees to co-operate with the Cybermen if Peri is spared on the word of the leader and Cyber-Controller, whom the Doctor believed dead. He sets the TARDIS coordinates for Telos and is placed in another room with Peri, Griffiths and Lytton. Lytton explains that the Cybermen have captured a timeship that landed on Telos and have great plans for that ship and the TARDIS as well. The Doctor asks how Lytton knows so much about Telos and the Cybermen's plans, but he does not answer. The Doctor explains to Peri and Griffiths that the Cybermen came to Telos and annihilated the native Cryons to use their refrigerated cities to store cyber troops after the destruction of Mondas, partially at the Doctor's hand, in 1986.

The Doctor sabotages the navigational controls with the sonic lance, causing the TARDIS to land in the catacombs, rather than Cyber-control, whereupon it assumes the shape of a gateway. The Cybermen are attacked by a rogue Cyberman, one of many driven insane by faulty tombs. The distraction allows Peri, Lytton and Griffiths to escape. Peri is rescued by Cryon freedom fighters, more of whom find Lytton and Griffiths, explaining that they answered Lytton's distress call and he manipulated the Cybermen into bringing him to Telos. The Cryons have hired him to help them stop the Cybermen from destroying Telos when they have revived all their troops and left. Lytton's mission is to steal the time vessel to prevent the Controller's plan from succeeding. He, in turn, needs Griffiths to keep him alive long enough to make it to the ship, paying him with a fortune in diamonds, which are very common on Telos.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is confined in a cold storage room, where he meets a Cryon prisoner, Flast. Flast says a few Cryons survived the Cybermen purges. They are fighting a guerrilla war, sabotaging the tombs to delay the revivals. She outlines the Cybermen's plan to prevent Mondas' destruction by travelling back in the time vessel and diverting Halley's Comet into Earth before Mondas has absorbed too much energy.

Lytton and Griffiths track down the two escaped prisoners outside the city and convince the groups to ally themselves with each other to capture the time vessel, which needs at least three crewmen to operate. Lytton explains that the ship is their only hope and that it will arrive soon. They head into a hidden tunnel, which leads to Cyber-control. As they approach the landing pad, Lytton is captured by a Cyberman patrol while the others continue without him.

The Doctor is outraged at the Cybermen's plan. Saving Mondas would contravene the Laws of Time. He is surprised the Time Lords are not doing something to stop it. He realises it must have been his own people who sent the TARDIS off course and manipulated him into place to be their agent yet again. Flast shows the Doctor what is in the storeroom - boxes of vastial, a common Telosian mineral, highly volatile above freezing. The Doctor uses a small amount to escape the room and kill the guard, leaving his sonic lance with Flast. She cannot leave the room without being boiled alive by the above-zero temperatures in the corridor, but volunteers to use the lance to detonate the vastial and destroy cyber-control.

The Doctor activates a Cyberman's distress beacon.

Lytton is tortured by the Cyber-controller for information before being forced to undergo cyber-conversion. The Doctor and Peri make their way separately to the TARDIS where to lure the Cyberman guards out, the Doctor activates a distress beacon on the body of a dead Cyberman. Before being forced into the corridor and perishing, Flast hides the sonic lance in a box of vastial where it slowly warms up. When the time vessel lands at the platform, the would-be hijackers try to board it but are mercilessly cut down by the Cybermen inside. As the guards leave the TARDIS, the Cryons destroy them at the cost of their leader's life.

The new Cryon leader, Rost, urges the Doctor to leave before Flast's explosion is triggered. The Doctor prepares to go, but Peri urges him to go back and rescue Lytton who, for once, was helping the right side. The TARDIS materialises in the conversion centre, taking the form of a police box, but it is too late to save Lytton, who begs the Doctor to kill him. The Cyber-Controller arrives to stop the Doctor, who surreptitiously puts a scalpel in Lytton's hand. Lytton waits until the Controller is next to him and stabs him in the arm, which is the distraction the Doctor needs. He takes the Controller's weapon and kills the Leader, the Lieutenant and the Controller himself, but not before Lytton is killed. The TARDIS leaves moments before Cyber-control explodes, leaving the Doctor to reflect on his misjudgment of Lytton.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor almost fixes the TARDIS chameleon circuit. It becomes an ornamental wardrobe, a pipe organ, and a metal gateway.
  • The Cybermen still make use of 'tombs.'
  • When converting people, the Cybermen use a drug to affect the brain.

References from the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This is the only Cybermen story of the 1980s to feature the word "Cybermen" in the title.
  • There is some contention over who exactly wrote Attack of the Cybermen — it was written under the pseudonym Paula Moore. Paula Woolsey and Eric Saward apparently worked together to write the story, with contributions from Ian Levine. However, Levine claims that he wrote the narrative, which was then developed into a script by Saward. Saward denies this and affirms that he wrote the final script and the majority of the narrative, with contributions from Levine, and to a very minor extent, Woolsey. This is also the most recent story to be written under a pseudonym.
  • Attack of the Cybermen was first broadcast in two weekly parts; beginning with this serial and continuing for the remainder of Season 22, episodes were forty-five minutes in length (as opposed to previous episodes which were twenty-five minutes long) for syndication. In some markets, this serial was re-edited into four twenty-five-minute segments. The cliffhangers to parts one and three are the emergence of the Cybermen from sewer control and Flast's revelation that the Cybermen intend to prevent Mondas' destruction, respectively.
  • Atypically for the title sequence used from Seasons 18 through 23, the story title and author credit are rendered in all capital letters.
  • Working tiles for this story included Return to Telos and The Cold War.
  • This is Terry Molloy's only on-screen appearance in Doctor Who playing a character other than Davros.
  • The Radio Times programme listing for part one was accompanied by a black and white photograph of a Cyberman, plus a full-length black-and-white photographic cut-out image of the Doctor, topped with the neon Doctor Who logo, with the accompanying caption "A sinister subterranean encounter in the sewers of London between the Doctor and his old adversaries, the Cybermen / BBC1, 5.20 p.m. Doctor Who". (original published text)
  • This story reuses some incidental music from Earthshock to establish the presence of the Cybermen.
  • This story introduced the Sixth Doctor's spiritual equivalent of the sonic screwdriver, a portable sonic lance, after the screwdriver had been written out in TV: The Visitation.
  • When the Doctor and Peri observe Halley's Comet, the background music is Malcolm Clarke's music for the 1981 BBC documentary The Comet is Coming. The original music can be heard on the CD BBC Radiophonic Workshop – A Retrospective.
  • When the TARDIS lands in the junkyard, the music playing is a distorted version of the theme music to Steptoe and Son (1962-1974), a BBC sitcom about a father and son rag-and-bone business. The original music was written by Ron Grainer, who also wrote the Doctor Who theme.
  • This story was chosen by fans to represent the Colin Baker era by fans to be rebroadcast for Doctor Who @40.
  • In A History of the Universe and the first two editions of aHistory, the scenes set on Telos are arbitrarily dated to 2530, as it is set after The Tomb of the Cybermen. The third edition redates it to circa 2495, based on evidence from the Cyberman audio series.
  • The rasping, heard by Payne, in the sewers is a unique addition to the Cybermen on television who are noticeably silent. However, Ian Marter's Earthshock novelisation made frequent use of the quirk, making this the first of a handful of allusions to the Target Books adaptations. Others include rectifying the conflicting information surrounding the Cybermen's home planet and the Doctor's initial confusion over whether or not his second self had a flute or a recorder in The Two Doctors (a misapprehension inherited from Terrance Dicks's The Three Doctors).
  • Though he went uncredited, this is Pat Gorman's last performance in Doctor Who.
  • This story was rated "M 15+" in Australia for low level violence.
  • The role of Griffiths was written as a Cockney, but had to be rewritten when Yorkshireman Brian Glover was cast.
  • Brian Glover was considered for Russell before being cast as Griffiths.
  • The regular Cyber Lieutenant actor, Mark Hardy, was unavailable for this story and was replaced by Brian Orrell.
  • Koo Stark was originally cast as Varne, after having originally been offered the role of Rost. She even appeared in a photocall with Colin Baker and Faith Brown. Two days later, she was fired due to a contract dispute and issues with her costume. She was replaced by Sarah Greene, a friend of Matthew Robinson's.
  • In the original script, it was revealed that a colony of Cryons is living inside Halley's Comet. Lytton's job was to convince the Cybermen to use the comet as the agent of the Earth's destruction in order to lure the Cyber Controller there, where he would be ambushed by the Cryons. This scheme is uncovered by the Cybermen, who then turn against Lytton.
  • Griffiths was initially killed at the closing minutes of this serial but an under-running part two meant his character was not killed and expanded.
  • Nicola Bryant recalled being uncomfortable wearing a skimpy outfit in November in Britain. John Nathan-Turner claimed that her nipples had to be taped down, as "they were obscene".
  • Brian Blessed, Ralph Bates, Bernard Hill and Edward Woodward were considered for Russell.
  • Donald Pleasence turned down the role of Griffiths.
  • It was planned that the Cybermen on Telos would be dressed in blue overalls and globular helmets, to imply the hostile nature of the planet's surface. However, it was found that these additions made the monsters look ridiculous, and they were dropped.
  • The costume and make-up for the Cryons continued to evolve during this time; the silvery wisps of hair near the mouth were a particularly late addition, suggested by John Nathan-Turner to help conceal the join between the mask and the actor's skin.
  • Trevor Raymond was originally cast as Statton, but he suffered a broken arm and had to drop out of the production. He was replaced by Jonathan David, who had been hired to play the Cyber Lieutenant. David, in turn, was replaced by Brian Orrell, while Orrell's original role as a Cyberman was taken by John Ainley.
  • For the tombs on Telos, the production returned to the same gravel quarry in Gerrards Cross where The Tomb of the Cybermen was filmed, at the insistence of Ian Levine. It looked suitably barren on the recce, but when it came to filming, all kinds of flora had sprouted up in the spring weather. As the story was missing from the archives at the time, Levine meticously researched the sets to get the details right and was disappointed that they weren't recreated. Matthew Robinson was sympathetic to Levine's concerns, but John Nathan-Turner felt that so few viewers would be aware of the discrepancy, especially since The Tomb of the Cybermen was missing from the BBC Archives at the time, that he could not justify the added expense of replicating the earlier serial's design.
  • Michael Kilgarriff reprised his role as the Cyber Controller from The Tomb of the Cybermen, despite having gained a considerable amount of weight since then. Matthew Robinson said, "There wasn't enough silver foil in the world to disguise the girth".
  • Michael Kilgarriff was confused by the plot and worried about the violence.
  • According to Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times, Matthew Robinson "fought the lighting crew to keep the sewer scenes dark and effectively creepy" and had the idea of changing the Cryons from male to female.
  • The repair to the chameleon circuit was in part a publicity effort by John Nathan-Turner to drum up more interest in the series. He hinted publicly that it might be a permanent development, but never pursued the idea beyond this story.
  • Eric Saward tried to define the Cryons as individuals by giving them distinct character traits, rather than attributing monolithic personalities.
  • Pennant Roberts was originally supposed to direct, but was unavailable.
  • It was initially planned that all of the Telos material would be recorded in the studio. However, late in the day, additional money was made available for location filming. This prompted Eric Saward to introduce Stratton and Bates, bringing Telos into the plot in Episode One, rather than deferring the setting to Episode Two.
  • Matthew Robinson was concerned about the lack of female characters, and decided that all of the Cryons should be women; Varne and Flast were initially male.
  • Matthew Robinson originally offered David Banks the role of the Cyber Controller, but he declined in favour of returning as the Cyber Leader. Ian Levine convinced Robinson to get Michael Kilgarriff to reprise his role from The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • John Ainley was cast at the recommendation of his uncle Anthony Ainley.
  • The silvery wisps of hair near the Cryon's mouths were a particularly late addition, suggested by John Nathan-Turner to help conceal the join between the mask and the actor's skin.
  • For a time, it was thought that the Cyber Director from The Invasion would be included in the sequences set on Earth.
  • In the original script, the Doctor made a quip upon seeing the burnt-out remains of a Cyberman - "A blacked-up Cyberman. I wonder if he was planning to audition for a minstrel show?"
  • Esther Freud's husband David Morrissey would later face the Cybermen in The Next Doctor.

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Part one - 8.9 million viewers
  • Part two - 7.2 million viewers

Myths[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story replaced one called The Opera of Doom, featuring Jago and Litefoot, Padmasambhava, Omega, the Master, the Rills and the Cybermen. (This was a rumour deliberately started by fans and printed as fact in the news magazine DWB.)

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Glenthorne Road (UCI House), Hammersmith, London
  • Davis Road, London, W3
  • Birkbeck Road, Acton
  • Becklow Road, London, W12
  • Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry, Gerrards Cross
  • BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The scorch mark on the TARDIS wall, caused by Russell firing one of the Cybermen's weapons, is present several scenes before the actual event takes place.
  • When Flast is being dragged out of the refrigerated chamber, a couple of the floor crew can be seen kneeling behind some boxes on the right hand of the screen.
  • Near the end of part one, a Cyberman gets shot in the mouth by Russell. When the Cyberman falls, the back of the actor's head is clearly visible.
  • During the fight in Cyber-Control near the end of part two, the wires used to set off the explosive charges on both Michael Kilgarriff and David Banks are clearly visible throughout.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Home video releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

VHS release[[edit] | [edit source]]

DVD release[[edit] | [edit source]]

Attack Of The Cybermen was released on DVD in the UK in March 2009.

Special features[[edit] | [edit source]]

Britbox[[edit] | [edit source]]

Blu-Ray[[edit] | [edit source]]

The story was released on Blu-ray as part of The Collection: Season 22 on 20 June 2022

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]