Attack of the Cybermen is the first serial of the 22nd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 5 and 12 January 1985. It was credited to the pseudonymous author "Paula Moore"; the level of contributions made by Paula Woolsey, Eric Saward and Ian Levine have been disputed. It is the second and final serial to be directed by Matthew Robinson.
Set in London in 1985 and the planet Telos in the future, in the serial the Cybermen intend to change the course of history by destroying Earth with Halley's Comet in 1985, which would prevent the destruction of the Cybermen's original home planet Mondas.
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.
Plot
The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown are unsuccessfully attempting to fix the TARDIS, which is stuck in police box form, when it picks up a distress signal from Earth in the year 1985. The signal turns out to have been sent by Lytton, a mercenary formerly in the employ of the Daleks, who has since begun a new life as a London gangster. The three, along with Lytton's henchman Griffiths, are captured by the Cybermen in the city's sewers. They force the Doctor to fly the group in the TARDIS to the Cybermen-controlled planet of Telos, which the Doctor previously visited in his second incarnation.
The Doctor sabotages the TARDIS and it lands on Telos, but in the depths of the Cyber-Tombs, which have been sabotaged by Telos's native species, the Cryons. Peri, Lytton, and Griffiths escape when the group is attacked by a damaged, maddened Cyberman, and the Doctor is imprisoned with the Cryon leader, Flast, who tells him that the Cybermen intend to use a time ship that they have captured to prevent the destruction of their original homeworld, Mondas.
Lytton and Griffiths make contact with the time ship's original crew, Bates and Stratton, who turn out to have been failed victims of conversion into Cybermen. The group tries to retake control of the time ship, but Lytton is captured by the Cybermen, while Griffiths, Bates and Stratton are killed by a squadron guarding the time ship. Flast helps the Doctor prepare an explosion that will destroy the Cybermen's base before assisting him with escaping, but is executed by the Cybermen when they discover that the Doctor is missing. Peri, having been taken into the care of another group of Cryons, is re-united with the Doctor and informs him that Lytton had actually been working with the Cryons all along, in order to drive the Cybermen off Telos.
The Doctor lands the TARDIS in the Cybermen's control room, but finds Lytton almost fully converted into a Cyberman. The Cyber-Controller then arrives and prepares to kill the Doctor, leading to a firefight which claims the lives of several Cybermen including the Cyber-Controller and Lytton. Unable to do anything to help Lytton, the Doctor and Peri narrowly escape before the explosion the Doctor and Flast had earlier set up detonates, and completely destroys the Cyber-Tombs.
Production
Writing and development
Following the positive response to Earthshock in 1982, which had seen the return of the Cybermen to the series for the first time in seven years, producer John Nathan-Turner contacted Gerry Davis, the co-creator of the Cybermen, to write a serial for Doctor Who for the first time since Revenge of the Cybermen (1975). Davis wrote a short story entitled Dr. Who and the Genesis of the Cybermen. Both Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward believed the tone of the story did not align with the more recent seasons and rejected it. After the serial aired, Davis stated he was upset that production continued without him.'
Author Marcus K. Harmes described Attack of the Cybermen as having a "complex plot". Both Harmes and Rob Hill of Den of Geek noted that the serial reiterates plot threads from previous Cybermen stories such as The Tenth Planet (1966) and The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967). The serial contains commentary on the United Kingdom's then-loose gun restrictions.
The serial was the first and only that Paula Moore worked on. The serial is credited to Paula Moore, an alias for Paula Woolsey, though the extent of her contribution is debated. Saward either wrote or substantially rewrote the script. Various reasons have been cited for Moore being credited. It was either to prevent problems with the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, who objected to script editors editing their own scripts, or because Nathan-Turner refused to let Saward write season 22's debut story. Ian Levine, who had been consulted by the production team on contiuity, claims to have suggested a number of plot elements. Maurice Colbourne (actor born 1939) reprised his role as the mercenary Lytton from the 1984 serial Resurrection of the Daleks.
The Cryons were genderless in the script. However, Robinson was disappointed with the lack of female characters, so he had the idea to make them an all-female species. Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times reviewed the story in 2012, awarding it two stars out of five. Mulkern stated that the story was not as bad as he remembered it to be and that there was "plenty of amusing lines and well-shot action", but made the same criticism of the difference in quality between the first and second episodes. Mulkern was critical of aspects of Peri's character and Bryant's inexperience as an actress, but enjoyed a "never less than entertaining, and often very funny" performance by Baker. He concluded his review by stating "on balance Attack of the Cybermen is a brash start to season 22 that would benefit from another polish."
The DVD version of "Attack of the Cybermen" was released on Monday 16 March 2009. The special features on the disc included a commentary featuring Baker, Bryant, Terry Molloy and Sarah Berger that was recorded on 26 June 2007, a making-of documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew. It was released as part of the "Doctor Who The Collection: Season 22" Blu-ray box set on 20 June 2022.