Directed by Morris Barry
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Polly - Anneke Wills
Ben - Michael Craze
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Main Guest Cast-
Hobson - Patrick Barr
Benoit - Andre Maranne
Synopsis-
The Tardis arrives on the Moon in the year 2070. The time travelers venture outside the Tardis in space suits and begin to fool around. Jamie gets injured, and they all end up at the Moonbase. The Moonbase houses the Gravitron, which is used to control the tides on Earth. By controlling the tides with the Gravitron, the scientists at the Moonbase are thus able to control weather patterns on Earth.
Shortly before the arrival of The Doctor and his companions, several people have come down with a mysterious virus. The Doctor begins to investigate the cause of this virus. Meanwhile, the Gravitron has been suffering from malfunctions, and things have not been helped due to the loss of manpower due to the crewmembers coming down with the virus.
It turns out that the virus was planted by the Cybermen in sugar that was used to flavor the coffee drunk by the Moonbase's staff. The Cybermen then take the affected men back to their ship and turn them into slaves doing the Cybermen's bidding. The Cybermen intend on taking over the Moonbase and the Gravitron. The Cybermen intend to use the Gravitron to destroy all life on Earth.
The Doctor and the station commander Hobson eventually come up with a plan to use the Gravitron on the Cybermen. Together with Benoit, the station's second-in-command, they are able to point the Gravitron at the Cybermen and their spaceships, sending the off into space.
With the Moonbase and the Gravitron saved, The Doctor and his companions, including a fully recovered Jamie, return to the Tardis to resume their travels.
Review-
Despite the destruction of their homeworld of Mondas in The Tenth Planet, the Cybermen return for the second time this season.
The Moonbase is quite an improvement over The Tenth Planet. The Cybermen have been redesigned and look much better than they did in The Tenth Planet. The virus that the Cybermen use to turn some of the Moonbase's staff into slaves is clever, but I do think it might have been more interesting if it had taken The Doctor a bit longer to find the cause of the virus and why only some of the Moonbase's staff seemed to be affected.
Jamie has little to do in this particular story, this is one of those stories that allows Polly to shine. Polly discovers that by using various solvents that they are able to destroy the Cybermen. During the intial invasion of the Moonbase by the Cybermen, Polly, Ben and Jamie are able to beat back and kill the three Cybermen invading the medical bay of the Moonbase. I appreciated the writers giving something constructive for Polly to do, though the writers did show a bit of the sexist side when Jamie and Ben claim that fighting the Cybermen was men's work. Kudos to Polly, however, for having none of it and joining Jamie and Ben as they fought back the Cybermen. One of my favorite moments from this story, and one of the reasons that Polly has really grown on me as a companion.
The entire story is presented on the Lost in Time DVD. The audio sountracks of episodes one and three, along with the intact episodes two and four. Therefore, one can enjoy the entire story via the Lost in Time DVD.
The only recommendation I would make is to substitute the audio soundtrack with linking narration by Frazer Hines available on CD or watch a reconstruction for the missing episodes one and three. The audio soundtracks on the DVD are missing the linking narration, which can make things somewhat difficult to follow, particularly in the first episode, where there is a long stretch without any dialog.
The Moonbase is one of my favorite Second Doctor stories, and one of my favorite Cybermen episodes. It's well worth checking out, and with two of the four episodes still intact, it's also one of the few fourth series/season episodes that one can watch at least half the story as intended.
