Directed by Tristan DeVere Cole
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
Main Guest Cast-
Controller Jarvis Bennett - Michael Turner
Dr. Gemma Corwyn - Anne Ridler
Tanya Lernov - Clare Jenkins
Leo Ryan - Eric Flynn
Bill Duggan - Kenneth Watson
Synopsis-
The Tardis lands on what appears to be an abandoned supply rocket manned only by a servo-robot. The Tardis somehow senses danger, and tries to warn The Doctor and Jamie to leave. However, a mercury leak requires The Doctor and Jamie to abandon the Tardis to escape the mercury fumes.
Temporarily marooned until a new source of mercury is found, The Doctor and Jamie explore the rocket. The Doctor suffers a head injury when the rocket quickly changes course and begins to head towards a space station known as the Wheel. The servo-robot fires two pods at the Wheel, which attach themselves to the space station. Meanwhile, The Doctor and Jamie are taken on board the Wheel, where Dr. Corwyn attends to The Doctor's head injury.
Jamie, meanwhile, is shown about the station by Zoe Heriot, a young astrophysicist and genius. After being shown around, Jamie sabotages the Wheel's laser cannon. Jamie disables the laser as the Controller Jarvis Bennett was planning on destroying the rocket with the laser, and with it the Tardis that's still on board the rocket.
The destruction of the laser proves to be disastrous, as a nearby sun has gone nova and a swarm of meteors are now headed for the Wheel. Without the laser cannon, the station is now defenseless.
One of the crew members on board, Bill Duggan, begins repairs on the laser. While doing so, he discovers what he considers to be a small rodent. The rodent, however, is actually a Cybermat which has destroyed the stocks of bernalium needed to repair the laser. The Cybermats arrived via the two pods that had attached themselves to the Wheel earlier.
The Controller is becoming increasingly panicked, and doesn't believe Duggan's story about space rodents destroying the bernalium. Desperate, the Controller orders two crewmembers to explore the rocket. Once there, they find a stock of bernalium, but they are also hypnotized by the Cybermen and the two crew members smuggle the Cybermen aboard the Wheel.
The Doctor x-rays one of the Cybermats that had been encased in plastic during Duggan's battle. The Doctor and Jamie both recognize the Cybermat immediately and are now aware of the Cybemen's presence on the Wheel.
Dr. Corwyn is forced to take command as the Controller suffer a complete nervous breakdown and is unfit for command.
The Cybermen repair the laser cannon in order to save the Wheel, but also begin to systematically take over the station. Most of the crew lock themselves onto the bridge. Meanwhile, The Doctor orders Jamie to return to the rocket to retrieve the time vector generator which he had removed from the Tardis back at the beginning of the story, and is accompanied on his spacewalk by Zoe. This proves to be a very dangerous spacewalk, as the meteors arrive while they are taking their spacewalk.
Dr. Corwyn discovers that the Cybermen intend on poisoning the air supply, and while she is able to warn the crew, she is killed by the Cybermen. Leo Ryan and Tanya Lernov are now forced to assume command of the Wheel.
The meteors are destroyed by the repaired laser gun, and Zoe and Jamie return with the time vector generator. The Doctor attaches the generator to the laser gun to boost its power, which The Doctor then uses to destroy the approaching Cybermen ship.
The Doctor and Jamie return to the rocket with the needed mercury to repair the Tardis. As they prepare to leave, they discover that Zoe has stowed away aboard the Tardis.
Review-
Series/season five started with the excellent Tomb of the Cybermen. Series/season five closes with yet another Cybermen story, The Wheel in Space.
I did appreciate the fact that the Cybermen didn't actually appear right at the beginning, as it adds a bit of mystery to the story. However, once the Cybermats show up, the viewer knows exactly what's going on and who is behind the problems at the Wheel.
The biggest problems with the Wheel in Space is that it's simply The Tenth Planet and the Moonbase re-told yet again. The Cybermen hope to take over some base in a remote location (the South Pole, the Moon, a space station) as a precursor to invading and taking over the Earth. Since the three stories are so similar, it's hard not to have the feeling of deja vu. The Moonbase is superior to the Wheel in Space, but I'll give the nod to Wheel over the Tenth Planet.
The new female companion, Zoe Heriot, is a breath of fresh air after Victoria. As I noted, I found all the screaming and complaining done by Victoria in Fury From the Deep to be grating on the nerves. Fortunately, Zoe is a very capable young woman and it's a delight to watch her debut. The rest of the cast is also quite strong. Michael Turner as the Controller who goes insane under the strain of command is a standout along with Anne Ridler as Dr. Corwyn, who is forced by events to take command of the situation.
Despite it obvious similarites to earlier Cybermen stories, the Wheel in Space is still a strong story that's well worth seeking out. Only episodes three and six still exist in the archives, but the audio soundtracks and reconstructions should fill out the story quite nicely.
Next up, I'll be doing my series/season five wrap-up, followed by the sixth series/season opener, the Dominators.
