Rate and Discuss: The Moonbase

[SiHart]

There's something odd going on on the moon. Crewmen are falling down with a mysterious virus, leaving the base and the Gravitron seriously undermanned. The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive and begin investigating... could an old enemy be behind it all?

What do you think of The Moonbase?

[Si Hunt]

My overall perception of it is a bit of a crap un really, which seems odd when you consider the ingredients - a good TARDIS team, the sets are ok, the deadly Cybermen. I think the weak point may be the Moonbase crew, which are a feckless lot with shoe-horned in multi-cultural elements (but no women).

This one MAY have been poorly served by the junkings - all the fun film stuff on the Moon's surface is gone, and apparently Episode 3 is the best of the four. As it stands we have two fairly dull episodes remaining of a quite shoddily directed Cyber story.

Poor Moonbase.

Si.

[SiHart]

In some ways this is absolutely brillaint. It's start off the idea of Cybermen hiding in the shadows, just where you can't see them, skulking, waiting, working through their plans methodically, just out of sight. Slow, patient infiltration.

However, the plan is just a bit silly. The virus in the sugar? Good thing not everyone takes sugar then- they didn't study the humas enough there. The plot meanders around and there's no rising tension, which there should be. Still, if nothing else, at least Hobson isn't mad like most other base commanders in the Troughton era.

Like all Morris Barry stories there are some excellent moments- the Cybermen striding across the Moon is wonderful, and it's amazing they pulled off a bouncing laser beam at this stage in the show's history too. But this is countered by shoddy moments- the cliffhanger with the Cyberman wobbling its gun over its arm springs to mind here.

It feels as if it should be iconic, but a decent Target book and some iconic publicity photos don't quite cut it when the it turns out the story is a bit of a shambles.

[J.R. Southall]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I absolutely love the novelisation of this...

And so as not to just repeat what Si & Si have just said, I'll leave it at saying that this was probably the biggest disappointment of any story when I finally got to actually see it.

[Rob McCow]

"Ha-haaa! That's taken care of the Cybermen!" sounds like a communication from Planet Posh.

I think that, like The War Machines, this is a proto-version of a story that they would do a lot better as time went on. In this case, it's (arguably) the first proper Troughton-era Base-Under-Siege story.

It's definitely a story that gets a few things brilliantly right. The re-design of the Cybermen is magnificent and they remain broadly unchanged to this day. Well, nobody has brought the Giant Head Lamps back anyway.

Troughton has really settled down by now, there's little of the early installment weirdness in his performance, he's less impish. Somehow, he also carries a lot more quiet authority than in his previous stories. It's probably due to the 'There are things that must be fought!' speech and the way he behaves around his companions.

I agree that this story is ruined by the two episodes we have back. There might well be a slow build up of tension throughout the four episodes, but we only get it in fits and starts!

[SiHart]

The re-design of the Cybermen is magnificent and they remain broadly unchanged to this day.

Oh yes, that's very true. These versions are second only to the Earthshock ones for me. The heads are superb.

[Larry]

My overall perception of it is a bit of a crap un really, which seems odd when you consider the ingredients - a good TARDIS team, the sets are ok, the deadly Cybermen. I think the weak point may be the Moonbase crew, which are a feckless lot with shoe-horned in multi-cultural elements (but no women).

This one MAY have been poorly served by the junkings - all the fun film stuff on the Moon's surface is gone, and apparently Episode 3 is the best of the four. As it stands we have two fairly dull episodes remaining of a quite shoddily directed Cyber story.

Poor Moonbase.

Si.

it dose seem that sadly the two better episodes were juncked - although I do find it hard to understand why 2 episodes still survve when the other 2 got juncked. Haven't read the target book for many many years and the last time I saw the surviving 2 episodes was on the VHS Cyberman early years tape back in the 1990's but from what I remember of it it looked like it was the best of the 4 cyber stories during the Troughton era.

If we ever get any more animated episodes then because we have so little Troughton to enjoy this is the one I'ed like to see chosen.

[J.R. Southall]

I'd be surprised if The Moonbase hadn't been animated by the end of the decade (that might sound like a long time, but consider: it's already six years since The Invasion).

[Larry]

I'd be surprised if The Moonbase hadn't been animated by the end of the decade (that might sound like a long time, but consider: it's already six years since The Invasion).

is it really that long..? I know some people will say oh it's on the Missing in Time, dvd but I'ed much rather see the miussing 2 episodes of The Moonbase animated than the 2 missing episodes of the Ice Warriors.

[Anthony Williams]

is it really that long..? I know some people will say oh it's on the Missing in Time, dvd but I'ed much rather see the miussing 2 episodes of The Moonbase animated than the 2 missing episodes of the Ice Warriors.

Best case scenario, we'll see animations of Reign of Terror (which, as we know, is already in production), The Tenth Planet (with the 2000 BBC recon as an extra), The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase and The Ice Warriors. That lot would be lovely

[Si Hunt]

Surely the best case scenario is that everything gets animated? No, surely the BEST case scenario is that a complete collection of missing episodes is found in Bob Monkhouse's garage in mint condition and returned forthwith?

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

Surely the best case scenario is that everything gets animated? No, surely the BEST case scenario is that a complete collection of missing episodes is found in Bob Monkhouse's garage in mint condition and returned forthwith?

Well, yes, those would be the very best scenarios! I guess I should've clarified, and said "the best likely scenario"...

Anyway, onto my thoughts on The Moonbase!

My initial reaction to this one is "haven't we seen this before?" Overall, the plot isn't vastly different to The Tenth Planet, really. Not necessarily in the minutiae of the plot, but in the overall structure - Cybermen invade the Moonbase, are repelled, come back en-masse, before being defeated. I guess that The Tenth Planet was such the prototype for the standard Troughton-era Base-Under-Siege story that this just seems fairly standard.

I've been interested by the comments here that the surviving episodes of this probably aren't terribly representative of the rest of the story, and that they were let down by the direction. Yet, when I look at both The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Dominators, both also directed by Morris Barry, I see two stories also negatively affected by poor direction. Somehow, I doubt that the two missing episodes of The Moonbase are any better, going on the man's form!

Overall, this is the very definition of a middling story to me. It's not good, it's not bad. Shame, really... with a good director, this could've been a wonderfully tense story. Instead we get a bit of a damp squib... 6/10 from me.

[Stephen Morgan]

These episodes must have made an impression on me as I recall them quite clearly. I remember them as creepy, scary episodes. I remember knowing that the Cybermen were different from their last time (so I must have seen Tenth Planet) and I remember guessing about the virus.
There are some genuinely thrilling scenes in The Moonbase, the Cybermen striding across the moon's surface for one, one that still sends a shiver down my spine whenever I see it.
I think one reason why this story has stayed in my memory may be because of the regular coverage of the Gemini and Apollo programs, and the excitment that soon there would be an actual moon landing. I'd love to see the two missing episodes turn up, maybe we'll all think a bit differently if we see the story as a whole, but I love it anyway.

[Andrew Curnow]

I really like The Moonbase, and certainly don't remember being disappointed in comparison to the Target version on first viewing. I'll admit that one bit I absolutely loved in the book, where the Doctor goes around collecting shoes and stuff, looks a little silly & contrived on screen; but apart from that, there's a good sense of claustrophobic menace to the two episodes I've seen. The ever-present background hum on the base, the eerie lighting, the (I know it's stock) music, the very convincing 'low-g' scenes on the moon's surface...

I like it!!

[Stuart Wallis]

So do I, for those reasons. It loses a point for one or two slips in logic (hem-hem!), such as how did the tray stick to the surface of the dome, and why was there just a pressure drop when the Ctbermen entered through their flap and not a massive rush of air as well, but still...

7/10