The Tenth Planet: Episode 2

I can only imagine what the original audience must have thought when the first Cyberman came into shot, and spoke in that harsh monotone. The story is fascinating, the Cybermen believe they are offering help to the human race, survival, from a dying Earth. The whole idea surrounding Mondas, and the origins of the Cybermen is fascinating, no wonder the show is still obsessed with Mondas's finest over fifty years on.

There is such energy in this story, sometimes on the show it can be guilty of taking to long to open up, this has urgency and pace, there is no hanging about here. Just when you think things are getting better, a hand grenade is thrown in.

Well acted, great use of the available low budget, this is excellent. 10/10

Part 2 (Review for all 4 parts):

This story from writer Kit Pedler is historic and thankfully the quality matches its importance. And important it really is because the idea of changing the actor playing the Doctor by having him 'regenerate' into a different version of the same character was incredible and untested. It is hard now to imagine how radical this idea was at the time. If it had failed Doctor Who would have been finished whereas as the time of writing we have just celebrated an amazing 50 years of Doctor Who with the show and most of its key elements still continuing as strongly as ever.

As a springboard for all that we have this excellent adventure which also has the historic first ever appearance by the Cybermen. I really like these prototype Cybermen and even their 'sing-song' voices. I think the concept behind them is great and the story itself has them involved in an exciting attempt to destroy humanity. Their unfeeling nature and the scares and action set them up as an iconic 'monster' to rival the Daleks.

All aspects of the production are very good indeed and any flaws are minor. The story unfortunately has the Doctor sidelined a lot of the time which was unnecessary and sad in Hartnell's last regular appearance. However, when he does get involved he is as good as ever, delivering his lines with his usual charisma and that magical touch Hartnell had for being somewhat other worldly and dangerous but also endearing and delightful.

This is a classic which all fans must see. All 4 episodes 10/10.

Average rating for all William Hartnell episodes 8.04/10.