Tomb Of The Cybermen: Masterpiece or Overrated Shite?

After seeing the polls for Resurrection and Attack, I decided to see what everyone else thought about another one of the most polarising stories of the original series.

I really like it, but I do have a few issues with it. The supporting characters are completely one-note and incredibly stereotypical, especially Toberman. That said, it's still great but in terms of 60's Cybermen stories, I prefer Tenth Planet, Moonbase and Invasion. Still better than Wheel in Space.

Objectively, it’s very flawed (the points referred to by English Giraffe are correct), though it’s strengths are considerable (the stock music, the direction, the opening scene, Victoria’s discussion with the Doctor about her Father in episode 3, the sheer magical atmosphere of it all). Subjectively, I utterly adore it due to my overall affections and nostalgia for it, and I love Troughton’s performance in it. I’d prefer to add a rating that best summarises these thoughts (which would probably be somewhere in between, albeit closer to masterpiece), but I’ll opt for masterpiece, regardless of what the revisionists think.

The score is reason enough alone:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D0AMuNVQCzM&t=399s
Pure atmosphere- welcoming and hypnotic, yet ultimately sinister simultaneously. An encapsulation of what Doctor Who typically is at its best. 60s Who certainly had the best incidental music.

It certainly works for me. As Bernard said, the music is excellent. It takes you to a different place.

I'm going to go with overrated shite.

I can't vote in this sorry.

Its not a masterpiece but then its not shite. Its just a very good Troughton story and a welcome return for the Cybermen.

I love how manipulative the Doctor is in this and the cybertomb scenes are brilliant. I do rate it quite highly.

However, I don't really like the cyberman costumes and some of the acting is poor. The Cybermen also have that funny way of talking which i find hard to understand. This latter point is not so much of a problem now because DVD's have subtitles but back in the days of VHS it was most frustrating.

I read the book by Gerry Davis first - back in the eighties - and i loved the story on the back of that. I don't think the actual programme quite measured up to the book so i felt a little disappointed when i first saw the video release in the nineties, but its still a good show to watch on video / DVD and i do enjoy it.

Personally I love it, but I think masterpiece is overstating it a bit.

Overrated, but I can't vote because I'm more neutral on this one.

stengos wrote:I read the book by Gerry Davis first - back in the eighties - and i loved the story on the back of that. I don't think the actual programme quite measured up to the book so i felt a little disappointed when i first saw the video release in the nineties, but its still a good show to watch on video / DVD and i do enjoy it.

Yep, it was never quite the way I had imagined it after Davis had fleshed things out in the Target.