Season 12, Episode 5 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 19 April – 10 May 1975 | Writer: Gerry Davis | Director: Michael E. Briant
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith
- Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan
- Kevin Stoney as Vorus
- Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Commander Stevenson
Summary
Materialising aboard Nerva Station many centuries before the events of The Ark in Space, the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry find the crew being killed off by a mysterious plague and discover it is being deliberately spread by agents of the once-mighty Cybermen. The trail leads to the asteroid Voga, the fabled planet of gold, whose inhabitants the Cybermen intend to exterminate to remove their one great vulnerability. As rebel Vogans plot to use their gold against the invaders, the Doctor must stop both a Cyberman fleet and a bomb plot that threatens to destroy the asteroid outright.
Interesting Facts
- This story marks the Cybermen’s first television appearance since 1969, ending a six-year absence from the series.
- It establishes gold as lethal to Cybermen by clogging their respiratory systems, a vulnerability that became a defining piece of Cyberman lore for decades afterward.
- The story was originally intended to be more prominent as a season finale but was reworked after script difficulties, resulting in a more modest four-part runaround.
- Writer Gerry Davis had co-created the Cybermen in 1966, making this something of a return engagement with his own creations.
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