Season 5, Episode 7 | 6 parts | First broadcast: 27 April – 1 June 1968 | Writer: David Whitaker (from a story by Kit Pedler) | Director: Tristan de Vere Cole
Cast
- Patrick Troughton as the Doctor
- Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon
- Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot
- Michael Turner as Jarvis Bennett
Summary
An empty TARDIS drifts aboard a derelict rocket that the Cybermen are secretly using as a beachhead to infiltrate a nearby space station known as the Wheel. As the Doctor and Jamie work to uncover the Cybermen’s plan, they cross paths with Zoe Heriot, a brilliant young astrophysicist aboard the station, who joins them in the fight to stop the invasion before it succeeds.
Interesting Facts
- This serial introduces companion Zoe Heriot, whose extraordinary intelligence would make her a recurring foil and asset to the Doctor for the remainder of his second incarnation.
- Only Episodes 3 and 6 survive in the BBC archive, with the rest existing only as audio recordings and photographs.
- The story was largely rewritten by David Whitaker from a story outline by Kit Pedler, who was increasingly occupied with other work by this point in the series.
- Its space station setting and slow-burn infiltration plot anticipate later “base under siege” stories that became a hallmark of the Second Doctor era.
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