The Tenth Planet is the
first ever Cyberman story and the last ever First Doctor story. It’s set on
Earth in the South Pole in the year 2000, in a Space Station built under the
snow, that tracks the lives of the astronauts in a space shuttle, desperately
trying to return to Earth, when the Tenth Planet comes into view, and begins
drawing on their energy.
From the start of the
story the First Doctor is ailing. He’s ageing through the novel, and Ben the
sailor, travelling companion in the TARDIS with Polly, a young girl who Ben
calls ‘The Duchess’ notices more than once how old the Doctor is becoming.
The Cybermen are much
different to those from later years, they, despite not showing any physical
resemblance to humans, still seem to hold some of their elements. These,
despite their silver exterior show a little humanity when Polly was taken to
their space ship as a hostage, while Ben and the technicians worked in the
radiation room.
They turned the heating up
that kept their prisoner warm. I’m unsure if the Cybermen of today would have
shown that much concern.
The Cybermen also were
less abrupt in their confrontations with the humans in the Space Station on
Earth. There was a touch of a human response in their voices. OK they did shoot
and threaten to shoot some of the technicians, and they did eventually cut
short the behaviour of the cigar chewing man in charge, but they weren’t all of
declaring ‘Delete. Delete. Delete,’ every five seconds.
In fact, I don’t believe
any of them uttered that at all.
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