In the same way that season 4 of Doctor Who was book-ended by Dalek stories, season 5 starts and ends with Cyberman stories. The Tomb of the Cybermen is a fairly short one, though, with only four episodes. While that was the norm for the majority of First Doctor stories, the Second Doctor usually goes for at least six per story. That means that Tomb snaps right along with no extra padding (I'm looking at you, Evil of the Daleks). Of course, it also has its fair share of overacting and bad American accents, but it is still one of my favorites.

Let's talk about that.

The Tomb of the Cybermen - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The story opens with a brief bridging scene  basically Victoria's "Bigger on the inside" moment, and then it gets right down to business. The TARDIS materializes on the planet Telos, which does not at all look like a British rock quarry. There, the Doctor and company encounter an archeological expedition to find the fabled resting place of the Cybermen -- who have not been heard from in centuries. One of the members of the expedition is electrocuted and dies trying to open the doors into the tomb, after being taunted into trying by the obviously evil woman who has funded the expedition.  Shortly thereafter the doors are opened by her giant manservant, a dude who I am going to go out on a limb and say that my wife would particularly appreciate.

"Hello, ladies."

Once inside, the archeologists get to archeologing while their ship's crew heads back to the spaceship to do whatever it is they do when the plot doesn't have anything useful for them. Before leaving, though, the ship's captain gives a short speech in a horrendous American accent that, if you can imagine, sounds even worse than my British accent.

The Doctor helps open a few doors, having clearly made the decision that bad things are going to happen so he might as well get them rolling so he can deal with them. Jamie helps press buttons and pull levers, and Victoria mostly stands around being quite lovely.

"Hello, gentlemen."

Soon enough, the rich woman's plot is revealed. She and her business partner intent to awake the Cybermen and then use their strength rule the universe or something. Somehow they expect the Cybermen to be grateful to the pair for awakening them, which is patently ridiculous. This leads to the iconic scene of an entire hive of Cybermen coming to life and climbing out through the membranes of their tombs and then promptly declaring to everyone that "You belong to us. You shall be like us."

A couple of cool things in this story: First of all, in the course of the conversation the Doctor reveals that he is about 450 years old. The writers are finally starting to sketch in some actual background of the Doctor. This episode also features the first appearance of a Cybermat, and also the first appearance of a big-brainy Cybercontroller.

"Hello, humans."

I love this story so much. Sure, it's a little hokey and overacted in places. But the Doctor is simply delightful in his playfulness as he runs circles around the archeologists without them realizing. The big hatching scene is probably the second-most iconic Cybermen moment in Doctor Who history, just behind the scene in The Invasion with them coming down the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. No joke, we have just entered into one of my favorite eras of the show, and  I couldn't be more delighted!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Second
Companion(s): Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield
Episode(s): The Tomb of the Cybermen- Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,119 today, 587,096 total
Distance Walked:  2.98 miles today, 279.53 miles total
Weight: 279.58 lbs (five day moving average), net change -27.14 lbs