Essentially a procedural episode that moves the characters into place for the final two episodes. The two plots of the Dalek resurgence and the internal politics of Vulcan begin to converge, with the rebels, egged on by Janley (the best female villain since Maaga), co-opting the Daleks as their soldiers.

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Most of this episode focuses on the burgeoning crisis in the colony. While Governor Hensell sets off for a tour of the perimeter, Bragen’s plot to discredit Deputy Quinn succeeds and propels him to be the Acting Governor in Hensell’s absence. At this point, it transpires that Bragen essentially has the same plan as Chancellor Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels. The ‘rebels’ have been secretly cultivated by him as a threat that he will sweep in to defeat, to much popular acclaim and the certainty of winning the office of Governor. Which makes Janley the Count Dooku character – ostensibly the rebel leader, but actually Bragen’s partner in crime.

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Having got past the immediate shock of the changeover, this episode begins to explore how the new Doctor differs from the old. Initially, Ben tries to work out what’s going on, and what might have happened to the missing third Dalek: ‘Let’s get our facts straight’. He’s the one who did most of the heavy lifting in The Tenth Planet and is fulfilling the main role of the male companions to date – making things clear to the audience as he works them out. Often, Ian and Steven would handle the step-by-step summary, allowing the old Doctor to step in to deliver the “so what” with a ‘hmm!’ or a delighted chuckle.

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What has happened to the Doctor? That’s the question vexing Polly and Ben as they confront the weird stranger in the TARDIS. They, and we, don’t have much more idea by the end of the episode than at the start. If anything, the episode goes out of its way to be disconcerting and strange, making the programme seem mysterious.

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The Doctor is back, but for barely more than a cameo – McCoy got nearly as much to do at the start of the TV Movie. Most of the heavy lifting again falls to Michael Craze, who gets by far the best material in the episode, carrying most of the action and proving as useful a second lead as Peter Purves did. Ben is shown to be clever, resourceful and brave, inferring the Cybermen’s fear of radiation, and hectoring the dithering science staff of Snowcap into making a stand on behalf of Planet Earth. He literally saves the world from being exploded by the Z-Bomb and even gets to say, ‘While there’s life there’s still hope’ which is a better epitaph than the Doctor is going to get.

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The irony is that the last extant William Hartnell episode doesn’t feature Hartnell – who was off sick. As such, the Doctor keels over just at the point that the Cyberman invasion fleet has appeared on the scanners. This at least makes the two events somehow seem connected, and foreshadows the forthcoming changeover: ‘I don’t understand it. He just seems to be worn out,’ says Polly.

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This is one of the outstanding episodes of Doctor Who, serving as the mission statement for the show’s second-best monsters. And in an odd way, the Cybermen have never been as impressive as in these scenes. They look impressively weird – as uncanny as the Daleks, but made more horrible because of the recognisable bits – the human hands, and the eyes, sunken in dark sockets. Krail says, ‘You do not seem to take us seriously’ but these aren’t just buzzing robots out to conquer the galaxy, they’re something else entirely. They aren’t evil, they’re just indifferent – they have no malevolence, they just don’t care at all who or what has to suffer, as long as they survive. At least here, it’s nearly impossible not to take them seriously: this is the most impressive monster introduction since The Survivors.

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The episode begins with stock footage of a rocket launch, fancy electronic lettering, and then a hi-tech control centre. Even more than The War Machines this is positioned in real world technology, where space travel comes down to meticulous coordination and careful timing, and not the Golden Age SF futures of The Sensorites or The Ark. While that reflects the fact it was written by the show’s scientific advisor, Kit Pedler, it fits in perfectly with the new style brought in by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis.

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After a few episodes of twinkling genially, Hartnell is back in command mode for what amounts to his last hurrah: solving the churchwarden’s riddle, bargaining with Pike for the lives of the innocent villagers, and delaying things until the cavalry, in the form of Blake and his militia, ride in to defeat the pirates. In so doing, his generosity and morality shame Squire Edwards into repenting his villainy – and saving the Doctor from a vengeful Captain Pike.

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Things take an unexpectedly complicated twist in the third episode, as everyone seems to have their own agenda, working against each other to achieve a common purpose: uncovering Avery’s gold.

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