Who Review #44 - the Wheel in Space

Episode 3 and 6 exist of this six parter.

the TARDIS materialises but suddenly shows a warning message and develops a fault. Mercury vapour is released from the fluid link and the walls shimmer when the Doctor removes the time vector generator, forcing the Doctor and Jamie to exit quickly. The TARDIS now has the inside appearance of an ordinary telephone box. They find themselves in metal rooms; they investigate. In a control room, a robot operates some buttons. The travellers are aboard a rocket. The Doctor finds a food dispenser which issues some cubes. (Jamie: I've heard of a square meal but this is ridiculous!) The rocket crew appear to have vanished. The robot seals off the door leading to the TARDIS. Jamie sleeps, whilst the Doctor investigates the rocket. It changes course and throws Jamie and the Doctor to the floor, where the latter hits his head. The robot opens the ship and releases white spheres that float away. The rocket moves towards a wheel shaped space station. The Doctor uses the time vector generator (TVG) on the sealed door; the two run when the robot appears. They lock the door, the robot begins to cut through it but is destroyed when Jamie uses the TVG. The humans on the Wheel monitor the progress of the rocket. The spheres move towards the Wheel, then are absorbed. The Wheel's commander, Bennett, is going to destroy the rocket with a laser.

The Wheel's crew prepare to fire. Tanya Lernov and Ryan talk about the possibility of someone being aboard. Dr.Corwyn and Bennett talk too, the former saying the rocket should be checked. Jamie points the TVG at the Wheel; there is a burst of noise in the personnel's headphones. Lernov notices that the pulses are repeating and therefore there is someone aboard. Two men come across to the rocket and meet Jamie. Lernov discusses the strangers and falls in air pressure aboard the Wheel with Ryan. More spheres move towards the Wheel. Corwyn examines Jamie; she asks for their names and Jamie says - after noticing the name of some equipment - that the Doctor is called John Smith. (This is an alias the Doctor was to use from now on.) Corwyn sends Jamie to a library, where he is met by Zoe (Wendy Padbury). She is instructed to observe Jamie. They walk around the base; they enter Duggan's lab. Corwyn has run test and questioned Jamie and is certain he is lying; she reports her findings to Bennett. The Wheel personnel prepare to blow up the rocket again (which still has the TARDIS in it). Jamie goes to the laser. Aboard the rocket two spheres begin to be pumped with energy; two figures within begin to move and then a silver hand punches through the top of one.

Jamie sprays a plastic gel into the laser controls and is held by Bennett and Duggan, suspected of being a saboteur. Aboard the rocket, two Cybermen confer with their leader. Duggan finds a cybermat and hides it. The Doctor has recovered and Jamie and him talk. A nova has triggered a meteor storm which threatens the Wheel because they don't have the laser. Duggan discovers the cybermat has destroyed the bernalium rods used in the laser; it vanishes. The Doctor meets Zoe; she is convinced the rocket has been directed towards the Wheel and hasn't drifted off course. The Cybermen are completing the phases of their plan, which has included ionising a star to create the meteor shower. Duggan tells Corwyn about the cybermat. One of the crew is killed by cybermats. Corwyn suspects the Wheel's troubles are connected to the rocket. The Doctor discovers the cybermats are aboard. Some men cross to the rocket, where they are put under mind control by the Cybermen.

The Doctor shows the X-ray of a cybermat. The Doctor tells Bennett about the Cybermen, but he isn't believed. The two men take a crate back to the Wheel; it contains two Cybermen. Duggan confirms the cybermat is what he saw. Ryan is working on the laser; Duggan and Chang take over repairs. The Doctor talks with Corwyn - he is concerned the leader might not be able to handle a crisis situation. Chang goes to collect Banalium - he is killed by a Cyberman. The two controlled men move boxes of bernalium to the laser; a Cyberman puts Duggan under control. Bennett is acting more erratically. Zoe has computed the meteors are heading towards the Wheel faster than realised. She tells the Doctor that some men have been over to the rocket; the Doctor realises that the Cybermen are now aboard the Wheel. Lernov starts a test to see if anyone is under mind control; it gives a positive result; they realise it is Duggan. Too late, Duggan smashes the communications unit and is electrocuted. The Doctor and Jamie go down to the loading bay and examine the crate; a Cyberman walks down the steps.

They hide whilst the Cyberman takes a rod of bernalium and goes. The Doctor advises Lernov to seal airlocks in case the Cybermen tamper with the air supply. The Doctor and Jamie are threatened by cybermats but are destroyed when a signal interferes with their circuits. The Doctor holds up a cybermat to the screen for the crew to see. The Cyberman reports that the cybermats have been destroyed. Bennett is ill and Corwyn takes charge. A cyberman kills a crewman, whilst the controlled crewmen fight Flannigan. He is controlled by the Cybermen, replacing one of the killed men. The laser has been repaired. The Wheel prepares to fire on the meteors. The TGV is missing, so Jamie must go to the rocket and find it, aided by Zoe. Corwyn closes the hatch behind them. A Cyberman and a controlled human prepare to turn the Wheel's oxygen into ozone. She tries to warn the Doctor and is killed by a Cyberman. Outside the Wheel, Jamie and Zoe are in danger because of the meteor storm.

The Wheel continues firing on the meteors. Bennett is killed by a cybermen. Jamie and Zoe make it over to the rocket. They break in on the cyber communications. The Cybermen suspect someone is on the Wheel who knows of their methods; they scan pictures of who is aboard and come across the Doctor, who they recognise. Flannigan lures the Doctor out. He goes to the pwer room and begins to rig a device. Jamie and Zoe go to the control room and Flannigan is captured. Jamie warns the Doctor. In the power room, the Cybermen say the Doctor knows their ways so he must be destroyed; the Doctor creates a field that destroys one of the cybermen. A cyber ship approaches the Wheel; it is destroyed by the laser and the spacewalking Cybermen repulsed in to space. Zoe goes back to the rocket with Jamie and the Doctor and decides to join the TARDIS crew. The Doctor projects what she will be in for by telling a story about the Daleks. (Evil of the Daleks was repeated after Wheel....)

This is a truly dull story. (There are only two Cybermen in this!) It is this story that lets down season 5 in my opinion. The only positive is that Wendy Padbury joins th crew.
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