The past fifteen years have not been kind to poor "Tomb of the Cybermen". While overall it's still a popular story, going top 10 in DWM's 1997 anniversary poll and being chosen as the first Troughton story to be released on DVD, it's also something of a sacred cow. It was the most missed of the wiped stories, with many, many older fans holding it up as the greatest Doctor Who story ever made, a scary Hammer-esque chiller with high production values and terrifying Cybermen that showed up the surviving Season 6 Troughtons as the travesties they were, something boosted by Gerry Davies' superb novelisation and some excellent colour stills.

And then the thing came out, and suddenly the legendary, nay, mythical "Tomb" became just another Who story out on video, something which anyone can buy and compare to "Day of the Daleks" or "Terror of the Zygons". And the knives were out... Partly through knee-jerk reaction from decades of older fans ramming the superiority of Season 5 down the throats of those who hadn't seen it, and partly because "Tomb" isn't the greatest Doctor Who story, the thing made an attractive target for anyone to make an example of the Troughton era.

"Tomb" is a very well-made story. The Cybermen have arguably never looked better in a 20th-century story, just the right mix of being bulky, but still very mobile. Marvellous voices too. The Cyber Controller is a bit of a more qualified success, the head looking a bit silly, and the chest looking curiously blank without the unit... It looks more like it just fell off, rather than part of any design. The sets for their cryogenic chambers are among the best the series ever had, while the control room, target room and other sets are all very good. Morris Barry's direction isn't especially imaginative (probably the thing that grounds the story the most in the reality of a 1960s weekly television series, rather than the horror film living in the imagination of many fans prior to 1991), but basically sound and competent.

Patrick Troughton is once again excellent, always watchable. He's at his best with his vain attempts to get Parry to call off the expedition, but proves his versatility when he tells Victoria about his family. It's a fully-rounded performance. Frazer Hines' rapport with Troughton is excellent, and the way Jamie is put out by Toberman taking much of his story function as the muscle is quite charming. Deborah Watling's feeling her way a little, with a bit too much Eliza Doolittle at times ("Mercy! The Cybermen must have been giants!"). However, her awkward body language is an excellent touch.

The guest cast are a little bit more erratic... It's something of a staple that a Pedler/Davies script has a cast of multinational characters (cf. "The Tenth Planet", "The Moonbase"), which is a noble aim, but when they're realised by a bunch of British character actors on Who's budget, it tends to result in a whole lot of silly accents. I'm not sure of George Pastell's background, and IMDB proves that he spend the decade playing exotic types in ITC series, but he's pretty cheesy here. Shirley Cooklin is also quite embarrassing, which is a shame as both characters are well-written. Aubrey Richards does well with the rather bland "piggy in the middle" Parry, while Cyril Shaps takes the guest-cast honours with his trademark anxious scientist turn as the panicky Viner. The less said about the fake (they must be fake... surely?) American accents of the rocket crew (complete with sub-Star Trek dialogue, to boot) the better, though.

The biggest problem, though, is that the pacing is shot to Hell. The story spends the first two episodes doing a marvellous job of building up suspense and restating the basic mythos and threat of the Cybermen, and then when Klieg awakens them, it's like the script doesn't know what on Earth to use them for, and it bogs down with various devices to stop the Cybermen simply killing or converting everyone, while The Doctor argues with Klieg and Victoria makes sure female emancipation stays outside the series' boundaries. And the Cybermats are just incredibly lame... I saw "Tomb" when I was 11. Anyone actually scared by these things in the 1960s... Well, they're probably all mad killers due to the horrors reaped on them at school.

The Cybermen themselves, when they get to flex their muscles, are fairly impressive, though it's a shame that it all basically boils down to a badly-realised fight (with an obvious Kirby wire and hilarious dummy) between Toberman and the Cyber Controller. Not very impressive, though none of them get taken down by shovels or coins, and they are generally shown to be very hard to kill - well, when they bother anyway.

"Tomb" never quite lives up to its' excellent set-up work (let alone its' reputation), losing its way and thoroughly running out of steam long before the conclusion. That said, it never stops being watchable, and it's the second-best surviving Troughton (behind the genuinely superb "Mind Robber"). However, those searching for some indication of the real peaks of his era might want to track down a copy of the sadly-out-of-circulation Joint Venture reconstruction of the fantastic "Web of Fear".