As Halley's Comet approaches the solar system in 1985, a strange force causes the TARDIS to malfunction. The Doctor detects a mysterious signal emanating from Earth, little realising that it's being transmitted by the mercenary Lytton, who is posing as the boss of a criminal gang. Meanwhile, Lytton has taken his cohorts into the London sewers, where they find the Cybermen waiting for them. And, on the planet Telos, the slave workers Bates and Stratton try to rebel against their Cyberman masters. In order to understand the connection between these events, it will fall to the Doctor to uncover Lytton's true loyalties.

When he became Doctor Who's script editor in 1981, one of Eric Saward's first acts was to resurrect his favourite monsters, the Cybermen, who had been the villains in only one story since the Sixties. Although the BBC normally frowned on script editors commissioning themselves, Saward was able to make arrangements with his predecessor, Antony Root, to provide him with the leeway necessary to write Earthshock. When it became a popular success for Doctor Who, Saward and producer John Nathan-Turner began looking for opportunities to bring the Cybermen back again, starting with a prominent role in the twentieth-anniversary special The Five Doctors in 1983. Later that year, when plans began to materialise for the incoming Sixth Doctor, it was decided to waste little time before pitting him against the Cybermen.

Unusually, Baker's debut adventure aired as the last serial of Season Twenty-One. This was Anthony Steven's The Twin Dilemma, which underwent a troubled gestation. With Steven's scripts generally deemed to be disappointments, Saward wanted the premiere adventure for Season Twenty-Two to be attention-grabbing. He and Nathan-Turner agreed that this was an excellent opportunity to use the Cybermen; they also decided to bring back the Daleks for the season finale. Saward was keen to tackle both serials, especially since his contribution to Season Twenty-One, Resurrection Of The Daleks, had actually been held over from the previous year due to a labour dispute. The BBC's rules had been skirted on that occasion because Saward wrote the serial during the gap between his contracts as script editor. But while Nathan-Turner agreed that Saward could take advantage of the same loophole to write the new Dalek adventure -- which became Revelation Of The Daleks -- he drew the line at the Cyberman story.

Ian Levine prepared a document entitled “Return To Telos”, which drew heavily on the Cyberman stories of the Sixties

Undaunted, Saward turned to Ian Levine, who had been acting as an unofficial continuity adviser to the production office for several years. Levine had unsuccessfully proposed several narratives in recent years, and Saward now suggested that they collaborate on a storyline involving the Cybermen. In late 1983, Levine prepared a document entitled “Return To Telos”. It drew heavily on the Cyberman stories of the Sixties, most notably their 1966 debut adventure The Tenth Planet -- which was set in 1986 and witnessed the destruction of their home planet, Mondas -- and 1967's The Tomb Of The Cybermen, which established the presence of the hibernating Cybermen on Telos. Other elements, such as the Cybermen hiding in the London sewers, came from 1968's The Invasion. For a time, it was thought that the Cyber Director from that serial would also be included in the sequences set on Earth.

It appears that Saward then augmented Levine's outline with his own inventions, such as the mercenary Lytton, whom he had introduced in Resurrection Of The Daleks. He also developed the Cryons, whom he tried to define as individuals by giving them distinct character traits, rather than attributing monolithic personalities. The notion of the Doctor attempting to repair the TARDIS chameleon circuit, meanwhile, came from Nathan-Turner. He saw this as an excellent publicity vehicle, since he knew that the press would not be able to resist any innuendo that the time machine might be losing its traditional police box form.

Given Nathan-Turner's edict, there was no question of Saward being credited as the story's scriptwriter. Furthermore, Levine's working relationship with the Doctor Who production office was predicated on the understanding that he would not receive any on-screen acknowledgement. As a result, Saward turned to writer and teacher Paula Woolsey, an ex-girlfriend with whom he was still on good terms. Saward would commission her to provide the scripts, which would be credited to the pseudonymous “Paula Moore”.

The true extent of Woolsey's input into the scripts is unclear. Some sources suggest that Saward wrote them in their entirety, and Woolsey's only role was to serve as a figurehead to mislead Nathan-Turner. Other sources indicate that Woolsey wrote draft scripts, which were then considerably revised by Saward -- at least in part because of her lack of experience in television. Saward himself has suggested that he performed no more editing of Woolsey's work than any other set of scripts. In fact, he even claimed that the storyline was largely Woolsey's creation, and that he simply worked with her to incorporate the Cybermen, the Cryons and Lytton; Levine would deny this version of events.

Season 22 would consist of 45-minute episodes, in line with the rest of the BBC's drama output

Regardless, on February 13th, 1984, Woolsey was commissioned to script Episode One of “The Cold War”. The second -- and final -- installment was then solicited on March 14th. Both were forty-five-minute episodes, in keeping with a plan devised with David Reid, the BBC's Head of Series and Serials, to modernise the way that Doctor Who was presented. Whereas Season Twenty-One had consisted of twenty-six installments, transmitted twice weekly and each of twenty-five minutes' duration, Season Twenty-Two would be made up of thirteen weekly episodes, each three quarters of an hour long. This would mark the first major format change for Doctor Who since it premiered in 1963, and brought the programme in line with the rest of the BBC's drama output.

The director whom Nathan-Turner originally approached to work on “The Cold War” was Pennant Roberts, a Doctor Who veteran whose last assignment had been the previous season's Warriors Of The Deep. Roberts was unavailable, however, so Nathan-Turner instead turned to Matthew Robinson. He had just completed Resurrection Of The Daleks, and thus was very familiar with Lytton and the style of story sought by the production team. Saward and Robinson collaborated on the final scripts, with much of their effort aimed at simplifying the plot developments in Episode Two. Originally, it was revealed that a colony of Cryons was living inside Halley's Comet. Lytton's job was to convince the Cybermen to use the comet to destroy the Earth -- thereby luring the Cyber Controller into a trap where he would be ambushed by the Cryons. However, the Controller had already considered such a scheme and, in the process, had uncovered both the Cryons' presence and Lytton's treachery. Halley's Comet was a timely element of the narrative, because it would be visible with the naked eye from Earth in 1986, a phenomenon which occurred only every seventy-five years and was therefore generating considerable public attention.

It was initially planned that all of the Telos material in “The Cold War” would be recorded in the studio. However, late in the day, additional money was made available for location filming. This prompted Saward to introduce Stratton and Bates, bringing Telos into the plot in Episode One, rather than deferring the setting to Episode Two. Saward also came to enjoy writing for Griffiths and decided to postpone his demise, which was meant to take place near the end of the opening installment. Robinson, meanwhile, was concerned about the lack of female characters, and decided that all of the Cryons should be women; Varne and Flast were initially male. Finally, the serial's title became Attack Of The Cybermen.

When Terry Molloy had accepted Robinson's offer to don the Davros mask for Resurrection Of The Daleks, the director had promised to look for opportunities to cast Molloy in other, more visible roles as well. This led to Molloy being cast as Russell in Attack Of The Cybermen. David Banks would again play the Cyber Leader, as he had done for Earthshock and The Five Doctors. Robinson had offered him a promotion to Cyber Controller, but Banks declined. Instead, Levine persuaded Robinson to hire Michael Kilgarriff, who had originally portrayed the Cyber Controller in The Tomb Of The Cybermen.

Matthew Robinson had to rearrange his cast when Trevor Raymond, the actor chosen to play Stratton, suffered a broken arm

Shortly before recording began, however, Robinson had to rearrange his cast when Trevor Raymond, the actor chosen to play Stratton, suffered a broken arm. He was replaced by Jonathan David, who had been hired as the Cyber Lieutenant. Brian Orrell would now appear as the Cyber Lieutenant, while Orrell's original role as a standard Cyberman was taken by John Ainley. Ainley was new to television, but his uncle happened to be Anthony Ainley, who had played the Master since 1981; he had asked Nathan-Turner to help his nephew get his foot in the professional door.

On May 11th, Nicola Bryant's contractual option for Season Twenty-Two was taken up. Two weeks later, filming for Attack Of The Cybermen began in London, reuniting Bryant with Baker after a break of three and a half months. On May 29th, the scene in which Lytton's mob reconnoitred the diamond merchants was recorded outside the Dartmouth Castle Public House in Hammersmith; their target was actually the offices of United International Pictures. Next, Robinson's team moved to the London Scrapyard in Acton. It served as IM Foreman's junkyard on Totter's Lane, replacing the studio set which had been used back in the very first Doctor Who serial, 100,000 BC. Finally, the sequence of the Doctor tracing the signal to an abandoned house was filmed on Davis Road in Ealing.

May 30th and 31st were spent recording all of the material on the surface of Telos. Eager to maintain continuity with The Tomb Of The Cybermen, Levine had prevailed upon Robinson to use the same location: the Wapseys Wood quarry at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, owned by the Gerrards Cross Sand & Ballast Company. At one point, it was intended that the Cybermen in these scenes would wear blue overalls and globular helmets, to indicate the hostile nature of Telos' surface. However, this idea was ultimately rejected for fear that it would make the Cybermen look ridiculous. Finally, cast and crew returned to Acton on June 1st for the scenes in the garage used by Lytton's gang, which were recorded on the premises of Cameron Scrap Merchant. Model filming followed on June 7th and 8th, at the BBC Visual Effects Workshop in Acton.

On June 7th, Doctor Who appeared to have scored a casting coup when American model and actress Koo Stark was cast as Varne, after having originally been offered the role of Rost. Stark was best known as the star of the 1976 erotic film Emily but, at the time, was making headlines for her relationship with Prince Andrew. A photocall featuring Stark, Baker and Faith Brown (Flast) was held on June 12th. Just two days later, however, a contract dispute and costume issues led Nathan-Turner to dismiss Stark from Attack Of The Cybermen. She was replaced by Sarah Greene, a friend of Robinson's.

Over the years, Doctor Who's studio days had often been structured to include recording during the afternoon as well as in the evenings, given the technical complexities which were frequently involved. Attack Of The Cybermen was no different. However, Jonathan Powell had now replaced Reid as Head of Series and Serials, and he held a dim opinion of Doctor Who. One of the first signs of Powell's hostility towards the show came when he informed Nathan-Turner that he would be authorising afternoon recordings only with reluctance, since he considered them suitable solely to accommodate the restricted schedules of juvenile actors.

Under this cloud, the first studio session for Attack Of The Cybermen took place on June 21st and 22nd at BBC Television Centre Studio 6 in White City, London. The Cybermen's base on Earth featured throughout, while the TARDIS scenes were recorded on the first day and the sewer material on the second day. Rehearsals then began for the remaining studio block, which would focus on the Telos sequences. The costume and make-up for the Cryons continued to evolve during this time; the silvery wisps of hair near their mouths were a particularly late addition, suggested by Nathan-Turner to help conceal the join between the mask and the actor's skin.

Ian Levine was disappointed that a completely new design for the Telos tombs had been conceived

Robinson's team then returned to TC6 from July 6th to 8th. The first day was devoted to scenes in and around the refrigeration unit housing the vastial. Material in the tombs was taped on the middle day; Levine was very disappointed to discover that a completely new design for the Telos tombs had been conceived. Whereas The Tomb Of The Cybermen had depicted them as consisting of cocoons, sealed by a semi-transparent membrane and occupying several levels of scaffolding, each Cybermen now lay dormant behind a door which was set into a single row of pods. Robinson was sympathetic to Levine's concerns, but Nathan-Turner felt that so few viewers would be aware of the discrepancy -- especially since The Tomb Of The Cybermen was missing from the BBC Archives at the time -- that he could not justify the added expense of replicating the earlier serial's design. Recording wrapped up on the final day of the block with sequences in the Cyber Control laboratory and the Cryons' caverns.

During post-production, the serial was briefly retitled “Return Of The Cybermen”. Nonetheless, it was Attack Of The Cybermen Episode One which began Doctor Who's twenty-second season on January 5th, 1985. For the first time since 1981, the programme was back at teatime on Saturdays, following a three-year trial on various weekday evenings. Although Nathan-Turner had advocated for a 6.15pm start time, the Controller of Programmes for BBC One, Michael Grade, settled on the more traditional 5.20pm, following Grandstand and a news update, and preceding Jim'll Fix It. The prior occupant of the timeslot had been another science-fiction programme: Tripods. Although it was expected that Robinson would return to Doctor Who in 1986, the eventual postponement of Season Twenty-Three precluded this; as a result, Attack Of The Cybermen would be his final contribution to the show.

• Doctor Who Magazine #207, 22nd December 1993, “Archive: Attack Of The Cybermen” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #3, 22nd January 2003, “Everything Must Change” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #40, 2015, “Story 137: Attack Of The Cybermen”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Eighties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1993), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #79, August 1998, “Production” edited by Anthony Brown, Cybermark Services.