The Moonbase - Production

Production

The working titles of this story were Cybermen and The Return of the Cybermen. It was commissioned before the last episode of The Tenth Planet was broadcast, to take advantage of the strong positive response to the Cybermen. When Pedler was commissioned to write a second Cyberman story, one of the requirements was that the story should have only one large set and a limited number of smaller sets. The first draft of the script was written before it was decided that Frazer Hines would be a regular cast member. As a result, the character of Jamie had to be worked into a script that didn't have much room for him. So in the first two episodes, Jamie spends much of the time in the sickbay. In the last two episodes, some of Ben's dialog was given to him.

The first 3 Episodes were recorded on successive Saturdays at Doctor Who's then regular home of Riverside 1, but for Episode 4 it moved back to Lime Grove D. A final clip, used to carry the story into the subsequent adventure, The Macra Terror was filmed separately during the making of that story, as the Macra prop was too large to be brought into the studio.