Doctor Who and the Cybermen

In 2070, the Earth's weather is controlled from a base on the moon. But when the Doctor and his friends arrive here, they discover all is not well. There are unexplained drops of air pressure, minor problems with the weather control systems, and an outbreak of a mysterious plague. With Jamie injured, and members of the crew going missing, the Doctor realizes that the moonbase is under attack. Some malevolent force is infecting the crew and sabotaging the systems as a prelude to an invasion of Earth. And the Doctor thinks he knows who's behind it: the Cybermen! This novel is based on 'The Moonbase', a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 11 February - 4 March 1967. Featuring the Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton, and his companions Polly, Ben, and Jamie.

Gerry Davis was an experienced television writer when he came to Doctor Who as Script Editor in 1966. Wanting to explore stories rooted more closely in real science, Davis contacted Dr Kit Pedler. The resulting collaboration resulted in several notable Doctor Who scripts, and in particular the creation of the Cybermen. After leaving Doctor Who, Gerry Davis continued to work with Kit Pedler, and together they created the groundbreaking and controversial BBC series Doomwatch. Gerry Davis returned to Doctor Who in 1975 and novelised several of his and Pedler's Doctor Who stories for Target books. Davis spent most of the 1980s working in the USA on film and television projects. He died in 1991.

Christopher ('Kit') Pedler was a medical researcher, and head of the Electron Microscopy Department at the University of London when he was recommended to Script Editor Gerry Davis as someone who might be useful as an adviser to Doctor Who. Davis presented Pedler with hypothetical, fictional problems and asked to extrapolate what would happen, the answer to which formed the basis of Doctor Who stories. Pedler told Davis that as a doctor his greatest phobia was a time when spare part surgery had reached the stage where it was commonplace. There would come a point where it was impossible to tell how much of the original human being remained... From this fear was created the Cybermen. Kit Pedler died in 1981.