Patrick Troughton's Doctor once more confronts the Cybermen in this exclusive recording of a 'lost' television adventure, with linking narration by Wendy Padbury.

"The Cybermen need to colonize.  They must have the treasures of the Earth!"

Taking drastic measures to escape a TARDIS malfunction, the Doctor and Jamie arrive on a rocket, apparently deserted in space, and soon encounter its aggressive robot guard. When a blow to the head then renders the Doctor unconscious, Jamie's only hope of rescue lies in contacting the Wheel space station which is orbiting nearby.

In fact the rocket has other occupants, who are sending out mysterious egg-like spheres to penetrate the Wheel's outer surface. What dangerous cargo do the spheres bring to the human crew of the Wheel, and what is the intention of those who are sending them?

It's not long before the Doctor and Jamie realize that their old adversaries, the Cybermen, are seeking to invade first the Wheel and then Earth itself. One by one the space station's crew are being taken over, whilst deadly rodent-like Cybermats roam the space station and steadily consume its fuel supply. On top of everything, a meteorite storm is approaching ? but the Wheel's defense system has been disabled...

This six-part adventure, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1968, features the debut of the Doctor's companion Zoe, played by the soundtrack's narrator Wendy Padbury.
 

• Episodes 3 and 6 still exist and have been released on VHS in a special called "Cybermen: The Early Years" and in a much improved, restored version on DVD in the Lost in Time collection.

• A few other scant clips exist - mainly from episode 5.  These clips exist because they were edited out for transmission in Australia (due to their violent nature).

• In a rare move, episode 6 of this story contained a special "link" to a repeat of "The Evil of the Daleks."  During the sequence, the Doctor decides to show Zoe just what she would be in for if she decided to stay and travel with the Doctor.  He shows her an adventure they had with the Daleks by linking his own brain to the TARDIS scanner.  The final few seconds of episode 6 actually show some segments from the second episode of "The Evil of the Daleks."

• Patrick Troughton took a week's long vacation during the filming of episode 2.  To explain his absence, he is knocked unconscious during episode 2.  Consequently, he only appears in shots where his double's back is to the camera.  The Doctor finally wakes up in episode 3.

• A new companion is introduced in this story.  Her name is Zoe (played by actress Wendy Padbury).  In a departure from traditional companions, she is quite intelligent and can even out-think the Doctor at times.  Zoe would continue through the next season and would leave at the end of Troughton's era in the 10 episode story, "The War Games."

• This story was the second appearance of the Cybermen during season 5.  Their earlier outing was in the season opener, "Tomb of the Cybermen."  The Cybermen enjoyed an extensive run from their introduction in season 4's "The Tenth Planet" all the way until season 6's "The Invasion."  They appeared 5 times in only 3 seasons.  While enjoying a great surge in popularity, it would be some time before they made another appearance in the series.
   
• The audio recording of this story was done separately by Graham Strong, Richard Freeland and Rohan Byrnes using home audio equipment. 

• Mark Ayres, of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, did extensive work on this audio release by digitally remastering these audio recordings.