The Tenth Planet

So, it's time for William Hartnell's last story, and it really is very good. The TARDIS crew land in Antartica in a space rocket facility. Soon after their arrival, a planet appears in the sky and natives of the planet, called the cybermen, descend upon Earth, planning to 'refuel' their planet Mondas with all life and energy on Earth.

The cybermen here make fantastic villains, despite their atrocious costumes. The voices are chilling and it's unfortunate you don't see more of them in this serial. Also, the characters of Barclay and Cutler are good, with Cutler making for a good anti-hero. He means well, but you feel quite happy when he's shot dead.

Obviously, the most important part of this story is what happens at the end, and the regeneration is foreshadowed in episode three when the Doctor falls ill. Knowing about regeneration before watching this takes all of the surprise out of the moment, but I imagine that not knowing what's wrong with the Doctor would be quite worrying and the actual regeneration would leave people confused as to what's happening.

In order to explain this miraculous event, we have to move on to the next story, but not before clearing up one or two pieces of spin off media that take place during Hartnell's tenure as the Doctor.