While writing this page today, it also occured to me that the various parts of the costume have "met" four of the first five Doctors - Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker in the programme itself, plus Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison at the Longleat auction.
In 2006 the Cybermen returned in the new Doctor Who series, and even though my Mark II Cyberman head sat next to the TV for the occasion, the costume remained hidden away. If not for the interest created by the new series, the costume would probably be in its long neglected state even now.
Although the costume's past has been traced to a degree far beyond anything I expected, questions still remain. Where was the mask between 1967 and 1983? Why was the chest unit altered? Did the costume appear in other publicity material?
In view of the discoveries so far, I would not be surprised if new revelations come to light one day.
Forty years after The Tomb of the Cybermen, the Cybercontroller was partially resurrected!
The Controller's final words from 1967 now seem almost prophetic:
"We must survive.... We must survive...."
Knowing what it was, I had to see the Longleat costume returned to its Cybercontroller form, if only temporarily. With the chest unit unscrewed and removed, the non-original tubing was snipped off, and the costume padded out with yards of bubblewrap.
