The Enterprise is heading to Pollux 4 on a archeology mission when a large energy field in the shape of a giant green hand stops the Enterprise dead in space. A giant figure appears out in front of them, claiming to be the ancient Greek god Apollo. He insists that Kirk and a landing party down and Kirk agrees, only to discover that Apollo wants them to worship him... whether they want to or not.

A team of archaeologists travels to the planet Telos, the home of the Cybermen, to excavate the tombs of the long-extinct cybernetic race. At least, it's assumed that they're extinct. The Doctor isn't sure that the tombs should be disturbed, but he soon comes to suspect that some of the "archaeologists" have an agenda far more dangerous than the team leader, Parry, suspects. In order to find out what the sinister Kleig and Kaftan are really up to, the Doctor helps the archaeologists to enter the tombs - where they find that the Cybermen are only dormant, not dead, and that Kleig and Kaftan intend to revive them. But they have underestimated the power of the Cybermen, and only the Doctor can save the archaeologists from being transformed into Cybermen themselves.