1.30: The Tenth Planet
In which the Cybermen arrive, the Doctor regenerates for the first time and the absence of episode 4 niggles.
Broadcast: October 1966
Watched: August 2019
The Tenth Planet, Episode 1
Is the name of writer Kitt Pedlar always spelt with two Ts? [It is not, it’s a typo.] I do like the way they use new fangled computer graphics to bring up the title card again, like they did in The War Machines, though.
The self-consciously diverse and international crew is cool, but also hilarious in the show’s obvious attempts to communicate it. The girlie calendars on the wall are a bit much, too. Second story running with no women but Polly.
Hartnell’s deadpan “Why don’t you speak up I’m deaf” when he’s being yelled at is great.
“And I don’t like your face or your hair!” Perhaps that’s why he changes it in three episodes’ time.
The attempt to get tension out of the travails of Zeus IV spaceship while the regulars just sit there isn’t great is it. Nor is the fact that Cutler can’t recognise the continents on Mondas, which is spinning ridiculously fast by the way, because they’re just those of Earth, upside down.
The cuts to the UN do a nice job of creating an impression of scale though.
The cyberman in a coat is a dirty trick. Also killing the comedy Italian is a nice touch.
Oooh they do the computer graphics with the end titles too, cool.
The Tenth Planet, Episode 2
Oooh they’ve corrected the spelling of the writer’s name. That’s something.
Blimey Earl Cameron’s still alive. [The Bermudian-born actor was 49 while playing an astronaut here; he died in 2020, at the age of 102.]
The Cybermen design, with bandages over the face, is great, I don’t care what anyone says. I even quite like the weird, singsong voice. Far better than David Banks [who played assorted cyber-leaders for much of the 1980s, then started writing books about them in the 1990s]. I sort of like the way they’re not for the moment gratuitously cruel: they don’t want to kill the astronauts, they just don’t see the point in saving them.
This isn’t *bad* exactly, but the regulars are barely in it are they? Although Ben being sad at his senseless murder of a cybermen is kind of funny. And Hartnell’s “Have you no emotions?” speech is genuinely great.
Let’s all take a moment to enjoy the fact that Kit Peddler, the show’s “scientific advisor” thinks, that draining the Earth of its energy is a thing.
Also I just LOLed at “Your son volunteered”: the cyber bride of its day. “We are probably going to fight the first interplanetary war” is also accidentally hilarious.
The Tenth Planet, Episode 3
Why is the Doctor fainting not the cliffhanger? FFS. I didn’t mind this the first time I watched it. It’s not awful, really. But Hartnell’s last two stories are *such* a come down in quality.
Cutler’s three priorities are exactly backwards. “Get my son back! And then worry about the cybermen. Oh, and the earth is being drained.”
Love Ben being defeated by the futuristic 1980s lock technology. Also Polly showing off her hot drink skills.
A ventilation shaft! Our first?
The Doctor being knackered and quiet is a rubbish way for Hartnell to go out but does make sense plot-wise at least: it makes it seem like the Doctor is exhausted. [The actual reason, apparently, was that Hartnell was in a fairly understandable sulk, because he was being pushed out, and he didn’t want to go.]
Anyway, I have three more questions about episode three.
1. Why is the plan to get Ben to disable a super weapon? What?
2. What is the nice scientist who helps him then allowed back to the controls?
3. Why is the countdown meant to be tense?
The Tenth Planet, Episode 4
[Note: This is the only missing episode of the story, the version I watched is an animation.]
Such a relief when Hartnell reappears. Because the regeneration comes out of nowhere I was almost surprised when he references the fact he’s dying (“Wearing a bit thin”) in the episode in which he actually dies.
I knew Hartnell was barely in this but I’d forgotten that the cybermen were barely in it either.
Polly screaming "I’m scared!" may be the worst moment of the series so far.
Ben prioritising the Doctor and Polly over the Earth in a way that could get everyone killed is really no different to Cutler prioritising his son is it. The way Barclay talks to the latter without mentioning the fact his dad’s dead is, well, yes.
The Doctor almost leaving Ben and Polly behind is strangely traumatic.
And then, the Doctor just… changes into somebody else. Which of course is the only bit of footage that survives:
It is incredibly brave, and incredibly weird, that the show does this and then doesn’t explain. Everyone’s just left wondering what the hell just happened.