3.18: Planet of the Daleks
In which Terry Nation plays the hits.
Broadcast: April-May 1973
Watched: April 2020
Planet of the Daleks, Episode One
Shouldn’t the planet of the Daleks be Skaro? And what is it with [writer] Terry Nation and killer plant life?
Anyway, Spiridon is basically just Kembel again right? This is Mission to the Unknown blended with Serial B. Oh, and bits of The Ark, but Nation didn’t write that one.
“I’m liable to sleep for quite some time.” We know. You’re always unconscious, you lazy shit, Pertwee. Can’t decide if the Doctor-in-a-coma/-Jo-narrates-to-a-log business is a good way of raising the stakes or just annoying. The ice on the Doctor’s face is bizarre. And when did Jo change her coat?
Pertwee is running out of oxygen but has literally changed his outfit. FFS.
Hang on, the log is so Jo has someone to talk to while Pertwee takes the day off isn’t it.
“I’m qualified in Space medicine” - oooh SPACE medicine eh, not just medicine but SPACE medicine.
The “DALEKS!” cliffhanger would be better if it weren’t for the episode title, the Thals and the fact we knew it was Daleks since 10 minutes into the previous episode.
Planet of the Daleks, Episode Two
Question: Is this the most Aryan Doctor Who story? Everyone’s blond except Pertwee, who’s white.
Feel a bit sorry for whichever Thai it is who has to have a wrestling match with an invisible alien.
“Where are the others, Taron and Veber?” The dialogue in this one is incredible and not in a good way.
Ooh and the Daleks bombarded the planet with germs before invading. Just like in Invasion of Earth. This really is a greatest hits compilation isn’t it.
And then the cliffhanger is, “EVEN MORE DALEKS!” Hard worker, that Terry Nation.
I quite enjoyed that, but am conscious it’s because I had it on tape it aged 12 rather than because it’s good. It’s funny, though not good, that Pertwee gets more emotion into the “explaining bravery to a Thal” sequence than the “thinks the Daleks have murdered Jo” one.
[At roughly this point my friend Jim Cooray-Smith pointed out that the big new thing here is that the Doctor is a mythic figure to the Thals, because of his actions in the first Dalek story.]
Planet of the Daleks, Episode Three
Now Jim’s pointed out that this is the first time the Doctor meets someone who thinks he’s a myth, it’s annoying they don’t do more with it. Fun hearing the Doctor mention Ian, Barbara and Susan though. This is the first season with those kind of backward glances isn’t it? A function of the 10th anniversary?
Anyway, this is utter bobbins but I’m still enjoying it. Nation sort of knew what he was doing in terms of making a fun action adventure that would amuse 10 year old boys even if it wasn’t actually about anything. The ice volcano stuff is stupid but fun, and makes me realise that line in Amy’s Choice (“Stars can freeze, sofas can read, it’s a big universe”) is basically summarising Doctor Who. [Huh, that was yesterday’s post. Weird coincidence.] The sequence where they use the updraft from the refridgeration unit to float out is also stupid but fun.
Why Jo bothers to break into the Dalek city, only to run away again, is incredibly unclear. And the scene in which the Daleks have to all move round the body of the conveniently self-sacrificing Thal highlights quite what an inconvenient design Daleks are.
Planet of the Daleks, Episode Four
The resolution to the last cliffhanger (“It’s not going to work!”) is, hilariously, “Oh, it works”.
Okay this one’s boring, too talky. It’s okay when it keeps moving, but expecting us to care about the characters is borderline insulting. Funny the way the Doctor is visibly annoyed at how Jo is embarrassing him in front of the Thals. Even funnier the way that other Thal excuses himself three minutes *after* Vaber and Rebec start their domestic. And the way he blames her for him being a shit leader is pretty shoddy. So’s the way the Doctor gets Jo to stick her oar in.
“The mightiest army of Daleks there’s ever been...” Ten thousand Daleks? The mightiest ever? FFS. Also, if this is such a big project for the Thals, then why do they send two missions of a handful of people each? This doesn’t feel like a great strategy.
This story also does the “there is a thing called Science and so a scientist can look at anything and tell you all about it, including its lifespan” thing, which... is probably not unique to early Doctor Who but is fairly distinctive of it.
Planet of the Daleks, Episode Five
Only just hit me, this story doesn’t have recaps, each episode starts immediately after the last. Huh.
Oh no the regulars are under attack from coloured lights.
Oh, someone’s inside a Dalek! Was only a matter of time. The bit where they have to drag some Daleks into a pond lacks drama, somehow.
The bit where Wester releases the bacteria (and becomes visible after dying, for some reason), leaving two Daleks shitting themselves because they’re locked down forever, feels Very Now. [Reminder: I wrote this post in April 2020.]
Planet of the Daleks, Episode Six
“Don’t glamourise it. Don’t make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game.” Don’t think you need to worry about that too much on this occasion, Terry.
Anyway, I don’t think this is awful, but it in no way resolves the story set up by Frontier in Space does it? Which I wouldn’t mind, except the only reason Frontier doesn’t get a proper ending is because there’s a whole other story to go yet. And then they don’t play it. That’s really annoying.
There are *almost* moments where it’s sort of about what you need to be a war hero. Whether it’s better to have hope, or fear, or love to fight for. It doesn’t go anywhere, and it’s probably just Terry filling the time by nearly repeating himself again, but I’m impressed enough by the fact there are variations on a theme that I thought it worth noting.
The bit where the Doctor has to get the bomb from between some semi-conscious Daleks is really stupid.
Oooh a gold Dalek. Is the Dalek army made of toys? The Dalek-on-Dalek argument would work better if Roy Skelton wasn’t doing both voices.
Sad that, when the pretty Thal takes Jo aside to proposition her, and the Tim Preece Thal tells the Doctor “You’ve done a lot for me, Doctor”, he isn’t also propositioning someone.
The Doctor seems remarkably unconcerned about the possibility of Jo leaving him, considering what a strop he’s going to get into in six episodes time.