Day 177 — June 26th 2021
Planet of the Daleks Episodes Five and Six
Planet of the Daleks — Episode Five
Early on in this one, I began to worry that Planet of the Daleks was starting to run out of steam. It’s been a surprise hit for me so far, and a nice tonic having not been a fan of Frontier in Space, but I found myself twiddling my thumbs for a while and being surprised to discover just how long there was left in the episode, which felt like it had been going on for ages.
It’s all the material on the Plain of Stones which wasn’t grabbing me. The various eyes in the darkness looks pretty good, and it’s a nice enough idea, but there’s only so many times you can sit through the sequence of a Thal discharging their gun, the creatures running away, coming back, and then our heroes discovering they’re out of ammo. Once we’d finally run out they then replayed the scene twice more, but with Doctor Who waving a burning brand at the creatures instead. It just went on.
And it’s not helped by the fact that the Plain of Stones isn’t a terribly effective set. I moaned a little bit the other day about the studio-bound nature of the jungle, but that’s grown on me massively across the story, to the point where I now think it’s really rather impressive. There’s some shots later on in this episode where the Daleks are moving around in the foliage which make it look brilliant and totally convincing.
But the Plain of Stones is, perhaps fittingly for the name, totally plain. There’s an attempt to suggest an alien sky behind the characters as the sun comes up, but looking at it now it’s hampered by the unfortunate effect of looking like a green screen which they’ve forgotten to chroma out in post production. It’s helped once we get out onto location — making a surprisingly late appearance in this story — and the rocks are suddenly real as opposed to polystyrene.
The location looks great, and having praised Pertwee’s costume yesterday I really felt for him — and the designer — as he traised through oozing mud and tried to stay clean. If there’s any let down here it’s that it doesn’t feel in any way like it’s connected to the dense jungle in which the rest of the story is set. There’s an attempt in the studio to make it look like we’re just on the edge of the trees, but you don’t get that sense at all with the location — I think it’s come in so late that it feels totally disjointed from the rest of the setting.
There’s a really exciting sequence where Doctor Who and the Thals trick the Daleks and wrestle them into the muddy lakes, where the ice cold temperatures disable the pepper pots. It’s a brilliant moment of action and really fun to see (helped by some gorgeous on-film close ups of the Dalek props) but it ends on a bit of a disappointing note, with the Daleks barely in the water, presumably to avoid wrecking the expensive props. I want to see one of them sinking beneath the surface!
If it feels like I’m having a good moan it’s because I am. I spent the first ten minutes of this one thinking we were on track for a three or four out of ten, which would be a massive comedown from the first two thirds of the tale. But once the Daleks show up — nine minutes in — things took a real turn for the better. They’re just so much fun to watch! I hate to admit it, but I’ve become a right Dalek fan watching this marathon, and this story in particular.
Inside their control room we get the iconic Dalek heartbeat (for the first time in this story, I think?) and it was genuinely exciting to hear. They make plans to release the bacteria and advance their plans, and when Wester sacrifices his life to stop them it’s a genuinely moving moment. I also love how increasingly panicked the Daleks become in realising that they can never leave the bacteria chamber. Oh I wish we could have spent more time here and done away with all the other nonsense with the eyes in the dark.
I’m loving this story for Jo, too. I moaned that she didn’t get an awful lot to do during Frontier in Space, simply being moved from one prison cell to another three times an episode. It would be unfair of me to gloss over her managing to overcome the Master’s hypnosis in the final episode, but this story is so much better for her. Separated from Doctor Who for the first three and a half episodes, she gets to show off her own skills, and even takes out a couple of Daleks. There’s a great exchange in this episode where she won’t simply do as she’s told, and instead wants to be a part of saving the day;
Jo: ‘Wait, Latep, I’m coming with you.’
Doctor Who: ‘Jo!’
Jo: ‘Doctor, I’m tired of being hunted too.’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes. All right.’
We’re only a few episodes away from her departure, and it feels like she’s really ready to move on, having matured and grown in confidence so much this season. They even give her the hints of romance in this one, preceding the love she’ll find in the next story.
Overall, this episode did more than enough to pull itself back round in my estimations, and I’m going with another 7/10.
Planet of the Daleks — Episode Six
I’d entirely forgotten the existence of the Dalek Supreme in this story, and I can only assume that it’s because he’s not shown up until this final episode. The fact that I forgot him — and that he arrives so late — is surprising, though, because he’s sort of the iconic image for Planet of the Daleks, isn’t he? He appears on the cover of the VHS and the DVD (both the inside cover and the outer slipcase), the front of the Blu-ray and the cover and inside artwork for The Complete History volume covering this story, too. Looking at all these you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was the main Dalek character in the story, when actually we’ve been dealing with a load of identical grey drones for the last five episodes.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing because, whisper it, I’m not a big fan of the Dalek Supreme. The dimensions are all wrong. Yes, I know it was converted from one of the 1960s movie Daleks which makes it automatically a bit different to the others, but while the movie Daleks usually look pretty lovely, this one looks all sorts of wrong. The neck rings are too wide and flat, the torch in the eye is a nice idea which never quite comes together, and the colour scheme of gold on black doesn’t quite gel for me. I know I’ve moaned about the grey ones, but I’d rather those than this.
Despite all my whining, though, the character of the Dalek Supreme is brilliant. Oh, he’s a badass! I love that he rocks up, calls the Daleks on Spiradon out for being incompetent, and then proceeds to do away with them! Back in Episode Two I said that having the Daleks blow up the spaceship, even though there were possibly people on board, was the perfect example of how the Daleks can be ruthless and scary. This plays on the same fears — they don’t give a toss about a fair trial or right to reply. They’ll just kill, even their own;
Dalek Supreme: ‘The action of the aliens has caused considerable disruption of operations on this planet.’
Dalek: ‘This was a matter beyond my control!’
Dalek Supreme: ‘Your orders were to exterminate them!’
Dalek: ‘It has not been possible! We have been unable to use the bacteria bomb!’
Dalek Supreme: ‘The responsibility was yours! You have failed! The Supreme Council does not accept failure!’
I think that might stand out as being my favourite Dalek scene in ages, and it’s probably in my Top Five of all time, because it’s brilliant and makes for really captivating viewing. It’s that old adage of Daleks being difficult to write dialogue for being shown up as wrong again; they’re great for dialogue when you know how to write them properly. And Terry Nation seems to know exactly how to do that here.
They don’t get totally defeated in this one, either. Oh sure Doctor Who ensures that the army is buried away under ice for several centuries, but the Dalek Supreme survives the story, as do a number of drones, and they get to glide off into the jungle chanting at the end, which is brilliant;
Dalek Supreme: ‘Preparations will begin at once to free our army from the ice. We have been delayed, not defeated. The Daleks are never defeated!’
I watched this episode withe the original effects and I’m glad I did because I think they’re brilliant! Yes, okay, the Dalek army sort of looks like models, but I don’t think that’s a problem. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all. And the fact those sequences are all on film helps too. Watching this today I honestly can’t work out why the need was there for replacement effects on this story — there’s certainly more obvious candidates than this.
The Daleks aren’t the only ones who come out of this episode well. The Thals get a nice send off, flying away in a stolen spaceship, and they’re sent off with. message of hope and compassion which feels fitting. I’ve said a lot about Terry Nation in the last few days, expressing surprise to find that he’s returned to the series with a lot more depth than I remembered from earlier in the year. I also spent some time yesterday criticising Terrance Dicks for the rewritten ending to the previous serial.
It’s only fair, then, that I credit him for the rather touching farewell between Doctor Who and Taron;
Doctor Who: ‘Throughout history, you Thals have always been known as one of the most peace loving peoples in the galaxy.’
Taron: ‘I hope we always will be.’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes, well that’s what I mean. When you get back to Skaro, you’ll all be national heroes. Everybody will want to hear about your adventures.’
Taron: ‘Of course.’
Doctor Who: ‘So be careful how you tell that story, will you? Don’t glamorise it. Don’t make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game.’
Taron: ‘I understand.’
Doctor Who: ‘Tell them about the members of your mission that will not be returning, like Maro and Vaber and Marat. Tell them about the fear, otherwise your people might relish the idea of war. We don’t want that.’
Rebec: ‘You can depend on us.’
Reading through The Complete History this afternoon it would seem that Nation was asked to include a scene along these lines at various stages in the scripting process, with Dicks eventually adding it in himself during editing. It’s such a brilliant exchange, and feels so right for Pertwee’s Doctor Who, especially following his kind words to Codal earlier in the story.
Once they’re back in the TARDIS, Doctor Who and Jo get a rather touching scene together too in which she says she wants to return to Earth. They’re not overly blunt about it, but it’s very clear that we’re going into her final story, and if it carries on as emotionally as that final scene then I think it’s going to be something a bit special.
Overall Planet of the Daleks has been a real surprise for me, and the total opposite of Frontier in Space. Both were stories I could remember next to nothing about leaving them open to be either brilliant or rubbish. While the former was naff, this one has turned out to be a real winner. It’s an 8/10 for this episode. The throwback 1960s vibe of the story has really appealed to me, and I’m desperate to work out how to switch the settings on the telly so I can revisit it in black and white when this marathon is over.
