“Planet of the Daleks” is an adventure of the tenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1973. It follows “Frontier in Space” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney.
The story
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is wounded and is barely able to contact the Time Lords to warn of the Daleks threat then falls into a coma-like state. The Tardis is driven by the Time Lords on a planet where Jo Grant (Katy Manning) goes in search for help.
In the jungle where the Tardis rematerialized, Jo discovers a starship and some crew members. In the meantime, the Doctor wakes up and when the men met by Jo reach the Tardis he realizes that they’re Thals, people from the planet Skaro, arrived on the planet Spiridon to stop a Daleks plan.
Extras
This DVD is rich in extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Times Listings and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Katy Manning, actors Prentis Hancock and Tim Preece, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.
Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams. The second part of the pseudo-documentary set in the Twenty-sixth century in which some future humans are studying the old television series “Doctor Who”.
The Rumble in the Jungle. Cast and crew members remember the production of this adventure.
Multi-colourisation. The third episode of this adventure was found only in a black and white version. There was already a technology to recreate the colors but combining it with results of another innovative technology it’s been possible to restore the episode almost to perfection. Here’s how this work was done.
Stripped for Action: The Daleks. A series of comics about the Daleks.
Blue Peter. Two pieces of Blue Peter in which an appeal is made to find two missing Daleks and in which their discovery is announced.
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“Planet of the Daleks” continues the story started in “Frontier in Space” but at the same time it’s an independent adventure. The beginning goes on where the previous episode ended, creating the connection that forms a double adventure. After that, the story on planet Spiridon starts.
The beginning, which is the most original part, could’ve been done better. The depletion of oxygen in the Tardis seems a useless idea that only serves to fill a few more minutes. “Planet of the Daleks” had to go on for six episodes so it was necessary to include some scenes meant as fillers.
“Planet of the Daleks” is in many ways a remake of the adventure “The Daleks“, so much that the Doctor tells the Thals he’s been on Skaro and fought the Daleks with them mentioning the companions who were with him at the time: Ian, Barbara and Susan. Some elements are taken from another adventure, “The Daleks’ Master Plan”.
Seen today, it looks like an odd choice but the production of “Planet of the Daleks” took place in a completely different period for television. In the ’70s, television programs were still considered to be rather ephemeral products since there weren’t even VCRs and TV series were repeated only rarely.
Ten years after the beginning of “Doctor Who”, many fans had just a vague memory of the first adventures or they even hadn’t seen them and probably thought they’d never see them. It’s true that in 1965 was produced the film “Dr Who and The Daleks” in it but the Doctor is an earth scientist, therefore, not part of the television series.
In a successful series it was normal to produce episodes thet were more or less inspired to old episodes that had been particularly successful. “Planet of the Daleks” wasn’t the first “Doctor Who” adventure to be inspired to a previous one nor it was the last.
The problem is that today “Doctor Who” fans had the chance to watch “The Daleks” so “Planet of the Daleks” gives the impression of something already seen. Even trying not to think about this adventure as a rip-off, it’s difficult to see in it elements that go beyond a standard production for the classic “Doctor Who” series. The forest of planet Spiridon and in general the special effects are decently made by the standards of those years, the pace is also typical of those years and the acting is generally pretty good.
“Planet of the Daleks” doesn’t show the depth of “The Daleks”, even though the subject of war is important, but I think that overall the result is enjoyable.
This DVD is part of the “Dalek War” box set, available on Amazon UK
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