Planet of the Daleks

"When we start acting and thinking like the Daleks... the battle is lost."

Writer: Terry Nation

Format: TV

Broadcast: 7th April - 12th May 1973

Season: 10.04

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis 

The TARDIS arrives on Spiradon, an inhospitable planet where the vegetation is hungry and extremely dangerous. The Doctor has been badly hurt and has fallen into a coma, so it's up to his concerned assistant Jo to leave the safety of the TARDIS to find help. She soon discovers a jungle containing invisible creatures, and that the planet is hiding a terrible secret about the Doctor's oldest enemy, the Daleks...

Verdict 

Planet of the Daleks was an excellent story! It was another great little watch with my young cousin whose Doctor Who knowledge is continuing to expand. He's nearly seen every episode from the revived series and he has also watched a decent chunk of the Classic era so the more he watches, the more interest he has in the show. Sadly, this will be my last watch with him for a little while as I head back home tomorrow but that will at least allow me the chance to read a novel. After a lengthy spell reading The Amazing World of Doctor Who, tomorrow's reading will see a very quick return to the Fourth Doctor as he's the only incarnation of the Doctor that I haven't read an original novel of (where he's the only Doctor). After watching Revenge of the Cybermen and Arc of Infinity together, this story was a little longer at a quite lengthy six parts but we almost seemed to watch it quicker than our previous two viewings as we watched in two sessions consisting of three parts back to back. It worked well I think and having a break halfway made things a lot more effective. I thought the cliffhangers were strong which is always important and although I thought some of the Dalek models were pretty poor, the story more than made up for that. I loved the Spiradon setting but the thing I loved even more about this story was the fact it was pretty much a direct sequel to The Daleks! With such a lengthy period in between, I remember not expecting anything of the sort on my first, and up until today only, viewing when I watched every television story back to back in just over 260 days. The mentions of Ian, Barbara and Susan were wonderful and I loved how the events of the second every serial had saw the Doctor become a bit of a legend in Thal folklore. The fact the Thals themselves were returning was terrific and I liked how they were still at war with the Daleks after all this time. However, it did appear that the Thals had overrun the Daleks on Skaro as it was the former who ended up returning home. I thought the design of these Daleks was gold and suited to the story and I really enjoyed the appearance of the Dalek Supreme. That particular version would later return in The Genocide Machine and I liked how it was left open that these Daleks were not defeated, just merely delayed. I was quite surprised that the Doctor and Jo ran away at the end but after freezing the entire Dalek force you can hardly blame them! The few surviving Daleks would, I doubt, not take any mercy. The idea of the Daleks aiming to capture the ability of invisibility is a frightening concept and the consequences are actually rather incomprehensible. Invisible Daleks would be incredibly powerful and the Doctor would even be testing himself in trying to stop them if they had that ability. I thought Jo was terrific as companion in this story and I really liked how concerned she was for the Doctor as the story started immediately where Frontier in Space left off. It really did have a feel of the First Doctor era with stories starting how the last finished. I really liked that touch. Terry Nation is a favoured writer of mine and I thought he produced another strong script here despite being away from the programme for a considerable amount of time. The Thal characters were great with Rebec my personal favourite whilst Taron and Vaber were also very good. Wester was a nice friend for Jo and allowed us an insight to the Spiradons which was certainly beneficial. I thought the ending was decent and full of action and just when you thought we might be finishing a little early, the Dalek Supreme emerges from the jungle leaving a return very open. Overall, an excellent story and another wonderful watch with my cousin.

Rating: 9/10