The Green Death

Six episodes
Aired between 19th May 1973 and 23rd June 1973

Written by Robert Sloman
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Michael Bryant


Synopsis

In Llanfairfach, Wales, a miner races through the underground tunnels of the Llanfairfach mine, a place deserted for over a year thanks to the Governments decision to close the pit in favour of a new chemical company - Global Chemicals.  The miner is panicking as he's been infected with a strange green substance that glows and throbs across this skin.

On the surface, some kind of protest is going on, held by the former miners.  They are addressed by Steven's, a bureaucratic man in a suit and tie who claims to be the Chief Executive of Global Chemicals.  He consoles the miners for the loss of their jobs, but he says he's invented a process to revolutionise the use of fuel across the globe.  His words seem to have some affect on the ex miners, but Steven's is heckled from another group of protesters, a bunch of hippy scientists, led by Doctor Clifford Jones.

The workers turn on Jones and his band of peace lovers, but before they can begin to argue, the emergency whistle blows from the closed pit, drawing them all in.  Needless to say, the strikers turn up to see the miner dead at the top of the pit shaft, his hand, resting on the cord of the whistle, is somehow infected and coated in a throbbing luminous green substance.

Over at UNIT HQ, Jo becomes aware of Global Chemcial's intent to take over the pit, and of Dr Jones' crusade to stop them when she reads the morning paper.  She tries to tell the Doctor about the situation, but he's more interested in hardwiring the coordinates to Metabilis III into the TARDIS so he can take Jo there.

They both talk at cross purposes, and the Doctor looks a little bit hurt when Jo refuses to go with him.  She says she intends to go on down to Llanfairfach and help Dr Jones even if she has to resign from UNIT to do it.

As Jo packs, the Brigadier shows up and tries to convince the Doctor to go down to Llanfairfach and look into the mysterious death of the poor miner.  The Doctor is adamant that he's going to Metabilis III with or without Jo.  Speak of the Devil, Jo turns back up and goes off on one at the Brigadier, making it quite clear that like it or not, Jo is off to Llanfairfach.  The Brigadier huffs and tells her he's going down their anyway so he'll give her a lift, but rather than investigate Global Chemicals, he has orders to protect them.  Jo dislikes the situation, but readily accepts the Brigadiers invitation for a lift down.

As they leave, the Doctor reflects silently to himself, then smiles and proclaims that the fledgling flies the coop.  He gets into the TARDIS and goes off on his adventure.  He arrives on the blue-planet of Metabilis III and exits the TARDIS, expecting it to be the fantastic place that he's always told Jo it was.  Unfortunately, within seconds of leaving his machine, the Doctor is grabbed by a rather large tentacle and dragged away.

After asking a very Welsh milkman for directions, the Brigadier drops Jo off at Dr Jones' "Nuthutch"as promised.  He then goes to meet with Mr Stevens at Global Chemicals.  Stevens is arrogant, but is uncomfortable at the Brigadier;s insistence to investigate the miner's death.

As the Brigadier leaves, he tells his henchman, Hinks, to make sure no one goes down the mine.

Back on Metabilis III, the Doctor gets free of the tentacles and is forced to avoid a giant snake, climbing a rocky mountain to do so.  He's dive-bombed by a giant bird, but he manages to retrieve a blue sapphire, form the birds nest.

Meanwhile, Jo is welcomed by the commune and shown into the main study room.  She finds Clifford Jones but he's very patronising towards her, especially when she's shown to be very clumsy .He tells her all about the nuthuch, and how his friend, Nancy, is developing a special fungus that will hopefully replace the need for meat - Saliota Orbis (a lot like Quorn).

Jo has a chat with Dr Jones about the work of Global Chemicals and he tells her that they're claiming to have a revolutionary new process to make oil more efficient, but Jones claims that it's still using up natural resources, and creating pollution and waste product that won't break down easily, compared to say wind turbines or solar power.  Having said that, Global Chemicals claim not to have any waste, but Jones isn't convinced, in fact, he reckons it's got something to do with the miners death.   Jo concludes that Global chemicals might be pumping the waste down the disused mine.  Dr Jones agrees, but doesn't understand that when she suggests going to look, she means right this second.  He patronisingly dismisses the notion, saying he's got work to do, so she goes off on her own.

The Brigadier meanwhile, like Dr Jones, is suspicious of Global Chemicals' claim of zero waste.  He intends to go down the mine and investigate, but would prefer the Doctor with him.  He calls UNIT HQ numerous times to see if the Doctor is there.

On Metabilis III, the Doctor manages to flee back to the TARDIS, evading some kind of primitives who hurl spears at him.  He takes off and materialises back in UNIT HQ where he stumbles out of the TARDIS, tattered and torn, and picks up the phone, exclaiming "I'll speak to anyone!" when the operator asks if he'll accept the call.   Within minutes, the Doctor takes off in Bessie towards Llanfairfach.

Elsewhere in the village, Dai Evens, one of the former miners talks with his friends and convinces them to operate the lift and send him down the mine to find out what happened to their friend to cause his skin to go green.  He's been exploring the mine for a little while when Jo turns up.  At that point, he uses the emergency phone to ring the top of the lift shaft and asks for help - he too is glowing bright green.  The other miners prepare to go down, and Jo insists on going with them as she's trained in first aid.  Reluctantly, one of the miners called Bert decides to go with them, leaving the other at the top to operate the lift.

Back at Global Chemicals, one of the managers confronts Stevens about the deaths related to the mine, and says he wants to come clean about Global Chemical's responsibility.  It's revealed that Stevens isn't in charge of Global Chemicals anymore, it's someone called the BOSS.  The manager is restrained and brainwashed.

The Doctor and Brigadier discuss the problem as they drive Bessie up to the old mine.  The Doctor says it's important not to let anyone into the mine until he's had a chance to look himself, but they arrive to see the lift wheel spinning, indicating that someone's going down.  They rush in to find that Dai Evans is down in the mine injured and Jo and Bert have gone down to help him,  The Doctor insists that he stops the lift immediately, which the miner tries, but it doesn't work - the lift is out of control!

Thinking fast, the Doctor jams the wheel with a pit prop and stops the lift, but renders it inoperable for a time.

Jo and Bert survive the jerk of the lift, and find they're still 20ft from the bottom of the shaft.  They use a rope to climb the rest of the way.  They see Dai Evans, but he's virtually covered in the glowing green infection.  They move off deeper into the mine to find the cause and hopefully, a way out.

After the Doctor finds a removed bolt to be the initial cause of the break failure, the miner at the top of the shaft says that they need cutting equipment to free the cables.  Not to fear though, Global Chemicals are supposed to have some cutting gear, they just need to ask them.

The Brigadier goes to see Global Chemicals, but Stevens and the brainwashed manager there say they don't have any and summarily dismisses the Brigadier.  Elgin, one of the managers at Global Chemicals is appalled at the conversation, as he's sure they do have some.  He talks to the brainwashed manager, but stays silently frustrated when the manager tows the party line.

Dr Jones discovers that Jo has gone down the mine and offers a hand to help.

Frustrated at Global Chemicals response, the miner is adamant that they do have cutting equipment, because he knows where they put it.  The Doctor decides to sneak into the place, with the help of Dr Jones and his hippy friends causing a distraction.  He jumps the fence with the help of a mobile lift.

The Doctor is soon identified on CCTV and the henchman - Hinks tries to intimidate the Doctor.  He underestimates the Doctor however and gets knocked out along with a number of other guards with a good demonstration of Venusian Akido.  He flees when other guards, armed with guns turn up, and is caught in a trap, and imprisoned.  Stevens comes to visit him and insists they don't have any cutting gear.  He takes him to the place where it should be and it's indeed empty.  Showing a kind side, Stevens agrees to overlook the incident but warns the Doctor not to come back.

The Doctor gets back to the mine head just in time to discover that the Brigadier has had more luck, finding some cutting equipment at a local garage.  They frantically begin to repair the lift.

Down in the mine, Bert and Jo find a pool of glowing green liquid.  Bert is stupid enough to touch it and soon contracts the Green Death.  They go on a little while, but Bert's condition is getting worse, forcing him to stay in the mine and urging her to go on and get help.

The Doctor finally enters the mine to find Dai Evans is dead.  He races through the tunnels until he finds Bert, very ill, and Jo a short way ahead, looking upon a vast lake of green slime infested with giant maggots.

The tunnel behind them caves in, revealing more maggots with canine-like jaws, and they're forced to go ahead, making it across the lake by sailing in a mine cart using pit props as paddles.

The Doctor retrieves one of the giant maggot eggs and they continue on their search for a way out.

They eventually come across some pipes that lead up to Global Chemicals and have to race against time as they can hear another torrent of slime coming down the tubes.  Luckily for them, Elgin was in the pump room, trying to convince the brainwashed manager that something's going on in the company.  Elgin frees them from the pipe just in time and smuggles them out of the complex.

The Doctor goes and tells the Brigadier about everything and they confront Stevens with evidence of giant maggots in the mine and waste product.  Stevens in turn is quite calm and claims that he's got protection from Whitehall, going so far as to call the Minister of Ecology to give the Brigadier a direct order to cooperate with Global Chemicals.  He's even rebuked by the Prime Minister when he tries to argue back.  Once again ,the Brigadier is sent packing.  Afterwards, Stevens tells Hinks that the giant maggot egg is a problem and it must be dealt with.

With little else to do, the Brigadier, the Doctor and Jo spend the evening having a meal at the Nuthutch, trying out Nancy's Quorn.  They hear that Bert has unfortunately died, as there doesn't seem to be a cure for the Green Death.  The only lead they have is the giant maggot egg, which the Doctor intends to investigate the following day.  Each of them retire, and Dr Jones has a bit of a tender moment with Jo by the fireside, being interrupted by the Doctor and sent off to his own room.

Jo smiles and reads a book on the Amazon that Dr Jones gave her, just as Hinks sneaks into the building from the patio behind her, gun in hand.  Luckily, the heat from the fire must have speeded up the hatching process and a giant maggot bursts out of the egg, attacking hinks and wounding him.

As Jo screams, the maggot slithers off out of the patio door into the darkness, leaving only a trail of green slime left to analyse.

The following day, the Brigadier is ordered to blow up the mine, sealing the tunnels and moving all UNIT soldiers away from the area.  The Doctor asks the Brigadier to give him time, and he goes to see Stevens, begging him to allow an investigation first, because the maggots are contained in one place.  Stevens vindictively ignores the Doctor and says someone from Government office has come to help him do what needs to be done - it turns out it's Captain Yates undercover!

The Doctor protests with "Mr" Yates, but even he denies the Doctor's request and sends him packing, forcing the Brigadier to blow up the mine.  Not long afterwards, the maggots are forced to crawl to the surface and are now menacing anyone near the mines slag heaps.

The Brigadier regroups and talks to the Doctor, explaining that he sent Captain Yates in to get the inside story.  They call Yates up to try and get an update, but it becomes apparent that he's watched over 24/7.  They have no alternative but to try and get inside the complex again and find out what's going on.  The problem is, how do they do that?  The Doctor comes up with an idea that is worthy of a drunken dare.  He disguises himself as a welsh milkman and bluffs his way past the entry guard!

 Not only that, when the security cameras pick him up snooping around, he pops into a cleaners cupboard and puts on an apron and hat, pretending to be a woman!

The Doctor goes around cleaning the place until he spots "mr" Yates going towards a lift.  He writes on the window in the cleaning fluid to get rid of his guard.  Yates tricks his guard into getting on the elevator, but he then darts out at the last moment, claiming he's left a briefcase.

The Doctor and Yates go to his office where Yates tells him that it's clear Stevens is taking orders from someone upstairs, quite literally on the top floor.

Stevens turns up and Yates picks up his case, looking sheepish as he goes off again with the guard.

Over at the nuthutch, Jo is beginning to get in the way again as she's trying to be helpful.  She accidentally knocks over some of Nancy's Quorn onto the samples of slime whilst Cliff is examining them.  Dr Jones is far too engrossed to see that she's desperate to help.  She's so desperate in fact that she writes him a note and goes off with a cat carrier to try and capture a maggot.

The Doctor, now free to roam, quickly changes back into his normal clothes and uses his sonic screwdriver to get into the elevator and ride it to the top floor.  He enters a room full of electronic machinery as a booming voice says that he's been expected.  It turns out that the boss of Global Chemicals really IS a BOSS - Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor.  In other words, the supercomputer is alive and controlling staff at Global Chemicals.

Through conversation, the Doctor gets BOSS to reveal that it's sentient and has human illogical thought processes.  It came up with the new chemical processing and intends to use that process to change the way the world uses fuel - effectively making everyone dependent upon Global Chemicals and taking over the world like only an evil corporation can.  The Doctor, seeing that BOSS likes to think of itself as a know-it-all, gives the computer a riddle that's an unsolvable paradox and uses the distraction to escape.  Unfortunately, the lift is already occupied by Stevens and a couple of guards.

They take the Doctor back to BOSS and put a mind control headset on him.  The mind control doesn't work, and the guards are ordered to keep him prisoner.

He's locked up but it's not long before Mike Yates comes and rescues him.  They both try to flee the compound, but Mike is captured and the Doctor is forced to leave him behind, escaping in a milk float!

Captain Yates is taken to BOSS and this time, the mind control works.  He's sent with a gun to kill the Doctor.  It's only by using the blue crystal he procured on Metabilis III that the Doctor is able to break the conditioning and stop Yates from firing the gun.

They send Mike back, asking him to bluff that he's killed the Doctor.

Meanwhile, Dr Jones realises that the Quorn is an antidote for the Green Death, but he finds Jo's note and rushes off to stop her getting into danger.

The Brigadier however has other problems.  He's got hundreds of giant maggots roaming the area and they're bullet proof too!

To try and solve the problem, he orders and air strike from a helicopter.  All this is unknown to Jo who sneaks past Sgt Benton onto the slag heap, looking for maggots.  Cliff turns up slightly later and the oblivious Sgt Benton says he sent her home when he found her here.  Cliff sees Jo way up on the slag heap and also goes up there, as Sgt Benton goes off to shout at his men.

The helicopter arrives and the pilots start dropping HE grenades all around the place.  Cliff and Jo flee into an old pit entrance, but the bombs knock him unconscious.

Captain Yates makes it back to Global Chemcials and reports that the Doctor is dead, but the wily Steven's smells a rat but congratulates Yates and leaves him on guard with a freshly brainwashed Elgin.  Once alone, Yates uses the Doctor's blue saphire to break Elgin's hypnosis and discovers that BOSS has something big planned for 4pm that day.  Unfortunately, Stevens turns up again and discovers that Yates is no longer under hypnosis.

Back on the slag heap, things are looking bad.  The bombing run did nothing to the maggots, and Sgt Benton even finds an empty chrysalis casing from one of the maggots, indicating that a giant fly is buzzing about somewhere.

Jo gets in touch with Sgt Benton through a busted up radio and he takes some soldiers up with the Doctor to rescue them.  The Doctor uses some ultra-high frequency pulse from his sonic screwdriver to stun the maggots around them and they flee back to the nuthutch.

Once back at the hutch, it becomes clear that Cliff has been infected and it's a race against time before he dies of the Green death.

In a fever, Cliff mentions the word serendipidy, but the Doctor is puzzled by what he's referring to.  He takes over Cliff's research but because he doesn't know about the Quorn, has to start all over again.

It's not until Nancy cooks a joint of Quorn (don't ask), that the hatched maggot shows up again, eats a bit and dies.  This gives the Doctor the revelation about serendipidy and with Jo's help, he's able to locate the Quorn powder.

He turns some into a solution to give Cliff an injection of it and save his life, then Sgt Benton and the Doctor drive around the slag heap, throwing handfuls of Quorn to the maggots who all taste it and die.   On their way, they're attacked by a stop motion dragonfly, but the Doctor throws his cape up into the air and the dragon fly hits it at full speed, presumably killing itself.

Yates manages to break his imprisonment and rushes to tell the Doctor and the Brigadier that something big is going to happen at 4pm.

Just as Yates said, something IS going to happen.  With Stevens' aid, BOSS is going to link up with other computers around the world and force a corporate takeover.  The UNIT team go to Global Chemicals but the armed security guard won't let them in.  Luckily the link up scrambles all mind-controlled personnel so the Doctor can run past him and into the complex.

He gets to the BOSS and uses the Metabilis Saphire to break Stevens' conditioning.

Stevens sets the place to self destruct and tells the Doctor to get out, which he does.  The place blows up, killing BOSS and Stevens, ending the threat.

With victory in hand, the UNIT troops all gather at the nuthutch for a celebration.  Jo takes the Docotr to one side and explains that the freshly recovered Dr Jones has asked her to stay with him and go up the Amazon river, looking for a fabled mushroom that could answer the worlds food crisis.  The Doctor seems a tad disappointed but knows it means a lot to her so he gives her his blessing.  This is made all the more prominent when it turns out that Cliff proposes to Jo and they are to be married too.

One final surprise comes when the Brigadier announces that the nuthutch has been made an official research centre for alternative food sources.  The Doctor smiles and accuses Jo of using her uncle in the UN to pull some strings.  She smiles back and says it's only the second time she's asked him for anything.

The Doctor gives Jo the Metabilis Saphire as a wedding gift.

When all the UNIT personnel join with the hippy's to sing "he's a jolly good fellow" to Cliff, the Doctor somberly drinks his champagne and leaves, riding back to UNIT HQ alone.

Trivia

• For those of you who didn't know, Barry Letts was something of a Bhuddist.  In 1973 he was beginning to despair at the state of the world in terms of global pollution and ecological ruin and decided to use his platform to contribute to the conversation.  That's why he commissioned this

• He chose Robert Sloman to write it, knowing that he was capable, but more importantly, because he knew Sloman would get on with it and not pester him or Terrence Dicks whilst they prepared Moonbase 3, their new show

• Interestingly, this is the last story until 1996 to feature the Doctor Who text in the Jon Pertwee Logo.  From then on, it would be the de-facto font for all Doctor Who media releases.  

• Similarly, this is the last story until the end of the classic era to use the words "Episode" . From this point on, everything will be in "Parts" (except Destiny of the Daleks).

• As mentioned in Frontier in Space, Katy Manning had wanted to move on.  This meant that after three years on set, Katy got to have what many companions didn't.  She got to have a planned send off.  It's something of a shame, but Katy Manning didn't return to the screen of Doctor Who for 37 years but did appear in one final episode in 2010, and has been incredibly active on the convention circuit for years and years.  She is even heavily involved with Big Finish audio, to the point where she has a spin off character who's like a time lord and has a pet Panda (*sigh*)  Oh and I almost forgot, she would later cause much controversy when she posed naked with a Dalek for a magazine shoot.

• At the time of shooting, Stewart Bevan (Dr Cliff Jones) was Katy Manning's real life boyfriend

• The guy who played Elgin became seriously ill during filming and was hospitalised.  Therefore, Roy Skelton had to take up the mantle in episode 5

What worked

• The maggots creep everyone out, so very good as monsters

• The ending is very poignant and really well done

• As with the Drashigs, the maggots jaws look quite realistic and therefore scary

• The Metabilis III scenes were a nice change of pace and can't help but be funny

• Likewise, the BOSS is the weirdest computer ever seen and it's so close to human that it can't help but be funny, especially when it's humming classical music

• Sgt Benton throwing Quorn to maggots like he was feeding animals and saying here kitty kitty was also quite memorable

What didn't work

So many things.  Let's see...

• Killing monsters by Quorn

• The giant bird feet on Metabilis III

• The stereotypical welsh people

• Dr Jones' patronising manner

• The scene where the maggots are stunned by the doctor- you can see floorboards where the operators hid under to work the maggots!

• The plan to skulk around global Chemicals via milk float and cleaning uniform

• The milk float escape

• The stop-motion dragonfly

Overall Feelings

So this is Jo Grant's great send off.  I'll be open and upfront with you now, probably alienating at least a hundred classic Doctor Who fans.  I don't like it.

It's not so much the crazy amount of stereotyping of the Welsh.  I'm from Yorkshire, so I'm more than used to lazy assumptions of flat caps, whippets, and "trouble et Mill", so I think are the Welsh with people ending most phrases with a question or "Boyo" and all being called Jones.  The thing that gets me about it is that even the star of the show is sending up the Welsh, doing something more akin to Benny Hill than infiltrating a very dangerous corporation. Funny as it maybe, it's a bit out of kilter with what Barry Letts wanted.

In addition to this, even if you put aside the "blink and you'll miss it" courtship between Cliff and Jo, I can't get past Cliff's attitude towards her, Even though the Doctor has been patronising in the past, and of course, the Second Doctor's insistence that Polly put the kettle on, this really does take the biscuit, even more so when you think that Sarah Jane Smith is in the very next story - can you imagine her response to Cliff's put downs and assumption that they're going to get married?  Also, considering the production team had some warning that Katy was leaving, they still made it look very rushed.

finally, there isn't one plot, there's two.  That's not a problem except for the fact that we're asked to treat it as one.  The first plot is about a maniacal computer trying to take over the world, the second is about giant maggots terrorising Wales.  My issue with it is that BOSS never even concerns himself with the maggots.  They're not on its radar at all.  Then, in the last ten minutes of the story, he says he's going to link up with computers over the world and take over.  It feels disconnected in the way it's written.

"But,,," I hear you cry, "the Sea Devils was just as bad for plot holes and you gave it a 10!"  Yes I did.  That's because the Sea Devils shows us the epitome of what a Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story is.  Lots of chases, moral dilemmas and shouting at Ministers.  This one tries to do the same, but in a far more disjointed way than the Sea Devils or the Silurians ever were.

Lest you think me a total Phillastine though, I did enjoy the trip to Metabilis III, I did enjoy the Benny Hill antics, the maggots looked cool enough even though they were almost totally ineffective, and the Doctor's departure at the end was well acted and tugged at your heart(s) strings.

Rating

6 out of 10

Sorry, but the schizophrenic plot and really bad CSO; coupled with rampant sexism and (regional) ignorance just turn me off this thing

Rewatchability Factor

6 out of 10

Apart from the highlight of the Doctor threatening to "slosh" Captain Yates with a cleaning bucket, and the end scene of Jo leaving, this story has little to invite you back for.

Watch this if you liked...

• The War Machines

• Spearhead from Space

• Doctor Who and the Silurians

• The Mark of the Rani

Consulting the Matrix

Do you think Jo should have gone with Clifford Jones?

Planet of the Daleks

Six episodes
Aired between 7th April 1973 and 12th May 1973

Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by David Maloney

Synopsis

So, the TARDIS is hurtling through time and space, whilst the Doctor has fallen unconscious, just after sending a telepathic message to the Time Lords.

Jo rushes him to a pop-out bed, where he soon comes around.

He tells her wearily that he's liable to sleep for a while, so she should record everything on a tape log (dictaphone) in the cabinet above the bed.  With that, he falls unconscious again.

Not long after Jo retrieves the log, the Doctor goes really cold and gets ice crystals forming on his cheeks.  His hearts beat about once every ten seconds.  Suddenly, the TARDIS lands, which leads Jo to believe that the Time Lords have taken control of the TARDIS and steered it somewhere.  She tries to look out on the scanner, but something splats against it, blocking the view.

With the Doctor still in a coma, Jo quickly changes outfit and then goes outside to explore. She finds they're in a dense, alien jungle, with strange plants that spit yellow goo out.  They've already covered half of the TARDIS in their fast-hardening gunk.  Jo believes that the plant life is closer to animal than vegetable.  Fascinated and horrified all at once, Jo sets off deeper into the jungle.

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor wakes up to find Jo gone.  He also changes his clothes and tries to go look for her, but the doors are stuck (from the strange yellow plant sap).  The Oxygen alarm goes off, telling him that he's run out.  He pulls out the emergency tanks, but finds that they're almost empty too.

In the jungle, Jo comes across a crashed spaceship, with a dead pilot on board.

She's discovered by the remaining crew, a bunch of fair haired men who go by the names of Taron, Vaber, and Codal.  From the way they question Jo, it's clear that Taron is the group leader, and Vaber isn't happy about it.  Jo tells them about the TARDIS and the Doctor and asks them to help him.  Taron instructs her to stay in the ship because it's dangerous in the jungle and she's lucky that "they" didn't find her.  She asks what they mean but Codal says a patrol is near and they rush off, telling her to hide.  She does as she's told, hiding in a storage cupboard.  Seconds later, something invisible enters the ship and begins trying the doors.  Luckily, her door is locked and the thing leaves.  She goes outside and inspects the humanoid tracks it left, getting sprayed on by one of the plants as she does so.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor's emergency air supply runs out, and he beings to suffocate.

 Luckily, Taron, Vaber and Codal show up and use their knives to cut away the hardened sap, bringing him out into the fresh air.

As soon as he's recovered and thanked the men, the Doctor recognises them as Thals, habitants of the Planet Skaro, homeworld of the Daleks.  They confirm they are indeed Thals but are puzzled as to how he knows because they're not well traveled, having only just mastered space travel.  The Doctor explains that he's been to Skaro before and tells them briefly of his adventure there (see The Daleks).  Vaber scoffs at the assertion as it was centuries ago, but Codal does say the Thal legends speak of the Doctor.

Taron sprays the Doctor with a medical salve, designed to combat infection from the fungoid sap.  Taron tells him that if not treated, the infection spreads across the host until they're completely covered.  This makes the Doctor curious about where they are.  The Thals tell him they're on Spirodon, a jungle planet filled with nasty creatures.  The dominant native species are a race known as the Spirodons.  They're invisible but some of the vegetation is agitated by movement, so the Thals use the eye plants to track patrols.

The Doctor asks the Thals what they're up to on this planet.  Vaber tells the Doctor that they're on a secret mission, but a lot of the crew (all volunteers) were killed in the crash.  Taron assumed command.

Another Spirodon patrol draws near, and the Thals decide to take the Doctor to Jo.  on their way, they come across something big, round and invisible in a jungle clearing, noticeable only by the footprint in the dirt.  They approach slowly and see that whatever it is, it's just sitting there.  The Thals give the Doctor a can of spray paint and together they spray the air, revealing a Dalek!

The Daleks is indeed inactive.  Codal theorises that it's because of light wave sickness.  The Doctor is horrified that the Daleks have mastered invisibility, but Codal explains that they haven't.  They're just trying to.  That's the reason why the Daleks are on Spirodon.  They've already mass-exterminated a lot of Spirodon's and subjugated the rest, and are experimenting on them to develop invisibility devices.  So far, the invisibility takes up lots of energy so they can't sustain it for long periods.  The Thals were sent to Spirodon to find the research station (believed to hold just 12 Daleks) and destroy it.

Back at the Thal ship, Jo has contracted the infection from the fungoids.  It's traveled up her arm and made her weak to the point of passing out.  As she lays there unconscious, one of the Spirodons find her and take her away.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and the Thals run across a Spirodon patrol.  In an effort to save them, Codal draws the Spirodons off, allowing Taron, Vaber and the Doctor to escape back to the ship.  Codal is captured for his efforts.

As soon as they get to the Thal ship, they find the TARDIS log on the ground and see two Daleks preparing to blow the ship up.  The Doctor thinks that Jo is inside so, against Taron and Vaber's insistence, he rushes out and begs them to stop.

The Daleks capture him and blow up the ship anyway, leading the Doctor to believe that they've just murdered Jo.  The Daleks take the Doctor to their base and imprison him with Codal.

Codal confesses that he's terrified but the Doctor admires him for his courageous and selfless deed.  Together, they begin to plan a way out of the cell before the Daleks come and torture them.

Meanwhile, Jo comes back around to discover she's being healed by the Spirodon.

It's a male called Wester.  He assures her that he doesn't mean her harm and explains to her about how the Daleks decimated and enslaved his people.  Wester also tells her that he's seen the Doctor and Codal taken prisoner.  Jo says she intends to rescue them, but Wester says they're better off dead.

The Doctor and Codal meanwhile modify the TARDIS log (by reversing the polarity, natch) to short circuit the Daleks motor systems. They wait patiently on the door opening.

Vaber and Taron go to where they've salvaged and stored a load of plastic explosive.  Given that theirs not many Daleks, Vaber wants to assault the research base, free Codal and the Doctor, and blow the place sky high.  Taron is more cautious, waiting until they're sure they've scouted the area fully.  The two almost come to blows, and Vaber even pulls his gun on Taron, but they're interrupted by another sudden space ship crash.  They rush to see what it was and find it's another Thal ship.  As with the first crash, only three Thal's have survived it - Rebec (a woman), Marat and Latep.

Taron is not pleased, because Rebec happens to be his girlfriend.  He demands to know why she came.   Rebec explains that she came to warn them.  They decoded a scrambled message from Dalek high command that told the Thals of the Dalek strength on Spirodon.  There's not 12 Daleks, there's ten thousand!

Elsewhere, Jo smuggles herself into the Daleks base to try and rescue the Doctor.  She hides in a tub of vegetation that the Spirodon slaves are gathering (Wester claims they gather them for Dalek experimentation on plant destroying bacteria).

Taron meanwhile brings his new companions up to speed with current events and the unusual environment of Spirodon.  He shows them a pool of liquid ice, and says it's the molten core of the planet.  It sometimes erupts from great ice volcanoes, and the Daleks have dug shafts to these channels to use as a cooling system for some unknown purpose.  He proposes that they use the ventilation tunnels to infiltrate the base and cause a distraction, whilst Vaber and Latep wait outside with the explosives.  The Thals agree and they head off into the ice tunnels.

Inside the Dalek base, the Doctor and Codal are visited by one of the Daleks who has orders to take them for interrogation.  The Doctor uses the modified log to send the Dalek bezerk and eventually short-circuit it's casing.  Finally free, they begin a frantic cat and mouse chase around the base trying to avoid Dalek patrols.  On their way, they see Taron, Rebec and Marat in the ventilation shaft.  They are rushing away from a stream of molten ice that's released from underground.  The Daleks, aware of the imminent eruption, try to close the vent shaft, but with the Doctor and Codal's help, the Thals manage to jam the doors open and enter the base.  Together, they rush off as a Dalek patrol comes around the corner in pursuit; said Daleks getting drenched in molten ice as the flow spews out of the open doors.

The Daleks pursue the group throughout the base, forcing them into a one-exit room.  Marat covers their retreat and gets exterminated for his efforts.  The Doctor closes the door to the room and breaks the lock, sealing them inside.  The Daleks inspect Marat's body and find a map showing the location of the remaining Thal explosives.  The lead Dalek orders a detachment to go and destroy the bombs, whilst they get a welding torch onto the door.

Jo has been skulking around the Dalek base for a little while and picks up on the message.  She sneakily follows the detachment of Daleks back out of the city with the aim of stopping them blowing up the Thal bombs.

Inside the sealed room, the Doctor and co find that it's some kind of giant refrigeration unit, complete with a large shaft that extracts all the heat the unit generates and sends it to the surface.

With no other way out, the Doctor comes up with a crazy plan to use some plastic sheeting to catch the hot air and ride it to the surface like a hot air balloon.  They quickly put the plan into action and as the balloon rises, the Daleks are on the verge of cutting through the door.  The Doctor sees a strange hatch on the wall, and despite yells from his Thal allies to grab the balloon, he takes a second to open the hatch, horrified to find the vast army of Daleks, frozen in cryo-sleep inside a giant cavern.

The Doctor grabs the rope tied to the sheeting and they lift out into the shaft just as the door gives way to the Dalek guards.

Not ones to give up easily, the Dalek leader orders another detachment to race outside the base and get to the top of the shaft, whilst a lone Dalek will go up the shaft after them using an anti-grav disc.

The Thals get to the top of the shaft, just as the plastic sheeting tears.  The Doctor falls but manages to grab hold of the side of the vent, dangling there whilst the Dalek on the anti-grav disc climbs in hot pursuit.

Using one of their ropes, the Thals manage to haul the Doctor to the surface and drop boulders onto the Dalek, sending it crashing to the bottom of the shaft.  Together, they race off into the jungle before the Dalek detachment can reach the top of the shaft.

Jo follows the second detachment until they get to the bombs.  Unaware of her presence, they decide it's adequate enough to activate the timers and leave them to blow up.  She comes out of hiding as the Daleks leave and tries to deactivate the bombs, managing only two before a rockslide knocks her unconscious.  She awakens with just enough time left to grab the two deactivated bombs and race to safety.  The third bomb detonates, destroying a nearby Dalek patrol, moving to intercept the fleeing Thals.

Eventually, all the Thals, Jo and the Doctor meet up in a clearing.  They explain what they've been doing (Vaber and Latep decided again to try and bomb the base, but when they went back for the explosives, found them gone).  The Doctor is very happy that Jo hadn't been killed when the Thal ship exploded.  He takes her to one side, explaining about how the Time Lords took control of the TARDIS and followed the Dalek ship as it left the Ogron homeworld.

Once alone, Rebec chastises Taron, saying he could be pleased to see her.  He in turn gets frustrated with her, telling her that she's put them all in danger because he loves her, so she's going to influence every risk he takes.

Knowing that night is about to fall, and that the area gets below freezing at night, the group decide to go to the plane of stones, an area that stores all the suns rays in the day and radiates heat at night.

Back at the Dalek base, the leader decides that the kid gloves are coming off.  He orders the preparation of a bacteria deadly to all living tissue.  He intends to release it into the jungle and kill everything if the intruders are not found.

Once at the plane of stones, Vaber and Taron have another altercation, when Vaber insists they attack during the night.  Taron forces Vaber to follow orders, threatening to kill him if he doesn't.  Vaber is subdued, but during the night, takes off with the remaining explosives.

Taron and Codal are forced to go looking for him.  The Doctor, Latep, Jo and Rebec remain, uncomfortable as they see glowing eyes from creatures peering out at them from the jungle.

Vaber is easily captured by the Spirodons and led off towards the Daleks base.  Codal and Taron catch up with the Spirodons and manage to subdue a couple of them, taking their purple pelts and following the group.  The Spirodons meet their Dalek supervisors in the jungle who try to force Vaber to reveal the location of the Thal rebels.  Vaber reluctantly agrees, but then tries to make a run for it.  The Daleks gun him down, allowing Taron and Codal to snatch the explosives and run off in the chaos of it all.

Back at the plane of stones, the Doctor and co. are forced to use the Thal guns and flaming torches to keep the jungle wildlife at bay until morning.  At dawn, Wester arrives, telling Jo about the Daleks plan to create a bacteria bomb to destroy all living things on Spirodon.  He intends to sneak into the city and stop them.  The Doctor thanks Wester for helping Jo and they all wish him luck.

Having lost their pursuers, Taron and Codal return to the plane of stones with the explosives.  The Doctor encourages Taron not to waste the bombs on a futile attack, especially as blowing up the giant fridge, as Codal suggested, would only wake up the mass Dalek army currently in cryo-sleep.

Together, Taron and the Doctor investigate nearby pools of molten ice.  Given the Doctor's hypothesis that the Daleks are vulnerable to extreme drops in temperature, they make a plan to lure the Daleks to the lake.  Latep goes off with Jo to get themselves spotted by the Daleks and lead them to the lake.  The plan works, and the group successfully wrestle two Daleks into the molten ice, the shock of entering sub-zero goop kills the creatures inside, instantly.

The Doctor, Codal and Taron use Spirodon pelts, whilst Rebec hides in a Dalek shell with a plan to smuggle one of the bombs into the base.

Latep and Jo are ordered to go to the ventilator shaft and use the Thal ropes to lower themselves into the city with the other bomb.

Inside the Dalek base, the Daleks have perfected the bacteria bomb.  They call in all Daleks for immunization.  As the call is going out, Wester enters the room, pretending to give an update report to the Daleks.

When the opportunity arises, he flings himself at the bacteria casing, exposing the room to the bomb.  He dies instantly, turning visible as he does so.

Unfortunately, the Daleks working on the bomb have already been immunized so they can't die from the bomb, but no other Dalek has.  They whine and moan about the fact that the Door must remain sealed and lament that they can never leave the room ever again.

The Doctor and co enter the Dalek base, but as they try to move to the lower levels, one of the Daleks sees their booted feet under the pelts and raises the alarm.

The Doctor and the Thals rush off down the corridors, making their way to the fridge room.  They quickly barricade the corridor to buy themselves time whilst they set up the bombs.

Back in the Jungle, Jo and Latep make their way toward the ventilator shaft.  On their trip, they see a small Dalek spacecraft coming into land on a platform.

It's a Supreme Dalek from the high council, come to check on things. Jo is happy because it's a chance for the Thals to get home, but Latep remarks that he doesn't want to tell them because they might not take necessary risks if they think they've got something to lose.  He also comments that he thinks he's suffering the same problem, alluding to the fact that he fancies Jo.

The Supreme Dalek wastes no time in getting up to speed with what's going on.  When it finds out about the released bacteria bomb and the fugitive Thals, it exterminates the Section Leader for incompetence, taking personal command of the operation and ordering the army to be activated.

The Doctor finds the access room to the Dalek army and with Codals help, begins to look for a good crack in the wall, the intent being to open up a fissure to the molten ice.  They intend to flood the chamber and keep the Dalek army frozen for hundreds of years.

Jo and Latep make it down the shaft just in time to see the Daleks breaking through the barricade.  They are forced to use their Thal explosive to destroy the assault force, leaving only one bomb remaining.

The Doctor finds a fissure, but the bomb falls off their platform into the mass of rousing Daleks.  Thankfully, the Daleks are still sluggish and uncommunicative.  With great tension, the Doctor climbs over the crowd of Daleks and reaches down, recovering the bomb.  They plant it in the fissure as all the group come back together.

A further patrol heads down to the section to deal with the Thals and is hit by the explosion from the detonating bomb, then...nothing.  The Doctor remarks that the plan has failed, but just as they turn to leave, the molten ice begins to spew out of the fissure and quickly drowns the Dalek army.

The Supreme Dalek does his nut as the molten ice begins to rise up through the Dalek base.  He orders the base to be set to self destruct and with his personal guards, abandons it, making his way back to his ship.

The Doctor, Jo and the Thals run up a service ramp that leads to the landing pad, where the Dalek Supreme's ship is docked.  The Thals are delighted as they thought this was a suicide mission.

The Doctor says goodbye to the Thals in turn, asking them not to glamourise their tale when they get home so that the Thals can once again, be a peace loving race.

Latep takes Jo aside and tells her how he feels about her.  He asks her to come with them back to Skaro.  She says no, telling him she's got a life back home.  He accepts her excuse and bids them farewell.

The Thals take off, leaving Spirodon and returning home to Skaro, just as the Supreme Dalek and his guards come out of the jungle clearing.  They spot the Doctor and Jo and chase them through the jungle, back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor and Jo have to make a mad dash through the fungoids, just managing to avoid infection again as they dash into the ship.  They take off as the Daleks open fire.

The Supreme Dalek curses them and says this is only a delay.  He orders for his guards to contact Skaro and send another ship, vowing that the Daleks can never be defeated.

Back on the TARDIS, Jo seems to be a little bit downhearted at leaving Latep.  The Doctor tries to cheer her up by telling her that's only one little world; there's thousands more to see.

Jo smiles and brings up a picture of Earth, telling the Doctor there's only one world she wants to see right now...home.

Trivia

• Although the story is without doubt an amalgamation of all the Terry Nation Dalek stories gone before, it's worth bearing in mind that it was something pretty much asked for by Letts and Dicks as a way to grab the next generation of children who would only have been babies when the first stories appeared on screen.  Also, it's worth noting that there were no such thing as repeats back in those days, so an effective remake is the next best thing.

• Nation didn't like what David Whittaker had done so he systematically forgot everything that had been done in his absence, such as the existence of the Dalek Emperor 

• Terrence Dicks had to ask Terry to write in some character development for the Thals as they were all orignially meant to die by episode 4.  

• Rebec is named after Terry Nation's daughter, Rebecca

• The Supreme Dalek is actually one of the props from the Peter Cushing movie, repainted and with extra bits added on.

• When one of the make up artists insisted that the Dalek operators have some make up too (presumably blackening their faces to better hide them), the operators jokingly turned up in eyeliner, blusher and lipstick!

• Episode 3 only existed in black and white between 1976 and when the DVD came out, as the restoration team turned it back into colour

• Oh and not that i'll need to tell you, but the army of daleks were all Louis Marks toys spray-painted.  

What worked?

• Ice volcano's

• Invisible Daleks

• Taron and Rebec's plot arc

• The Doctor's speech to Codal

• The introduction of many nuances of Spirodon, although cheezy, made the strange planet seem like a strange planet.

• The Dalek voices are back to being their usual great self, now that Roy Skelton and Michael Wisher are doing them again.

What didn't work?

• The Doctor deciding to change his clothes as the oxygen gets desperately low

• How quickly the sun rises on Spirodon

• Eyes in the forest

• How did the Doctor know about a distress signal being transmitted when you open the Dalek casing?  It's never happened before

• Why don't the Daleks momentarily turn off the fridge to stop the draft carrying the intruders out?  Also, if the Dalek goes up the shaft after them, isn't it blocking most of the air flow, therefore the "baloon" wouldn't continue up would it?

• How can the Daleks look at a tiny, hand drawn map and say, yes, we've found Thal explosives that we didn't even know existed?

• The Dalek guns are good enough to destroy an entire spaceship and yet, they can't blow through a steel door

• The Daleks have Spirodon slaves, surely they know that most beings go to the plane of stones at night.  Why don't the Daleks just go there to find the Thals?

• Severe drops in temperature can be lethal to Daleks, but yet they freeze their army in cryo-sleep...

Overall Feelings

Right, pens at the ready.... a jungle with vegetation more like animal than plant - check; daleks using some kind of plague bomb - check; Running through the dalek city - check; having a plant that can infect you and turn you into a plant - check.  All of these tropes and more give a good insight into Terry Nations thought processes for this new Dalek Story.  Having failed to make a big impact in the states, he came crawling back and struck a deal for the Doctor Who team to give him first refusal on all Dalek stories.  So, when he did Planet of the Daleks, he didn't even take up where he left off, he went back to the beginning and gave us a greatest hits compilation - in colour.

But, just because there's nothing new here, don't let it immediately put you off, especially if you've not bothered to watch any of the Hartnell stories.  Planet of the Daleks is rich in colour, from yellow gunk spewing flowers, to bright purple animal pelts.  They haven't quite got the jungle right, it always looks like plants in a studio, but it's not awful, and this step was necessary before they realised it looked much better when shot on 16mm film.

The Daleks themselves are still the bond villains that Nation wants them to be, never quite reaching the level of ruthlessness that we saw in the Masterplan, but again, as far as Daleks go, they're adequate, with the exception of the Supreme Dalek, who can't seem to keep his lights and his voice in union.

The way the Doctor is used is this stories main flaw.  Not having watched an episode since 1964, Nation wrote Jon Pertwee's scenes like he was Bill Hartnell.  He has very little action other than to ride up a lift shaft on a piece of plastic.  Taron gets the action scenes and whilst good at them, it comes at a price of seeing the Doctor more inert than he has been for quite a while (okay, except when he was locked in various prisons for most of the last story).  Even Jo plays second fiddle to Latep and Rebec.

In summary, I'd recommend this story to you if you've only watched the later Dalek stories, or if you're feeling nostalgic for a bit of classic Dalek action,  Otherwise, see the originals in order, or skip ahead to 1975.

Rating

7 out of 10

Although it's effectively a remake of what's gone before, Planet of the Daleks will always be significant to me.  I still enjoy it to this day, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to get to grips with some classic Doctor Who

Rewatchability Factor

9 out of 10

Watch this if you liked,,,

• The Daleks

• The Chase

• The Edge of Destruction

• The Daleks Master Plan

• Planet of Evil

• The Face of Evil

Consulting the Matrix

Who is the better leader?  Taron or Vaber?