Re-running through corridors: 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,,,