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The Doctor pilots the TARDIS back to the ruins, where Lomand has just informed Turlough that political prisoners are no longer persecuted on Trion. Turlough agonises over his decision for a moment, but knows that he really has no choice; he has to go home someday, and it's better to go now while he's a minor hero. He bids the Doctor goodbye and asks Peri to take care of him. As Turlough departs for the Trion ship, the Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS, where Peri asks if she can accompany the Doctor on his travels... and the Doctor welcomes her aboard.  
{{Infobox ClassicTV |
story name= Planet of Fire |
image=[[Image:Planet of Fire.jpg|250px]] |
series=[[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[TV stories|TV Stories]] |
number= [[Season 21]]|
story number=135|
doctor=[[Fifth Doctor]] |
companions= <ul><li>[[Turlough]] (departure)</li><li>[[Kamelion]] (death)</li><li>[[Perpugilliam Brown | Peri]] (introduction; joins)</li></ul>|
enemy= [[The Master]] |
year= <ul><li>[[Lanzarote]]; circa [[1984]]</li><li>[[Sarn]]; circa [[1984]]</li></ul>|
writer= [[Peter Grimwade]] |
director= [[Fiona Cumming]] |
producer= [[John Nathan-Turner]] |
broadcast date= [[23rd February]] - [[2nd March]] [[1984]] |
format= 4 25-minute Episodes |
production code= [[List of production codes|6Q]] |
previous story= [[Resurrection of the Daleks]] |
next story= [[The Caves of Androzani]] }}
 
==Synopsis==
On holiday in Lanzarote, a young American girl named Peri narrowly escapes drowning when she is rescued from the sea by Turlough and taken into the TARDIS to recover. The Doctor is on the island because the TARDIS has detected a mysterious signal being transmitted from an unknown artifact retrieved from the sea bed by Peri's stepfather, Howard Foster.
 
The Master reasserts his control over Kamelion and gets it to bring the TARDIS, along with the Doctor, Turlough and Peri, to the planet Sarn, where he is hoping to use that world's supply of revitalising numismaton gas to restore his body - accidentally shrunken in an experiment with his tissue compression eliminator weapon - to its correct size.
 
It transpires that amongst the Sarn natives, who worship a fire god named Logar, are political prisoners from Trion - Turlough's home world. Turlough too is revealed to be a political refugee. He meets his brother and later, when a spaceship arrives from his home world, discovers that Trion has granted an amnesty to all political prisoners.
 
The Master is apparently killed when a stream of numismaton gas in which he is bathing turns to a normal hot flame. The Doctor destroys Kamelion at the robot's own bidding as it has become completely unstable. Turlough leaves to return to Trion, while Peri goes with the Doctor.
 
==Plot==
 
=== Part One ===
On the desert world of Sarn, robed natives worship the fire god Logar and follow the Chief Elder, Timanov, who demands obedience. Those who dissent are known as Unbelievers, and two of them, Amyand and Roskal, cause unrest when they claim to have ventured to the top of the sacred fire mountain but not found Logar. One of the Sarns, Malkon, is known as the Chosen One because of the unusual double triangle symbol burnt into his skin: he is also unusual for having been found as a baby on the slopes of the fire mountain.
 
The same triangle symbol is found on a metal artefact uncovered in an archaeological dig in [[Lanzarote]] overseen by Professor Howard Foster. His stepdaughter Perpugilliam (usually called "Peri") Brown is bored with the dig and wants to go travelling in Morocco and when he seeks to prevent this she steals the strange artefact and tries to swim for freedom. Fortunately for her the [[TARDIS]] has landed nearby – responding to a distress call sent by the strange artefact - and Turlough sees her drowning and rescues her. Going through her possessions as she recovers he finds the artefact and acknowledges the same triangle symbol is burnt into his own flesh. The TARDIS arrives on the planet Sarn and the Doctor and Turlough venture outside, leaving Peri in the control room with, apparently, her stepfather Howard Foster. The latter is really a disguised Kamelion, however, and after closing the TARDIS doors he transforms into an image of the Master. Peri asks who he is, and he replies: "I am the Master, and you will obey me!"
 
=== Part Two ===
[[Fifth Doctor|The Doctor]] returns to the TARDIS after attempting to triangulate the source of the signal being emitted by the artefact, and the ship dematerialises, seemingly on its own. It soon arrives on Sarn and the Doctor and Turlough set off to explore.
 
The Doctor's other companion, the android Kamelion, has meanwhile made mental contact with its old controller, [[the Master (Tremas)|the Master]], who attempts to assert his control and change Kamelion's appearance from that of Howard. Kamelion tries to warn Peri of the Master but the [[Time Lord]] succeeds in gaining control. She flees the TARDIS with the creature in pursuit as the rumblings of the volcanoes of Sarn gather ferocity.
 
In the Sarn colony Timanov has damned the Unbelievers to be sacrificed to appease Logar and stop the tremors. They flee to a secret base in the mountains which is filled with seismological apparatus and which the Doctor and Turlough stumble across. The Doctor informs the Unbelievers that the tunnels, which have been their refuge are volcanic vents which will soon fill with molten lava. It is also established that Turlough is of the same race as those who colonised the planet, and when the indigenous people see his Misos Triangle, they greet him as a second Chosen One. Turlough realises Malkon may be his brother and becomes even more worried when Peri turns up and mentions the Master. The Kamelion-Master exhorts the people of Sarn to sacrifice the 'unbelievers' amongst them by throwing them into the flames of a furnace. The Doctor, who is one of those to be sacrificed, is seemingly powerless to prevent this...
 
=== Part Three ===
Another important figure in Sarn mythology is the Outsider, a promised prophet, and the Master/Kamelion fulfils this role admirably. He convinces Timanov of the appropriateness of harsh action and when the Doctor arrives with the Unbelievers they are all seized for burning. However, Malkon and Peri arrive shortly afterward and end this assault, though not before Malkon has been injured. Turlough is aghast when he finds his relative has been shot and the Doctor presses him for as much information as he has on the strange circumstances of Sarn. It seems it is a long abandoned Trion colony planet, and that Turlough, a Trion, suspects some of his family were sent here after a revolution against the hereditary leading clans of his homeworld. He supposes his father died in a crash but that Malkon survived, while he himself was sent in exile to Brendan School In England, overseen by a Trion agent masquerading as a solicitor in Chancery Lane.
 
The Master/Kamelion has meanwhile seized Peri and uses her to transport a black box into the control room of his TARDIS. It contains a miniature Master – the real thing – who has been shrunken and transformed by a disastrous experiment with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. Peri takes refuge in the Master's TARDIS. She sees a box on the floor and, lifting the lid, is shocked to find inside it the miniaturised form of the Master. He tells her:&nbsp;" You escaped from my slave, but you will obey me - or die! "
 
=== Part Four ===
The Master thus re-established the psychic link with Kamelion to gain the power of movement and has manoeuvred the robot to Sarn so that he can take advantage of the restorative powers of the Numismaton gas within the fire mountain.
 
Turlough realises the imminent volcano bursts will destroy the Sarn colony so nobly uses a functioning communication unit to get in touch with Trion and plead for a rescue ship to evacuate Sarn. In doing so he abandons his own freedom. When the ship later arrives, the Sarns all depart, along with Turlough and Malkon. They have both been pardoned in an amnesty issued by the new Sarn government. The only one to remain on the planet and face the erupting volcanoes is Timanov, now sure to die, his faith in tatters.
 
The Doctor meanwhile succeeds in weakening the Master's hold of Kamelion, and interrupts the numismaton experiment. He adds calorific gas to the numismaton surge and seemingly burns the Master alive. The Doctor also puts the terminally wounded Kamelion out of its misery. He returns to the TARDIS with a heavy heart, but with a new companion, Peri, for company.
 
==Cast==
==Cast==
*[[Fifth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Peter Davison]]
*[[Fifth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Peter Davison]]
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===Production errors===
===Production errors===
{{discontinuity}}
{{discontinuity}}
*The studio and [[location filming|location]] shots of Turlough rescuing Peri don't quite match up. She's still wet from her near-drowning when Turlough gets her to the exterior of the TARDIS doors, but is dry when they cut to the interior, studio shot.
*The studio and [[location filming|location]] shots of Turlough rescuing Peri don't quite match up. She's still wet from her near-drowning when Turlough gets her to the exterior of the TARDIS doors, but is dry when they cut to the interior, studio shot.


==Continuity==
==Continuity==

Revision as of 15:57, 21 May 2010

The Doctor pilots the TARDIS back to the ruins, where Lomand has just informed Turlough that political prisoners are no longer persecuted on Trion. Turlough agonises over his decision for a moment, but knows that he really has no choice; he has to go home someday, and it's better to go now while he's a minor hero. He bids the Doctor goodbye and asks Peri to take care of him. As Turlough departs for the Trion ship, the Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS, where Peri asks if she can accompany the Doctor on his travels... and the Doctor welcomes her aboard.

Cast

Crew

References

  • Peri (Perpugilliam) Brown is a young American student, holidaying with her mother and archaeologist step father, Professor Howard Foster, on Lanzarote.
  • Peri's summer studying includes an ecology project. She has exams coming up, and her return flight is to New York.
  • According to Peri's passport she is from Pasadena, California and her birthdate is 15th November.
  • Vislor Turlough's rank is Junior Ensign Commander, he is from Trion, and he was on the losing side in the planet's civil war.
  • Turlough's father and brother Malkon were exiled to Sarn, where the Trions sent occasional prisoners. Such prisoners were branded with the Misos Triangle, and the indigenous population heralded them as leaders chosen by Logar, their fire god. Turlough's father died when the spacecraft crashed. The volcanic forces of Sarn were for a while kept in check by Trion scientists.
  • The volcanic activity on Sarn which will soon destroy the planet also produces numismaton gas, "an immensely rare catalytic reagent" with great healing properties.
  • The Master controls Kamelion forcing him to control the TARDIS.
  • The Master accidentally shrunk himself while adjusting his Tissue Compression Eliminator.
  • Peri compares the statue of Eros to Elton John.
  • The Master removes the temporal stabiliser from the Doctor's TARDIS, rendering it inoperable, Kamelion also removes the comparator, another vital circuit.

Story Notes

  • This story had the working title of: The Planet of Fear
  • Kamelion appears for the first time since The King's Demons the previous season; complications involving the robot model prevented him from appearing in other episodes, although a scene was filmed for The Awakening but cut before transmission. Kamelion "death" makes him the fourth known companion to die while travelling with the Doctor, following Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and Adric.
  • It was during production of this serial that Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant participated in their infamous "James Bond" photo shoot, in which Davison donned a tuxedo and prop gun and Bryant a bikini.
  • The H. Rider Haggard novel, She, whose title character renews herself periodically by bathing in a magic flame.
  • This is the only Fifth Doctor serial in which Janet Fielding does not appear.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 7.4 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 6.1 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 7.4 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 7.0 million viewers

Myths

  • The Master's ambiguous statement ("Would you show (no) mercy to one of your own...?") prior to his "demise" has led to ongoing speculation as to whether the Master might be the Doctor's brother or another relative. (The more likely explanation is he referring to their shared biology as Gallifreyans or status as Time Lords.)

Filming Locations

  • Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. This was the first Doctor Who story to include filming away from the European continent. To date only three other stories have included filming outside of Europe: Doctor Who (filmed entirely in Canada) and Daleks in Manhattan (which included second-unit photography done in New York City), and Planet of the Dead, which was partially filmed in Dubai. At the time this serial was made, the producers were planning to film part of The Two Doctors in the United States, but the location was later changed to Spain.
  • Papagayo Beach, Lanzarote
  • Orzola Jetty, Orzola, Lanzarote
  • Mirador del Rio, Lanzarote
  • Montañas del Fuego, Timanfaya National Park, Lanzarote
  • BBC Television Centre (TC6 & TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The studio and location shots of Turlough rescuing Peri don't quite match up. She's still wet from her near-drowning when Turlough gets her to the exterior of the TARDIS doors, but is dry when they cut to the interior, studio shot.

Continuity

Timeline

DVD and Video Releases

  • Released on video in UK and Australia / NZ in 1998 and the US in 1999.
  • It has been annonuced that this story and The King's Demons will be released in a Kamelion boxset in early 2010 and on a second disc will be a special re-edit, widescreen and new special effects simillar to Enlightenment. Due for release 14 June 2010


Novelisation

Planet of Fire novel.jpg
Main article: Planet of Fire (novelisation)

External Links

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According to one account, the Master had the appearance of Roger Delgado while on Gallifrey. According to another, he had Anthony Ainley's likeness. According to another one, the one with James Dreyfus's appearance was the incarnation who ran away from Gallifrey.

Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords and The Legions of Death feature, or otherwise acknowledge, the War Chief, but in the process contradicted the notion put forward by other stories that he was an incarnation of the Master.

One account suggests that the incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado may be the same as the one portrayed by Peter Pratt while some others distinguish them.

According to one account, the incarnation portrayed by Gordon Tipple is the one portrayed by Anthony Ainley, while some others state that the Ainley one was already lost by then.

While fighting to extend his life at the end of his regeneration cycle, many bodies were possessed by the Beevers incarnation, but all kept somehow reverting to his real being until he finally regenerated into the MacQueen one. Hence, these sections cannot be strictly chronological
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