Planet of Fire (TV story)

Planet of Fire
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fifth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Turlough (departure) Kamelion (death) Peri (introduction; joins)
Main enemy:	The Master
Main setting:	Lanzarote; circa 1984 Sarn; circa 1984
Key crew
Writer:	Peter Grimwade
Director:	Fiona Cumming
Producer:	John Nathan-Turner
Release details
Story number:	135
Release number:	Season 21
Premiere broadcast:	23rd February - 2nd March 1984
Format:	4 25-minute Episodes
Production code:	6Q

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

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Turlough - Mark Strickson
• Peri - Nicola Bryant
• Timanov - Peter Wyngarde
• The Master - Anthony Ainley
• Sorasta - Barbara Shelley
• Amyand - James Bate
• Professor Howard Foster - Dallas Adams
• Voice of Kamelion - Gerald Flood
• Malkon - Edward Highmore
• Roskal - Jonathon Caplan
• Curt - Michael Bangerter
• Lookout - Simon Sutton
• Zuko - Max Arthur
• Lomand - John Alkin

Crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Robert Evans
• Costumes - John Peacock
• Designer - Malcolm Thornton
• Film Cameraman - John Walker
• Film Editor - Alastair Mitchell
• Incidental Music - Peter Howell
• Make-Up - Elizabeth Rowell
• Producer - John Nathan-Turner
• Production Assistant - Claire Hughes Smith
• Production Associate - June Collins
• Script Editor - Eric Saward
• Special Sounds - Dick Mills
• Studio Lighting - John Summers
• Studio Sound - Scott Talbott
• Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
• Title Music - Ron Grainer
• Visual Effects - Chris Lawson

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 - his rank is Junior Ensign Commander he is from Trion, and 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: The TV Movie (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

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• Peri is dry by the time Turlough brings her into the TARDIS.
• The Doctor asks Amyand and Sorasta about Logar, despite having never heard the name before. This is incorrect. Logar is mentioned, albeit briefly, in the section of the scene directly proceeding the Doctor asking about him.
• Peri can override the Master's control of Kamelion, but the Doctor can't. The Master's mental powers have been greatly diminished as a result of his accident. It is also suggested that the numismaton residue shields Kamelion from the Doctor's brainwaves.
• Why is there a hollow turtle shell on the wall of the Master's miniaturised control room?
• Where did the Master get the miniaturised equipment for his control room.
• If the Master's gun is a Tissue Compression Eliminator, why does it compress Kamelion and the radiation suits? This was the very advancement the Master was trying to achieve when he had his accident - i.e. a TCE that works on inanimate matter as well. (Peri seems to be able to out-run its blast in episode three. The TCE was only ever meant as a short-range weapon.)
• Why doesn't the TCE kill the Master, as it does his victims? Because what happened was the result with him experimenting with the power of the TCE, not merely shooting himself with it.

Continuity

• Kamelion first appeared in DW: The King's Demons.
• Turlough first appeared in DW: Mawdryn Undead.
• The Doctor and Peri re-meet the Master following his burning in ST: A Town Called Eternity.
• The Master returns on-screen in DW: The Mark of the Rani.
• In TN: Shell Shock it's strongly implied that Howard sexually abused Peri when she was younger; this supports dialogue spoken by Peri (while half asleep) imploring Howard not to turn off the lights.
• With the departure of Turlough, the next occasion in which the Doctor would be seen travelling with a male companion on screen would not be until the brief tenure of Adam Mitchell beginning in the 2005's DW: Dalek, followed by the arrival of Jack Harkness in the later DW: The Empty Child for a more substantial tenure in the TARDIS. However, several male companions were featured in various novels and audio dramas between 1984 and 2005, although these adventures are of uncertain canonicity.

Timeline

• This story occurs after ST: Comforts of Home
• This story occurs before ST: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

DVD and Video Releases

• Released on video in UK and Australia / NZ in 1998 and the US in 1999.

Novelisation

Main article: Planet of Fire (novelisation)

• Novelised as Planet of Fire by Peter Grimwade in 1985.

External Links

• Official BBC Episode Guide for Planet of Fire
• Doctor Who Reference Guide: Detailed Synopsis - Planet of Fire
• A Brief History of Time (Travel): Planet of Fire
• The Locations Guide to Doctor Who - Planet of Fire