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Planet of the Daleks (TV story)

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Planet of the Daleks was the fourth and penultimate serial of season 10 of Doctor Who. It was the conclusion of a loose, dual-serial storyline begun in Frontier in Space. It was also a direct sequel to the very first Dalek serial, showing what had happened to the Thals after the First Doctor met them in The Daleks and the heroic legacy the Doctor left on their culture. With its connection to Frontier, Planet also helped set the stage for later stories about the Second Dalek War, although the conflict was never thereafter revisited by the TV series.

You may be looking for the comic story.

Behind the scenes, it was writer Terry Nation's first Doctor Who commission since the 1965 Christmas episode, "The Feast of Steven", during the run of The Daleks' Master Plan, and director David Maloney's first story since The War Games.

On 15 June 2019, BFI Southbank arranged a special event-screening of the episode with updated visual effects and a new 5.1 sound mix, along with a Q&A interview with Katy Manning.[1] In 2020, Planet of the Daleks became part of the Time Lord Victorious multimedia event. James Goss explained this was because it was used as a prelude for The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy.[2]

Synopsis

Arriving on Spiridon, the Third Doctor and Jo encounter a Thal group. But the Daleks are here... and this time, they're invisible.

Plot

Episode one

The Third Doctor has been shot and gravely wounded by the Master. Jo helps him into the TARDIS, where he uses the telepathic circuits to send a message to the Time Lords before he collapses.

Delirious, he tells Jo that he may be asleep for a while. He falls into a coma, his body temperature dipping so low that frost appears on his skin and both his hearts beat only once every ten seconds.

Jo dictates into the TARDIS log, a portable recording device, that she has seen this healing state before. She states that the TARDIS is moving, apparently being controlled remotely by the Time Lords. When it halts, Jo activates the external scanners, only to see plants outside. They block the viewer by spraying a thick, sap-like liquid at it. With the Doctor catatonic, Jo leaves the ship to explore the surrounding jungle. The plants spray sap on her as she walks by. Some of it gets on her exposed hand.

As Jo explores, the TARDIS is rapidly covered by plant sap, hardening into a shell around it. When the Doctor awakens, he finds himself sealed in. The oxygen in the TARDIS cabin is rapidly being used up. He activates the emergency oxygen supply and finds the tanks almost empty. He starts to suffocate. Jo, in the meantime, discovers a spacecraft in the jungle with a dead pilot. She is found by two others in the same uniform — Taron, who appears to be the leader, and Vaber, who has a surly disposition. Taron is intrigued when Jo tells him about the TARDIS. They are joined by another crewmember, Codal, who warns them a patrol is approaching. Taron tells Jo to hide in the spacecraft while he and the others find her friend. Jo hides in a storage cupboard while an invisible entity enters and searches the craft. She avoids discovery, but a fungoid growth has appeared on her hand and is starting to spread.

Taron and his men find the TARDIS and chip the hardened sap from its doors, dragging the nearly asphyxiated Doctor outside. The Doctor thanks them and notes he finds them familiar. When the men say they are from the planet Skaro, the Doctor recognises them as Thals and tells them he was on Skaro many years ago. The Thals are sceptical when he claims to be the famous Doctor of Thal legend, but he gives them enough details to mollify them. Taron tells the Doctor that he has been infected by a fungus carried by the sap and treats him with a spray. It would have engulfed and killed him had Taron not done so.

They are on Spiridon, a planet where the plant life is more animal than vegetable. There are creatures hostile to everyone, including themselves, and extremes of day and night temperature. These Thals are the only survivors of a military expedition. Taron orders a halt to their progress through the jungle when they hear something in the process of breaking down. Nothing is seen except a circular depression in the ground. Giving the Doctor another spray can, Taron tells him that he will see what they are up against. The Doctor sprays the seemingly empty air before him. It reveals the outline of a Dalek...

Episode two

 
Wester cures Jo.

The Dalek is inactive, dead from what the Thals call "light wave sickness". The Spiridons, the dominant species on the planet, can generate an "anti-reflecting light wave", which the Daleks are trying to duplicate. However, it takes a tremendous amount of power and cannot be long sustained. The Spiridons have been subjugated and enslaved by the Daleks, but there are no more than twelve Daleks on the planet. Back in the spaceship, Jo has passed out as the fungus spreads across her forearm. An invisible Spiridon enters the spacecraft and takes her away.

A Spiridon patrol comes across the Thals and the Doctor. Codal leads them away from the others but is captured. When they make it back to the craft, they find the TARDIS log on the ground and two Daleks about to destroy the ship. Believing Jo still inside, the Doctor steps forward and begs the Daleks to stop, but the patrol shoots him with a stun ray. He watches helplessly as the spacecraft is blasted to pieces. Taron and Vaber remain hidden and go off to retrieve the supplies for their mission on Spiridon.

 
The Doctor and Codal discuss what bravery means.

The Doctor is taken to the Dalek base for interrogation and put in the same cell as Codal, whom he tries to cheer up. The Doctor tries to open the cell door with his sonic screwdriver, but to no avail. Codal and he decide to modify the components of the TARDIS log to emit a radio frequency to jam Dalek control impulses. Meanwhile, Jo is being cared for by the Spiridon who found her. His name is Wester and he is one of a group of his people who are trying to fight back against the Daleks. He cures her of her fungal infection with a salve and tells Jo that the Doctor and Codal have been captured and taken to the Dalek base. Jo is determined to free them, even though Wester says that if the Daleks use them for their experiments, they are better off dead.

Vaber and Taron find the explosives that they hid earlier. Vaber wants to attack the Daleks now. He accuses Taron of being overcautious and cowardly when Taron refuses. Vaber draws his gun and threatens to shoot Taron if he does not hand over the explosives, but before things can get out of hand the heat and roar of another spacecraft rush over their heads. It is another Thal vessel, but the entry angle is too steep, and their weapons are lost in the crash that follows. Only three Thals have survived the crash — two men, Latep and Marat, and a woman, Rebec. Taron is unhappy to see Rebec. She happens to be his lover. Rebec tells him that they intercepted a message to Dalek Supreme Command saying that the Dalek army on Spiridon was now complete: a force of not a dozen, but ten thousand Daleks.

Episode three

 
Jo smuggles herself into the Dalek base.

Jo and Wester see fur-wearing Spiridons entering the Dalek base, carrying crates of vegetation. The Daleks are experimenting with a plant-destroying bacterium. Jo hides in one of the crates and smuggles herself into the base. Taron shows Rebec another feature of Spiridon — a liquid allotrope of ice that exists in the core of the planet and erupts to the surface like lava. The Daleks use it as a cooling system, with ice tunnels that lead into the base. Taron plans to use them to infiltrate and cause a distraction while Vaber and Latep wait by the entrance with the explosives. A Dalek is sent to interrogate the Doctor and Codal, who use the improvised jamming device on it successfully, but the device is destroyed in the process. Making their way through the corridors, they find the three Thals, who are struggling to get out of the tunnels before a molten ice eruption floods them. Jamming the shaft doors open and getting them out, all run as a Dalek patrol enters the corridor and is covered by the molten ice rushing out of the cooling tunnel.

The rest stumble into a chamber while Marat, weakened from the cold, holds back to cover their retreat. He is exterminated by the Daleks, who find a map on him showing where the explosives are hidden. The Doctor seals the doors with his sonic screwdriver. The Dalek Section Leader sends a patrol to find and destroy the explosives, while others are sent for cutting equipment. Jo overhears the orders and follows the Dalek patrol out of the city. Trapped in the chamber, the Thals and the Doctor find a huge refrigeration unit pumping excess heat up through a ventilation shaft that leads to the surface. The Doctor also discovers the Dalek army stored in an adjoining chamber, sleeping in suspended animation. The four improvise a hot-air balloon from plastic sheeting but there doesn't seem to be enough lift to carry all of them, and the Daleks have nearly cut through the door...

Episode four

 
A Dalek pursuer plummets to its death.

There is finally enough lift for the improvised hot air balloon to carry the Doctor and the Thals up the shaft. They rise up out of the room just as the Daleks break through the door. A gravitational disk is sent for so that a Dalek can follow them up the shaft, while another patrol is sent to the shaft's exit on the surface. The Dalek patrol sent for the explosives activates the timed detonators and leaves. Jo sneaks up to try to deactivate the timers but only manages two before being knocked out by a stone from the crumbling cliff-face the explosives were hidden against. She awakens barely in time to grab the deactivated bombs and take cover before the third goes off, conveniently destroying the Dalek patrol sent to intercept the Thals.

Meanwhile, the Thals and the Doctor reach the top of the shaft and drop a rock on the pursuing Dalek, sending it plummeting to the bottom which destroys it. Making their way away from the shaft, they meet Jo, whom the Doctor is overjoyed to see again; he thought her killed when the Thal ship was destroyed. The Doctor explains that his telepathic signal was to tell the Time Lords the location of this planet — he had learned that there was a Dalek invasion force here while on the planet of the Ogrons. The Time Lords steered the TARDIS here. Latep and Vaber also rejoin the group. They had thought the others were killed in the ice eruption and were about to assault the city when they found one of their bombs was a dud and the others destroyed by the Daleks. Jo shows them the two bombs she rescued.

The group decide to hide in the Plain of Stones, an area of Spiridon with rocks that absorb heat from the sun by day and discharge it at night. They avoid a combined Dalek/Spiridon patrol as night falls and the temperature drops. The Doctor notices the Daleks seem to be moving slower than usual. In the Dalek base, one reports to the Section Leader that the bacteria will destroy all plant life within a day and unimmunised life forms within an hour. It will be ready in half a Spiridon day. At the Plain of Stones, Vaber and Taron come to blows again about when to take action. During the night, Vaber steals the two bombs and sneaks away from the camp. Taron and Codal go in pursuit as the others huddle around the campfire, surrounded by animals with eyes glowing in the darkness. The Doctor uses fire to scare the creatures away. Vaber is caught by the Spiridons, and the leader tells them to take him to the Daleks...

Episode five

 
The Daleks admire their bioweapon.

Taron and Codal disguise themselves as Sprirdons and get into the group. They arrive and meet with a Dalek. The Dalek tries to force Vaber to lead them to the Thals. Vaber pretends to cooperate, but he breaks away and is exterminated. Taron and Codal use this distraction to grab the two bombs and vanish into the forest.

The Daleks have developed an immunisation process against the bacteria. Orders are sent out for all Daleks and Spiridon slaves to return to the base for immunisation before the bacteria is released. On the Plain of Stones, Wester shows up to tell Jo that the Daleks have developed the deadly bacteria, and he is going to try to enter the base and stop its release. The Doctor devises a plan using nearby pools of molten ice. Deducing that the ice slows and even stops the Daleks from functioning, the group lure a Dalek patrol to them and push the two Daleks into the pools. The sudden drop in temperature kills them. Taron, Codal and the Doctor dress in Spiridon furs while Rebec sits in the emptied Dalek casing so they can enter the base undetected with one of the bombs. Latep and Jo will enter the city via the ventilation shaft with the other bomb, in a two-pronged attack.

As the first group enters the city, they see Wester entering the bacteria preparation chamber under the pretence of delivering a report. Wester releases the bacteria into the sealed room, sacrificing himself, but ensuring that the room cannot be unsealed without killing the other Daleks. The group try to move deeper into the base, but one of the Thals' boots is spotted by a Dalek, who sounds the alert.

Episode six

 
The Daleks are hit by a wave of ice.

The group flees down the corridors, making their way back to the cooling chamber. Once there, the Doctor asks Rebec and Taron to barricade the entrance while he finds a way to keep the Dalek army from reviving. Codal and he decide to set an explosive in the wall of the chamber holding the Dalek army, which are slowly coming to life. In the meantime, the Dalek Supreme, a member of the Dalek High Council, has arrived in a spaceship to oversee the final stages of the operation. It exterminates the Section Leader for incompetence. Jo and Latep finally arrive at the cooling chamber and use their bomb to destroy a squad of Daleks before joining the others. As another patrol comes through, the bomb set in the chamber wall explodes. Molten ice rushes out to flood the chamber, freezing the Dalek army for centuries to come. The group escapes over a ramp that leads to the surface, while the rest of the Daleks abandon the base, which is filling with molten ice.

The group makes its way to the Dalek Supreme's spacecraft. The Doctor asks Taron not to glorify what has happened, nor make war sound like an adventure. The Thals were a peaceful people, and he would hate to see them change. Taron and Rebec promise, and the Thals enter the spacecraft and leave for Skaro. The Doctor and Jo run back to the TARDIS, pursued by the Dalek Supreme and the other Daleks. They dematerialise just as the Daleks open fire. The Dalek Supreme orders operations to recover the invasion force and contact the Dalek High Council for a rescue ship. The Daleks have been delayed, but will never be defeated...

Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor switches through images of the galaxies on the scanner screen to find Skaro. He shows it to Jo, who says she doesn't really regret turning down Latep's earlier invitation to go back to Skaro with him. The Doctor tells Jo there are many hundreds of other worlds to see, but she puts an image of Earth on the screen, saying that's the only world she wants to see right now. The Doctor understands — Jo wants to go home. He sets the controls for Earth...

Cast

Uncredited cast

Crew

Uncredited crew

References

Daleks

  • Most Daleks emit an automatic distress call if their casings are tampered with.
  • There exists a Dalek Supreme Council composed of Supreme Daleks.
  • The Daleks are vulnerable to subzero temperatures. If they're shocked by cold they die instantly.
  • The Doctor observes that a Dalek's sensor plates are not functioning.

TARDIS

Thals

  • The Thals know of Earth but believe it to be a myth.
  • The Doctor is a mythical figure in Thal legends.

Story notes

  • At one point in development, this story had a working title of Destination Daleks. (REF: The Third Doctor Handbook)
  • The story has been recognised as a reworking of the first Dalek story, The Daleks, containing some of the same plot devices, including a group of Daleks in a city encountering the Thals on a ravaged planet; a deadly plague instead of a neutron bomb; someone using a Dalek shell as a disguise; the Doctor imprisoned in a cell and with paralysed legs; and the Daleks imprisoned in their city at the end of the story.
  • Because Terry Nation had not written for the show since 1965, he initially believed individual episode titles were still being used — a practice which had actually been dropped after The Gunfighters. His scripts were thus titled "Destinus" (Nation's original name for Spiridon), "Mission Survival", "Pursued", "Escape or Die", "The Day Before Eternity" and "Victory". (INFO: Planet of the Daleks)
  • Katy Manning is credited as "Jo" in Radio Times for episode four.
  • Tony Starr (Dalek Operator) is uncredited on-screen for episode six, but credited in Radio Times.
  • Commercially available Louis Marx Daleks were used to simulate the Dalek army, a technique previously used in The Evil of the Daleks.
  • Given the requirements of this story, the three remaining Dalek props from the sixties were deemed insufficient and seven wooden extras were built for this story. They looked pretty impressive, but were completely static (which may explain why some of the Daleks in this story do not seem to notice intruders at close range). For the next fifteen years, these were used as large parts bins to hold up the decaying remains of the original props from the sixties (which by this story were ten years old); by Resurrection of the Daleks, the four props used were nearly all wood. It wasn't until Revelation of the Daleks (1985) that new, fully working props were made. Curiously, brand new props were also made for Remembrance of the Daleks.
  • At least one other Dalek prop was also used: one of four Daleks privately owned by Terry Nation was loaned and allowed to be modified for use as the Supreme Dalek. He was given four Dalek props after filming Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., and the Supreme was recycled out of the Gold Dalek from the film. (This can be told because they both have widely spaced rivets on the slats.)
  • In the DVD feature The Perfect Scenario it's stated that the character of Rebec was included at the insistence of Letts and Dicks, who wanted female characters on screen for visual variety and for the female audience members.
  • Originally, episode five was to end with all of the Thal characters massacred by the Daleks. Terrance Dicks, however, asked that Terry Nation not include this plot point, as the series was beginning to be criticised for its violent content.
  • Although not generally recognised, Planet of the Daleks continues the storyline begun in Frontier in Space, essentially making this the second half of a single twelve-episode story arc.
  • A new, almost musical sound effect is introduced for the Dalek energy weapon. This is the only televised adventure in which it is used, although a sample of it would later be used in the special edition of Day of the Daleks. In the next Dalek story, Death to the Daleks, their energy weapons are not used at all. The Daleks story after that, Genesis of the Daleks introduced what remains the standard Dalek weapon sound effect to this day.
  • In The Perfect Scenario, cast members Katy Manning and Bernard Horsfall express the opinion that the jungle fighting was a deliberate nod to the contemporary Vietnam War. In the same feature, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts state they don't believe Terry Nation would have done this deliberately but might have been unconsciously influenced by the war.
  • According to the DVD info text, it was decided at one point that all on-screen actors had to wear makeup, including the Dalek operators, who (it was feared) could conceivably be seen through the mesh of the props. The operators, in protest, one day dressed up their Daleks as women, and Michael Wisher and Roy Skelton, playing along with the joke, provided suitably "camp" voices for the dolled-up Daleks.
  • The original 625 line PAL colour videotape of episode three was either erased for reuse or junked around 1976. A 16mm black & white film telerecording of episode three made for overseas sales still exists, and was restored to colour by use of the chromadot colourisation recovery technique for the DVD box set Dalek War.
  • The Supreme Dalek in this story is the first one in the series proper to feature large headlamps instead of bulbs. Headlamps would become the standard for the revival era Daleks- from the Last Great Time War soldier models onward.
  • During production of this serial, British rock singer David Bowie and his band at the time, The Spiders from Mars, visited the BBC Television Centre and mingled with the cast; a passerby jokingly asked if Bowie and co. would be playing aliens in the programme. Coincidentally, Bowie would later be offered the role of Sharaz Jek in TV: The Caves of Androzani, only to decline due to the production dates conflicting with his Serious Moonlight tour.
  • Allister Bowtell provided the furs worn by the Spiridons. (INFO: Planet of the Daleks)
  • Latep was originally named Petal. This was changed to avoid confusion with Patel from Frontier in Space.
  • Barry Letts makes clear on the DVD commentary that he was really unhappy with the model Dalek army that's seen in this story. He also wasn't too happy with the sets used for the interior of the Dalek city, though conceded that there probably wasn't the money in the budget to do both the city and the jungle justice.
  • Terry Nation had been unsure how many Dalek casings would be available to the production team. As a result, the limited number imposed some changes on the scripts, such as by having only Rebec masquerading as a Dalek in Episodes Five and Six; Nation had envisaged Codal doing likewise, rather than concealing himself within Spiridon furs.
  • Seven new Dalek casings were constructed by Pinewood-based Westbury Design and Optical, run by visual effects designer Clifford Culley. David Maloney was disappointed to discover that these were of generally inferior workmanship, however, having been predominantly made from wood rather than fibreglass. As such, these so-called “goon” Daleks would be kept in the background as much as possible.
  • Terry Nation named Rebec after his daughter Rebecca.

Ratings

  • Episode one - 11.0 million viewers
  • Episode two - 10.7 million viewers
  • Episode three - 10.1 million viewers
  • Episode four - 8.3 million viewers
  • Episode five - 9.7 million viewers
  • Episode six - 8.5 million viewers

Myths

  • The Dalek Supreme was operated in this story by Tony Starr. (Starr could not have operated the Dalek Supreme in the scenes set in the Spiridon jungle, as he was not present when they were recorded. According to the DVD commentary subtitles for Planet of the Daleks, Starr did indeed play the Supreme Dalek in all but the jungle inserts towards the end of the episode, when he was not available.) [3]

Filming locations

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.
  • During episode two, as the Doctor is being escorted to the Dalek command centre for interrogation, the Dalek escorting him (very audibly) runs into the side of a door as they exit the elevator.
  • When the Thals take cover on the plain of stones in episode four a huge, dark shape appears behind the sky.
  • The second Dalek, pursuing Jo and Latep in episode five, knocks into a polystyrene "rock" and moves it out of position.
  • The strings that operate the doors of the Dalek ship are visible
  • The Dalek Supreme's lights are especially out of sync with its dialogue. Its dome also wobbles when it turns too quickly, and its midsection slats appear to be crooked.
  • When one Dalek fails to stop it knocks another backwards.
  • In episode six, when Latep slides a bomb at an advancing Dalek, he slides the bomb on its side. However, in the following shot, the bomb is in an upright position.
  • After Taron knocks out the Spiridon about to attack Codal in episode five, you can spot a BBC camera, the cameraman and one of the Spiridon actors with his fur off standing in the foliage.
  • When the Dalek levitates up the shaft to get the Doctor and the Thals, the harness used to levitate it is visible.
  • When the Doctor and Codal attack the Dalek in the prison cell, the midsection of the Dalek is seen to move off its base.
  • In episode four, Katy Manning very obviously prepares for a blow to the head before a fake boulder falls on top of her.
  • In episode three, during one shot in the Dalek's laboratory, the Dalek on the left has its whole eyestalk painted black, yet in the next shot, it has the Daleks usual white ring.
  • When Jo is trying to evade the Daleks in the control room she quite visibly steps into the eye sight of a Dalek for more than a second but it does not move or take action.
  • Katy Manning's hair is shorter in the studio sessions than it is in location footage. Manning had her hair cut between the two lots of recording. (REF: The Third Doctor Handbook)
  • In episode three, a Dalek holding a map to the Thals' explosives is no longer holding it after passing behind another Dalek. In its next scene, it is holding the map again.

Continuity

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was released on 5 October 2009 with the previous story, Frontier in Space, in a boxed set called Dalek War. It features a re-colourised episode three, commentary and numerous special features.

  • Commentary - by Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Prentis Hancock (Vaber), Tim Preece (Codal), Barry Letts (Producer) and Terrance Dicks (Script Editor)
  • The Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams - Continuing his search for inspiration, Zed resumes his studies of Doctor Who. Including interviews with Jane How (Rebec), Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
  • The Rumble in the Jungle - Cast and crew look back at the making of the story
  • Multi-colourisation - A documentary about the colour restoration of episode three
  • Stripped for Action - The Daleks - The ongoing series looking at the Doctor's comic book adventures focuses on his deadliest foes
  • Blue Peter (two clips) - An appeal to viewers to help find two stolen BBC Daleks (in black and white): news of the Daleks' recovery (in colour)
  • Radio Times Billings
  • Production Information Subtitles
  • Photo Gallery
  • Easter Egg: Alternative take on commentary of episode three in black and white. To access this feature, press right at the "Multi-colourisation" option on disc two.
  • Digitally Remastered Picture And Sound Quality
  • Coming Soon Trailer (Kamelion Tales)

  • Region 1 cover

  • Region 4 cover

  • Region 2 UK cover

Dalek War

  • Region 1 US Dalek War cover

  • Region 2 Dalek War cover

  • Region 4 Australian Dalek War cover

Video releases

  • This story was released in November 1999 as part of the second Dalek Tin set, alongside Revelation of the Daleks in the UK. Episode three was presented in its then sole surviving black and white format.

Audio release

The story was also recorded and released in audio format.

  • Cassette cover

  • CD cover

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle=Load&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Aarticle_id=F2F67FC3-9159-455B-8391-99E719C68C6B&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Acontext_id=47671D02-6BD8-4FE0-814D-E4DB3F65EFD1
  2. ↑ James Goss tweet
  3. ↑ Howe, David J., Walker, Stephan James, The Television Companion, BBC Worldwide Ltd, 1998. pg.245
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