Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks (1973) - Review

With Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 10 set to be released on Blu-ray next month, the BFI screened the newly-remastered edition of 'Planet of the Daleks' on Saturday, complete with restored picture quality, brand-new CGI effects work and 5.1 surround sound mix by Mark Ayres. Starring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant, this serial was part of Doctor Who's anniversary season, and saw the return of Dalek creator Terry Nation to pen all six episodes. This serial also acts as a direct follow-up to 'Frontier in Space', forming what was intended to be a twelve-episode epic, akin to Nation's own 'The Daleks' Master Plan' in 1965.

The story sees Jo Grant helping a wounded Doctor back to the TARDIS. They escape the Ogron Planet, and the TARDIS materialises on Spiridon - a jungle planet home to the invisible Spiridons. As Jo journeys through the jungle to find help, the Doctor encounters the Thals - inhabitants of the planet Skaro, whom he met in an earlier regeneration. The Thals are on a top-secret mission: to destroy the Daleks, and with thousands lurking beneath the surface, it's not going to be easy...

Many of Terry Nation's Doctor Who hallmarks are here: a Dalek city, the companion suffering from a disease, a hostile planet out to kill everything, the Thals attempting to destroy the Daleks, the Daleks trying to annihilate the Thals with a biological weapon, a main character hiding in a Dalek casing... 'Planet of the Daleks' feels very much like a typical Dalek story, which is fitting given that this was an anniversary season. As far as original Doctor Who premises go though, this is not one of them, and the serial oftentimes suffers from its feeling of familiarity and predictability.

Despite a great jungle set, the serial feels quite claustrophobic, making the location footage all the more obvious for its rarity. The great design work doesn't carry over into the rather generic Dalek city, and their very dull, very grey spacecraft. The simple but iconic designs seen in 'The Daleks' worked much better, but alas 'Planet of the Daleks' is a bit too simple. The Dalek props themselves appear tired and beaten, and when they move, they appear incredibly fragile - more so than in a lot of other serials. They're not as shiny as they appear in 'Death to the Daleks' in the following season, and the props look so old and battered that they really do lose their threatening presence. It doesn't help that director David Maloney shoots an extended sequence of Daleks marching the Doctor through their city, which thanks to the natural clumsiness of the props, is more likely to provoke chuckles than edge-of-your-seat tension. It's also frequently difficult to tell the Daleks apart when speaking to one another - the voices are too similar, the lights don't always flash on cue and the camera angles are too limited to make it entirely clear. When the Supreme Dalek finally appears in Episode Six, he doesn't fare much better.

There are also a great many plot-points that don't seem to go very far in the serial. Episode One ends with the reveal that the Daleks can now turn invisible, but not once do the Daleks use this ability to pursue and exterminate the Thals. In fact, only one Dalek turns invisible in the whole story, and it doesn't even move. It's also baffling that the Thals are so intent on keeping their mission top-secret when it's simply to blow-up the Daleks. Surely even the Daleks know that? The Doctor's injuries also seem to heal very quickly over the course of Episode One, and barely impact the story beyond that.

'Planet of the Daleks' isn't without its merits though, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a lot of fun watching the serial for the first time. Jon Pertwee is as dashing and heroic as always, but gets some wonderful lines of dialogue highlighting his character. "Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened you know [...] it's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway" is a brilliant line, as is his speech about glorifying war at the end of Episode Six. Pertwee's costumes always impress as well. Jo Grant gets quite a bit to do in this serial too, although her potential romance with one of the Thals is a recurring element that consistently provoked awkward chuckles from the BFI's audience. Jo is very proactive here, and it's lovely to see her so determined to save the Doctor - despite the reputation of the show, I don't think she screams once. That being said, 'Planet of the Daleks' isn't without it's somewhat questionable gender politics. Not only have the Thals sent just one woman in two expeditionary forces, but her commanding officer Taron remarks that because of her being on Spiridon, the Daleks will probably win! And then precedes to casually remark that he's in love with her, which she takes in her stride. The Thal cast are all very good, but these moments do date the serial quite a bit.

'Planet of the Daleks' might tick a few too many boxes in the Doctor Who cliché list, but it is a very fun and enjoyable adventure despite it's problems. I can definitely see what the production team were attempting to do, but alas the serial isn't hugely memorable - lacking the peril of 'Day of the Daleks' a year earlier and the unique stakes of 'Death to the Daleks' a year later. It's by no means bad, and I'll happily revisit this serial when I make my way through Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 10 next month, but it is definitely flawed. The new effects work from Rob Ritchie and the team are all very good as well, and some of them blend extremely well. 6/10

The screening was also followed by a Q&A with the lovely Katy Manning (Jo Grant), who had the entire audience laughing and smiling along to her various anecdotes. It was a wonderful screening, and despite lasting about four hours, I was never bored - even if I was very happy to stand up afterwards.

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