June 23: Planet of the Daleks Episodes Three & Four

A little while back, you might recall, I mentioned that all of Doctor Who from The Three Doctors on exists on PAL videotape (its original format) with two exceptions.  Planet of the Daleks episode three is the first of those two exceptions.  Technically this episode only exists on 16mm black & white film, but thanks to some color recovery (the first Doctor Who episode to be treated in this fashion) and some computer colorization (commissioned before the color recovery process was finalized), this episode has been restored to color.  And even though this episode has also had the benefit of computer colorization, to be honest the results aren't noticeably different from the episodes that are simply color recovered, without any additional computer work.

Sadly, that might be the most exciting thing about episode three.  Most everything else feels like a remake of The Daleks.  So we have the Doctor and Codal conspiring to escape their prison cell by overpowering a Dalek (using a rewired TARDIS log instead of mud and a cloak, but the result is the same); Taron, Rebec, and Marat crawling through caves to breach the Dalek base via the cooling ducts (instead of the plumbing, but near enough); shenanigans with our heroes and a lift; and the Daleks trying to cut their way into a room that's been sealed by the Doctor (a sequence which looked rather more impressive in 1964).

Jo is plainly in that Dalek's line of sight.  How did no
one catch this? (Planet of the Daleks Episode Three) ©BBC

Still, it's not exactly the same: the Thals are clambering through caves filled with an allotrope of ice that remains a liquid (which is water, fine, but the impression given is that this is a type of water that remains a liquid below the standard freezing point), and the core of the planet, it seems, consists of this "molten ice".  Then there's also the matter of Jo sneaking into the base in a cart wheeled by the Spiridons -- now completely covered in dark purple fur coats (so as not to have to make them invisible) -- in order to rescue the Doctor.  They wheel this cart of junk into the main control room, for some reason, and when the coast is clear Jo sneaks out, unseen by anyone.  Which would be fine, except for the fact that there's a Dalek in the corner staring straight at her.  But this Dalek is sleeping or something, so she gets away unseen.  Seriously, they couldn't turn that Dalek around to look at something else while Jo made her getaway?

The method of our trapped heroes' escape is also relatively novel (though I can't comment on how feasible it would actually be): creating a lot of heat down low and then capturing it with some plastic sheeting, thus rising up through an access shaft to the planet's surface.  The cliffhanger's a bit lame, though, as the Thals worry that their plan won't work in time for them to escape.  And then episode four's resolution shows that, no, it does.

Things get a little better here, and while the sight of the makeshift hot air balloon isn't bad, the floating Dalek is much more nifty (even if all we really see are specially selected camera angles and such).  And that might be a first for the show⁷⁵, a floating Dalek, even if it requires a special platform to hover.  It doesn't catch up to our heroes in time though, and some boulders dropped down the shaft put paid to that Dalek.  And that model shot is also pretty good.  Things are looking up a bit from the shot of a bunch of Louis Marx Dalek toys in episode three.

The Doctor chats with Taron. (Planet of the Daleks
Episode Four) ©BBC

Then there's a quick reunion between the Doctor and Jo (who, having spent that time sneaking into the Dalek base at the start of episode three, had snuck back out by the end of it), where they wrap up a few loose ends from Frontier in Space (well, they just tell us that the Daleks' plan of fomenting war has been foiled, even though we never get official confirmation of this) and have some heart to heart chats with the Thals ("...the business of command is not for a machine, is it?  The moment that we forget that we're dealing with people, then we're no better off than the machines that we came here to destroy.  When we start acting and thinking like the Daleks, Taron, the battle is lost," the Doctor says).  But night's coming, so it's off to the Plain of Stones ("It's an area of huge boulders," Codal tells us helpfully), where there'll be enough residual heat from the daytime to keep them alive.  (Oh, and what the hell is up with Jo and Latep?  It looks like they're trying to set up a love interest for Jo, but it's done so clumsily that you just feel sorry for actor Alan Tucker, who has to deliver these incredibly awkward lines and is clearly struggling to do so convincingly.)

Nothing dramatic has happened for a few minutes, so Vaber (who's already been shown to be hotheaded) decides to quarrel with Taron over how to proceed with their mission of destroying the Daleks, which leads to a lot of macho yelling and things, and then when they've all quieted down, Vaber takes some explosives away on his own to blow up the Daleks (by dropping the bombs down that ventilation shaft).  Taron and Codal go after him, leaving the others alone, with animals closing in (hilariously indicated by their glowing eyes -- clearly sets of flashlights -- as if this was a cartoon or something).  And Vaber's captured by some fur-clad Spiridons on his way to the shaft.  "Take him to the Daleks," one of them declares, ending the episode.







⁷⁵ Not for all Doctor Who, though; the Dalek comic strip featured plenty of Daleks on flying platforms whizzing over planet surfaces and through space.