"Doctor Who"
The Dead Planet (1963)

Director:

Christopher Barry

Writer:

Terry Nation (written by)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

21 December 1963 (Season 1, Episode 5)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The TARDIS lands in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal city...

Plot Keywords:

Eccentric Senior Citizen | Food | Notes | Flower | Headache

Cast

William Hartnell	...	Dr. Who
William Russell	...	Ian Chesterton
Jacqueline Hill	...	Barbara Wright
Carole Ann Ford	...	Susan Foreman

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Australia:G (video rating) | UK:PG (DVD rating) | UK:U (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Trivia:

This installment had to be remounted due to talk-back - direction from the on-set director to the cast - that had made it onto the original version's soundtrack.

Quotes:

Dr. Who: But I assure you, I am determined to study that place.
Ian Chesterton: You can do what you like, as long as you don't endanger the rest of us.
Dr. Who: Very well, then, I shall look at it myself, alone.
Ian Chesterton: You're the only one who can operate the ship. I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Doctor.
[hands the Doctor his glasses]
Ian Chesterton: Your glasses.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Verity Lambert: Drama Queen (2008) (TV)

The Daleks (Story #2)

"The Daleks" is arguably the best-known of the 60's Doctor Who adventures and, of course, to thank for the existence of Doctor Who's most enduring returning villains. With their distinctive voice patterns, memorable design, and terrifying similarities to the Nazis, the Daleks are a marvel of creative writing and design, the former courtesy of Terry Nation and the latter courtesy of Raymond Cusick. Interestingly enough famed film director Ridley Scott would have done the design for this serial had he had the time. Thank God for busy schedules.

As a story "The Daleks" is excellent but also flawed. There is some awful Dalek dialogue of the worst obviously expository nature and sometimes you wonder what the Thal are all about. Still, "The Daleks" is astonishingly consistent in its tone and delivery. The direction is static but the story itself more than makes up for it.

"The Daleks" is essentially a hostage escape story featuring the Daleks. What is fascinating about this story is that the Doctor himself doesn't feature nearly as much as he does in most later Dalek stories, with Ian and Susan featuring in key roles here. It feels odd how humble the origins of the Doctor's battle against the Daleks are, really. Nation's scripts for the story are solid and contain plenty of valuable characterization and some interesting subtexts. Many complain about episode 6 being padding but I found it quite exciting personally. Then again a heck of a lot of episodes of "Doctor Who" which are accused of being padding appeal to me, since I don't mind a story taking diversions that aren't key to the conclusion. That's not to say there isn't some really boring padding, but it all depends on how well it's done.

The design is absolutely gorgeous, not just the Daleks themselves but Skaro as well, which is astonishingly well-realized. "The Dead Planet", the first episode of the lot, is my favorite simply because of how creepy and alien the planet feels. How important it was that the first off-Earth story Doctor Who had began with an introduction to such an eerily alien world.

Not much to say about "The Daleks" that hasn't been said already so I'll leave it at that. All in all an excellent story that never quite hits the 'great' mark but is always involving and exciting.

All episodes rated 8/10.

Average rating: 8/10