The Tenth Planet Episode 1

The one where Earth's long-lost twin planet reappears in the Solar System...

The Tenth Planet starts with the same modern dynamism that The War Machines did (and The Smugglers didn't), complete with animated opening captions, shots of bleeping computers, and some stock footage of a rocket launching (it's actually an Australian missile test, but we'll let that slide).

We're introduced to a bunch of earnest looking men at the South Pole base of International Space Command (Snowcap Base) who are in communication with the two astronauts aboard the Zeus 4 rocket, Schultz and Williams. It's great that Williams is played by a black actor (and that his skin colour is not relevant or referred to). It's pretty progressive casting on behalf of director Derek Martinus, because although we soon discover this story is set 20 years in the future (ie, 1986), in the real world, there wasn't an African-American astronaut until 1983's third Challenger mission (interestingly, that was Guion Bluford, which is a twisted irony as the Caucasian astronaut here has the nickname "Bluey"!).

Actors Alan White and Earl Cameron (who, in 2017, became Doctor Who's third centenarian actor) are terribly guilty of slow space acting, pretending they are in the weightlessness of space by moving very gradually, but also talking slowly too, which really makes these shuttle scenes as dull as ditch water. There's also a lot of space jargon which, while adding authenticity, simply makes the whole thing grind to a halt before it's even started. These shuttle scenes are written and directed without an eye for entertainment, and as a result I find them crushingly boring.

It is worth nothing at this point though, that the spacesuits Schultz and Williams are wearing crop up time and again in other places, both in Doctor Who and beyond. Costume designer Sandra Reid hit onto a winner, because as well as Schultz's dark suit being worn by Jamie in The Wheel in Space two years later, Williams' lighter suit falls into the scaly hands of bounty hunter Bossk in The Empire Strikes Back 14 years later!

As a Force 8 gale blows outside on the surface of Antarctica, a familiar police box lands amid the snow (which is very obviously being chucked into the path of a wind machine just off camera!), and the Doctor, Polly and Ben venture outside. The average temperature at the South Pole is -49 degrees Celsius, so stumbling around at the coldest place on Earth in just a furry hat and coat isn't going to keep the chill out for long (especially as it was so cold in The Smugglers episode 4 that Polly felt the chill inside the TARDIS!). It's great to see Polly behaving to type, enthusiastically bounding around exploring various paraphernalia before they're taken below the surface by Cutler's men.

The base is manned by a multinational crew. There are no women at Snowcap, so the walls are lined with risque photos of buxom beauties which I'm really surprised they showed in Doctor Who! They're not rude, but they're certainly eyebrow-raisingly titillating! The Doctor, Polly and Ben's first encounter with General Cutler is a delight, with old acting buddies William Hartnell and Robert Beatty (this would be the eighth and final time the two appeared in the same production) bouncing off each other well: "I don't like your tone, sir," says the Doctor, to which Cutler retorts: "And I don't like your face, nor your hair!"

Robert Beatty is a little OTT in his performance, but then Cutler is supposed to be a gruff, gritty no-nonsense commander, which he was well used to playing in films, so he's only really doing what was expected of him when he was cast (Beatty really overpowers the response: "A hut!?"). John Brandon is also quite shouty as the oddly unnamed American sergeant (Doctor: "Why don't you speak up, I'm deaf!"), but this is indicative of the mild stereotyping of nationalities we're seeing here - the boisterous Yanks, the lecherous Italian, the studious Englishmen etc.

Peter Kindred's Snowcap set is an impressive, if cramped, multi-level affair, although it's also something of a deathtrap, constructed mainly of steps without any hand rails. I'm not sure it would pass health and safety requirements these days! I also like how Martinus shoots seemingly through the wall at the radar technician and his colleagues, as if the camera is in the monitor screen they're looking at. The quiet curtained area at the back of the control room seems devoid of inspiration, however! Also, why are they using a retinascope as an intercom system (see 9 mins in)?

The plot begins to take an intriguing turn when a mysterious new planet appears in the solar system, between Mars and Venus, affecting the trajectory of Zeus 4. The Doctor seems to know already what the planet is: Earth's twin planet which went missing millions of years ago. This planet seems to have a highly unlikely mirror image of Earth's land masses, right down to the detail of Malaysia (it's interesting that while Ben spots the large, distinctive African continent, Polly somehow manages to identify the relatively small area of Southeast Asia! There's a girl who knows her geography, putting the seafaring Ben to shame!).

Quite how the Doctor knows what's out there isn't clear (maybe a future incarnation told him at some point...?), but when Hartnell delivers the ominous line: "Pretty soon we'll be having visitors", the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! It's interesting to note at this stage that the Doctor would be perfectly happy to leave Snowcap and return to the TARDIS if Cutler let him...

A spaceship lands on the snowy surface, and our first glimpse of the occupants is directed skilfully by Martinus, showing these bizarre-looking men striding purposefully from the distance, getting gradually closer and more distinct, until they're upon the American sergeant and chop him to the ground. That final reveal, panning up from a bare human hand, along a plastic-layered arm and up to a pant-wettingly scary expressionless face is fabulous. I mean, viewers at the time must have wondered what on earth they were looking at! The emotionless white cloth face, the sunken black eyes, the bizarre contraption on their head... as the creature stares passively into the camera, and the picture fades to credits, I can imagine plenty of children watching in 1966 went to bed with that image seared into their minds. These cloth-faced men tap into everyone's deep-seated maskaphobia, that almost primal reaction to false faces and disfigurement which makes clowns so reviled today.

Whatever these giant men are, they're bloody scary!

First broadcast: October 8th, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The reveal of the Cybermen is expertly directed by Derek Martinus.
The Bad: Any scene involving the Zeus 4 is appallingly dull and blandly written.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 2...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-tenth-planet.html

The Tenth Planet is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Tenth-Planet-DVD/dp/B00EF1I85Y