Planet of the Daleks Episode Three

The one where Jo smuggles herself into the city...

This third, beautifully recolourised episode is less than the sum of its parts, because while it seems quite busy, by the end of it you realise that almost nothing has happened at all! But to be honest, it's done with such conviction and flair that it doesn't really matter. What Terry Nation wrote, and David Maloney realised, is perfectly entertaining, like one of those runaround Saturday morning serials where danger and jeopardy supersede plot.

The Thals, their number now boosted by the survivors of the crashed ship, decide to make their way into the city via the ventilating cooling tunnels. The only problem is that the tunnels are connected to an ice volcano, which spews molten ice in the same way a regular volcano would erupt lava. This is classic Nation, making part of the landscape an obstacle to be overcome (a strong element of the first Dalek serial, and The Keys of Marinus), but there are such things as ice volcanoes in real life, also referred to as cryovolcanoes, which erupt with cryomagma or cryolava.

The realisation of the molten ice and the ice tunnels themselves is excellent. The cryolava looks like wallpaper paste, while the decision to shoot the tunnels on film works in its favour, as the sculpted walls look solid and convincing. The Thals wading through pools of molten ice really sells the idea too, although the fact they have heating units in their space suits sadly draws attention to the fact they're not protecting their hands, feet or faces with anything. There are shots of the Thals on their hands and knees slushing through the cryomagma which make it obvious that these guys really should be suffering from frostbite and hypothermia!

Meanwhile, Jo is determined to get inside the city to rescue the Doctor, and is told by her new friend Wester that his Spiridon colleagues are being used as slaves to transport jungle vegetation into the laboratories for experimentation. Because as well as trying to master sustained invisibility, the Daleks are also trying to concoct a bacteria which will destroy plant life. They're very busy in their labs, not to mention extremely ambitious!

Wester says that his people wear purple furs to protect them from the cold (despite the fact Spiridon apparently has tropical temperatures in the daytime), but this also makes me wonder whether that means they are all otherwise naked? Is Wester standing next to Jo stark naked? Because if they wore clothes, surely they would be visible too. I also began to wonder whether the Spiridons can see one another too? And, seeing as Wester is invisible, why doesn't he just wander past the Daleks and into the city to try and rescue the Doctor? He'd be much more effective than the very visible Jo!

Jo smuggles herself into the city hiding in one of the hoppers, then spends the rest of the episode snooping around the control room, avoiding Daleks (despite being directly in the line of sight of a Dalek at one point!) and generally doing nothing constructive. By the end of the episode she's gone back outside the city again, having achieved nothing whatsoever! So that's Jo's story.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Codal (brilliantly played by Tim Preece as a replacement companion) manage to do for a Dalek using Jo's log, with a few minor adjustments made by the Doctor. It's the start of an entire episode where the Doctor and his friend chase around the city trying to avoid, and being pursued by, Daleks, but as dull as that sounds, it's actually really atmospheric and compelling. Maloney takes full advantage of Derek Slee's stunning lighting, which results in some fantastic silhouettes and shadows being cast on walls by both human and Dalek actors. It might just be two blokes sneaking around corridors and going up and down in lifts for 10 minutes, but it's quite tense, especially when they try and leave the lift only to find a Dalek right outside! This is exactly the sort of thing kids want to see in their Dalek story!

One thing I did notice though is that the Daleks very kindly hung Codal's weapon belt on a coat-stand in the corridor outside his cell. It was probably a Spiridon coat-stand (this is their city after all), but it's just the idea of a Dalek using a coat-stand which tickles me!

The Doctor and Codal join up with Taron, Rebec and Marat when, in a moment of insane coincidence, they happen to be passing the very ventilation grille the Thals are trapped behind. The moment where two Daleks are engulfed by cryomagma as it gushes from the shaft into the corridor is also well done, if brief.

Towards the end, the Daleks really step up their pressure on our heroes. After exterminating Marat (who rather half-heartedly sacrifices himself for his friends), they find the Thals' map of where they've secreted explosive devices around the city, and set off to deactivate them before they explode. And with the Doctor's group trapped in a cooling chamber, the Daleks tick off another Terry Nation favourite by bringing out the cutting equipment!

As they slice their way through the door like a knife through butterscotch, the race is on to escape the chamber before the Daleks cut their way in. The Doctor's solution is to construct a huge hot air balloon and float their way up and out via the ventilation shaft (what else?) using some handy spare tarpaulin. As Rebec says, "Doctor, it's not going to work!" I mean, it obviously will, but whether it should work is debatable, seeing as the makeshift balloon probably has over 300 kilos hanging off it.

But before he hops aboard the good ship tarpaulin the Doctor finds a Dalek serving hatch, through which he spies the 10,000 Daleks Rebec warned them of in episode 2. Yes, they may look like toy Daleks, but there's an awful lot of them, just lying dormant, waiting for their moment, their gunsticks raised in a semi-permanent Nazi salute...

First broadcast: April 21st, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Derek Slee lights the Dalek city atmospherically, creating some lovely shadows and silhouettes as people creep around the corridors.
The Bad: Jo smuggles herself into the city, only to come out again having achieved nothing.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 25
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six

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.com/2014/05/planet-of-daleks.html

Planet of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD as part of the Dalek War box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Frontier-Planet-Daleks/dp/B002KSA3T8