Planet of the Daleks Episode Six

The one where the Dalek army goes into deep freeze...

As soon as the Daleks learn that aliens have infiltrated the city posing as Spiridons, they "instigate condition of maximum security", which I rather think they should have had all along. It also begs the question of how many different levels of security the Daleks recognise, because so far in this story it's been pretty lax. They also learn in this episode that the Doctor is one of the aliens, their "greatest enemy", but surely this should be no surprise to them seeing as the Master gave the Doctor to them on the Ogron planet in Frontier in Space? They should have guessed he'd be around somewhere.

Terry Nation really ramps up the jeopardy in this episode, and continues to steal from his back catalogue, including the moment when we're made to think Rebec has been exterminated inside the Dalek casing (there was a similar bluff in The Daleks). Nation dials it up to 11 by announcing that the Dalek Supreme is about to arrive on Spiridon. You can sense the panic among the Daleks when they hear that!

The Dalek Supreme's spaceship is rubbish, a design so lacklustre and half-hearted that they may as well have just used a lampshade sprayed silver. I'm not convinced they didn't. This is made all the more astounding when Latep claims: "They certainly know how to build spaceships"!

The Dalek Supreme itself is a different story. Obviously drawing on the wild and wonderful designs of the TV Century 21 Dalek comics of the late 1960s, it's resplendent in its black and yellow livery, complete with a flashing torch for an eyestalk and enlarged earpieces straight out of the 60s Dalek movies. It's a striking sight - an exciting sight - and proves itself to be a formidable tyrant, even for its own kind. The Dalek Supreme destroys the Dalek in control of Spiridon operations for failing to apprehend the aliens, which is shocking, as well as illogical. It seems odd that the Daleks would actually weaken their forces as a form of punishment, when it would be much easier to have the Dalek relieved of command, or "reprogrammed". Great scene though.

"Switch on arsenal heating!" orders the Dalek Supreme (stop laughing at the back!), setting in motion a thawing of the 10,000-strong Dalek army on the lower levels. It's up to the Doctor and the Thals to prevent the Daleks awakening, and all they've got is one bomb with a dodgy timing mechanism. The many model Daleks used for the crowd shots actually blend in very well with the full-scale action and sets, and when the bomb explodes and the cryomagma floods into the chamber, the effect is impressive.

However, these 10,000 Daleks have not been destroyed, only thrown into deep freeze for a matter of centuries. So the Doctor doesn't actually win outright, he's only delayed the inevitable. As the Dalek Supreme says: "We have been delayed, not defeated!" This sort of resolution is reused by Nation in Genesis of the Daleks when the Doctor leaves Davros and his Daleks buried, but not defeated. No wonder by the time of Remembrance of the Daleks the Doctor is thinking in much more final terms.

One thing though: everybody conveniently forgets about the bacteriological disaster just waiting to escape the Dalek laboratory and wipe out all living matter on Spiridon. Will the isolation chamber be able to keep the bacteria in long enough for the molten ice to smother it? Nobody bothers to check!

The end cannot come before the Doctor manages yet another of his moralistic soliloquys (aka Pertwee's "moment of charm"), but Nation's message is actually very heartfelt, that the Thals should not glamourise war. "Don't make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game," says the Doctor, belittling countless war films of the 1950s and 60s in one sentence. "Tell them about the fear." Wise words.

The Thals hijack the Dalek Supreme's amazing spaceship to return to Skaro, but Latep throws a curveball by asking Jo to come with him. He loves Jo, you see, but sadly for him, Jo doesn't love him back (she's merely "very fond" of him). She turns him down, which he accepts rather too readily, and off they pop. Latep is the latest in a short line of love interests for Jo (which also includes Mike Yates, Bill Filer and King Peladon), but the trend is about to culminate in one of the most devastating companion departures in the series' long history. Brace yourself, Doctor: Professor Jones is just around the corner.

Now I'm at the end of Planet of the Daleks I can reveal that I've always harboured a deep-seated dislike for this story. I admit it was mildly irrational, but I think it stems from the 1993 BBC1 repeat run, which I recorded on VHS and watched over and over again until I think I got heartily sick of it (especially episode 1). All these years later though, I've come back round and it's actually a bloody good adventure story, packed full of ideas and strong visuals and derring-do. It's Terry Nation-by-numbers, but that's no bad thing, especially after all those years of absence. So now I love Planet of the Daleks. I love it for the Dalek army, the ice volcano, the Dalek Supreme, Wester the floating bowl, the Doctor/ Codal relationship ("You've done a lot for me, Doctor. Thank you"), the Daleks in the ice pool, that last race back to the TARDIS, and perhaps most of all, Daleks chasing Dr Who relentlessly along corridors.

It's now one of my favourite runaround Pertwees.

First broadcast: May 12th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Dalek Supreme is boss.
The Bad: The Dalek Supreme's spaceship is dross.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 7.5 out of 10)

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

NEXT TIME: The Green Death...

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

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