Planet of Evil Part Three

The one where Sorenson goes all Jekyll and Hyde...

Every time I watch Planet of Evil, I see it. I've never seen or heard of anybody else having seen what I always see. It's like a ghost hidden in the machine, a creature trapped in the master tapes. It's there - and to me it's as plain as day - in the cliffhanger to part 2 and the reprise in part 3. It's in the shot where the Morestrans and Sarah are watching the Doctor fall into the abyss via the oculoid tracker. They're watching the Doctor, but all I see is a strange, unsettling alien face looking back at them, as if trapped in the reflection. It's like something from The Outer Limits, or reminiscent of Marvel's Green Goblin or 2000AD's Mighty Tharg. Has anybody else ever seen it?

It's tricky to capture it clearly with a freeze-frame screengrab, but it's there: an eerie pointy-headed, long-faced creature (perhaps wearing a hat?) leering out of the screen. Am I going crazy? Am I seeing things nobody else can? If you see it, please leave a comment and let me know I'm not going totally bonkers.

Back to the story proper. It's odd that the Morestrans have very quickly accepted the fact the abyss is the gateway between universes, so soon after being told this by the Doctor himself. It's a pretty out-there claim from a man they know nothing about - and some of them suspect him of evil doings - so why they all suddenly accept that Zeta Minor is the boundary with an anti-matter universe is baffling. Sorenson states that the Doctor has "ceased to exist", while Vishinsky says that "he has disappeared into the vortex between this universe and the next". Sarah would accept these facts because she trusts the Doctor's judgement, but the Morestrans are surely far from trusting?

Director David Maloney's depiction of the Doctor in limbo is splendid. It's as if Tom Baker has tumbled into a world of disco lights and Mirrorlon, suspended by wires. Maloney, thanks also to Brian Clemett's exemplary lighting, manages to make the void between universes seem like a vast nothingness. It also feels a bit like the Doctor's underwater, as well as in a terrible storm. It's the stuff of nightmares.

I fell in love in this episode with De Haan, played by Graham Weston. He's been bumbling about in the first two episodes, but comes to the fore here (mainly because so many other characters have died!), and Weston manages to make him like a hand-wringing old woman, moaning about having to do things that he'll end up undoing eventually, or going to places he'll have to come back from in the end. He comes over like a right old queen, but an endearing one, because everything he's moaning about is delightfully mundane and everyday - just like real life! I detect a smattering of Robert Holmes as script editor here, as none of the other Morestrans have displayed very much of a personality in Louis Marks' script.

Meanwhile, Professor Sorenson seems to have slid into a completely different homage of his own, namely Robert Louis Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. While everybody else carries on with their Forbidden Planet rip-off, Sorenson struggles to keep a hold of himself as the planet takes its hold on him. As the Zeta Minor disco crystals flash away, Sorenson becomes a bestial creature with glowing red eyes and taloned fingers. When he looks into the mirror and sees a haggard reflection gazing back, I know exactly how he feels!

The red eye effect is a simple but very effective one, and is something else copied shamelessly by Chris Chibnall for the story 42. As the episode progresses, Sorenson's dark side gets increasingly more bestial, but what puzzles me is where the curative potion that he uses to get back to normal has come from. Have I missed the bit where he invented a potion, or has it just come from nowhere? Either way, it's rather wonderful that he drinks it out of a smoking goblet, an essential element in any Jekyll and Hyde tribute!

Salamar continues to annoy me. The character is not written in a sympathetic way at all, but coupled with Prentis Hancock's limited performance, he just comes over as a complete idiot. He's also one of those characters who insists things are impossible when they obviously aren't. Granted, the First Doctor used to say this a lot (usually contradicting one of his companions' astute observations), but I could always dismiss this as part of his haughty personality. But here, when the Doctor suggests there is still anti-matter aboard the ship, Salamar simply retorts: "Impossible!" Well, no it's not impossible, it's actually very likely. Later, when Reig says the ship has stopped moving, again Salamar exclaims: "That's impossible!" Gawd, I could swing for him.

Soon, possessed Sorenson is going about killing what few of the crew are left, first murdering Morelli, then doing for my beloved De Haan (Graham Weston dies wonderfully). The dehydrated corpses are actually quite graphic for children's telly, but this is only to be expected of this era of Doctor Who. So often, Doctor Who was equalling - sometimes even outdoing - it's big screen contemporary Hammer in the horror stakes. I mean, look at the scene where Sarah watches the shadow of Sorenson sucking the life out of De Haan. The slurping noise alone is enough to turn the stomach.

There are a handful of other things in this episode which irk me, like the constant references to Sarah as "the girl", and the deathless line from Salamar - "Unless you cooperate I shall kill you and the girl without compunction" - which is just laughable. Neither am I keen on the Doctor punching Salamar's lights out. I don't like the character, but nor do I like to see my Doctor using violence. The Fourth Doctor does this a few times in his tenure, so it's not exactly out of character, but still... There should have been another way.

But there are moments to counter the lapses, principally supplied by the wonderful Elisabeth Sladen, such as her disagreement with Vishinsky over the method of Morelli's dispatch into space. "It's clean and tidy," insists Vishinsky. "It's horrible," retorts Sarah. She's not wrong. It might be clean and tidy from the ship's perspective, but that space coffin will be floating about like intergalactic litter forever now.

I also like Sladen's muted response to the fanatical Jaeger, when Sorenson insists he will find a way to discover the energy he needs. "Alright, I'm not arguing," she mutters, clearly rattled by Sorenson's over-anxious declarations. Sladen was such a good, truthful and subtle actor, one of the best to be cast as a companion. Coupled with one of the best Doctors ever, this duo was unbeatable.

The end of the episode has Salamar ejecting the Doctor and Sarah into space - alive - which is both murderous and insane. I think it's time Vishinsky - the calm, reasoned heart of the Morestran crew - took command and consigned Salamar to a cell, as he's clearly lost the plot.

Now go back to 80 seconds into this episode and tell me you can't see that eerie creature staring out of the screen...

First broadcast: October 11th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The introduction of the Jekyll and Hyde homage is a welcome one, and Sorenson's transformations are simple but effective.
The Bad: Salamar is a really annoying character, lacking logic and reason and spouting some truly awful dialogue. Prentis Hancock's performance has none of the subtlety that might help redeem the character.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

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/2014/06/planet-of-evil.html

Planet of Evil is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Planet-Evil-DVD/dp/B000VA3IZ8