Planet of Fire Part One

The one where there's an awful lot of bare flesh...

Wow! Whoever decided to film a Doctor Who story in Lanzarote was a genius. Lanzarote - a Spanish island off the coast of North Africa - has such a naturally alien-looking landscape due to the volcanic terrain, and allows sweeping vistas for as far as the eye can see that knock British quarries into a cocked hat. The colours on Lanzarote are stunning, and perfect to stand in as an alien planet such as Sarn. The episode opens with two scantily clad young men clambering across the rocky terrain, and we soon cut to another scene filmed at Mirador del Rio, a lookout opened just a decade earlier which looks both very alien and also very Spanish! The fact it looks like nothing ever seen before in Doctor Who makes the location a roaring success.

Just when you think your eyes couldn't boggle any more - at either the stunning location or the amount of flesh on display - Peter bloody Wyngarde turns up! Seen here in flowing priestly robes and handlebar moustache, Wyngarde was a mainstay on British TV and cinema screens in the 1960s and 70s, until an unfortunate case of gross indecency with a crane driver destroyed his reputation overnight. Nevertheless, Wyngarde always had a compelling screen presence, so it's great to have him cast in Doctor Who, against type.

What's not so pleasing is the use of Lanzarote as Lanzarote, as well as the alien planet Sarn. This is a massive error on the part of the production team, because the scenes with Timanov, Malkon and the skimpily-dressed boys look like they're happening in the same location as the archaeological dive in the bay. In an ideal world, the Earth scenes would be set in the UK, so that there was much more of a visual distinction and contrast with the Sarn scenes. As it is, there's an underlying assumption by the viewer that everything's taking place on Lanzarote, because it looks like Lanzarote!

It's something that's always bugged me about Planet of Fire, that they use the same exotic location for two different planets. It's unusual enough for Doctor Who to be filmed and set on a Spanish island, but to use that very distinctive foreign location to represent two different worlds is stretching things too far. As a result, Sarn looks stunning, but loses its edge because it looks like the same place where everything else is happening!

It's quite a fractured narrative, with three distinct threads presented to us, but at least they begin to weave together quite cleverly, unlike, say, Arc of Infinity. On Sarn, we see young Malkon has a mark on his left arm called the Sign of Logar, and we also see this sign etched on a curious object discovered at the bottom of the ocean in Lanzarote, as well as on Turlough's arm, thus marrying the three threads together. It seems we're finally going to get some answers about Turlough's background, because when the TARDIS picks up a distress call from a Trion ship, he gets very anxious and reverts to his old habits of hijacking the TARDIS and with-holding information from the Doctor very suspiciously (Mark Strickson does shifty so well!).

We're also introduced to a curious bunch of characters overseeing an archaeological dive, including expedition leader Curt, his colleague Professor Howard Foster, and Howard's whiney stepdaughter Peri, played by Nicola Bryant (who struggles to keep her accent under control at times). Some of writer Peter Grimwade's dialogue is honestly atrocious - expecting actors to weave "Cro-Magnon", "octogenarian", "anthropomorphic" and "Albuquerque Women's League" into realistic-sounding conversation is a challenge - but the delivery is often found wanting too, particularly from Dallas Adams, but also Bryant. I'm supposed to find these characters interesting, intriguing, people I want to know more about, but actually they're just annoying.

In fact, the more I see and learn about Peri and Howard, the creepier things get. Apart from the fact Howard wanders around flaunting his impressive chest in front of his stepdaughter (who hugs his naked torso tightly at one point), what I can tell of their relationship leaves me slightly unsettled. "Stop playing the heavy stepfather, Howard, you're not dressed for it," comments Peri, while later, when Peri is dreaming in the TARDIS, there's another disturbingly inappropriate glimpse into their relationship. "I'm sorry, Howard, I didn't mean it," mumbles the fevered teenager. "No, Howard! Please don't leave me alone. Don't, don't turn out the light." You could read this as perfectly innocent dialogue about a frightened little girl being comforted by her stepfather, but...

I dunno, it just makes me feel uneasy. Spin-off fiction (including the 2003 novella Shell Shock and 2004 novel Synthespians) has hinted that Peri was abused by her stepfather, but this feels far too grubby for family entertainment. I can't help thinking there's something unsavoury about Peri's character. The fact she's met two "really nice English guys" and plans to swan off to Morocco with them on a whim is just weird. Is she just terrifically naive, or some sort of Lolita figure (just look at the girlish, pigtailed photo in her passport)? It's all just a bit icky; I'm going to move on.

Aboard the TARDIS, we have the return of silver shapeshifting robot Kamelion - not seen since his debut in The King's Demons - who seems to be having something of a breakdown after hooking himself up to the TARDIS databanks. When Kamelion screams, he sounds like a Sea Devil being electrocuted, and we're reminded once more how the Kamelion prop looks good, but struggles to convince through movement. "You're finished, Kamelion!" Turlough exclaims melodramatically, in another example of Grimwade's hackneyed dialogue (here's another: "Daleks: I sometimes think those mutated misfits will terrorise the universe for the rest of time").

I like the fact we're zoning in on Turlough more in Season 21, because Strickson deserves it. Since he joined in Mawdryn Undead, Turlough has been most keen to get back to his homeworld, but has never got around to naming the planet, or revealing anything at all about his background. Finally, it feels like we're going to get some answers, and the fact he has the Sign of Logar on his arm is an intriguing revelation. Turlough is very reluctant to answer the Trion ship's distress call, and tries to suppress the data core before the Doctor can get his hands on it. He's up to his old tricks again, and the Doctor is suitably wary of the red-headed renegade.

Events on Sarn feel quite old hat so far, with a religious faith in the god Logar dividing the people into believers and free-thinkers. Wyngarde plays Timanov as a blinkered zealot, but his understated performance is a nice contrast to the strength of his beliefs (he's not against sacrificing unbelievers to the fires, for instance). The division of a society down religious lines is nothing new in sci-fi/ fantasy (Doctor Who has done it several times, including in The Underwater Menace and Meglos), and there's a danger the Sarn strand could get quite dull, despite its epic visuals. The casting of former Hammer starlet Barbara Shelley as outspoken unbeliever Sorasta goes disappointingly under the radar, while future Howards' Way star Edward Highmore (Freddie's dad) struggles to convince in any way.

Other thoughts:

• I like how director Fiona Cumming frames the opening shot so that you initially think we're in another British quarry, but there's a gradual realisation that this is something very different to a clay pit in Surrey.
• There's an awful lot of bare flesh in this episode, whether it's the young people of Sarn with their revealing nappy-style pants (James Bate in particular has much to be proud of), the bare-chested Howard and his hairy Spanish minions, or the eye-poppingly revealing scenes with Bryant and Strickson, when Turlough rescues the drowning Peri and drags her into the TARDIS. Bryant's skimpy bikini and Strickson's budgie-smuggling trunks combine to give viewers of all persuasions something to freeze-frame! In some ways I'm quite surprised it's directed by a woman.
• Love the Doctor's snazzy summer waistcoat, he looks so much better out of that ridiculous cricketing costume.
• I also find the Doctor's rising confusion as events outrun him rather amusing. Turlough's soaking wet, then there's a strange suited man in his TARDIS, followed by a strange whiney American, plus his TARDIS is going somewhere he didn't tell it to. What's going on?!
• The TARDIS arrives on Sarn "with a sound of great wind, a shining light". The Doctor's arrival at this particular juncture will no doubt identify him as the Outsider the people of Sarn are waiting for.

The cliffhanger is magnificent. The viewer knows that the Howard aboard the TARDIS isn't Howard at all, but Kamelion in disguise (I'm guessing the fact K-Howard's in a black suit is because that's how Peri was imagining him in her feverish dream). Once the Doctor and Turlough wander outside to explore, K-Howard begins to act strangely. Peri screams hysterically at nothing (a curious editing choice by Cumming), before he morphs into the mirthful form of none other than THE MASTER! It's a humdinger of a twist as it's so out of the blue, and Anthony Ainley - who looks so much better in a simple Delgado-style suit - gets to deliver the Master's iconic catchphrase: "I am the Master, and you will obey me."

Love it. If everything else so far has been rather sedate or introspective, the arrival of the Master ramps things up considerably.

First broadcast: February 23rd, 1984

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Lanzarote as Sarn.
The Bad: Lanzarote as Lanzarote.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; 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.

Planet of Fire is available on BBC DVD as part of the Kamelion Tales box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Kamelion-Demons-Planet/dp/B002SZQC6Q