This one comes from the Jon Pertwee era. Pertwee played the
Doctor as more like a school headmaster whilst still the thinker which his two predecessors
were he was more physical in his playing of the part.
Originally broadcast between April and May 1971.
Brief plot
The Doctor is still exiled on earth but the Time Lords
appear to need his help as details and location of a doomsday device have been
stolen from their information banks but as usual they can’t let on they need him
or why. Better to just send the Doctor there and let him sort the rest out.
The Doctor and Jo find themselves on a rather baron planet in
the year 2472 where colonists have been living for just over a year after earth
had become over crowded but something is making their crops fail and their food
supplies are running low….
A mining company also arrives on the planet and a dispute
erupts between the miners and the colonists not to mention the native planet
inhabitants. An adjudicator is sent to solve the colonists and miners’ dispute
but the doctor’s blood runs cold when he sees who it is…..
The Doctor may not have long to solve this one as not only
the planet but the whole galaxy is at stake…
What I think of it:
The story is on the whole fairly well written but perhaps
two episodes too long and there are a few scenes which could be cut without spoiling
the flow of the story line which would also help the pace of it as well. It is
not the best story of the Jon Pertwee era but not the best. I think the political
comments made within it do get in the way of the writing as they are about a
subtle as an elephant tap dancing.
Overall the acting is
of a fairly good standard although there is a little wooden acting by a few of
the more minor cast members but this always happens. The special effects are
not exactly state of the art even for the 70s but with the budget they had to
work with they did the best they could.
The space ships look like plastic air fix models hanging off
strings flying over a paper mache model – then again this is probably exactly
what it is. The sets are reasonably well done but the sliding doors do stick at
times and a couple of the walls and banisters wobble but I think we may be able
to forgive them that on the budget grounds. The outside scenes look like a
disused quarry even if there is a bit of rocks by poly(styrene) incorporated. The
door to the natives cave city looks like a bit of chip board with a bit of
cheap stone cladding (again…). The TARDIS dematerialisation is a bit of a let-
down as it just disappears and reappears instead of the fade out which was used
in most stories.
Now this is supposed to be a colony on the planet well there
is only one minor drawback to the success of the colony – they are nearly all
male now to me that doesn’t sound like it would keep the colony population at a
sustainable level but perhaps the writers/producers were hoping this wouldn’t
be noticed.
The native inhabitants have the typical look of early Dr Who
aliens but this time in tight painted ‘body stockings’ as their ‘skin’. Not
very convincing when you can see the seams and it wrinkling as they move. OK
not quite the Nora Batty level of wrinkling but you get the idea. The faces look
like reject puppet faces from spitting image.
One of the best things for me about this story is that it
features Robert Delgado as the master. Now for me no one has ever come close to
the intelligent but sinister portrayal that Delgado gave the part.
DVD Extras:
IMC needs you:
An animated job vacancy advert for the mining company
featured in the stories followed by a series of interview type documentaries.
These feature Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks along with other members of the
crew who worked on the story. Pointing out that this was the first non-earth
story they did with Jon Pertwee as a way to add variety back to the programme.
Also how they first wanted a woman to play the part of the captain of the
miners but this was overruled as it was thought to be unsuitable at the time to
have a woman in jack boots strutting around having people who got in her way
killed. Also how they found the location for the story to be set in. They had
to rule out some on cost basis but finally decided on the china clay pits in Cornwall
– In February. This gave particular problems for the fight scene in part 6 as
it was done in what had become clay mud. Hence it could only be done once. Michael
Briant admits that the reason for the TADRIS just appearing and disappearing instead
of with a fade is because he had forgotten how it had been done in the past as
it hadn’t been filmed in while.
Katy Manning (Jo Grant) also talks about the script and the
political message behind it. Also about how they coped with the clay pits when
it had been raining and the cold.
On the cutting room floor:
Out-takes from the original film reals of the location
shooting. Including some of the ‘clapper board’ use for some of the scenes. No
actual sound is on the film so incidental music is used. Also a bit of practice
with Jon Pertwee over a couple of scenes showing a few ‘take 2’s as well.
Also a few ‘boo- boos’ some of which made it through to the
final broadcast are pointed out such as the camera crews shadow on vehicles and
Delgado accidentally ‘activating’ his gun.
Not the most interesting extra but still.
Photo gallery:
Self explanatory
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