My latest rummage through the old Dr Who’s got me to this
Jon Pertwee story. Now Pertwee is my second favourite Doctor and his portrayal
was slightly more active than his two predecessors but he was still firstly a
man of science. His portrayal was rather like that of a headmaster of a prep
school.
This story is quite late on in Pertwee’s run as the Doctor
but he still seems to be enjoying the part.
It was originally broadcast in February to March 1974
Brief plot:
The Doctor and Sarah are on their way to Florana for what
looks like a holiday – until something goes wrong (doesn’t it always).
The TARDIS has had an unexplainable power cut – everything
is off everything that uses electrical energy has been drained and they
certainly aren’t on Florana and the locals don’t seem to be all that friendly
either….
The Doctor soon finds a group from Earth on the planet to
find a chemical they desperately need – they have suffered the same fate as the
TARDIS. Then a strange craft lands close by the Doctors oldest enemy is here…
Can the Doctor find
the reason for the power drain and enable everyone to leave this strange planet
safely as well as find out the Daleks plan and stop them before it is too
late……
What I thought of it:
Well the 1970s Dr Who was on such a low budget that the
special effects were about as special as a white sliced loaf. However, for me
this meant there was little for the writers and actors to hide behind and any
poor writing or acting would be laid wide open (as with Colin Baker). The
special effects in this story more limited to a fake sort of lightening effect,
shot overlay and an odd psychedelic effect all of which are very simple to do.
In this story even the old special effect of the film going
into a negative image when the Daleks fired their guns wasn’t used – well as
they suffered the same power drain they lost their main weapon. Also when the
‘root’ lifted out of the pond in one episode the wires used to lift it can
clearly be seen still I think I can forgive them that. Naturally the falling
rocks are supplied by “polystyrene ‘R’ us” and look completely fake in the way
they actually fall but I suppose health and safety even in the 70s had a hand
in things. The Dalek’s ship when it comes into land looks like a 1970s lamp
shade sprayed silver and the perspective shot when the ship’s door opens looks
all wrong as if is a badly done green screen . Also as the Daleks have a power
loss to their guns yet they still have the power to move – now that does seem a
little odd to me and is not fully explained in the story.
Generally this is a well written story and the acting on the
whole is very good particularly from Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen. However it
has to be said that Julian Fox (Peter Hamilton) is rather wooden in the
delivery of some of his lines. It is clear that Pertwee is the star of the show
in this story and only Sladen is really of the same quality. The relationship
between Sarah and the Doctor does appear to be a close one similar to that of
the first Doctor and his granddaughter.
As for the natives – the Exxilons well I think here they
have really sunk to a new low of low budget. Most of them have what looks like
a latex mask on their faces and then dressed in an old blanket and that is
about it. Only a few are fully made up from head to toe and even here there are
a few issues like the mouth of the mask not moving properly and the join
between neck and shoulders looking like a large amount of loose skin which
lifts and drops as they move.
There does appear to be some sort of religious and political
comment in this story as far as one small group of Exxilons are persecuted by
the majority for not sharing the belief that the city is their god.
The lighting in the Exxilon’s underground area does add a
sort of menace to the scenes in which it is used as does the odd chant they use
to make things sound ominous. The use of candles and the fire does add to the
atmosphere of the place. However, the candles could not have provided the
amount of light there is in the caves and the light on the walls does not
flicker as it would with candles so perhaps they were just for effect.
Now I’m not entirely sure whether having the power failure,
the Exxilons and the Daleks is over egging the pudding or not. On the second
time I watched it I questioned whether the Daleks were really needed or not and
wondered if they had been added because they hadn’t been used yet in this
series. However, they do add a level of menace that I think the ‘bad’ Exxilons
lacked.
DVD Extras:
Beneath the city of the Exxilons:
Richard Leyland discusses parallels with the power losses to
the TARDIS etc. to the power cuts due to strikes and the three day week that
the UK was suffering at the time the story was being filmed. Richard saying
that he thinks Terry Nation, who wrote the story, was “taking the Micky”.
Some of the secondary cast members talk about the outside
location which was a disused quarry which gave the sterile land they wanted –
where nothing grew and how they got on together during filming.
Also how all the arrows were shot on set close to the cast
into the sand were done by Jack Walsh, an archer, from a distance of 15 feet
from the cast as he refused to do it just out of shot as he had been requested
as it wouldn’t look as real. Fortunately he missed the cast each time. The
difficulty of getting the Daleks, which are on casters, to move along on the
sand by using a track which was borrowed – and painted sand coloured.
The costume designer, L. Rowland Warne, discusses how he
made the Exxilons and how they were made to blend into the background and made
the eyes big to try to make them as menacing as possible whilst keeping to a
basic human form. Also includes how he made the ‘good’ Exxilons slightly
different such as making them smaller and how he came up with the idea for them
to glow slightly. Also how the actor who played Bellal acted with more
exaggerated body movements to replace what the mask took away from being able
to use his face.
The problems when they went into studio are also discussed
such as recording things out of sequence which includes a couple of outtakes
and how the crew were having to work harder to achieve it all.
Studio recordings:
Shows some of the problems of filming Dr Who (for the first
time) on a set by set basis rather than scene by scene episode by episode – as
they had done before.
This has some of the retakes and the odd outtake. Also times
where the cast are making sure of their cues and standing positions also shown
is one of the Daleks being pushed into position. Four were needed but they only
had three people to operate them. In the finished story the stage hand cannot
be seen in this scene.
Also how they coped with the Daleks going into their ship
and not going past the yellow boards which hid them from camera shot and also
provided the overlay for their spaceship – a sort of early green screen method.
A similar method was used to put the Exxilon city into shot.
On the set of Dr Who and the Daleks.
A discussion about film version of “Dr Who and the Daleks” starring
Peter Cushing as the Doctor – please note this was entirely separate to the TV
series. It was loosely based on the story ‘the dead planet’ which stared
William Hartnell as the first Doctor and introduced the Daleks.
Dr Who Stories – The Dalek men:
John Scott Martin and Nicholas Evans discuss how they worked
as a Dalek operators and how they were able to move them and how claustrophobic
it was and how quick the turn round was from practice to filming.
Also how they were also used to play other aliens as well
Photo gallery:
Self explanatory
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