Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY EIGHTY-ONE: THE PLANET OF EVIL (1975)

"Well, you do the hokey pokey/and you turn yourself
around/that's what it's all about!"

"Another universe?"
"From the beginning of time, that has existed side by side with the known universe. Each is the antithesis of the other. You call it nothing, a word to cover ignorance. For some time, scientists invented a word for it...anti-matter."

1) I think I can safely say that this is the first 'pure' Hinchcliffe serial--and boy, does it make it clear that Whoniverse is about to become a scary-ass place. This serial, like so many other Hinchcliffe serials, takes a classic horror film or figure (in this case both Jeckyll and Hyde and Forbidden Planet) and reworks it into something distinct to the Who mythology.....

2) ....and yet people don't realize that it's part of that massive linked story that started with 'Ark In Space.' This leads directly from 'Terror Of The Zygons,' as The Doctor promises he'll proceed to London before the Tardis picks up the Morestran distress call. After the crisis is averted, the Doctor and Sarah endeavor to get back to London, only to drop in at UNIT HQ before UNIT HQ was built in 'Pyramids of Mars.' I can understand why Hinchcliffe ultimately abandoned this tightly linked serial concept, but for as long as it lasts it's very compelling.

3) I find the way The Doctor and Sarah have fallen into this very easy partnership fascinating. Even when Sarah suggests something that's wrong--like when she suggests they just leave and let the Morestrans sort out what's going on--The Doctor never belittles her or treats her as less than a friend and peer. Compare how Baker and Sladen interact with each other to other Doctor/companion pairings, where the Doctor treats his companion like a child (Pertwee and Manning, for example) or in some cases with outright contempt (Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant in their first season). This is one of the closest pairs in the series history.

No joke..I just this outfit makes Lis Sladen
looks particularly yummy.....

4) This is one of the very few 'shot in studio' episodes where I sort of buy into the alien terrain outside of the Morestran ship. I suspect a lot of the reason it's so effective is the moody lighting, but these's so much detail and elements that are alien in shape without looking like something standing in for an alien shape that it seems otherworldly.

5) Here's another element I always liked in the Hinchchliffe era--the different layers the scripts usually had in the supporting cast. In the case of this serial, there's a really odd relationship between Ewen Solon's Vishinsky and Prentiss Hancock's Salamar. Even thought Salamar is in command, there's this sense that Vishinsky is only playing at being subservient because he's trying to be a mentor without overtly being a mentor to the younger, brasher Salamar. This comes to a head in the final part, but spurs on Salamar's final (admittedly nonsensical), fatal actions.

6) I remember the antimatter monster that is featured in the first two or so parts being pretty nightmarish when I first viewed this as a teen. It's still pretty strange--the fact that it's being chromakeyed into a reddish outline still gives it an otherworldly feel--but it's not as scary as it was. Still, it's a damn sight better than the silly werewolf-y 'Anti-Man' monster Frederick Jaeger's Sorenson transforms into in the latter two parts.

7) While I feel Jaeger's performance is bland (even if it sometimes threatens to tilt into hand-wringing goofball mode), I do find the interactions he has with The Doctor wonderful. That one scene where the Doctor seems to be suggesting to Sorenson that he needs to commit suicide for the greater good is one of the highlights of the serial.

"RAAAAARH!  I's a MONSTA!!!!"

8) I have always thought the cliffhanger to part three, with Sarah and an unconscious Doctor about to be jettisoned off into space in sealed coffins while alive, pretty scary. I didn't realize that this cliffhanger is so effective not just because of Elisabeth Sladen's previously referenced ability to give Good Panic, but because of that small scene where Sarah watches Vishinsky's disposal of a body. Not only dies that scene establishes how the mechanism works, it gives us this wonderful exchange ("It's neat and tidy." "It's horrid.") that shows us Sarah's abhorrence of the practice. That one bit of foreshadowing feeds into the chiffhanger, engaging us even more when it's triggered.

9) Boy, that is one truly crappy looking starship. What happened...did the special effects staff just grab the nearest vacuum at the last minute?

10) The one thing that bothered me is how this military expedition is composed of a multiracial crew with names that reflect a wide array of Earth nationalities...and yet they're supposed to be an alien race. This curiosity is made even weirder by the way Salamar and Vishinsky show some knowledge of London and Earth even though this happens some 30,000 years after 1980. I wonder if the script--by script editor Robert Holmes under the house psuedonym of Louis Marks--wanted to make a connection between the Morestran race and the colonists who we were told fled the earth in 'Ark In Space.' But if that was the intention, the connection was not made clear enough.

Overall...an entertaining but minor little serial that overcomes its silly central monster through some clever set design, a decent script that gives us wonderful characterization, and other touches. You can almost see this as the mission statement of the Hinchcliffe era.

And if you don't like this one...wait until you see what's next.

Ten Statements About....DOCTOR WHO STORY SEVENTY-FIVE: ROBOT (1974/75)

Oh, dear...I'm sorry...that's just...unfortunante...

"Doctor, you--you're being childish!
"Well, of course I am! There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes."

1) And here we begin what I consider the true Gold Standard of The Classic Who Series--the reign of Philip Hinchcliffe as Producer of the show...which is kind of funny given that, at its core, this is a pretty ordinary story. Still, even at this early date the concept of the series as a Gothic Horror Show Set In A Science Fiction continuum is in place, as what we've got is the Whoniverse take on King Kong.

2) Whether you love him or hate him, the thing you can't deny about Tom Baker is that he owns the role of The Doctor from the very moment he appears. This is maybe my favorite of all the regenerations when it comes to seeing the new actor grow into the part (although admittedly Colin Baker's first minute or so as The Doctor in Caves of The Androzani matches it, only to be let down by the erratic, psychotic behavior of The Twin Dilemma, and Matt Smith approaches it in The Eleventh Hour), as we know exactly the kind of Doctor we're going to get for the next few years by the end of the first episode....

"So, Elisabeth...do we really have to bring that Harry
character along?  I mean, Ian Marter is a nice enough
chap, but still...."

3) ...and what we're getting is a Doctor who, breaking away from previous Doctor Jon Pertwee's vigorous and physical performance, prefers the cerebral and intellectual. In his way, Baker manages to fuse elements of all the previous incarnations (Hartnell's crankiness, Troughton's clownishness as a mask for brilliance, Pertwee's low tolerance for stupidity and deep loyalty to friends) into a more-or-less, unpredictable-bordering-on-unstable whole.

4) Okay...the actual Robot is, ummm, a bit silly looking. The way the chest and legs don't seem to join together, in particular, is especially goofy. However, Michael Kilgarriff does a heroic job in giving this very flimsy looking creature a great deal of depth and nuance solely with his voice and acting. He manages to keep the creature sympathetic while never letting us forget what a powerful monster he is.

5) You know why I hold Sarah Jane Smith in such amazingly high regard? Here we have the only companion in the classic era (in my mind, the only companion in the series history) that spans two Doctors and still has the same strong chemistry with both. And in this particular stretch that lasts this season and part of next, she's just as feisty and take change as she was with Pertwee. Hell, it's having her on the ship that makes Harry feel so inconsequential down the line of this season. And speaking of which...

6) I understand that Harry was created when Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe had assumed that the Fourth Doctor was going to be an older man--but let's give Ian Marter credit; he manages to make the character into something interesting when coupled with Baker. In this story, there's a real 'Holmes and Watson' feel to the interplay between them...although after this, it seems like Harry becomes the 'bumbling screw up' that frequently gets the other two characters in trouble.

"Get used to this whole 'getting killed by a chroma-key effect,
Harry.  It happens a lot..."

7) It kind of saddens me that we're at the point where UNIT are shadows of their former selves. The whole bad-assedness of both The Brig and Sargent Benton has now been watered down to a point where they serve solely as The Doctor's chauffeurs. We'll only see UNIT a few more times between here and the classic series' end, and The Brig only a few more times...and his ability to kick ass without mussing that perfectly coiffed hair and mustache is sorely missed from here on out.

8) I admit it--I adore Patricia Maynard's Winters and Alec Linstead's Jellicoe as the bad guys. Not only are they deliciously over-the-top in their evilness, not only are their stand-in Nazi cred secure....you get a real sense of these two having a life before the story starts, and of a strange and twisted relationship going on between the two of them.

Yes...I'm thinking whips, chains, the whole nine yards.

9) I know that Edward Burnham always intended Kettlewell to be evil and unbalanced, and goes to great lengths to portray him as such...but even with this recent viewing, I never felt this character was all-out insane. I think his brusqueness and apparent contempt for unintelligent people screwing up the environment makes him strangely sympathetic...which makes his 'face turn' in episode three all the more effective.

10) Ahhhh....that final part. You know, when the Robot becomes....

Yeah.

There are some things the classic series should not have done with its limited--very limited--budget. What they attempt to make the King Kong simile work in the last episode is one of them. And sadly, we see them attempt something similar a lot better several stories down the pike with The Terror of The Zygons.

Overall...a rather average story that's elevated heads-and-shoulders above its deserved position by Tom Baker's braveau debut as The Fourth Doctor. Ignore the stupid elements and bask in one of the greatest 'statements of intent' an actor ever made to announce his presence as The Doctor.