The Shadow of the Tower

The Shadow of the Tower is a BBC historical drama series from 1972, about the reign of king Henry vii (not to be confused with his more famous son, Henry viii). Made shortly after The Six Wives of Henry viii and Elizabeth R (1970 and 1971 respectively), this is much less well known than either of them, despite being the third part of a thematic trilogy about the Tudor kings and queens.

While the earlier series were both made up of 90-minute episodes, meaning each was the length of a film - and each could be viewed as self-contained, stand-alone films - here the series is of the more familiar form of 13 episodes of roughly 50 minutes in duration. BBC historical dramas had already used this format for The First Churchills (1969) and it would continue to be standard - not just for historical dramas, of course - throughout the 1970s and beyond.

This series is not easily available to view in the UK, having not had a UK DVD release. 11 of the 13 parts are available to watch (at time of writing) in the Yousual place, but the remaining two, episodes 9 and 10, have been blocked by BBC Studios, the rotten spoilsports.

I wouldn't object to this if there were some other way of viewing the series, whether it be via the BBC iPlayer, a proper commercial release on DVD, or on their streaming platform BritBox. Or even, Hoff forbid, repeating the series on one of their television channels, mew! But the way things are, the BBC would have in no way lost out by leaving the episodes up where they were, and by blocking them they simply deny curious cats the opportunity to learn about two-thirteenths of the reign of king Henry vii.

The main plot of the series concerns the many conspiracies and attempts to overthrow Henry vii since, contrary to popular belief (and later Tudor-era propaganda), the Wars of the Roses and the conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster didn't end the moment king Richard iii died horseless. There are multiple attempts by the Yorkist faction to find an alternative king, either from the surviving members of the house of York, or by finding someone who looks a bit like one of them and then pretending they are. The title of the series, then, is a reference to the Tower of London, where most of these pretenders end up imprisoned - sometimes only very briefly.

The only character to appear in all the episodes is king Henry vii himself, played by James Maxwell, who is well cast in the role and with a distinctive voice. His allies and enemies come and go as required, with notable appearances from Morris "Captain Dent" Perry and David "Monkey" Collings as conspiring clergy (Collings also played a conspirator in Elizabeth R, he's lucky he didn't get typecast), and a young Christopher Neame as the Earl of Warwick (one of the aforementioned Yorkist claimants). This must have been around the same time he became a major player in Colditz - his episode here also involves an attempt to escape from a prison.

Peter "Count Grendel of Gracht" Jeffrey deserves a special mention for his appearance. Of the episodes we can view, the best by far is the fifth, The Serpent and the Comforter. This takes a break from the main, conspiracy-laden storyline to tell a different sort of tale. Jeffrey plays a religious heretic who has been condemned to be burned to death for his heresy, and whose case the king takes an interest and attempts to save his soul (though not his life).

There are only five characters (excluding extras) in the whole episode, out of whom only the king appears in any of the rest of the series, and none of them are named, either on-screen or in the credits - they are credited as The King, The Prisoner, The Priest, The Guard, The Soldier. It plays out like a... well, like a play, that might not have been part of the series at all. Nevertheless it is riveting drama, and is outstanding.

The other episode I would single out is part seven, A Fly in the Ointment, albeit for quite a different reason, as here the series tries (and succeeds) at doing comedy. One group of conspirators, growing frustrated with their sides' repeated failures at deposing king Henry by way of rebellions or invading with armies from Europe, decide to try to assassinate him using magic, and set about hiring an astrologer to do the job for them.

The humour then arises from the differing levels of credulity between the various conspirators (Peter Bowles gives a good performance as a servant who is less gullible than his superiors), and the presentation to us, the viewers, of the 'magician' as an obvious con artist when we see how he behaves when his clients are not present.

As the series reaches its ending, it enters more familiar historical territory. With all the various conspiracies dealt with and his throne secure, king Henry intends for his son and heir to marry princess Catherine of Aragon, and makes arrangements with the Spanish ambassador, a recurring character played by John "Li H'sen Chang" Bennett. The only trouble is that this "son and heir" is prince Arthur, who then unexpectedly dies soon after the wedding. This leaves the younger prince Henry as the new heir, who has to marry his brother's widow. Which is the very situation that The Six Wives of Henry viii began with, so this prequel series has taken us full circle.

The studio-bound nature of the series, with limited sets (the Tower of London 'exterior' where characters look off screen at events that they can see, but we can't, is particularly stagy), hints that this was a lower-budget series than either of its prestigious predecessors. It is more in the vein of I Claudius (which was still four years away when this was made) in putting total reliance on the actors to make you believe in the drama. While not succeeding to quite the same extent as I Claudius (what does?), this is still a series well worth the watching.

Hopefully BBC Studios will let us do that at some point. Mew.

Elizabeth R: Action by Havoc

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode Six

The Doctor, Taron, Codal and Rebec escape from the Dalek by means of the Doctor throwing his Spiridon coat over it. By the time the Dalek has finished announcing

"I CANNOT SEE! VISION IMPAIRED!"

they have run away. This leads into more running around the corridors of the Dalek base being pursued by Daleks, similar to scenes we saw back in part three - even down to the Daleks trying the same plan of trapping our heroes in the "lowest levels" of their base. Except this time that is where the Doctor wants to get to, because they already have the set for it that is where the Dalek army is being kept.

The Daleks hear that the "Dalek Supreme" will "touch down on Spiridon shortly." They also now know that the Doctor is the Doctor:

"HE IS THE ONE KNOWN AS THE DOCTOR, THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE DALEKS."

It is interesting that it took them so long to figure this out, and that it makes no difference to the plot that the Doctor is their "greatest enemy."

Outside, Jo and Latep see the Dalek Supreme's spaceship landing. The Dalek Supreme is a mix of gold and black, and it has bigger lights on its dome and a torch for its eye, so we can tell it must be a Very Important Dalek.

Jo: "I've never seen a Dalek like that before."

Latep: "He's something very special: one of the supreme council."

I'm not sure how Latep could know this, but it's not important, fun as the idea of Thal secret agents spying on the Dalek supreme council to get the latest gossip is. The Dalek Supreme even has his own incidental music, which we hear as he comes into the Dalek base and orders the Dalek army to be thawed out. He then turns on one of the local Daleks:

Dalek Supreme: "THE ACTIONS OF THE ALIENS HAS CAUSED CONSIDERABLE DISRUPTION OF OPERATIONS ON THIS PLANET."

Dalek: "THIS WAS A MATTER BEYOND MY CONTROL."

Dalek Supreme: "YOUR ORDERS WERE TO EXTERMINATE THEM."

Dalek: "IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE! WE HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO USE THE BACTERIA BOMB!"

Dalek Supreme: "THE RESPONSIBILITY WAS YOURS! YOU HAVE FAILED! THE SUPREME COUNCIL DOES NOT ACCEPT FAILURE!"

The Dalek Supreme then exterminates the unfortunate Dalek.

The Dalek army starts to wake up and some of them begin to move around, so the Doctor knows he hasn't much time left to do his plan. There are also Daleks trying to break in to exterminate our heroes, although they are stopped by an improvised barricade instead of the door so can't do another classic slow-cutting this time (signs of the previous slow-cutting remain in the set, which is a nice touch). A Dalek from the army, still woozy and grumpy from having just been woken up, knocks down the bomb before the Doctor can put it in position, so the Doctor has to climb in among the still-sleepy Daleks to get it back.

The Doctor finally explains his plan to the Thals and, of course, us:

Doctor: "Well, this whole area is simply honeycombed with ice tunnels. Now, a bomb put in the right place could so weaken those walls that the pressure of the ice would burst through the walls and flood this entire chamber."

Taron: "Bury the lot of them?"

Doctor: "That's the theory."

Rebec: "But it won't destroy them, just put them back into their deep frozen state of suspended animation."

Doctor: "Yes, but it would take centuries to melt them out."

Latep and Jo come in from the ventilation shaft and Latep uses one of the bombs to blow up the Daleks who have just breached the barricade. Then they join up with the others, meaning the separation of our heroes into two groups was completely pointless... except for making the story longer.

The Doctor and Codal set the other bomb, and it blows up more of the Daleks that were chasing them, as well as letting the "molten ice" in to make the Dalek army all wet and cold and unhappy. Poor Dalek army, they only wanted to have sleeps.

The remaining Daleks in the control room see what is happening, and are good enough to pass this on to us:

Dalek: "SENSORS REGISTERING ICE NOW ADVANCING THROUGH UPPER LEVELS!"

Dalek Supreme: "ADVISE SUPREME COMMAND THAT OUR ATTACK FORCE IS TOTALLY IMMOBILISED, AND THAT WE ARE THE ONLY SURVIVORS. SET SELF-DESTRUCT ON ALL INSTRUMENTS. WE ARE ABANDONING!  WE ARE ABANDONING! WE ARE ABANDONING! WE ARE ABANDONING! WE ARE ABANDONING!"

The Thals realise they can steal the Dalek Supreme's spaceship to get back to Skaro.

Codal thanks the Doctor and makes a gesture to him, which the Doctor returns. I suspect this gesture is the Thal equivalent of the manly handshake. Taron and Rebec also want to thank the Doctor (I said "thank"), but in a different way:

Taron: "Doctor, we'd never have succeeded without all your help. I wish there was some way of thanking you."

Doctor: "As a matter of fact, there is."

Rebec: "Yes Doctor?"

Doctor: "Throughout history, you Thals have always been known as one of the most peace loving peoples in the galaxy."

Taron: "I hope we always will be."

Doctor: "Yes, well, that's what I mean. When you get back to Skaro, you'll all be national heroes. Everybody will want to hear about your adventures."

Taron: "Of course."

Doctor: "So be careful how you tell that story, will you? Don't glamourise it. Don't make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game."

The Doctor gives both of them manly handshakes (and a Mary Whitehouse-sanctioned kiff for Rebec only) before he says goodbye.

Latep has asked Jo to come back to Skaro with him. Smoove, Latep, very smoove - even cat relationships aren't that fast. Jo says

"No, I'm sorry, Latep. I'm very fond of you, but you see, I've got my own world and my own life to go back to."

She gives him a consolation kiff on the cheek. 

Latep turns and immediately offers a manly handshake to the Doctor. Smoove. What a player.

The Doctor and Jo watch the Thals take off in the captured spaceship, but then they see the Dalek Supreme and the surviving Daleks coming after them and have to run back to the TARDIS. There is one final peril from the spore-spurting plants - a nice mirroring and callback to the opening of the story, just as you would expect from a master-craftsmanny like Terry Nation - and then they are safe.

The Dalek Supreme pews uselessly at the TARDIS as it dematerialises, then he turns to his minions and gives them a pep talk:

"PREPARATIONS WILL BEGIN AT ONCE TO FREE OUR ARMY FROM THE ICE. WE HAVE BEEN DELAYED, NOT DEFEATED. THE DALEKS ARE NEVER DEFEATED!"

The final scene is a coda in which Jo wants to go home to Earth instead of exploring the "many hundreds" of other worlds with the Doctor. This is a gentle bit of foreshadowing for what is to come in the next story, while also resembling the sort of bridge between episodes that used to be common in the more serialised era of the early years of Doctor Who.

What's so good about Planet of the Daleks?

What a treat it must have been for viewers of the show's 10th anniversary season - first the old Doctors returned, now the Doctor's oldest enemies return, written by their original writer, and in the same old style the programme used to be written in, even.

In the days* when it was not possible to watch the older Dalek stories whenever you wanted, this was a throwback to those early stories, with the Thals making their first appearance since the very first Dalek story, and the Doctor and Companions going constantly from one peril to the next as they move through the plot.

But those black-and-white, Hartnell-era stories were really only proto-Nation compared to Planet of the Daleks. Here we can see the full complement of El Tel's tricks of the trade all together in one story, a Best of Terry Nation if you will, or a Terry Nation's Greatest Hits: a countdown, a plague, a self-sacrifice, a hostile alien environment, a MacGyveresque solution to a problem, a character with a name like 'Tarrant,' "space medicine," etc. etc. As a wise cat once said:

Terry Nation, Terry Nation,

Terry Nation, that's what you need

If you want to be the best

And if you want to beat the rest

Oo-oo Terry Nation's what you need;

If you want to be a record breaker, oooooh.

And Terry Nation has never been more of a broken record than here.

Pertwee Six-Parter Padding Analysis

The amount of padding in this story is highly subjective, because, for a story with surprisingly short cliffhanger reprises (and even no reprise in one case), the main plot is very slight. Planet of the Daleks takes the form of an adventure story, with the heroes going from one peril to the next, and so the central plot is really just something to hang those escapades upon. This inevitably leaves a lot of the episodes' run time that could be considered inessential to that main story and therefore 'padding.'

Cutting out all the inessential sub-plots or side-perils could probably reduce this story down to about two parts, which can make it hard to watch in a single sitting because that two partsworth of main plot can feel very stretched when spread across six. This is felt even more acutely if watched back-to-back with Frontier in Space (given its own issues with padding) and I pity the fool that attempts to marathon those 12 episodes all together, even if they are intended to make one epic story between them. 

* Of course we are still living in those days, since there are still multiple episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, containing plenty of Nationy goodness, that remain missing.

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode Five

Taron and Codal knock out a Spiridon so they can steal its purple coat for a disguise (also to look fabulous). Then Codal gets confused and forgets which one is Taron, lol. Other than that they are able to easily beat the Spiridons now that they have given away their one considerable advantage of being invisible.

The Doctor and Jo are approached by Wester, the friendly Spiridon who saved Jo earlier. Jo somehow knows his name even though it has not been mentioned on-screen before now. Wester tells them about the Daleks' "bacteria bomb."

Vaber is taken to the Daleks. He tries to run away but the Daleks exterminate him, as well as an unlucky Spiridon who happened to be standing nearby at the time. Taron and Codal steal back their bombs and run away, with the Daleks pursuing them shouting "PURSUE! PURSUE!"

The Doctor has a plan involving the "molten ice pools" and he says "it's an odd phenomenon, the water on this planet. It sustains sub-zero temperatures and yet remains semi-liquid." I don't think we're likely to get any more of a science lesson than that, it's just an excuse for Terry Nation to include ice volcanoes in his story.

The Daleks arrive at the plain of stones where the Doctor and Taron wrestle the first Dalek, and Jo, Codal, Latep and Rebec wrestle with the other Dalek, until they both end up in the pool of water molten ice, which they don't like at all because it is cold and wet.

In fact, Taron says

"The shock of the sudden cold must have killed them straight away."

This allows Rebec to 'do an Ian' and pretend to be a Dalek, while the Doctor, Taron and Codal disguise themselves as Spiridons. Jo and Latep are sent with a bomb to try and blow up a tunnel to bury the Dalek army, so where they're going they don't need robes coats.

The disguised team get inside the Dalek base, and see that Wester has already bluffed himself inside by asking to speak to the Daleks' "section leader." The Doctor is somehow able to recognise Wester even though he is wearing the same purple coat as all the other Spiridons wear. And no, it's not racist to say that they 'all look the same' when they are all invisible, mew.

Wester takes the lid off the Daleks' bacteria tank and then goes

a classic example of a self-sacrifice. This makes one of the Daleks in the laboratory very unhappy and it says

"WE CANNOT LEAVE HERE. NO ONE CAN ENTER. WE CAN NEVER LEAVE HERE. NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!"

getting increasingly agitated as it goes on in a typical Daleky way. This is because the Daleks in the laboratory are immune to the bacteria, but none of the other Daleks have been given the antidote yet. They can't get the antidote without going into the laboratory, and they can't go into the laboratory without the antidote.

The (real) Dalek that came in behind the disguised team spots that one of the Thals has a visible boot under his coat and so cannot be an invisible Spiridon. It shouts out

"WAIT! YOU ARE NOT SPIRIDONS! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"

Cliffhanger! Cliffhanger! Cliffhanger!

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode Four

There is, unusually, no recap at all of part three, and this episode begins with the Doctor's plan succeeding and he, Taron, Codal and Rebec all lift off into the ventilation shaft. The Daleks burst into the room and say that our heroes must be hiding, because they don't think to look up... for a while at least.

They send for "an anti-gravitational disc" so that they can chase after our heroes, and we all know Daleks love chases almost as much as doggies.

Terry Nation, meanwhile, loves a countdown, so the Daleks find the Thals' explosives and set their timers going so they will explode. After the Daleks have gone, Jo sneaks in and changes the countdown timers. Unfortunately for her, a big rock then lands on her hed and knocks her out, leaving her in peril of being blown up when the countdown has finished counting down.

When Jo wakes up she makes an "oh noes" face before running off with two of the explosives, leaving the third to blow up the Daleks who have come back to check on why they haven't exploded already.

With a Dalek chasing them up the shaft (oo-er), the three Thals get to the top in the nick of time, but the improvised hot air balloon tears and drops the Doctor down part of the way, leaving him still in peril. Taron and Codal drop down ropes to the Doctor while dramatic music plays, until they can pull him up to safety. Then Codal and Rebec drop down rocks on the Dalek, sending it back to the bottom where, presumably, it will have to start the chase all over again from the start.

Jo meets up with the Doctor and the Thals. Their reunion is written in a slightly comedic way as the Doctor can't believe Jo is still alive:

Doctor: "Jo, you were on that Thal spaceship. I saw it destroyed."

Jo: "No, I wasn't."

Doctor: "But you were."

Jo: "No, I wasn't."

Having failed to catch our heroes, the Daleks turn to their backup plan. They have "A BACTERIOLOGICAL CULTURE THAT WILL DESTROY ALL LIVING TISSUE" and they plan to release it. I think they have nicked this backup plan from the Silurians.

The Daleks keep their bacteria in a container that makes it look a bit like a 1980s gunge tank. They say it will be "READY FOR RELEASE IN HALF A SPIRIDON DAY."

Taron is full of self-doubt, so the Doctor gives him some encouragement:

"The moment that we forget that we're dealing with people, then we're no better off than the machines that we came here to destroy. When we start acting and thinking like the Daleks, Taron, the battle is lost."

This is an odd line because it sounds a bit like the Doctor is describing the Daleks as "machines," but the Daleks aren't machines, they are aliens that live inside machines. And this was written by Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, so I'm sure he wouldn't forget a thing like that.

Vaber and Latep meet up with the others, so all of the surviving Thals are together. They plan to go to "the plain of stones" where it will be warm at night - sounds sensible, we cats like sleeping on the shelf above the radiator for much the same reason.

Jo teaches Latep about the strange manny custom of the "handshake," accidentally starting off a Doomed Romance subplot when Latep mistaiks Jo's friendly greeting for a manly handshake, which has quite a different meaning.

The plain of stones has its own set, dimly lit to build the atmosphere, and helped by the sounds of scary noises coming from all around our heroes. Vaber and Taron resume their argument about who should be in charge and what they should do, and they wrestle over it. Taron wins and says

"I am still in command here and, like it or not, you will obey orders. And believe me, Vaber, if you don't, I shan't hesitate to kill you."

While the other Thals are having sleeps, Vaber steals their explosives and goes off alone to try to blow up the Daleks. Taron and Codal go after him, leaving the others behind at the plain of stones, where they get surrounded by the spooky eyes of lots of animals in the darkness.

This would have been a great scary moment for a cliffhanger, but instead the episode continues for a moment longer. We see Vaber get captured by Spiridons, visible in their big purple coats. It would have been less embarrassing for him if Vaber had at least been caught by some invisible ones.

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode Three

I like the way it takes Taron a moment to react to Rebec's news, although I'm not sure if it is because he needs time to let the magnitude of it sink in, or if the actor needs the time to remember his next line. Vaber arrives with the other Thals who survived the crash-landing, carefully timing their arrival so that they didn't have to get paid for being in part two as well.

Taron shows his new friends, Marat and Latep, "an allotrope of ice."

Rebec: "A what?"

Taron: "Well, it's a form of ice that never gets hard. Codal is convinced that the core of this whole planet is a mass of it, because every once in a while the pressure builds up and the whole thing bursts to the surface."

Rebec: "Like a volcano?"

Taron: "Yes, but instead of white hot lava, this erupts with molten ice. We've seen it - tremendous explosions. The ice covers the jungle for miles around."

Now I'm no cat scientist, but I'm pretty sure there's another name for "molten ice." Taron, Rebec and Marat try and use the ventilation shafts Taron has found to get into the Dalek base, or "city" as they call it for some reason - maybe now they know there are 10,000 Daleks they think that means it deserves city status?

Jo is also trying to get into the Dalek base, which she does by hiding in a cart to be taken inside by a Spiridon (visible because it is wearing a big purple coat - presumably the SFX for having the cart move seemingly by itself would have been too expensive). They're two different methods, but both are classics - I'd expect nothing less from El Tel.

The Doctor and Codal put their escape attempt into operation, attaching the modified TARDIS log to a Dalek and making it go out of control. The Doctor says

"You know, for a man who abhors violence, I must say I took great satisfaction in doing that."

The device was borked in the attempt so that they can't use it again, but they do find Codal's gun pretty quickly. The Daleks may be evil, but they know and stick to the rule about keeping a prisoner's belongings close enough that they can recover them easily if they only manage to escape from their cell.

Jo has managed to get inside the base by now. She gets out of the cart without being noticed, even though a Dalek is looking right in her direction - it must have been having a cheeky sleep when it was supposed to be on duty.

A Dalek spots the Doctor and Codal (although given the Daleks' levels of perception so far this story they might have gotten away with it if the Doctor hadn't shouted "Back! Back!") and it raises the alarm. The Dalek it reports to takes this about as calmly as you would expect from a Dalek:

"ALL DALEK UNITS WILL REPORT TO LOWER LEVELS. MAXIMUM SECURITY SEARCH TO COMMENCE IMMEDIATELY. LOCATE AND DESTROY PRISONERS. LOCATE AND DESTROY! LOCATE AND DESTROY! LOCATE AND DESTROY!"

Taron's group meet up with the Doctor and Codal and are immediately chased by Daleks. Marat gets exterminated, presumably by a Dalek called Charlotte Corday, and the others have to lock themselves in a room to escape.

Codal: "Well, they won't open that in a hurry."

Doctor: "Never underestimate the Daleks, Codal. They won't let a little matter of a metal door delay them for long."

The Doctor knows that this is a perfect opportunity for the Daleks to do a classic slow-cutting to get through to them, and indeed that is exactly what they do.

Taron: "Doctor, they're cutting through the door."

Doctor: "Well, it was pretty obvious they'd do something of the sort."

The Daleks have recovered the Thals' map showing where their explosives are hidden, and make sure to discuss this loudly where Jo can secretly overhear them. Jo follows them out of the base, having a much easier time escaping than the others.

The Doctor comes up with a plan to escape from the room, and the base, by improvising a hot air balloon. It's at times like these that it's really obvious that Terry Nation would go on to write for MacGyver. While the balloon is filling up, the Doctor looks out a window and sees a Dalek army.

The balloon starts to rise, but when the Doctor, Taron, Codal and Rebec all hold on to it, they weigh it down too much. The Daleks, meanwhile, have completed their classic slow-cutting and start to politely knock on the door so that our heroes know they are ready and want to come in. Rebec panics and shouts

"It's not going to work! Doctor, it's not going to work!"

The Doctor grimaces, although it is not clear whether he is more annoyed at his plan not W-wording or at Rebec's lack of faith in the plan. Anyway, that's the cliffhanger. More like a cliffriser.

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode Two

It must have been very tempting for them to write a rude word or draw a rude picture on the Dalek, lol. The Doctor examines the Dalek and says it has "total loss of vision" which is hardly surprising when they have coloured in its eye. Also, by painting it black, has the Doctor just given that Dalek a promotion?

Jo manages to get outside the spaceship, then she collapses and drops the tape recorder for the TARDIS log, then she gets up and goes back inside. This is textbook Terry Nation, putting the clues exactly where they need to be for later on in the story. An invisible Spiridon follows Jo in.

Codal gets bonked on the hed by an invisible Spiridon wielding a visible log - not the TARDIS log though, one made out of wood. The CSO for this bit is really bad, I expect Barry Letts must have insisted upon it.

The Daleks find the Thal spaceship and decide to blow it up. The Doctor has found the TARDIS log and thinks Jo is still inside the ship (and so do any viewers at home who haven't seen this story before, or who are unable to anticipate the many clever twists and turns Terry Nation puts into his plots) so he tries to stop the Daleks, but they just capture him instead by pewpewpewing his legs - a very rare example of the Daleks using their weapons non-lethally, as well as a callback to the same thing happening to Ian in the first Dalek story.

The Daleks pew the spaceship. Oh noes, Jo is still inside it!

The Doctor is able to get up and walk right after the spaceship blows up, and he gets taken to the Dalek base and put in prison there.

The Doctor already looks fed up. Maybe that is because, although this is only the first time he has been captured in this story, he is mentally adding it on to the 10 times he was imprisoned in Frontier in Space? Or maybe it is that the sequence of him being put in prison goes on for slightly too long in order to pad out the episode?

Codal is also in prison there. The Doctor says he thinks Codal was brave to risk getting captured so that Taron and Vaber could get away, which leads to the two of them discussing what it means to be brave. This dialogue is one of the better parts of the episode.

Doctor: "Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know."

Codal: "What is it, then?

Doctor: "It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway. Just as you did."

This is a good message and is something we cats try to keep in mind when we are mewing at Hoover to make it go away. The Doctor remembers being imprisoned by the Daleks in previous Terry Nation stories, so starts looking for a way to escape, starting with the good old "let's take a look in our pockets" plan.

Despite having the sonic screwdriver (and he definitely does, because we saw him try and fail to open the door with it only moments earlier), the Doctor uses a normal screwdriver to try and turn the TARDIS log into a device.

Surprise! Jo is still alive and has been rescued by an invisible Spiridon. He treats the "fungoids" on Jo's arm, but she still sounds wary of him - I can't say I blame her, he still constantly sounds like he is making a creepy telephone call to her. He tells her that the spaceship was destroyed by the Daleks, to which Jo replies

"Daleks? Daleks here?"

Why is Jo surprised by this? Was she not paying attention at all during the last part of Frontier in Space?

Taron and Vaber argue about what they should do next, and Vaber pulls a gun on Taron to demand they do things his way. Their standoff is interrupted by another spaceship crashing really close to them, so they team up again to investigate, and find it was a second Thal spaceship. Taron talks to Rebec, the first of the survivors they find, while Vaber looks for others. Rebec says they came all this way just to warn Taron and his Thals about how many Daleks are on the planet (of the Daleks):

"The signal we intercepted was to Dalek Supreme Command. It stated that the force assembled on Spiridon was now complete. It gave their numbers. Well, somewhere on this planet there are 10,000 Daleks!"

That's a lot of Daleks! The BBC must have had complaints from the cats of 1972 about how few Daleks there were in Dave the Daleks, so they aren't taking any chances this time. No wonder this is the cliffhanger - the SFX mannys need as much time as possible to build all the props.

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks Episode One

Planet of the Daleks is the fourth story of season ten of Doctor Who, and the seventh of the Pertwee Six-Parters. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant. It was first broadcast in 1973 and was written by none other than Terry Nation, El Tel himself, as will be made continually obvious throughout since his pawprints are all over this script.

It starts with a recap of the end of part six of Frontier in Space, as though this were the seventh episode of that story instead of the first of a new one. We can only imagine and wonder at what it would have been like if Terry Nation had written an entire 12-part epic all by himself.

The Doctor has some nice Venusian furniture in the TARDIS, and Jo helps him lie down on the bed. Before he has sleeps, he tells Jo to record what happens "in the log" like she is Captain Kirk, giving her an excuse for soliloquising. For a change Jo doesn't think the Doctor is ded, because she remembers that something like this has happened before in The Dæmons.

The TARDIS lands and Jo goes outside "to try and find some help." She gets squirted at by some plants, getting some on her paw. Jo finds a spaceship and goes inside, where she finds a manny who goes 

as soon as she touches him. More mannys come in behind her.

Jo makes a token attempt at hiding but is found straight away by Taron and Vaber. Wait, Taron? That sounds a bit like 'Tarrant' to me. Good Old Terry Nation, he can usually be relied upon to put a character with a name like Tarrant in his stories - I bet he does the same thing in his next story too.

Jo asks them for help, and Taron says

"I'm qualified in space medicine. I'll do what I can."

This might be the most Terry Nation script of all time. Here's hoping, purr. Codal come in and tells Taron and Vaber that "a patrol" is coming this way. They plan to run away from it, but Taron tells Jo to hide inside the spaceship instead.

While Jo is hiding, things start moving around, seemingly of their own accord, although there is also the sound of heavy breathing, as though Jo is receiving a dirty telephone call from some naughty manny or, possibly, knowing what Jo's like, a naughty Dalek.

Something invisible makes footprints outside, which is either another callback to The Dæmons or else a way of letting us know there are invisible aliens in this story, solving the mystery of what just happened in the previous scene. El Tel knows better than to keep his audience in suspense about such things for too long - else we might find it gets too exciting for us so that we have to go and have a sleep.

The Doctor wakes up but he can't get out of the TARDIS. He runs out of air and collapses, but is almost immediately rescued by Taron and Vaber who open the doors from the outside. The Doctor recognises them as Thals, and tells them he has been to Skaro and met Thals before. Vaber doesn't believe him, but Taron says

"In our legend, there is a being... a figure from another planet who came to Skaro when the Thals were in their greatest peril, in something called a TARDIS."

This parallels the Doctor's earlier visit to Draconia referenced in Frontier in Space, except this time it refers to the events of a real TV story (and film). Taron sprays the Doctor with the antidote to the fungus that he got on him.

It then cuts to show that Jo has the same fungus on her, but nobody is around to give her the antidote.

The Doctor asks the Thals about the planet they are on. Vaber says it is called Spiridon. Wait, you mean the planet in Planet of the Daleks isn't Skaro? Confused cat is confused.

Doctor: "Any intelligent life forms?"

Taron: "Oh yes, the Spiridons. They're invisible."

Doctor: "I'd very much like to see one of them... I mean, I'd very much like to come into contact with one of them."

Lol. The Doctor and the three Thals don't have to wait long before they encounter something invisible. Codal hands the Doctor a can of spray paint, which must have still been cutting-edge technology when this was made because Taron has to explain to the Doctor how to use it:

"Point it in this direction, press the control on top and you'll see what we're up against."

Together they colour in... a Dalek!

So the first appearance of a Dalek is the cliffhanger - Terry Nation sticking with the classics, as we'd expect. It's hard to believe this was his first Doctor Who script in eight years, it's like he's never been away.