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.