Episode 5: The Dead Planet

Synopsis:

The TARDIS radiation meter has gone into the danger zone, unnoticed by the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara. After tidying themselves up, they go outside to explore. The forest in which the TARDIS has landed is populated with trees which have become petrified. The soil is like ash. The Doctor deduces that no life could survive on this world. Susan finds a beautiful flower but it gets broken when Ian hears Barbara cry for help. She has come face to face with a savage-looking creature, lurking in the undergrowth. The creature is not of the Earth - being composed of metal plates - and it is dead. This confirms that they are on some alien planet.

At the edge of the forest they see an open plain, on which has been built a huge, futuristic city. The Doctor is determined to explore it, but it is getting late and the others wish to return to the TARDIS.

On the way back to the ship Susan falls behind when she finds another of the flowers. Someone touches her on the shoulder, causing her to run to the ship. 

Her grandfather dismisses her experience as imagination, as nothing could exist in the forest. Barbara is feeling unwell. The Doctor demonstrates the ship's food machine. 

They then hear someone tapping on the ship's exterior, and realise that someone or something does live in this forest. 

The Doctor is pressured into leaving this planet, but he sabotages the ship in order to explore the city. He unscrews the vital fluid-link at the base of the control console so that its mercury filling leaks out, then claims that he has no supplies of mercury on the ship to replace it. They will have to look for some outside - which means a visit to the city.

Once at the city, they decide to split up. Barbara and Ian go off on their own, with Susan accompanying the Doctor. All of the adults are feeling unwell. Everyone returns to the rendezvous point, apart from Barbara. She is being observed by cameras, and is being forced ever deeper into the bowels of the city. Trapped in a metal chamber, she is confronted by one of the city's inhabitants...

Next episode: The Survivors...

Data:

Written by: Terry Nation

Recorded: Friday 6th December, 1963 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 21st December 1963

Ratings: 6.9 million / AI 59

Designer: Raymond P Cusick

Director: Christopher Barry

Critique:

The first episode to be set on an alien planet, featuring an alien creature. This type of story will come to dominate the programme, but at this stage the series was experimenting with different styles of adventure - with no one genre intended to dominate.

The writer of the first story - Anthony Coburn - had also been commissioned to provide the second set of scripts. He offered "The Masters of Luxor", or "The Robots". Story Editor David Whitaker was busy lining up writers for later stories, many of whom worked for the same agency (Associated London Scripts). One of these was Welshman Terry Nation. He had tried his hand at being a comedian, but had been told that he was better writing comedy than performing it. When approached by Whitaker for Doctor Who, he was working with Tony Hancock on a tour. The comic thought a writer of his calibre should not be writing for "flippin' kids" - and Nation agreed. That night, Hancock and Nation had a huge argument over the introduction of new material, and the writer suddenly found himself sacked. 

Arriving back in London, he quickly contacted Whitaker to see if the Sci-fi offer was still available. As things stood, it was, as Coburn's scripts were no longer meeting with the approval of Lambert and Whitaker.

Nation found himself writing the second story, which he did quickly. We'll talk about the Daleks themselves next time, once they've appeared. Nation claimed he had forgotten about The Dead Planet, until friends starting phoning him at the end of the episode to ask what the thing was that threatened Barbara at the cliff-hanger.

The episode itself features only the four regulars. It's the first time we get to see them relatively relaxed with each other, during the food machine scene. It was implied that the TARDIS had crew quarters when the Doctor spoke about getting cleaned up at the close of The Firemaker. Another TARDIS device is introduced here - the Fault Locator. It identifies the fluid-link issue.

The Doctor is still a problematic character. So determined is he to explore the mysterious city that he is prepared to sabotage the TARDIS to get his way. He is prepared to lie and cheat, putting his granddaughter at risk as much as the two teachers. We don't yet know that the city is home to a malignant and aggressive force, but we do already know that the atmosphere is poisoned by radiation, and the travellers are starting to feel the effects of this.

The Doctor talks about the age gap between himself and Susan, and so he makes use of Barbara to speak to the girl after she claims to have encountered something in the forest. Susan has certainly bonded with Ian and, especially, Barbara far more than the Doctor has. He still sees them as unwelcome intruders into his world, and barely tolerates them. They are a hindrance to his explorations.

Ian and Barbara are quite accepting of the fact that they haven't been taken straight back to London, but don't have the scientific curiosity of the Doctor - being happy to move on as soon as possible.

Trivia:

• The first episode of the story which we now know as The Daleks. There are those who prefer "The Mutants", but ever since a 1972 story took that title, The Daleks has prevailed.
• This episode was first recorded on Friday 15th November 1963. Due to "talkback" issues on the soundtrack, the recording was deemed unsuitable for broadcast. This problem occurred when communications between the crew in the gallery and those on the studio floor was picked up by the microphones. A remount was staged between episodes 3 and 4 of the story.
• The remount proved to be of benefit to Ray Cusick, as he had been unhappy with the city model. This was built by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge. They were good craftsmen, but poor designers, and had translated his rough sketch too literally. The remount allowed a new model to be built.
• The original designer assigned to this story was future Hollywood director Ridley Scott, then a BBC designer. He wasn't available to cover the studio recordings, only the Ealing filming, which took place between 28th October and 1st November. Verity Lambert decided that, for consistency, the same designer should cover both Ealing and Lime Grove recording, so the job was reallocated to Cusick. You have to wonder what a Ridley Scott designed Dalek might have looked like...
• Doctor Who's first ever on-screen alien creature is actually the Magnedon Monster.
• Verity Lambert kept the Magnedon prop in her office for some time.
• The hand which touches Carole Ann Ford on the shoulder is that of Production Assistant Michael Ferguson, who would later become a director on the programme. He is also the person wielding the plunger which threatens Jacqueline Hill at the end of the episode. He was always proud to claim to have played the first Dalek.