NB: This episode no longer exists in the archives, nor is there a full set of telesnaps. Representative images are therefore used to illustrate it.
Synopsis:
Despite the risk that the Monk's directional unit might be incompatible and wreck his own TARDIS, the Doctor operates the controls. There is a blinding flash...
The Dalek time machine arrives on Kembel, where Mavic Chen arrogantly plays up the fact that he has succeeded where the Supreme had failed. A final meeting of the Galactic Council has been called, and Chen announces that he will lead it. After he has gone, the Supreme is asked by an underling when Chen is to be destroyed. The Supreme responds that it may yet have some usefulness for him.
No-one in the TARDIS has been hurt, but the Doctor grimly announces that the ploy has not worked. However, when they look at the scanner to see where they have landed, it reveals the familiar jungle environment of their hoped-for destination. The Doctor claims the credit, then goes outside to identify their precise location.
In the conference chamber Celation leads the criticisms over Chen's elevated status with the Daleks, as Trantis had once done.
Chen arrives with the Supreme and is allowed to take charge of the proceedings, which further angers Celation. He leads the others in a call for the arrest of Chen, who simply ignores their behaviour.
When delegate Gearon goes to physically assault him, Chen pulls out a gun and coolly shoots him dead.
Chen is now in charge of the Council.
Steven and Sara leave the TARDIS and go in search of the Dalek city, where they expect to find the Doctor. He has a compass-like device to home in on the complex. They are surprised to note an absence of Varga Plants.
Chen finds his leadership of the Council to be short-lived, as the Supreme abruptly curtails their meeting and orders them all to follow it.
They are shocked to find themselves locked in a cell.
After tracing their steps back to the TARDIS and finding the Doctor still missing, Steven and Sara decide to go back to the city.
There they see the delegates' spaceships at the landing area, but are curious to know where the Daleks' own fleet is.
As they approach closer, they discover that there are no Daleks on guard - and a search of the complex reveals it to be completely deserted. They worry that their enemy has moved to another, unknown, location from which to launch their attack on the Solar System.
However, they then hear a voice coming over a loudspeaker - that of Chen. He tells them that they are locked up and asks for help.
In the detention area, Celation suspects a trick by Chen as Sara is one of his security agents. He in turn is delusional - thinking she has come to rescue him personally out of loyalty.
Steven and Sara agree to free the delegates on one condition - that they go back to their respective star systems and prepare to fight the Daleks. After what the Supreme has done to them, they readily agree.
Soon all the delegate ships lift off, but Chen's is slow to do so. When it does, it explodes.
Steven and Sara then spot a lone Dalek and follow it. It approaches a nearby mountain and glides down a ramp into its interior. They realise that the Daleks have set up their main invasion force here.
Suddenly, Chen appears and aims his gun at them. He had set his ship to take off remotely then blow up.
He orders Steven and Sarah to precede him into the Dalek base.
They descend the ramp and are swallowed up by the darkness...
Next episode: Destruction of Time
Written by: Dennis Spooner
Recorded: Friday 7th January 1966 - Television Centre Studio TC3
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 22nd January 1966
Ratings: 9.8 million / AI 49
Designer: Raymond P Cusick
Director: Douglas Camfield
Additional cast: Bryan Mosley (Malpha), Jack Pitt (Gearon)
Critique:
As mentioned last time, the main events of this episode were originally scheduled to take place in the tenth instalment.
Episode 11 was originally titled "Return to Varga". After freeing the delegates from a cellar, the Doctor organised search parties to look for the Daleks. He then sent them all back home to prepare a new anti-Dalek alliance. He and his companions were about to leave when they spotted a lone Dalek enter a lift-shaft - which led them to discover the Dalek fleet.
The instalment never varied significantly from its draft outline to the finished episode - apart from one very noticeable thing...
After his brief appearance in the TARDIS at the beginning, the Doctor vanishes from the story.
The reasons for William Hartnell's absence are unrecorded. The Doctor was supposed to have accompanied Steven and Sara throughout. His lines were mostly given to Peter Purves, who in turn had to relinquish some of Steven's to Jean Marsh.
Luckily not a great deal happens in this episode so the team get away with it. Having the lead vanish in the crucial build-up to a finale - especially one this long in coming - could have been a disaster.
The episode sees the usually unperturbable Mavic Chen begin to lose it, psychologically. He has been calm and urbane for much of the story, with only the odd manic lapse (such as with Karlton in Counter Plot) but now his sanity begins to crumble - his delusions of grandeur really coming to the forefront.
Model work was due to take place on Friday 1st October, of the Dalek landing area and assorted spaceships. However, a number of the models - supplied by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge - failed to operate properly. Work for the early episodes was completed, but shots for The Abandoned Planet had to be deferred to Monday 4th October.
On the Thursday of rehearsals, Hartnell and Purves were released to carry out some filming at Ealing for The Massacre.
The day before, Douglas Camfield requested that his Production Assistant Viktors Ritelis be given an on-screen credit to acknowledge the huge amount of help he had given the show over the last few months. This would be granted for inclusion on the closing credits for the final episode. It was standard practice that certain members of the production of a programme would only be credited on the final instalment of a serial, despite having contributed throughout.
The episode opened with a shot of the TARDIS crew lying stunned on the floor.
To show the abandoned complex, images of Cusick's empty sets from earlier episodes were shown.
Most of the recording breaks were to move the Daleks from set to set.
The last shot, of Steven and Sara disappearing into the darkness, was recorded twice - the second time on film, to be used as the reprise for next week's episode.
Two small cuts were made in editing - some dialogue between Sara and Steven as they hunt for the Doctor, and the Supreme informing Skaro that they are ready to commence their invasion.
There is some confusion as to who designed this episode. Some sources - including BBC paperwork - claim that Ray Cusick was asked to return to work on the final episode in order that Barry Newbery could have more time to prep The Ark, so The Abandoned Planet was Newbery's last work on this story. The Television Companion claims Cusick designed this and the final instalment. The Complete History partwork, from the makers of DWM, has Cusick being asked to do the final episode only on one page, but then has him designing this one a couple of pages later, with Newbery back for Ep.12.
As the episode reuses some of Cusick's designs from earlier episodes, I'm inclined to believe that he is the person responsible here.
The day after recording, Hartnell celebrated his 58th birthday. Infuriated with himself over his inability to master lines the way he used to, he took his anger out on others. Another ploy was to act sicker and older than he really was. At this time he did not know that it was his arteriosclerosis that was affecting his memory. He was aware that he was ill, but had yet to be diagnosed.
After telling the Manchester Evening News that he planned to quit the role in 1966 - without informing his agent (his own son-in-law) - John Wiles and Donald Tosh had taken his comments to heart. Whilst he meant his announcement to force the production team to bow to his demands to keep him on the show, they saw it instead as an excuse to plan his departure. A forthcoming story by Brian Hayles, which was undergoing a lot of problems, would entail major rewriting from Tosh - and it was decided that this would be Hartnell's last. His wasn't the only planned departure, however.
Having contemplated his situation over the festive period, in January 1966 John Wiles decided that his fights with Hartnell and his dissatisfaction with the limitations being imposed on such a complex show were all too much, and he submitted his own resignation. He had never been comfortable in the role of producer, much preferring directing and writing. Mainly out of loyalty, Donald Tosh elected to resign with his boss. Both men had been frustrated in realising their vision for the programme, with Tosh wanting to collaborate with a number of other writers.
- The ratings continue to remain stable, with viewing figures rising to joint third highest for the story, though the appreciation figure dips to under 50 for the first time since the festive episodes. Only one more Hartnell episode will achieve a figure of over 9 million.
- The impulse compass is introduced in this story - a device which homes in on the Dalek city, so presumably detects technological emissions. The Doctor previously had a similar device which homed in on the TARDIS specifically, lending it to Ian on Aridius in The Chase.
- The episode sees the death of Gearon. He is taken to be the uniformed alien with a cloth mask obscuring his face and who wears a dome-like helmet. He wears a pale outfit in Mission to the Unknown, but a black one in Day of Armageddon.
- In the novelisation, it is Beaus who is shot and killed by Chen.
- A transcript of the conference and cell scenes mentions another speaking delegate - identified only as "Delegate" - who calls for Chen's arrest. As it is a speaking role, and only those with lines got a credit, this was almost certainly Malpha.
- Brian Mosley had previously played a props man in the Hollywood section of The Feast of Steven, under his alias of Buddy Windrush. He used this for stunt and extras work. Mosley would go on to be a regular in Coronation Street for almost 40 years, playing grocer and local politician Alf Roberts.
- A scheduling change by ATV London led to Doctor Who now overlapping the beginning of Thunderbirds in that region - prompting the Daily Sketch to publish a cartoon of a man sawing his TV in half to satisfy his family.
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