Devil's Planet - a Review

The interim episode of The Daleks Master Plan already exists in the archives, so we move on to the Doctor's escape from Kembel in Mavic Chen's purloined Spar 7-40 space yacht. Bret is at the controls, with Steven and Katarina also on board.

The Daleks use a device to randomise the ship's controls, causing it to crash land on the planet Desperus - the "Devil's Planet" of the title, as it is a hellish penal colony.

This is the first of the "adventures within the adventure", helping the story span its 12 weeks. Terry Nation had previously given us the quest story The Keys of Marinus, in which the travellers encountered mini-adventures in different locations across the planet in search of the titular keys; and The Chase, which again saw self-contained incidents within the larger narrative of the Dalek pursuit. (Episodes 5 - 10 of this story will end up following the same pattern as The Chase, with a Dalek time machine pursuing the TARDIS).

In this episode, the Doctor is separated from the TARDIS and having to rely on Bret's piloting of the Spar, before the Daleks intervene.

This was more of a mystery, visually, than The Nightmare Begins. We do have a bit of a clue as to the ending of the episode, as the shocking resolution to the cliff-hanger survives thanks to Blue Peter (though it was nice to see more of the ship's interior. I liked that huge round porthole / screen, and there was our old friend, the Morok Freezing Machine prop, as well).

There was also a lengthy clip of the Daleks first attacking the Spar with their randomiser, as its occupants are told by Bret about the planet they are being diverted towards.

The bulk of the instalment takes place on Desperus, and we have always had very little idea about this world. 

One thing I wanted to know was just how different they had managed to make the sets look from those of Kembel (bearing in mind that Mira is also just around the corner). 

There's one photograph of a Screamer I know of, but it's just a black shape at the top of a blurry image, and there are only a handful of images of the hirsute convicts themselves.

I wanted to see how the Screamers were realised, and also if the episode featured any model shots.

Mavic Chen gets to appear in two scenes - the execution of Zephon, and a later one where he first starts letting slip his arrogant attitude towards the Daleks before returning to Earth.

When the Master of the Fifth Galaxy perishes, we see Chen casually leaning nearby, studying a Dalek monitor - not even bothering with what's just happened. 

The Dalek control room contains lots of equipment dating back to their first appearance.

For some reason I felt sure that at least some of the other Planetarians featured this week, witnessing Zephon's demise, but it's another episode in which they don't appear.

Sadly the Screamers turn out to be just wing shapes being flapped about above the actors' heads.

And as for all the spaceship action in this episode, we do get a shot of the Spar in space, but all the other stuff is simply 'noises off'.

Desperus is rendered different from Kembel, being more sparsely forested. 

One nice shot is a landscape view of the planet as seen by the Doctor and Katarina - a painting of mountainous terrain with three small lights superimposed, indicating the torches of the approaching convicts. I noticed they all have a big letter "D" on the back of their overalls, to indicate their destination.

Courtney has less to do this week but I do enjoy his sardonic humour, and it's very much a pity that he couldn't have been retained for more of the story. 

Hartnell is still great to watch, though he does have a little difficulty with his lines in this episode.

"The Daleks will stop at anything to prevent us..." for instance.

There's a little silent character moment for the doomed Katarina, as she is fascinated by the stars on one of the monitors.

The interplay between Steven and the Doctor, and between Steven and Bret, is also nice to observe.

Overall, whilst it's fantastic that these two episodes are safely back, and that we have been able to enjoy them so quickly, you do come away with a disappointment - because you really, really want to watch the rest of the story even more now. At least these episodes come from the start of the story, and can be linked by the already surviving second instalment. For me the first half of The Daleks' Master Plan is by far the superior half. 

Oh, for The Traitors...