thetenth pianet - wordpress.com · 2011. 2. 18. · overshooting, burning up, or exploding. it is...

Seven Who fans out of tenwould probably suggest The TenthPlanet 4 to be the missing episodethey would most like to seerecovered. This is somewhatsurprising given that most fanshave probably not seen The TenthPlanet 1-3, unavailable on BBCVideo or (to our knowledge) UKGold, and as such have little ideaof the quality of the production.We recently viewed a fanproduced copy, cornpnsmgepisodes one to three, plus thesoundtrack to episode four marriedwith loosely appropriate imagesfrom the first three episodes, theJohn Cura telesnaps and such filmfootage as survives.

The tenor of the piece is verysimilar to The War Machines, theprevious season's concludinginstalment, which is notparticularly surprising since eachwas written by the Gerry Davisand Kit Pedler partnership. Thestory is set in the then-futuristicworld of 1986. A tenth planet,Mondas, is discovered movingtowards Earth; it has alreadypassed Mars before it is detected.It begins to drain Earth's energyby some unexplained device, andCybennen take control of keypositions, including the Antarctictracking base, Snowcap, where theTARDIS has recently landed.Interesting stabs are made atcreating the future - we see amultinational community at thebase and at Space Control inGeneva. The attempt is brave but,alas, some of the accents can'tquite come up to scratch (theworst being that of Tito, a guardwho establishes his Italiancredentials by calling Pollybellissima). The Cybennen,however, show excellent taste andin the course of the story succeedin killing off every major characterwithout a British accent (ratherlike the feminism of The Caves ofAndrozani, in which everyonemale - the Doctor included - kicksthe bucket). It's also worth noting(as The Discontinuity Guide pointsout) the absence of any women in

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THE TENTH PIANET

positions of power in this bravenew world - perhaps the mostaccurate prediction made in TheTenth Planet of how 1986 wouldactually turn out to be.

The near-realism of the script iscarried into the set design, whichis, for the most part, convincingrather than spectacular. The mainset, the tracking room, follows thefamiliar pattern of rows of deskslined up behind one another. TheAntarctic exterior is surprisinglywell realised: the fake snow ismore convincing than that of TheSeeds of Doom a decade later. Weprobably have the forgiving blackand white medium to thank forthis. The least impressive elementof the visual design is the"futuristic" hatch into theSnowcap base, a pyramid whichopens along its four sides.

The script has some pretensions toscientific accuracy, such that theorbiting spacecraft must choosetheir moments to land, and do soat the correct velocity, for fear ofovershooting, burning up, orexploding. It is made clear thatfuel is used to change speed,rather than simply to keep going,as on Earth. The eponymousbody's existence is first hinted atby the effects of its gravity on aspace capsule, echoing thediscoveries of Neptune and Pluto.We see very little of the cybership,since although some film of itsurvives from episode four, this ismostly confined to close-ups ofPolly and the Doctor, and is ofrather low quality in any case.Nevertheless, the model shot ofthe ship landing, in episodes oneand three, is considerably betterexecuted than those in TheMoonbase: no visible wires.

Some of the technologicalelements seem ridiculous today.Ben leaves a uranium fuel rodlying around in a corridor, and atno time does anyone caution himagainst radioactivity. It seemssomewhat over-literal of theproduction team to resolve that thetwinned nature of the planetsshould be shown by givingMondas land-masses equivalent toour own but...upside down.Unfortunately, in order for thecharacters to realise this within 24hours, when Mondas appears onscreen, it is seen turning at aboutone revolution every two seconds,43 200 times faster than its "twin"Earth! Nevertheless, the spacetracking aspect of the story isconvincingly done, and as such itcarries the first episode very well.

The Cybennen themselves maketheir entrance at the conclusion toepisode one. The stock "cyber-music" accompanies them, and it'sinteresting to think that whereasthis is a signal to Nineties fans ofthe presence of the giants, it wouldhave had the same effect forviewers of, say, Tomb, who hadalready seen The Tenth Planet andThe Moonbase. Possibly the mosteffective feature of these earlyversions is their human hands, ahorrifying emphasis of theirformer, human, nature. The hugelamps on their heads make themappear huge: truly giants. Theirvoices, however, are ludicrouslycamp, and not properlysynchronised with the actors' oralmovements. Although theseCybennen have more individualitythan their later counterparts,having names, their alien nature ismade absolutely clear throughKrail's puzzled reaction to humanfeelings: "Why should I care?"

The cast in general give the piecetheir best shot, and are, like thescenery, convincing without goingover the top. I had the impressionfrom the novelisation that Cutlerwas a paranoid madman, butRobert Beatty's performance

reveals a man obviously afraid forhis son, and willing to go toalmost any lengths to save him,but always sane. David Dodimeadis very good as the put-uponBarclay. However, the actinghonours, surprisingly, go toHartnell. He is always convincingas the Doctor, from hisastonishingly authoritativeperformance in the first twoepisodes to his crumblingvagueness in episode four, as hisfirst Change comes on. The onlyobvious manifestation of hisillness is his absence from episodethree, when the Doctor collapses(eerily reminiscent of The DalekInvasion of Earth 3) and Benstarts saying lines beginning, "TheDoctor said that..." This isunfortunate, as the third episode isleft without an anchor. It issomething of a transition piece, assince the first cyber-invasion hasbeen foiled, our heroes wait forthe next. Rather than beingsuspenseful, the waiting is ratherdull, a shame after the first twoparts, which are alwaysinteresting.

With Hartnell veering in and outof the action, much of hisworkload is shifted onto Ben andPolly, perhaps the least knowncompanions in Doctor Whohistory because of the wiping of somany of their episodes. Ben isactually rather good despite therather off-putting premise of hisbeing a cheerful Cockney sailor.Michael Craze makes him aconvincing, likeable character andindeed he effectively carries theshow in the Hartnell-less episodethree. As for Polly, we can seehere a fairly blatant attempt to getthe fathers of those childrenwatching the show to pay attentionto the TV themselves, long before

the days of Leela or Peri. AnnekeWills herself is rather good, butshamefully underused,contributing absolutely nothingbeyond being taken hostage andmaking coffee (is it significant thatthe beverage of choice of hersuccessor, Victoria, as revealed inThe Web of Fear 2, is tea?Probably not). Then again, tocontribute very little to the plotwas the fate of virtually all femalecompanions from Vicki toVictoria (with the exceptions ofSara Kingdom, and Victoria'simpressive role as a secret agent inThe Enemy of the World 2-3). Somaybe it's a little unfair to singleout The Tenth Planet for this kindof criticism.

The reconstructed episode four onthe version we saw was obviouslya labour of love. Footage culledfrom the first three episodes faroutweighed the use of stilltelesnaps. While making for somevariety of viewing, this can bedistracting. At first the lack of lip-synching makes one imagine oneis watching a dubbed Japanesefilm, and the recurrence ofparticular film sequences can be alittle wearing. Nevertheless, this isa more than competent effort, andprobably the closest that we cancome to seeing the production asthe makers intended. It wasparticularly exciting to see cine-film clips from episode four on thetape other than the well-knownregeneration sequence, althoughthese were mostly close-ups. Onesurviving clip, however, shows theimpressive effect achieved in theTARDIS set simply by use offlashing lights, reflecting theDoctor's confusion.

All in all, then, a highly competentproduction. The third episode israther slow, and it would be niceto have the fourth back, but thefirst two, at least, are solidly worthwatching, and the epoch-makingevents of the last few minutesamply repay listening to. When theDoctor scampers back to theTARDIS and almost leaves hiscompanions behind he appears tobe suffering from what we mightcall an early case of post-regenerati ve shock ...

For more information onTelesnap Reconstructions, seethe website at:

http://members.aol.comldwundergrd/

Reconstructed versions of manystories are available, sometimes inmultiple versions. Some of these(as The Tenth Planet) use clipsfrom surviving episodes, others"simply" present telesnaps over thesurviving soundtrack.

For whatever reasons, manyepisodes of Doctor Who werewiped in the sixties and seventies.Although there are some survivors(see back cover), many storiesremain incomplete. Naturally BBCVideo prefers to market completestories rather than fragments (at hisHT 98 visit to the society, BBCWho supremo Steve Colementioned that the Years tapes didnot sell as well as hoped). There is,however, a "black market" amongfans, passing around copies of theunreleased episodes. This is, ofcourse, not strictly legal, but donein good spirit and, of course, nonprofit-making.

Alastair Harrison andDavid Bickley

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