029 - The Tenth Planet

Broadcast:

8^th - 29^th October 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Ben, Polly

Adversary:

Cybermen

Written by:

Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis¹

Director:

Derek Martinus

Music:

Stock Only

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

6.75m (5.5, 6.4, 7.6, 7.5)

Summary: A mysterious new planet appears in the sky and is draining power from space craft orbiting Earth. Cybernetically enhanced men arrive on Earth wanting to take over as their planet is doomed, But the Doctor may be too ill to help either planet...

The Tenth Planet is an important and ground-breaking serial in many ways. It was the first produced in the fourth production block (The Smugglers was the first broadcast story of season four but had been held over from the end of the previous block), the last to feature William Hartnell as the lead and therefore the first to feature a regeneration. It was also the first real change in story style as Lloyd and Davis swung the show away from fanciful wonder and towards scientifically grounded drama. It introduced the Cybermen and the 'isolated base under siege' format that would be re-used for years to come, as well as a strongly international cast of characters working together. Sadly, the final episode is missing from the archives but thanks to a 10th anniversary feature on Blue Peter, the actual regeneration moment does survive, though it is very tightly clipped. A few other short clips exist thanks to off-air recordings and they provide a tantalisingly ropey glimpse at the build up. For the DVD however, the whole episode has been lovingly recreated as animation, though the lipsynch is somewhat questionable.

Running practically in parallel with The Tenth Planet was a four-part serial called "Talking to a Stranger" which would go on to be acclaimed as one of the finest British television dramas of the 1960s. Meanwhile, unemployment went up by 100,000 on the previous month (a rise of about 30%), the Montreal metro system was inaugurated and the United States made LSD illegal, even shutting down controlled studies. France and the Soviet Union signed a cooperation treaty for nuclear research, Basutoland gained independence, was renamed Lesotho and along with Botswana joined the UN two weeks later. Dominating the news however, must have been a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan which killing 116 children and 28 adults when the slurry engukfed a school. It was caused by an excessive build up of water and the previous disregard by the Nation Coal Board of warnings that the site was unsuitable for tipping. This lead to the creation of legislation regarding mine and quarry tips which had hitherto been unregulated.

In the cinemas were such films as The Chase, Fantastic Voyage, and the Elvis film Spinout while Jim reeves completed his five week run at the top of the music charts with "Distant Drums" and the Four Tops began their three week run with "Reach Out I'll Be There"

Oh and the current Prime Minister David Cameron was born.

The first thing of note about The Tenth Planet is the 'computer read out' styled title cards, letters flicker across the screen like a ticker-take print out until they resolve into the serial name and episode number. The second thing to notice is that Gerry Davis receives no credit for the first two episodes, though this was fairly standard practice at the time since he was also the story editor. Further credits that weren't as expected are Kit Pedler being named as "Kitt" for the first episode, Gerry Davis being named as "Davies" on episode three and the title music appearing to be credited to Byron Grainer due tothe caption being all upper-case letters and missing a space (So "BYRON" instead of "BY RON")... so although these are relatively minor points and most viewers wouldn't even be aware anything was wrong, it's not a great frame for the story to sit in. Which is a shame given how important it turned out to be to the series as a whole.

Although The Smugglers ended with a scene that teased the next story, as the TARDIS gets cold and the Doctor declares "We have arrived at the coldest place in the world!", The Tenth Planet opens with stock footage of a rocket launch and a brief scene inside the accompanying base. We then return to the exterior and see the TARDIS arrive silently - so not only is there no recap from the previous episode, there is actually a jump backwards to a time before the previous episode ended - kind of like the recap occurs but the viewers are shown what is happening elsewhere! Whilst it was not uncommon for new stories to start fresh, they wouldn't normally roll back like that. Ordinarily the shot of the TARDIS arriving would not have been used, though a shot of it already there would not have been out of place - the lack of a sound effect suggests that perhaps the latter was the intention because it would have been played into the studio live along with the film insert, but there would have been no sound effect to play if it wasn't scripted... but that is mere speculation on my part. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor notes that there is "quite an Arctic storm blowing out there" (though technically speaking they are in the Antarctic) and indeed there is, yet nobody thought to point one of the wind machines at the anemometer so rather than spinning around wildly it is pretty much static! The travellers dress for the weather, Polly returning from the glorious wardrobe in amazement, and venture outside, but it's not long before they are seen via a periscope and brought inside to the underground base... and so the scene is set.

What follows is a rather limited roll for our travellers. There is a long time between them being brought inside and being dealt with. There is an initial confrontation with the bawling American officer in charge (General Cutler played brilliantly by Robert Beatty who modified many of his lines throughout the story to inject some genuine American liveliness) to which the Doctor quips "Why don't you speak up, I'm deaf!" but once they are escorted to the control room they are merely sat in the back room and left alone for much of the first two episodes! On the plus side, this made it easy for Gerry Davis to adjust the script for episode three when William Hartnell fell ill with Bronchitis and was unable to appear in person. The Doctor was due to fall ill himself (or at least become weak) half way through the episode and be taken away to a bunk room with Ben when they start trying to interfere with events. Instead he was seen to collapse at the very start of the episode (played by a double with his back to the camera) and his lines were given to Ben in the form of "The Doctor said that..." references and, more subtly, to Barclay whose role in the story increased as a result. It seems strange that more was not made of the Doctor's weakness prior to episode three, given that it would ultimately result in his regeneration but perhaps there are lines lost due to Hartnell's absence which would have expanded it more than him simply collapsing and sleeping through episode three. However, even when Hartnell returned for the final episode the Doctor appears to have been presented as quite spritely again right at the start (despite his historic line stating that his body is "wearing a bit thin") and it is only as the episode starts to tail off that he really starts to struggle, the Cybermen may have been defeated but he says "it's far from being all over. I must get back to the TARDIS"... curiously, he locks Ben and Polly outside as he fiddles with the console which then mysteriously starts to go nuts with switches rocking back and forth on their own until the Doctor finally succumbs and falls to the floor. Presumably, in the process, the doors are unlocked because Ben and Polly arrive to see him regenerate, or at least find his body in a glow of light...

Although the main story has much more to it than that, the Doctor's involvement is merely by way of warning and predicting what will happen. It is unclear whether he actually knows or if he is just able to calculate, but he doesn't seem too surprised when a planet that resembles Earth appears in the sky or when Cybermen arrive from it to lead an escape/invasion before their planet collapses. It is unfortunate that this new planet could not be shown in colour because the very smooth two-tone model was not able to convey the fact that although the continents' outlines resembled those of Earth, the oceans were where the land should be and the land was where the oceans should be. It takes a bit of thought and focus to realise this is what it being said, otherwise it seems bizarre that scientists around the world disagree over whether or not the patterns are the same - north and south also appear to have been inverted but that just adds to the confusion. Ben plays a more significant role, tackling the Cybermen on a number of occasions including, rather curiously, when he gets taken away - he looks for something to defend himself with and picks up a screwdriver saying "Imagine trying to tackle one of these geezers with a screwdriver"... now a sonic screwdriver would be a different matter, but that was still a few years away. On realising there is a projector in the room he decides to try and blind anyone who comes in. As he switches it on for the first time he sees a Western and laughs "I saw that film twenty years ago" - the film is Wagon Wheels from 1943 so twenty years isn't a bad estimation, however the first episode established that the serial is set in December 1986, twenty years into Ben's natural future so it's probable that this is actually a joke and the specific film used is irrelevant (a twenty year old film would have been cheaper to use than a contemporary one and it's possible that the BBC had television rights to "Wagon Wheels" and may have broadcast it in recent times). It is also Ben who goes climbing through air vents (the first of several uses for the cliché) and tries to sabotage the launch preparations as well as realising that radiation from the rods in the nuclear generator can be used to defeat the Cybermen. Meanwhile, when Polly asks what she can do to help she ultimately finds herself making coffee for everyone!

The Cybermen are presented for the first time very differently to how they look today, or even how they looked through the 70s and 80s. Slight variations and developments came into play every time they were used, but their initial appearance was strikingly different. Of course, I can only say this in retrospect and for this review I really need to take them at face value and assess them in their own right regardless of what I know they would become... They are actually rather cumbersome costumes with a large box on the chests, below which is attached and huge gun that resemble a dentist's lamp and takes two hands to lift off and fire. The main body and limbs are silvery-grey and plastic looking with reinforced bands, shoulder plates and various tubes. Their hands appear to be human - although reports suggest that designer Sandra Reid intended them to have been gloved but forgot and had them painted silver at the last minute, on screen they appear to be plain flesh and not silvery at all (and this is how they have been illustrated in the DVD cover). As organic humanoids who have had most body parts replaced by machinery it is actually quite fitting and rather spooky that their hands remain the only fleshy part. The heads are dehumanised by stocking-like cloth with black cut-out eyes and mouth while their hair, in effect, is replaced by a metal cap with chunky tubes coming from the ear positions and up to a spotlight on top - a large spotlight that doesn't appear to have been used within the story. Sadly, this spotlight/tube configuration proved to be problematic and in one exterior scene one of them can be seen flopping about having become detached and has clearly been taped back together for the studio days. As characters, they are quit effective with semi-mechanical movements (often represented by slow moves with powerful strength) while their voices and fleshy hands present an eerie ghost-of-a-man nature. The voices are electronically treated but not so much as to sound truly artificial and Roy Skelton's sing-song delivery hints at unnatural phrasing but with a remnant of semantic flow. Unfortunately, this made it tricky for other actors to know when he had finished his line and when he was just pausing so there are occasions when the conversation overlaps awkwardly and, more noticeable, the Cyberman actor closes his mouth too early (their speech was represented by merely opening their mouth for the duration of the line rather than any kind of attempt at lip-synch). Curiously, although never mentioned in the script each Cyberman is credited with a name, something that would not be repeated.

Ultimately, the Cybermen's invasion plans are foiled and the scientists's plans to blow up their planet are also aborted and the natural course of events are allowed to play out... resulting in the planet breaking up of its own accord. All in all, The Tenth Planet is a story where nothing really happens and the main cast have little to do with it, and yet it is a fairly reasonable drama. The sets are very good and resemble contemporary mission control rooms and the Gemini space capsules that viewers would have been familiar with. The sets are all built with multiple layers to add variety and interest. It is just a shame that William Hartnell's health had lead to the his role being reduced in his last two stories as his relative absence is really noticeable, especially in this one. The series as a whole was turning a corner and slowly starting to improve and regain viewers as the figures above show (unusually increasing as the serial progressed) and they would continue to do so once Patrick Troughton took over and the Doctor could become more active again. I want to love The Tenth Planet for everything is gives to the show but it is let down in the various ways mentioned already so it is restricted to a score of 67%. The regeneration scene that ends the final episode is mystical and magical and the distorted dissolve between the two actor's faces is legendary (all thanks to a faulty mixing desk) and it leaves things on a high, so let's forget the troubles that have gone before. The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor!