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.

019 - Mission To The Unknown

Broadcast:

9^th October 1965

Doctor:

(William Hartnell did not feature)

Companions:

(Vicki, Steven did not feature)

Adversary:

Daleks, Varga

Written by:

Terry Nation

Director:

Derek Martinus

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

8.3m (single episode)

Summary: A rocket ship is stranded on a dark and fearful planet as mutant plants and Daleks close in. There is a grand plot afoot.

In the 1960s, television was a very different thing from today. Although Doctor Who was popular, nobody was making great lists of the stories or counting the adventures. Once an episode was broadcast nobody expected to ever see it again. Sometimes an episode would end in a way that expected you to watch the next to see what happened and sometimes there would be a sense of closure and you'd watch next week because you liked the show and knew things would go off in a new direction. Doctor Who stories generally fed into each other and although you knew when a new adventure started, there was no over-all title, just individual episode names. This all leads to an awkward pimple in lists and data sheets that would be drawn up in later years as fans (and BBC staff) started talking about the various adventures, because Mission To The Unknown doesn't fit neatly anywhere. Technically, it isn't an isolated story by itself, but it is surrounded by two unrelated adventures. In production terms it could be referred to as Galaxy 4 episode 5 because it has the same crew and was part of the same block, but it is an unrelated story with a different writer. But since it doesn't feature the Doctor or either of his companions it could be left out of adventure lists entirely... but it is a prelude to a later story and could perhaps be referred to as The Daleks' Master Plan episode 1, or if you prefer to count that story as 12 consecutive episodes starting 5 weeks after this one perhaps this is episode 0!

But as I said at the start, none of those concerns existed in 1965 when it was first broadcast. All viewers were aware of was that last week's episode concluded an adventure and the travellers wondered what was happening on the planet that now appeared on the scanner screen... In the news this week, more tragic deaths as first 150 train passengers died in South Africa then 209 fishermen from seven boats died in a typhoon. The Moors Murders finally came to an end as Ian Brady was arrested for the murder of Edward Evans, though police were still unaware of the previous killings. In lighter news Post Office Tower opened and would appear in Doctor Who 8 months later. Ken Dodd was still at number one with "Tears" while cinemas had the likes of What's New Pussycat and the not-quite-a-Carry-On film The Big Job featuring Wanda Ventham who would appear in The Faceless Ones (1967), Image Of The Fendahl (1977), and Time And The Rani (1987).

But the kids were excitedly expecting a new Dalek adventure...

018 - Galaxy 4

Broadcast:

11^th September - 2^nd October 1965

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Vicki, Steven

Adversary:

Drahvin, Rill, Chumblies

Written by:

William Emms

Director:

Derek Martinus, Mervyn Pinfield

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

9.93m (9, 9.5, 11.3, 9.9)

Summary: Two stranded spaceships are at war but urgently need to escape a doomed planet. The Doctor's arrival gives both sides hope but can he help save everyone in time?

Galaxy 4 has an interesting place in the Doctor Who virtual archive. It is the earliest story to have just one episode remaining (but of course Marco Polo is missing completely and The Reign Of Terror has two of its four missing), it is the first story of the third season (but was produced within the second season's recording block) and Story Edited by Donald Tosh (but he was also credited on The Time Meddler although little work was required because it was written by the outgoing Story Editor), it is also the last serial to be produced by Verity Lambert (but the 'Dalek Cutaway' episode Mission To The Unknown was truly her last episode, acting as a teaser episode for The Daleks' Master Plan), and its viewing figures increased with each episode rather than gently dropping off (not the first story to achieve this but the first since The Daleks). The missing first episode has nearly 6 minutes in tact thanks to the excerpt being considered for inclusion in Whose Dr. Who in 1977 (only 30 seconds were actually used but the rest of the clip was rescued by a production advisor) making it the largest remaining clip from an otherwise missing episode! It also has the dubious honour of containing the Chumblies as quite comical but sincere creatures (actually, they are robots) that are both adorable and pathetic... which sums up my general feeling for the whole adventure!

In the six weeks that Doctor Who had been off air, both the Maldives and Singapore became independent; America stepped up aggression in Vietnam with their first major ground battle and fighting flared between Pakistan and India while China announced it would reinforce its troops on the Indian border but a week later protested against Indian provocations in the area! Three natural disasters took over 300 lives - 90 by a Swiss avalanche, 76 by Hurricane "Billion Dollar Betsy" in New Orleans (the last major hurricane there until Katrina 40 years later), and the majority by a volcano in the Philippines. A further 34 lives were lost during race riots in Los Angeles, while 66 former SS personnel received life sentences at the Auschwitz trial. In the UK, cigarette advertising was banned on TV (though pipe tobacco and cigars continued until 1991), Elizabeth Lane became the first female High Court judge and Peter Watkins's drama-documentary The War Game due to be broadcast as part of BBC1's 'The Wednesday Play' was pulled following government pressure, concerned about its traumatically honest portrayal of nuclear strike aftermath - It would go on to receive a cinematic release, earning it an Academy Award in 1966 and was finally broadcast in 1985 (presumably thanks to the previous year's TV movie Threads which was essentially the same idea)

In the cinemas were two 'intelligent chimp' movies Bikini Beach and The Monkey's Uncle as well as a number of war films and westerns while future Doctor Who companion Bernard Cribbins could be seen in You Must Be Joking (along with many other British greats) and of course Peter Cushing was the Doctor himself in Dr. Who And The Daleks. The Beatles performed the world's first stadium concert at Shea Stadium, met Elvis Presley and released their second film Help! accompanied by an album and single which spend three weeks at number one. Other songs topping the charts were "I Got You Babe" (Sonny & Cher), "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (The Rolling Stones), "Make It Easy on Yourself" (The Walker Brothers) and Ken Dodd started an impressive five week run with "Tears". Meanwhile Bob Dylan shocked many fans by 'going electric' at the Newport Folk Festival.

Television also saw some classics born in the shape of "Tom & Jerry" and "Thunderbirds"... All this excitement and all Doctor Who had to offer its television viewers was the weak Galaxy 4. But let's take a closer look and understand why I say that...