Doctor Who #133: The Tenth Planet Part 1

"Why don't you speak up, I'm deaf!" (The Doctor, hilariously, after being shouted at by an American officer)TECHNICAL SPECS: The Tenth Planet is not yet out on DVD, no doubt on account of its missing fourth episode, but Dailymotion has it. This will be my first time SEEING the surviving episodes, though I've heard to CD with narration by Anneke Wills. First aired Oct.8 1966.

IN THIS ONE... The TARDIS lands at an Antarctic base monitoring a space mission, and then the planet Mondas shows up and some really googly Cybermen.

REVIEW: Nice to see the show is still experimenting with unique title sequences, here following a space launch with computer code, a code I was surprised to see whizz by in the end credits themselves, along with modem-like distortions. Neat! The Antarctic base isn't so special, however. Oh, the outside is well done, with its surprising (if light-weight) hatch in the permafrost, and swirling snow flurries. The interior has rather a lot of television screens and that's about all I can say about it. And people with accents. Some bordering on national clichés, like the lascivious Italian or the obnoxious idiomatic American. Throw in a model sequence that really isn't the best the program has seen, lots of stock shots, and an upside down Earth spinning too quickly for science, and the Cybermen's first appearance might just be in a stinker.

It's not though. A story obviously conceived in the shadow of the space race, The Tenth Planet tries to imagine 1986 as a time when we'll regularly go to the Moon, and have astronauts of color. Well, one out of two isn't bad. Polly and Ben are rather excited about this space program stuff, as they should as proper kids of the 1960s. Polly's also loving the Doctor's wardrobe, but thankfully not pulling out the most awful costumes like Dodo used to. And she has an effect on the female-starved military men that Dodo wouldn't have. Ben fits this setting even better because he IS a military man, and quick to give name, rank and serial number too. But they don't get to do too much yet, not with all these guest characters to introduce (the usual problem with these base under siege stories). The Doctor knows too much about Mondas, so he seems suspect, but this is one of Hartnell's better days. It's hard to believe he would be too ill to work in a couple episodes' time, because he's really been sharp lately. Whole episodes go by without a single fluff. I'm already missing him.

And then there are the Cybermen, very different here than in any other story, but I'll leave my comments for tomorrow when they at least have some lines. For now, director Derek Martinus keeps the mystery alive, obscuring the aliens with a snow storm, and ending the cliffhanger on one's creepy bandaged face. The bit were one disguises itself with a borrowed coat verges on silliness, but they're otherwise effect. Now let's hear them speak!

REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Whostorians might make it higher because the Doctor's second greatest foes make their first appearance, but the generic international base of bad accents makes the episode rather ordinary-looking and sounding.