Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - Planet of the Daleks [VHS]

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Planet of the Daleks concludes the storyline that began in Frontier in Space and does so with a much more compact adventure, unlike the previous story's epic canvas. Here, the Doctor, injured by the Master at the end of Frontier, guides the Tardis to Spiridon to hunt for the Dalek base that is the headquarters for a galaxy-wide invasion. He must first recover his senses, ally himself with a group of Thals that are also searching for the base, and then destroy the base, along with its massive army of 10,000 Daleks. Although the adventure has enough action for most viewers -- especially an exciting chase up a ventilator shaft with the Doctor and his allies hanging on to a balloon while a Dalek hovers up after them -- the story sometimes seems a bit padded, and would probably have worked better as a four parter than the six parter presented here. A scene involving a campfire surrounded by unseen -- except for some unfortunately fake looking eyes in the dark -- monsters seems to go on forever, and doesn't raise suspense so much as it kills some of what's already been built up. However, the final episode more than makes up for this with an intelligent solution to the Doctor's problems and a fine exit for the remainder of the cast. Also on hand is our first viewing of the Supreme Dalek, a different model than the others -- actually one of the Daleks used in the Peter Cushing films -- which adds on to the already established Dalek mythology very nicely. Perhaps this video will appeal more to long time fans than neophyte viewers, but it's one of the better Dalek adventures that's still available to us, and, when watched back-to-back with Frontier in Space, makes for a nice, epic Doctor Who adventure. Note that the third episode is in black and white, but it makes no difference in either quality or enjoyability.

Part of being a "Doctor Who" fan is not only having a favorite story, but also having a favorite Doctor. Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, has always been my favorite. His charm, courage, wit, intelligence & personality, not to mention his fancy choice of wardrobe, has always endeared him the most to me of all the Doctors (though I love 'em all!). With "Planet Of The Daleks," Jon Pertwee is given his greatest adventure, and, in my opinion, it's the best "Doctor Who" story ever made. It's exciting & greatly entertaining, just like a "Doctor Who" classic should be.The six-part "Planet Of The Daleks" has it all: the best Doctor (Pertwee, in a terrific performance), the best companion, Jo Grant (the eternally adorable Katy Manning), the legendary Daleks, a great script by Terry Nation, a fine supporting cast playing the Thals (the space travelers who help the Doctor & Jo in their fight against the Daleks), and excellent set pieces in the Spiridon jungle, as well as inside the Daleks' hidden base. Terrific action & drama abounds, with nice bits of humor sprinkled throughout. Not once does this story ever lag, and it always entertains. What more could you WANT from a "Doctor Who" story?"Planet Of The Daleks" is solid, first-rate "Doctor Who," and my personal favorite story of the entire series. Add this classic "Doctor Who" adventure to your collection now. It's a winner!

Planet Of The Daleks picks up where Frontier In Space ended. The Doctor has been wounded and after being helped into the TARDIS by Jo, sends a telepathic message to the Time Lords before collapsing. After landing, Jo goes out for help in a hostile jungle where bizarre plants squirt nasty spores at her.

The Time Lords have sent him to Spiridon, described as "one of the nastiest pieces of space garbage in the ninth system. The vegetation is more like animal life than plant, creatures that are hostile to everything including themselves, and a climate that changes from tropical during the day to subfreezing in the night."

That analysis was given by one of a trio of Thals who rescue the Doctor from near oxygen starvation. They initially don't trust him, but they team up to fight against Daleks planning to master invisibility, that's a potential ten thousand Daleks who will conquer the galaxy if they succeed. Of the Thals, Tarron is the cautious leader, Vaber is impatient, wanting action, Codal is scared but courageous, and Latep, has a goofy look on his face when he sees Jo and is smitten.

The Doctor plays counselor to the people he met during his first incarnation. He gives the self-doubting Codal a "tutorial on bravery." "Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." When Tarron is worried that his lover Rebec being part of the team would affect his command decisions, he is told: "The business of command is not for a machine. The moment we forget we're dealing with people, we're no better than the machines we came to destroy. If we start acting and thinking like the Daleks, the battle is lost." And to the follies of glorifying war: "Be careful how you tell that story [of war]. Don't make war sound like an exciting or thrilling game. Tell them about the fear, otherwise your people might relish the idea of war. We don't want that." No, and neither should we.

The jungle set is really well-realized, as well as the design of the exotic plants. However, the creatures' eyes on the Plane of Stones are clearly lights flicked on and off.

Bernard Horsfall (Tarron) would play Goth in The Deadly Assassin, and Prentis Hancock's Vaber is a warmup for his role as Salamar in Planet Of Evil. Roy Skelton has double duty providing Dalek voices and playing the friendly Spiridon native Wester.

This is a fond tribute to the very first Dalek story, and that's what makes this story successful. There are repeated references and themes to the first Dalek story, beginning with his mention of how he, Barbara, Ian, and Susan, helped the Thals against the Daleks. Another is the Daleks disabling their victims rather than killing, and there are many more--see how many you can find. And since Episode 3 is shown in black-and-white (guess what the BBC did with the colour original?) that's a reminder of how old William Hartnell stories were seen.

I have little to add to the comprehensive reviews already recorded here.

I am in total agreement about this being one of the best Dalek adventures and as usual the realisation that there are too many episodes. That was one innovation of the Pertwee years that did not work, despite the good intentions. Stretching out the show to the equivalent of a full length movie is a good idea provide that you have the resources to back it up.

The other aspect of this is, as another reviewer has reported, the unfortunate and untimely death of Roger Delgado a.k.a 'The Master', the villain that everyone loved so much. This threw a major spanner in the works as the season in question, Pertwee's last, was essentially conceived of in it's entirety. Planet of the Daleks suffers from a continuity break due to his death and the following story, the Green Deathis conspicuous for having no continuity at all.

However, this has got pretty much everything, invisible inhabitants, Daleks, Thals, jungle, ice, monsters in the dark as in the 'Dead Planet', the works. There is of course the love interest and it is a little surprising when Joe decides to leave and return with the Doctor despite the obvious attraction she has for one of the Thal group which is clearly reciprocated.

There is one question that is not answere about Dalek mobility. It is not clear how they can travel around in the jungle or in the rocky terrain, nor is it accounted for in other stories.

Ultimately it does not detract from what is a great story and one of the best Dalek stories ever.

Originally transmitted 7 April through 12 May 1973.

For those fans whose only access to Doctor Who is by waiting patiently for the next VHS release, a long wait is over. "Planet of the Daleks" picks up after a cliffhanger ending of the previous volume "Frontier in Space." I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not seen it, but let's just say the Doctor (played here with his usual charm by Jon Pertwee) was in some dire straits.

It's been 4 years (!) since BBC/Fox video relesed the excellent "Frontier in Space," and now we can see the conclusion of that adventure. In this story, the Daleks are preparing to take advantage of the imminent Earth/Draconia war, a war they helped to provoke. As the Daleks prepare to thaw out a frozen army vastly increasing their numbers, the Doctor and Jo Grant join a group of Thals (enemies of the Daleks) to head them off at the pass.

This story by itself is not one of the best of the era, but viewed in conjunction with the far superior "Frontier in Space" it is truely epic.

"Planet of the Daleks" major shortcomings are (1) like many of the Pertwee stories it could have been shortened by one episode and would have been better for it, and (2) sadly Roger Delgado, who played the Master with sinister grace through many Pertwee stories, passed away after completing "Frontier in Space." As he was intended to play a major role in "Planet of the Daleks," many elements had to be reworked at the last minute.

But, any Dalek story written by creator Terry Nation has plenty more going for it to make up for any negatives.

If you are new to Doctor Who this is not the best place to start, but if you are a regular buyer and fan...well...you're going to buy it anyway, so put it in your cart already!

The Doctor and Jo travel to Spiridon in pursuit of the Daleks from the home of the Ogrons. Only when they arrive, it isn't a squad of Daleks they have to deal with, it's an entire army, waiting to invade the Galaxy! The sequel to "Frontier in Space" is like many sequels, not all that great! I don't know all the details behind the original script for "Planet", but Terry Nation really should have read "Frontier.."'s script, because what could have been a classic double six-parter, is merely a great six-parter, and a ho-hum six -parter filler. "Planet of the Daleks" has many things in common with Irwin Allen's "When Time Ran Out", a compilation disaster epic bomb with very little originality. "Planet..." is just that, a compilation of past Dalek stories(Nation's Dalek stories)with a new setting and new characters. It's nice to see the Thals again, but without Horsfall and Hancock, the rest of them are one dimensional stand ins. And the Spiridons themselves, good thing there isn't a lot of CSO! But, at least the Daleks are good. Better than "Day of the Daleks", that's for sure(even if there communication bulbs flash totally out of sequence). Let's not forget Episode 3. One has to wonder if the whole program was in this format it might be a little bit more successful. The scenes inside the fissure are well realised, giving a real feeling of claustrophobia. The production really isn't that bad, it tries so hard to be a classic(like "Resurrection.."), but it just misses here and there, and gets a little, well, like all Pertwee six-parters, dull. Love the "ice volcanoes", "molten ice"(and people want to complain about "Creature From the Pit" with Lady Adrasta and her monopoly of metal), very 70's!

This story does an astonishing job of making a small studio set for a jungle planet (which has a studio sky and the plants are in visible pots!!) seem like it is enormous enough to run around in while Daleks chase after you. The whole production looks second rate by even the cheap standards of 70s Dr.Who and the script is just another Terry Nation recycling of his earlier stories. But it still manages to be a lot of fun and adventure, especially if watched as the second half of the epic which began with the Frontier in Space.
One thing Nation writes is great first episodes (makes me wonder how good his stories could have been if he'd left out the Daleks altogther once or twice!). This one is great (though Terrance Dicks apparently rewrote much of part one). With the Doctor out cold, Jo gets to be the lead actor for an episode, recoding her thoughts in the pocket sized recording machine that passes for the Tardis log (the prop's just an audio casset box!). Jo explores and records her thoughts and observations and gets into trouble with invisible aliens and killer plants. Katy Manning must have enjoyed this chance to use her acting skills and it is good, if a little stagey. Pertwee ultimately comes alive and strolls through the rest of the tale with customary class. There's a few dodgy bits, but plenty to enjoy. Ignore the plot about 10,000 Daleks off to conquer the Universe with one space ship, it would take an army of trillions to conquer even a small part of a galaxy, but what the hey, this is fun in a Buck Rogers sort of way, and should be enjoyed on that level.

Although many elements in this story were taken from other stories like "The Daleks", "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", "The Chase", "Mission to the Unknown", and "The Daleks' Master Plan", this was a great epic adventure - mainly because many elements were copied.

Continuing on from "Frontier in Space", the Doctor has been wounded by the Master, and the Daleks are about to invade the galaxy! The Doctor tracks the Daleks to their new base, the planet Spiridon, where there are 10,000 Daleks in suspended animation - waiting to awake and take what they believe is their rightful place in the universe as the supreme beings. The Daleks have enslaved the local and invisible Spiridons who now serve the Daleks, but one Spiridon, Wester, wants to fight back against the evil creatures that have invaded his planet. Along the way, the Doctor and Jo join forces with a group of Thals who have arrived from Skaro to once more fight the Dalek forces.

Although "Frontier in Space" is still my favorite out of the two, this is still a great action-packed adventure that concludes the story that was set up in "Frontier in Space". The only down side is that Episode Three is in black & white. But if you want to pay a higher price and wait for the DVD release, you can get the entire story in color which includes a re-colorized Episode Three. Why didn't they do that for the VHS release? But in either case, if its on DVD or VHS, I highly recommend it!

when i first saw planet of the daleks i know i had to own it if you like the daleks this is a most in your collection, oh the doctor is good to