Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Planet of Evil (Story 81)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Season 13.
Zeta Minor is a planet on the periphery of the known universe.
But what is not known about it, is, it's also a gateway to the anti-matter universe!
(Nothing is ever simple in the Whoniverse!)
En route to London the TARDIS picks up a SOS call from Zeta Minor, the Doctor immediately changes course and land's there. (circa, 37,166)
Trudging through this densely jungled world the Doctor and Sarah come upon a Morestran military squad, searching for a geological expedition that has ceased transmitting.
The Morestran's are extremely suspicious of the Doctor and Sarahs explainations as to why they are there, but their conflict is about to be seriously interrupted when the anti matter world makes it's presence known to them - and an infected killer starts to stalk the ships corridors.
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Behind the scenes.
The real star of this story, for me, is not a Human character but the magnificient alien jungle set, designed by Roger Murray Leech. Later to design for feature films.
He suggested it should be shot on film at the BBC owned Ealing film studios, and not videotaped, to give it greater depth and realism, and it works for me. The shots in the TV studio have a noticeable drop in visual impact.
These scenes set in the Zeta Minor jungle have to be the most eerie and suspenseful in the shows long history.
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DVD Special Features.
"Commentary" - With actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Prentis Hancock, producer Philip Hinchcliffe.
"A Darker Side" - a 25 minute "making of" feature. With producer Philip Hinchcliffe, writer Louis Marks, designer Roger Murray-Leach, director David Maloney, actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Prentis Hancock.
"Planetary Performance" -(13 minutes) A look at the making of the story from an actor's perspective. With actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Prentis Hancock, Tony McEwan and Graham Weston.
"Studio Scene" - the only surviving behind-the-scenes footage from the story.
"Continuities" - continuity announcements and repeat trailer.
"Photo Gallery" - production, design and publicity photos from the story.
"Coming Soon" trailer.
"Easter Egg".
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Trivia:~ Ello, ello, ello what's all this then? Doctors aboard the USS Enterprise,well yes, kind of, check this out.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Neutral Zone, as Dianna Troi helps a woman from the past search for living family members the computer screen flashes up a family tree with the names William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker.
Maybe some Trek writers were closet Whovians?

As the BBC showed this story, ITV were showing the much more expensive; "Space 1999", but it was Doctor Who that won the ratings battle.
Airdate:~ 27/9/75-18/10/75.

Dr. Who was in its golden age when PLANET OF EVIL was broadcast in the mid-70s. Tom Baker had assumed his iconic role as the good Doctor and, now in his second season, he was really on form. PLANET OF EVIL was one of those great Dr. Who stories which was haunting, scary, well acted, well written, well produced and well realized. It was in short the classic hide behind the sofa story.

The Doctor and Sarah have materialized on Zeta Minor at the edge of the known universe. They arrive to find the skeletal remains of a human; all the life having been sucked out of him. Of course, the Doctor and Sarah are blamed. As it turns out, Zeta Minor is something of a gateway between the universes of matter and anti-matter. The creature responsible for sucking the lives out of people is something of a hybrid creature which lives in an abyss between the two universes and who is attacking people it seems because a researcher is intent on removing hybrid crystals from the planet for use as fuel in the human colonies. The Doctor returns the crystals, makes the creature happy and all is well again.

This episode is fantastic for anyone, hard core fan and casual observer alike. The BBC effects department did a fantastic job on the jungle for this story (it was done entirely in studio!). The story also featured three of the best guest actors in the series' history, Prentice Hancock as Commander Salamar, Frederick Jaeger as Sorenson and Ewan Solon as Vishinsky. I don't give 5-star ratings lightly - get this DVD!

PLANET OF EVIL is one of those DOCTOR WHO stories that is often better remembered for being better than what it is, and a large part of those good feelings and happy memories have to be laid at the door of some of the best set design ever to grace the series. A real planet seems to have been created here in this story. It's vibrant, colorful, alive, packed with every type of plant pulled directly from the imagination. It's got mist, it's got water, it's got madmen, it's got a monster (and a monster soundtrack, listen to it on the PHOTO GALLERY extra and turn the lights down low... very creepy) and the Doctor and Sarah are in the thick of it.

The story borrows heavily from the classics and you'll know them straight away as they appear, but, this does not slow or dull the story. It's refreshing to follow such a single minded and driven idea to the very end... the quest for power to save a people and a planet, but not for ones own gain. The balance of power, between the matter and anti-matter universe (which brings up a continuty question... could Omega have returned to the WHO universe through Zeta - Minor instead of Amsterdam?), the struggle of command, between a eager young commander and a seasoned warrior. PLANET OF EVIL has it all, but, despite that "all", at four episodes it goes on far too long, takes too long to get to the point and ends up just switching one well crafted location for the next. So, there are moments that drag and the fine line between intellectual suspense and HAMMER HORROR blur as the final episode comes to a happy close.

As usual 2 ENTERTAIN goes the extra mile in extras. They're not as heavy as previous efforts, but they still make the grade. Commentary with Baker, Sladen, Hancock and Hinchcliffe is very relaxed and a lot of praise goes to the set design and the overall look of the production. Sladen and Baker still have that chemistry, but this commentary is far quieter and more surface than others, and you will find yourself wishing that 2 ENTERTAIN would hire someone with facts and questions at hand to sit in with these people and keep the stories coming when it starts to flag.

The two documentaries are what you've come to expect, people not quite looking into the camera talking about the experiences while images from the show roll behind them. There is one STUDIO SCENE featuring raw footage from studio filming and is, sadly, very short and the scene presented to us simply has Baker and Sladen looking scared at a monster that isn't even there. I love these looks inside the filming of WHO and other releases have had much longer and more detailed footage, so, why cut it so short here? Text commentary is tight and fast paced. You will need a remote as some passages zip by pretty quick.

Also, this is one of the few stories where the Doctor loses the scarf for a long period of time and you don't miss it. Plus, a word on the box art... just what is they under Baker's chin and couldn't they have done away with it? It's so strange, so centered in frame that you can't help but get a laugh as it, especially as it seems Sarah can't take her eyes off it.

PLANET OF EVIL is a good DOCTOR WHO story. A straight line from start to finish, loaded with ideas, good performances and killer set design that will draw you back again and again. A must for the collection.

Inspired by both The Forbidden Planet and a little Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde mixed in, this is one fun story. The TARDIS receives a distress call and lands on Zeta Minor. Unfortunately, the Doctor and Sarah arrive to find dead bodies of a science team just as the rescue ship arrives. So both are arrested as the murderers. The backgounds used in this story are very cool looking! While they're in custody, more murders begin to happen. This really is a good story and is highly recommended for everyone.

A solid, quality production, of an often overlooked story in the early Tom Baker era. "Planet of Evil" is often overlooked not because it isn't a great story, which it is, but because it is in the middle of a run of Doctor Who masterpiece stories unmatched in WHO history. Even a great story like "Planet of Evil" can be overlooked if it is flanked by the likes of "Ark in Space", "Genesis of the Daleks", "Pyramids of Mars", "Brain of Morbius", "Seeds of Doom", and so on. "Planet of Evil" was produced in the middle of the era known to WHO fans as the "Hinchcliffe/Holmes" era, (after Producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and script editor / writer Robert Holmes) an era considered by many to be the finest in WHO history.

This story, from 1975, holds up remarkably well in a modern era accustomed to CGI special effects. The superb writing, acting and production imagination of Classic WHO in this era has the viewer's imagination overcoming any minor special effects glitches. Indeed, the new series of Doctor Who, in production since 2005, suffers greatly in comparison to this superb era of Classic Doctor Who, as even spectacular CGI effects cannot overcome sub-par writing and the obvious lack of imagination evident in many modern story lines.

To discuss this story scene-by-scene would spoil it for a new viewer, who deserves to experience this excellent story for themselves, so this review will focus on the extras that make this DVD such a great value. The many extras, along with this great story from WHO's finest era, include two documentaries, a photo section and a 1975 studio scene with Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen during the production of "Planet of Evil". Most interesting, however is the commentary and production notes that can be enabled during viewing. The commentary is with Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Philip Hinchcliffe, and Prentis Hancock, and will prove most interesting to the long-time WHO fan.

The new viewer should probably watch the show in broadcast form first, and return for a 2nd/3rd, etc viewing with commentary/ notes enabled. The veteran WHO fan, already familiar with the story, may well choose to view it with commentary and notes enabled. Be prepared for fun, laughs, some sadness, and many surprises as the commentary rolls along with the story.

A stand-out commentary for me, was by Tom Baker, about 7.5 minutes from story start. His poignant comment , to Elisabeth Sladen, was "I don't think I've ever been as truly happy....as I was then...with you Elisabeth". To which Lis Sladen replied, "It was such a good time...me too, Tom...it was great". Tom Baker DOES seem to have been at his best, when he had the reliable, wonderfully talented Lis Sladen to interact with. When Lis left WHO after "Hand of Fear", Tom's performances gradually moved toward less serious and more flippant. Viewing Lis Sladen as the solid foundation that Tom's "Doctor" worked best from, seems to explain his gradual downtrend, evidenced by his steadily declining viewing figures, in Seasons 15-to-18. With Lis Sladen, Seasons 12-to-14, Tom's viewing audience increased every season.

Oh, well, that's just speculation on my part. But the informative, eye-opening commentaries on the Doctor Who DVD's will often get the veteran WHO fan speculating in just such a way!

To sum up, the "Planet of Evil" DVD is a high-quality production at a good price. The extras alone are worth the money. Adding a superb story from Doctor Who's finest era, makes this DVD a bargain hard to pass by. By the end of the story, the viewer will be scratching their head, wondering why "Planet of Evil" is one of those WHO stories so often overlooked!

"Planet of Evil" is probably the moodiest and most atmospheric "Doctor Who" serial to come from Philip Hinchcliffe's tenure as producer. There's a scary monster only ever seen in outline; a dark jungle set dripping with reds, greens and purples; a near 100% fatality rate among the incidental characters; and a more somber than ever Tom Baker (sans his clownish scarf for more than half the story).

The story marks an interesting contrast against today's digitally animated and faster-paced "Doctor Who" episodes. The making-of featurette on the "Planet" DVD effectively contrasts the story's lumbering pace between a faster-cut moment from "Rose", the first episode of the new series. However, although "Planet of Evil" looks as dated as you might expect for something made over 30 years ago, there are still some interesting touches in the direction. Under the eye of David Maloney, who always brought something inventive to the camera, here we have multi-level sets and Hitchcockian camera angles stalking the characters from impossibly high up in the studio. The DVD extras give us 51 seconds of studio outtakes in which Maloney encourages Baker and Lis Sladen to scream and keep screaming while his crew struggle to bring the Chroma-key monster on-screen. It used to be said that this story influenced the movie Alien (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) and it's easy to see why.

Apart from a crisp DVD presentation, the story is let down on a few sides. The red-outlined anti-matter monster (a blatant homage to Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc Special Edition) disappears in the second half of the story, to be replaced by an ineffectively lumbering stunt double for Frederick Jaeger (playing accidental bad guy Professor Sorenson). The acting style is very stagey and doesn't hold up so well today; Prentis Hancock plays an emotionally unhinged starship captain without a hint of psychological subtlety. This is redeemed of course by Hancock's own contribution to the DVD commentary track, as he sets out such a compelling case for his character's motivation that it's a shame it wasn't incorporated into the actual script.

The rest of the cast is sadly disposable, as most of the starship crew serve the purpose of redshirts who have more effort put into their death screams than into their characters. The sole exception there is someone named Graham Weston, who adds some insight into the DVD extra features and whose character gets some of the lone grasps of comedy in the entire story.

Finally, the story itself makes little sense. Although Baker as always sells his explanation with terrific conviction ("Sorenson, if you don't remove the anti-matter from the ship you won't be allowed to leave this planet!"), the plot doesn't hold up once you start thinking about the story's core concept of a Jekyll-and-Hyde planet. Why does the anti-matter monster continue to kill even after the Doctor "promised" he'd return the stolen anti-matter crystals? How does Sorenson have an oral "anti-quark" antidote to the crystals' poison even before he's infected? Why does the captain not flinch (or even appear to notice) when his first three crewmen are killed, but suddenly goes nuts after DeHaan dies?

That said, this story's an obvious influence on modern "Who" episodes such as "The Impossible Planet" and "42", so it's hard to dismiss. One advantage to the classic "Who" episodes being released one episode at a time rather than season-by-season is that a story like "Planet of Evil" gets to receive deluxe treatment at the hands of the Restoration Team. With nearly an hour of explanatory material -- including a lengthy easter egg of producer Hinchcliffe narrating the story's production file -- any faults that may have developed in "Planet of Evil" after 30-plus years of repeat viewings are now easily glossed over.

In this compelling "Doctor Who" adventure at the edge of the known universe we have a perfect example of this show's gift for flirting with mediocrity only to come out shining. "Planet of Evil"--even the title sounds like a bad direct-to-video B movie. But don't let that fool you. Many a plot element shows visible traces of influence from prior tales in the genre, most noticeably "Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde"--elements that with the slightest mishandling could end up as trite, corny, plagiaristic, and, well, plain dull. But worry not. They are carefully and subtly invoked, reworked, and integrated into a thrillingly original and well-written story with consummate creativity and flair, not to mention a bit of the alchemist's touch for turning lead into gold.

The story is given quite a bit of depth and atmosphere by its convincingly rendered bizarre setting: Zeta Minor, a dangerously remote planet on the furthest fringes of the known universe as of the 37000's AD, a spookily surreal jungle world that makes Yoda's Dagobah look like your average backyard garden in comparison, and right in the midst of this lies an abyss linking our familiar cosmos of matter and being with one of antimatter and non-being. Something not to be trifled with lightly, which is of course just what happens, setting the story in motion. Civilization has exhausted its energy sources and is near collapse, and so a geological expedition led by a certain Professor Sorenson has come to this uncanny place in hopes of harnessing the supposedly limitless power of antimatter, enraging a mostly invisible but monstrous being from the other side and poisoning Sorenson himself in the process. And into this devolving disaster are dragged both a military rescue ship and (of course) the Doctor and Sarah Jane in the Tardis.

Here again as is often the case the writers for "Doctor Who" show an unusual talent for painting the portrait of a whole society of the future in all of its complexity with only a few deft lines of dialogue woven unobtrusively and organically into the script. There is also inherent in this adventurous tale an understated but definite ecological fable examining the responsibilities of the scientific enterprise in a manner delightfully neither preachy nor burdensome. Sorenson himself is the very archetype of the obsessed mad scientist, but what could have been a tired stock character is brilliantly enlivened and fleshed out by fine acting of the very first order. This is mostly true of the rest of the supporting cast as well: the stern but increasingly unhinged commander of the rescue ship, his quietly professional but compassionate second-in-command, and the guy always grumbling on the job. As for the main character, Tom Baker is in his heyday here as the Doctor, juggling humor and seriousness perfectly and sucker-punching a man without giving the impression of violence, and his rapport with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane is also at its peak--the wittily barbed yet friendly banter between them throughout the story is priceless. Finally, special effects are never a deciding factor in "Doctor Who" but the semi-invisible antimatter creatures and the make-up for the mutated version of Sorenson are cleverly rendered through good old fashioned professional craftsmanship without the benefit of CGI and hold up remarkably well still; as for the spaceship model, well, okay, you can tell they tried.

This is not a pivotal tale. Nobody regenerates, no companion joins or departs, there are no Dalek invasions nor revelations of Gallifrey. But in a way that's all for the better. Instead, "Planet of Evil" is a stellar example of just how enjoyable and entertaining "Doctor Who" can typically and reliably be on a regular basis.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane have recived a rescue signal from the planet called Zeta Minor. There they have found a sicentist by the name of Professor Sorenson sole survior of an eight man team looking into new sources of power. Also picking up the signal is a military ship that has landed and wants to know what is going on. The Dcotor discovers that the deaths were the result of an anti-matter monster. Sorenson had taken a number of samples near a pit that acts as a gateway to the anti-matter universe and our own. Salamar military leader onboard has Sorenson and is determined to get him back safe with his new discoery and take the Doctor and Sarah and stand for the murders of the other on Zeta Minor, but the ship has stopped in mid flight. The Anti-matter beings have them and want what is there's. Worse Sorenson has consumed some of the samples and seems to be changing and ready to kill all those on board. Can the Doctor save the ship and the universe from an inivaion brought on be revenge from the anti-matter universe? You'll have to watch and see in "The Planet of Evil".

"Planet of Evil" brilliantly showcases the work of designer Roger Murray-Leach, whose previous work included "The Ark in Space" and who would go on to design perhaps the most stylish and atmospheric Doctor Who story ever, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang." The jungle he built for "Planet of Evil" on a shoestring at Ealing Studios is one of the best sets ever done for Doctor Who and constitutes almost a character in itself. Compare Murray-Leach's Zeta Minor to the set for any alien planet you can remember from Star Trek and you will begin to understand why Doctor Who is indeed the greatest science-fiction series ever created.

The story itself borrows heavily from two sources, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and the sci-fi movie classic "Forbidden Planet," which in turn borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." The Doctor and Sarah respond to a distress call from the planet Zeta Minor at about the same time a military mission from the planet Morestra arrives to rescue a team of stranded research scientists. Something is killing the scientists one by one, and by the time rescuers arrive, the only remaining survivor is Dr. Sorenson (Frederick Jaeger), who is obsessed with the properties of strange crystals found on the planet.

The killer is an anti-matter monster retaliating for Dr. Sorenson's theft of crystal samples from a pit that serves as a gateway between the two alternate universes. The Morestrans suspect the Doctor and Sarah are responsible for the deaths of the scientists and later members of the rescue team. So the plot is a fairly simple one: the Doctor and Sarah must convince the Morestrans of their innocence and then persuade them to leave the crystals behind so their ship can escape Zeta Minor.

Meanwhile, exposure to the the crystals is transmuting Dr. Sorenson into a Hyde-like monster who is also killing members of the Morestran crew. "Planet of Evil" posed a singular acting challenge to the cast because the anti-matter monster is essentially a special effect created by color separation overlay who never really makes contact with his victims. The actors have to interact with a monster that's never really there.

This was Elisabeth Sladen's favorite Doctor Who story, and it's easy to see why: she was allowed to work on an actual set rather than run around in a quarry; the supporting cast, an ensemble handpicked by director David Maloney, was uniformly excellent; and her interaction with Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor was never more natural.

A distress call broadcast by an expeditionary research and mining group on Zeta Minor, at the fringe of the Universe, is detected by their rescue ship and by The Doctor [Tom Baker] and Sarah Jane Smith [Elisabeth Sladen] as well. The Doctor and Sarah arrive first in The Tardis only to discover the dehydrated corpses of the Zeta Minor party lying about here and there.

When the rescue team subsequently shows up the lone living member of the group, a somewhat addled research professor, reveals himself. The Doctor and Sarah are immediately accused of the murders and the spaceship rescue crew leader orders the confinement of the two... but they soon escape their captors by running into the surrounding surreal and swampy jungle.

The professor has secretly discovered a cache of anti-matter which he views as necessary to his home planet, where the sun is dying, to provide necessary energy. But he doesn't realize the vast danger of removing it from the edge of another dimension on which the planet borders.

As night falls an energy being, the creature responsible for all of the killing to that point, emerges from its jungle pit to reclaim the professor's anti-matter cache. The spaceship, carrying The Doctor and Sarah, attempts to leave the planet. The ship doesn't progress very far before the creature begins to retrieve it, along with everyone on board. The group leader and The Doctor remain at odds on who stands responsible for all the deaths as well as the issue of how to best escape from the planet... but more killings follow and the energy creature is nowhere around!

Script Editor Robert Holmes and Producer Philip Hinchcliffe were, by their own admissions, ever quick to snatch tidbits from prior literary and film works, subsequently feeding them to the various screenwriters for the Doctor Who series. In this instance one can readily detect snippets of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season One (Remastered Edition), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The War of the Worlds, and, Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc 50th Anniversary Edition).

The bizarre and creepy jungle, designed by Roger Murray-Leach, represents one of the hallmark features of the story. The supporting cast includes Frederick Jaeger, Ewen Solon, Prentis Hancock, Graham Weston, Louis Mahoney, Michael Wisher, Terence Brook, Tony McEwan, Haydyn Wood, and Melvyn Bedford.

The four episodes of the story run for a total time of 94 minutes. The story was directed by David Maloney, written by Louis Marks, and the original score was composed by Dudley Simpson. These episodes originally aired in September and October, 1975.

Highly recommended for fans of the genre.