Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Planet of Evil [VHS]

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4 star:		(7)
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In this extremely well directed story with Hammer-like flourishes, The Doctor (Tom Baker) explores a lush alien jungle on a planet at the edge of the known universe. There, Professor Sorenson (Frederick Jaeger), engaged in experiments to harness the power of anti-matter, has unleashed a terrible anti-matter beast that threatens the men onboard the ship sent to rescue him. The alien planet is extremely well designed, and the scenes involving the anti-matter monster leave the viewer with a genuine sense of dread. There are also some very nicely directed sequences involving The Doctor falling into the anti-matter pit. As the anti-matter monster divides itself and attacks from all sides, the claustrophobia and tension increases, making one frequently look behind oneself. In an midst of a very well done Forbidden Planet remake, we have a terrific and genuinely frightening story with nice special effects for the era.

This is one that had me jumping behind the couch when I was 10. Though some reviewers write this story off as rubbish, its one of my personal favorites. I think its because, like much of Hinchcliffe's Who, time and effort go into generating suspense and horror through image, through what we see as much as through plot and character, the two complementing each other, and the story being propelled as much by image as dialogue. The hideous, pig brained "Peking Homonculous" in the Talons of Weng Chiang is a good example of this.

In Face of Evil, potent images of horror abound. Examples include the perpetual twighlight of the forest, the red, purple and black tones dominating the production design, in the fact that we don't see the monster at first, only its effect on the environment (an idea that resurfaced, along with the plastic jungle, in the similarly titled "Face of Evil.") There also is palpable fear generated by surveyors' scruffiness and dirtiness, their desperate rushes through the haunted wood, and the horrific look of their wizened corpses after the monster gets them. The look on Sarah's face when the monster almost gets her is another terrifying (to the 10 year old inside us all) image used in this story.
And the terror is relentless. The suspense builds as the action shifts to the Morestran spaceship. Sorenson's glowing eyes after he morphs into "anti-man," the steaming potion he must gulp (like Dr. Jeckyll) to keep his demons at bay, the corpses ditched from the ship plunging into the endless loneliness of deep space.... all unforgettable images terrifying to the mind of an imaginative 10 year old.
If there was a secret to Hinchcliffe's success as a producer it was this.

Another appealing quality of the Face of Evil is its ending. We get the right sort of closure and denoument, providing the necessary antidote to terror, and thus making it a horror story suitable for kids....(read no further if you're worried by the ending being spoilt.) Sorenson survives, his life is spared by the antimatter force, indicating it is not evil as the title suggests, only misunderstood.
Some Who fans think Sorenson's survival is absurd, out of kilter with his crimes and irresponsibilities, forgetting that ethically speaking, the need to save a dying planet outweighs the deaths of afew individuals. Furthermore, Sorenson's survival is necessitated by the dramatic logic of the script....the Morestrans must have, at the very least, a chance of overcoming the problem of their dying sun for the horror to be truly assuaged. The Doctor empathises with Sorenson, as a fellow scientist and traveller, and suggests alternative sources of energy for his planet.

The moral questions raised by this story exemplify what I like most about Dr. Who (and other great science fiction.) Though the show has a fantastic setting, it is preoccupied with our own moral universe.

Sometimes reviewers forget that Dr Who was a show devised to scare children (in a way that all children want to be scared, in the comfort and safety of their living rooms) and start expecting ridiculously high standards. They want perfect acting and special effects, hole-less plots....they forget that the "feeling tone" i.e. the emotional mood of drama is as important as the plot details...more important in Dr Who's case, as it is dreamlike... it deals with realms of the imagination, where absurdities and illogicallities abound. We would miss out on countless great stories if Dr. Who were constrained by dramatic realism.

Makers of kids TV rarely bother to scare children any more. They're all too preoccupied with values laden, politically correct (and mindnumbingly boring) shows about teenagers who think, act, and talk like adults (part of Dr. Who's appeal to me as a kid was the absence of precocious child actors.) Kids get enough of this at school. Soul sucking monsters, mad scientists, aliens who plot to conquer the universe, body counts, the stuff of nightmare and imagination, antidotes to the dull fare of most English classrooms, are all things of the past as far as makers of kid's TV are concerned (my child's heart cries out for another Monkey, another Dr Who.) No wonder the Harry Potter series is so successful. Its fulfilling a deep seated need children have to be frightened out of their wits. The horror element to both series also explains why adults appreciate them as much as children. Thank God not all the episodes of Dr Who were incinerated in the BBC vaults. I'm particularly thankful "Planet of Evil" survived.

There was a trilogy of Tom Baker stories during the shows "Golden Age" which bid homage to the classics of Gothic horror fiction -- "The Brain of Morbius" (Frankenstein); "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (Dracula); and, of course, "Planet of Evil" which was essentially Dr. Jekkyl & Mr. Hyde in space. This episode is inferior to "Talons" (what isn't?) and not as much fun as "Morbius" but it is still a good outing, concentrating far less on humor and camp and more on the classic elements of Gothic horror -- tampering with forbidden knowledge, the internal struggle of good vs. evil, and the mounting terror of a group which is trapped in a haunted house (so to speak) and being picked off one by one. Like "Talons" which also mixed in homages to Phantom of the Opera and the real-life Jack the Ripper killings, this story also borrows heavily from "Forbidden Planet" in its choice of a semi-invisible monster projected, more or less, from it's victims own minds. There are also less-than-subtle moral messages about colonialism and gross exploitation of the environment, which is always humorous when you consider the Brits spent 300 years doing just that to our little planet. I guess Orwell was right when he said that hypocrisy is THE English vice (then again, he also said, "The Americans always have to go you one better on any type of beastliness" so you can read it either way).

The story is your basic 'trapped in a haunted house with a mysterious killer' bit, but the overlapping plot elements and homages prevent it from falling into parody. Tom Baker plays the Doctor with less humor and more edge in this outing, not troubling to hide his disgust at what he sees as militaristic fools tampering with forces they don't understand, and expressing his usual lack of patience with those less intelligent than himself, which in this story is absolutely everybody. The (relative) humorlessness of the normally cheeky, campy Doc helps underscore the mounting sense of doom. As always, the guest characters help to make the episode. Professor Sorenson, the Jekkyl/Hyde character, is both creepy and pitiable with his sunken, bleary eyes, stubbly face, and mixture of nervousness and exhaustion; he is more complex than your average guest character and it is difficult to see if he will play out as a villain or a hero. Not so with Controller Salamar, a ship's captain so repressed and stuck-up not only would butter not melt in his mouth, but if you inserted a lump of coal into this bloke's you-know-what, in thirty seconds you'd have a diamond. What Salamar lacks in charm, me makes up for with his shoot first, ask-questions-never style of command. Finally there is Vishinsky, the kindly veteran X.O., who seems to have gotten the helping of common sense that Salamar missed out on when he was going back to the buffet for a second course of being a jackass. All of these actors work well.

One interesting feature of the story is its violence. This episode has a huge body count and there are times I half-expected to hear that creepy "ch-ch-ch, ha-ha-ha" music from "Friday the 13th" as our heroes stumble around in the jungle, waiting to die.

Speaking of which, "Planet's" biggest strength is its creepy production design -- Zeta Minor, where most of the story takes place, is strange, jungle-like, very alien and claustrophobic, perfect to the atmosphere of the story. The black pit from whence the creature emerges is truly eerie-looking, and a very nice bit of prop-work, especially the fake bubbles which give it the illusion of depth. And the ship, which serves as the final battleground has an unpleasant, overbright 'death trap' feel to it.

One minor quibble -- when the irradiated Sorenson does his slavering, shamelessly over-the-top Mr. Hyde routine, it takes a will of iron not to burst out into hysterical laughter. Blaaaaah! Yeaaaaahh! Grrrrrr! Trick or treat! He hardly needed to strangle his victims; they would have laughed themselves into heart attacks anyway. This aside, "Planet" is one of the more downright creepy episodes shot during Baker's run, and it does an effective job of putting our heroes through one wringer after another before the Tardis whisks off on its next adventure.

This was always one of my favorite episodes as a kid, and as an adult I watch it and marvel. They literally just don't make 'em like this anymore. In fact, they can't; a budget, capable acting and a more plausible script would get in the way of all the fun. The story is of course preposterous, the acting laughable [Salomar has to be the biggest idiot ever given command of a space crew in the history of Sci Fi] and the special effects are so goofy that you have to laugh the first time the show the Space Probe (where was Derrick Meddings when they needed him?). Well, so what. That's why I watch Dr. Who in the first place, thank you. I revel in the cheap, shoddy interior sets [dig the office supply store chairs on the command deck], grin from ear to ear at the histrionics of the actors ["Psycho-Stimulators Not Responding!!"] and would love to slog through that space jungle they created on a soundstage. In fact, the most effective sequences are the ones set in the jungle and shot on film, especially Baldwin's hectic run through the jungle right at the beginning of the episode and then the unforgettable Occuloid Tracker (great name for a band) following The Doctor and Sarah through the lush, purple plastic and coaxial cable foliage. I will always be a kid when I watch Dr Who episodes like this one from the Tom Baker years, and that is what makes it such brilliant trash -- (...)you can be 13 again any time you pop this tape in the machine. Sounds like an equitable price to get your youth back for an hour and a half. Recommended.

I agree with a previous review, this was definitely the scariest run of episodes. They were a part of nightmares I had for years when I was younger (hehe), and the best part about it is that the psychological play on horror acheived with the now "low-budget/b-rated" special effects forced the imaginations of the writers and directors to scare the [...] of you with no gimmicks involved. The use of an entity that killed in that manner, mostly invisible and mostly unstoppable at first had me more nervous than going to the beach after seeing Jaws for the first time. I hope it makes it to DVD soon.

This was the first and most terrifying stories I remember seeing as a child. Now it may be a little dated, but look past the effects to the storyline...sit back and enjoy!

The year--37,166. The place: Zeta Minor, at the fringes of the known universe. The surviving members of a Morestran survey team are being killed off by an invisible force in a way that resembles "a rapid form of freeze drying." Dr. Sorenson is on the verge of a scientific discovery that could save the Morestran civilization--their sun is dying. Baldwin, a member of the expedition, manages to activate an SOS as he is being attacked. Guess who answers the SOS? A certain jelly-baby loving Time Lord and his assistant.

Also en route to Zeta Minor is a military expedition headed by the young and inexperienced Controller, Salamar. The Doctor and Sarah are captured by Salamar's troops and accused of murdering seven members of Sorenson's expedition. They escape, only to encounter the cause of the deaths at the cliffhanger to Episode 1. Speaking of cliffhangers, the one ending Episode 2 is effective, as the Doctor is seen falling into the black pit, seemingly doomed.

All the great lines are by the Doctor, but this one covers the overall concept of colonial thinking and Sorenson's mission: "Here on Zeta Minor is the boundary between existence as you know it and the other universe which you don't understand. You call it 'nothing' a word term to cover ignorance, and centuries ago, scientists invented another name for it: anti-matter. And you, by coming here, have crossed that boundary into that other Universe to plunder it." Sorensen, however, puts it another wayL "Full scale exploitation of this planet will provide us with perpetual energy in whatever way we need it." The main point being that Sorenson cannot take any minerals of that planet with him. In the meantime, Sorenson's men are being killed off one by one.

Prentis Hancock's impatient action-not-waiting Salamar is a retread of his portrayal as Vaber in Planet Of The Daleks. But Ewen Solon takes top honors as the older and wiser voice of reason, a variation of the Trojan War's Nestor, as second-in-command Vishinsky.

Other notes: The anti-matter monster, despite being shown corporeally on the video cover, is only seen as a glowing yellow outline, which is an interesting way. And Elizabeth Sladen's expression, especially her eyes, brilliantly portray that feeling of her mind leaving her body, a sensation she feels whenever the anti-creature is near. The casualty rate is also high in this story.

By Episode Three, there is a clear Jekyll and Hyde theme established. The larger theme is that of anti-colonialism, a theme previously explored in the Who story The Mutants. Figures, since the British Empire plundered resources of countries in its domain. And with this story, the British, by experience, portrays the immorality of exploiting other countries for their wealth. Sounds like a country I'm familiar with. A worthy story in the Dr. Who canon.

Planet of Evil is an amazing story prbably one of the creapist of the Doctor Who stories from the 4th Doctor's era.It saw them land on a planet called Zeta Minor in the far future.The Doctor battling an unknown entity controled by antiMatter. What more can i say very enjoyable story. Tom Baker at his best.

The Doctor and Sarah land on a planet plagued by an anti-matter monster who has caused a number of deaths amongst a crew mining for anti-matter. This is probably one of the better serials of Tom Baker's era as The Doctor. The CSO effects are good and the story is a good reworking of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. The interplay between the Doctor and Sarah is fantastic and the guest cast put in some credible performances. Overall, one of the most horryfying and gripping stories of Phillip Hinchcliffe's era as producer.

"Planet of Evil" is one of those routinely underrated great stories of Doctor Who, somehow having been overwhelmed by the adventures surrounding it. Really, it's quite a good story: basically, it's the DW version of the film "Forbidden Planet", with some nice Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde material thrown in towards the end.

Tom Baker and Lis Sladen are on their usual par (beginning a long run of popular stories with the Doctor and Sarah travelling together, without Harry), and David Maloney once again provides solid direction. The guest stars again stand out - most notably Frederick Jaeger - and there's nothing much to fault! Even the effects are pretty good for the time, although at times they are still rather negligible.

If you've tried the more well-known Tom Baker adventures from the period, such as "Genesis of the Daleks" or "Pyramids of Mars", give this one a whirl - you might enjoy it!