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Doctor Who - The Tenth Planet [VHS]

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If you only own one other Dr. Who video, your collection is incomplete without The Tenth Planet. It depicts, of course, the most significant turning point in the history of the show, the departure of William Hartnell as the Doctor. That, in itself is more than enough reason to buy this video.

As a special bonus, there are the Cybermen. Don't be fooled as I was by the still photos which gave them a cheesy appearance. They don't appear terrifying at all until you see them in action. The lip action and voice characterization are nothing less than chilling. I first saw the Cybermen in "Revenge" then later in "Earthshock" and "Attack" and found them scary enough then. Now that I've seen "Tenth" I realize that they actually got less and less scary as time went on, which makes this one the scariest ever.

The reconstruction of the unfortunately missing final episode is surprisingly and absolutely brilliant. The audio track is complete and there are stills that refresh every couple of seconds. The only times that I was reminded that it was a reconstruction was when lines of text would scroll across the bottom of the screen to depict what was happening or when brief clips of actual film would delightfully appear. And the regeneration scene is complete. So there is not much that is missing after all.

Bottom line, get this one.

Whether you grew up watching "Doctor Who" as it was first broadcast in the UK, or in endless 1980s US PBS reruns, "The Tenth Planet" is one of those stories you were dying to see again and again. Annoyingly, you couldn't, because the BBC destroyed all prints of the fourth and final episode, and the story was thus "incomplete" and never re-aired.

The recent BBC releases of stories featuring William Hartnell, the First Doctor, have been exemplary, and this VHS continues the trend. The first 3 episodes of "Tenth Planet" -- long seen only on dim, bootlegged, Nth generation copies of the original -- are nearly pristine. Episode 4 is reconstructed using existing still photos, the audio track, and a few well-used video effects which serve to add to the pictures, not detract from them. (It's heartening to note that for this story, the "restoration" team did not seek to alter the existing footage by replacing scenes with outtakes, or digitally "correcting" old special effects, as was done with the ill-advised "The Five Doctors -- Special Edition")

The seminal moment here is the First Doctor's death, and subsequent regeneration into another Doctor, another actor. Using 8mm film footage, this video presents the complete regeneration, and it's wonderful to watch. The sequence is an innovative bit of studio-bound 1960s TV direction and is most impressive.

The story itself doesn't hold up perfectly -- it was, after all, made 35 years ago and will come across as archaic, no matter how it's packaged and presented -- but most "Doctor Who" fans should be willing to overlook the inherent flaws and enjoy the story on its own terms. "Tenth Planet" offers a rare look at "adult" monsters and ethnic diversity in a "children's" show, and of course it's the first appearance of the Cybermen villains, whose popularity persists to this day.

Regardless of what you think of the story itself, the existence of this video satisfies one of the greatest wishes of all "Doctor Who" fans. Add to that the obvious care that went into recreating the lost Episode 4, and you have one of the most significant, appealing DW video releases of all time.

Although perhaps a bit cheesy by today's more sophisticated standards, this is a must have piece of Who history. This is the first appearance of the Cybermen and Mr. Hartnell's last story.

The story does a good job of showing the tension of a remote international space tracking station trying to get men in space home safely while facing huge obstacles (A new planet threatening earth, and waves of attacking Cybermen.) When the bases C.O. begins to crack from the pressure, you can begin to feel the tension yourself.

I am extremely pleased with the recreation of the fourth episode. It contains the full audio track accompanied by a slide show of corresponding images from the missing episode. There are also short grainy video clips from time to time. When the still picture fails show the action you are hearing, text scrolls across the bottom of the screen describing the action. "Ben checks the hall and sees that its clear" for example. The regeneration sequence is fully intact (grainy video).

Hopefully the BBC will release more classic Who with reconstructed missing episodes of this quality.

Make no mistake: Doctor Who fans are well justified in purchasing this video. The first appearance of the wonderful Cybermen and the final regular appearance of the legendary William Hartnell is now finally available to own and the reconstruction of the missing final episode is superb. But what has been overlooked for all these years is the fact that the actual plot concocted by the talented Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler is hardly amazing. The storyline has all the requisite misunderstandings and escapes and diabolical schemes, but very little of it is executed with any real enthusiasm. Until the Cybermen arrive the first episode is surprisingly slow, with many scenes involving two incredibly dull actors portraying two incredibly lifeless astronauts in trouble. Things are not helped by a hammy performance by the actor portraying General Cutler, whose road to madness is unconvincing to say the least. While William Hartnell gives a bravura performance, he is not entirely essential to the story and is even absent from all of Part 3, which is disappointing considering it is the last complete episode of the First Doctor's era. This leaves Michael Craze, Anneke Wills and the guest cast to carry much of 'The Tenth Planet,' and the story is listless as a result.
But there are still enough good elements to recommend this video. The early Cybermen are a fascinating creation both on paper and in their conception. Sandra Reid's innovative costumes are quite impressive given DW's limited resources, and the one-time only sing-song voices created by Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins are decidedly creepy. William Hartnell gives a dignified performance, and while his screentime is limited, he does get off a few choice lines of dialogue.
The reconstruction of Part 4 is excellent, seamlessly integrating an audio track with telesnaps, subtitles, the few clips that remain of the episode (including of course, the regeneration sequence at the end), and a few subtle visual effects that enhance the experience.
Overall, 'The Tenth Planet' is certainly worth buying, for its many DW firsts and for nostalgia. While there are many elements to the story which are underwhelming, in the end at least the combination of Cybermen and William Hartnell's last hurrah prove to be worth all the hype. As the Cybermen would (and do) say, 'Resistance -is- useless.'

One of the all time classic stories of Doctor Who finally makes it onto BBC video so how does it stand up? Pretty well actually. William Hartnell is an acquired taste, and the first appearence of the cybermen takes a bit of getting used to. However, this is a quintissential base under siege story and everything holds up pretty well

It's a shame that part 4 is missing, but the restoration team have done a pretty good job of adding in all the extant footage and some telesnaps.

All in all a story that should really be in any Doctor Who fans library.

What can I say. When I finally sat down to watch The 10th Planet, I was truly excited. I've been a Dr. Who fan for the past 15 years, and have always enjoyed the early black and white Who's; that's why I couldn't wait to see The 10th Planet. The 10th Planets plot is very simple, Doctor #1 lands at the South Pole with companions Polly and Ben only to discover that the missing sister planet to Earth, Mondas, is coming back and that its inhabitants are the Cybermen. Anyone familiar with the Cybermen will have a little chuckle when you see their first incarnation. William Hartnell, still one of my favorite Doctors is great, but you can tell that he was getting tired and probably glad that this was going to be his last story. The fourth episode is a rebuilt version since most of it is still missing, but it was enjoyable to be able to finally see the First Doctor regenerate. Perhaps not the best of the First Doctor, but The 10th Planet is a must have for Dr. Who fans. Lets hope the BBC is out there trying to find other classic Dr. Who for true blue fans!

December 1986. Isolated Antarctica, full of snow, snow, and more snow. Ideal place to have Snowcap Tracking Station, a military base under International Space Command. While tracking the progress of spacecraft Zeus IV, several things happen. One, loss of power in the fuel cells and some gravitational force prevents Zeus IV from reentry. Two, a new planet is seen inbetween Mars and Venus. Three, the Doctor, Ben, and Polly land at the base.

The new planet looks familiar, as many of the land masses look like Earth's, only upside down--Polly has a big deal claiming to recognize Malaysia. It turns out that this world was a twin of Earth, Mondas, which left millions of years ago. Now nearly drained of energy, it has returned to regain its energy--from Earth.

The Cybermen are clearly supposed to be a menace, but they do look laughable. One author described them as someone dressing up with kitchen implements at a jumble sale. However, their spaceships are more impressive than the paper-plate like ones in the second Cyber story, The Moonbase. Two human-like aspects of these primitive Cybermen can be seen. One, they have names. Two, their bare hands are still human.

The use of emotions to the ruthlessly logical Cybermen is a big point here. Polly's concern for the astronauts, "they're people and they're going to die" is responded with: "I do not understand you. There are people dying all over your world, yet you do not care about them." Another time, they say, "Our brains our just like yours, with certain weaknesses have been removed. ... You call them emotions, do you not?" and "We have freedom from disease, protection against heat and cold. ... do you prefer to die in misery?" A clip from here is used in the Earthshock story (1982), where the Doctor asks a Cybermen, "Emotions--love, pride, hate, fear--have you no emotions, sir?"

General Cutler is one of the nastiest characters ever to appear in a Who story, though not as much as Professor Stahlman (Inferno). He's gruff, has a harsh voice, puts the safety of his astronaut son above all other priorities, and takes a page from another general, Jack D. Ripper of Dr. Strangelove, in wanting to use the Z-bomb. When the Doctor tells him, "I don't like your tone [of voice]" the General shoots back, "Well I don't like your face or your hair." Fortunately, the time travelers gain a friend in Barclay, the Australian physicist, as an ally.

Ben's resourcefulness, real assertiveness and Cockney accent give him a credible and visible role here. Yet, he expresses regret when he has to kill a Cybermen ready to kill him, crying out, "You didn't give me an alternative!" Polly has a thankless time in comparison, but at least she's nice to look at. Pity more of her stories aren't available anymore.

By the time William Hartnell's last Doctor Who story aired, he was a very ill man and in Episode 3, he collapses and is taken to his bunk. That's all we see of him until he pops back up for Episode 4.

Speaking of which Episode 4 of this story was stolen from the BBC vaults and never returned, but a combination of photo stills, some of them publicity shots of the Doctor, surviving film footage, and the complete audio soundtrack help make this four-parter as complete as it possibly can. It still works.

When this was first aired, viewers in Britain witnessed an event more historical than the first appearance of the Daleks--William Hartnell (First Doctor) regenerated into Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor). It's thus legendary for this reason, as well as introducing the Cybermen, but it still stands out on its own as a reasonably good story in the Doctor Who canon.

I like the look of the first incarnation of the Cybermen--the costumes are a little homemade, but the blank stares from behind the silver ski masks are still creepy and effective. Nice to see a story featuring Ben--he's feisty, down to earth, and quick-witted. Unfortunately, Polly's still screaming and making coffee. William Hartnell goes on holiday for episode 3, so he's sadly not much of a presence in this story. The reconstruction of episode 4 is phenomenal, with the full length soundtrack, a lot of still photos, and some great, atmospheric, grainy footage which actually highlights the otherworldiness of the regeneration sequence. Hopefully, this is the way reconstructions will be handled in future releases.

This William Hartnell, first Doctor adventure, originally broadcast between 8 October through 29 October 1966 introduces the Cybermen in a dramatic adventure which also marks the departure of Hartnell from the show and the first ever Timelord regeneration.

So much, packed into such a short time. One must applaud the work done to get this particular story out given the missing fourth most crucial episode. Given the abysmal treatment of the actual show by the BBC originally in dumbing it down and finally disposing of it, it is a credit to them that they have devoted so much care, time and attention to the delivery of the shows on VHS and DVD formats.

As readers of my reviews will know by now, I often refer to the educational mission of the BBC in it's original charter. This story is no exception. The Hartnell years, more than any other, were characterised by the inclusion of new versions of historical events as well as being more overly likely to bring in new scientific developments or moral issues.

In this story we discover that the Cybermen originated on the planet Mondas, shown as being an inverse of earth, which was earth's twin planet until it's orbit changed. In order to survive the inhabitants of the planet developed cybernetic techniques, firstly to replace body parts and laterto replace the brain where emotional centres were removed as they were unneccesary. Ultimately, life - but not as we know it - continued but in the process the Mondians lost their humanity. Readers might recall the larger than life movie version of Darth Vader in the Star Wars epics.

It is this which makes the Cybermen so meanacing, the fact that their decisions are made on the basis of logic alone and where they have no other concerns than purely practical matters. Given that the first heart transplants had only recently been undertaken by Christian Barnard in South Africa, it seems a remote concern for the time but indicates the seriousness with which the debate about such things was conducted.

Over thirty years later the sing-song voices of the Cybermen seem a little dated and they, of all the Doctor's adversaries, seemed to change the most throughout the years. This was certainly a weakening of their particular situation but some good Cybermen stories followed such as the 'Tomb of the Cybermen' soon to be available on DVD.

For a finale, this was one of Hartnell's greatest performances as the Doctor. The crotchety old man at the start of the Doctor Who programmes had turned the role into one in which he had stature and commanded respect. It is a testimony to the man that he could turn his last show as the Doctor into such a vintage, virtuoso performance.

What a shame the last episode of this exists only in it's spotted together but effective enough form. How exciting to see Hartnell's departure at long last. Hartnell was a genius and one of the most charismatic actors I have ever seen, but it was a stroke of grnius replacing him as well. Patrick Troughton just happened to be a genius as well! But Now i am ahead of myself. The first appearance of the Cybermen is great. Judging by this "Tomb of the Cybermen" and the "Invasion" the Cybermen have been in a slow decline of menace since the show has gone to color. Some of the later episodes were atrocious, but here the Cybermen are pretty frightening and to me more of a menace than the daleks ever could be.