Serial DD, in 4 parts
Written by: Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
Produced by: Innes Lloyd
Directed by: Derek Martinus
"The changeover between the Doctors took a long time to do, and there was a lot of consultation about…how we could use the technical resources and so on. It took a whole morning of studio time to rehearse because it was thought to be so important. A lot was riding on it working. We wanted people to carry on watching Doctor Who even though William Hartnell was no longer playing the Doctor." – Derek Martinus, director, quoted in The Handbook: The First Doctor by Howe, Stammers, and Walker (Virgin: 1994).
"I was obsessed as a scientist by the differences and similarities between the human brain and advanced computer machines, and I was thinking that although I could easily imagine a logical machine reasoning to itself and manipulating events outside it, by no stretch of the imagination could I visualize a machine producing a poem by Dylan Thomas. And so the Cybermen appeared. They were an ancient race on a dying planet who had made themselves immortal by gradually replacing their worn out organs and limbs with cybernetic spare parts. They had become strong in the process and always behaved logically, but had lost their feelings and humanity as they became more and more machine driven." – Kit Pedler, writer and scientific advisor, quoted in Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado (St. Martin’s Press: 1983).
As Hartnell’s final story – and the Cybermen’s first – The Tenth Planet is a landmark in Doctor Who’s history. When it was first released on video a few weeks ago, I was surprised to find it among the top 25 best-selling videos on Amazon.com, a neat feat for a thirty-five year old British science fiction show with the last half hour missing.
Yes, The Tenth Planet is one of those episodes that, unfortunately, does not exist in its entirety. Thankfully, some nice blokes at the BBC did a good job piecing together the missing part four for the video release, including the brief film clips that do exist, a set of still images, and the existing audio soundtrack of the episode. It’s almost like watching a Doctor Who comic strip.
The good news is that the Doctor’s regeneration still exists on film. The changeover from Hartnell to Patrick Troughton is cleverly understated, realized with the use of a really bright spotlight and some interesting camera angles. It’s a simple yet elegant effect, far more dramatic – and less silly – than the big-budget, comedy face-pulling regeneration from Sylvester McCoy to Paul McGann.
Of course, the regeneration is only a post-script to a complex, hard-core science fiction story. The Cybermen – who look a lot creepier here than in later appearances – attack a snowbound base in the distant future year of 1986. The Doctor and his companions have to contend not only with the Cybermen, but with the trigger-happy General Cutler, played with conviction and a great American accent by Robert Beatty. Cutler is all in favor of dropping a nuke on the Cybermen and wiping them out, which might just be a subtle criticism of America’s aggressive Cold War policies. However, the episode is kind to Americans too; in an unusually self-effacing touch, the script suggests that America dominates the field of space exploration in the future instead of Britain.
The Cybermen are not just carbon copies of the Daleks, but strong alien presences with a unique philosophy. They seem to genuinely believe that they’ve discovered the key to a better life, and they act as though they’re doing the humans a favor when they offer to cybernetically enhance their bodies and purge their emotions. As usual, Doctor Who was miles ahead of Star Trek in introducing Borg-like villains over twenty years before the Borg first appeared. In an interesting twist, the Cybermen’s planet of Mondas is a sister world of Earth, driving home the concept that humanity can very easily take the wrong path and become enslaved to technology as the Cybermen did.
Hartnell’s final performance is a good one. He gets to play the part of a know-it-all, almost omniscient character, similar to the later Doctors but quite different from his original persona. He somehow knows all about Mondas before it appears, and figures out exactly what’s going on via a series of intuitive leaps worthy of Sylvester McCoy. Hartnell remains, though, charming in his traditional way. His absence from part three is glaring and unfortunate, especially since part four is missing.
There is very little about The Tenth Planet to criticize. The serial is well-written, acted with conviction, and directed with style. The production values are just fine for the period, lending weight to my age-old argument that Doctor Who only looked rubbish once in a while. My only problem with the episode is that it isn’t really my cup of tea. It doesn’t have the wit or humor of the historical episodes, instead relying on scientific details and realism to engage the audience. Having only a tenuous connection to reality myself, I tend to prefer the show’s more fantastic episodes. However, this is still very solid stuff, and a worthy swansong for my favorite Doctor.
OVERALL RATING: A-
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