Planet of Evil
I realized I hadn't done a picspam review in ages, which is probably because it's been a while since I managed to get my hands on some new Classic Who. Here we have Planet of Evil from season thirteen, featuring my favourite duo (oh, I am so unoriginal) the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane.
Planet of Evil
Kind of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit meets 42, Planet of Evil is itself drawn from Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and - apparently since I haven’t seen it to be able to compare - Forbidden Planet. It is kind of strange comparing Classic Who with New Who for me, since while Classic Who obviously came first, I always seem to be watching it after the comparable New Who episode so the orders are somewhat jumbled about.
Anyway, the serial starts with a Impossible Planet like premise with a research crew - dressed in what looks like the 1980s New Zealand cricket team uniform - are on a planet at the edge of the known universe looking for an alternative energy source.
Oh, and something is targeting and draining the life out of the beige brigade.
Meanwhile, the Doctor’s running about 30,000 years late and goodness knows how many light years away from dropping Sarah off in London five minutes after he left like he promised. Sarah is unimpressed. I love those two. They’ve got such an old married couple dynamic.
Anyway, they pick up a distress signal and end up on the evil planet. Alas, this is one of only a few times you get to see the Doctor grin in the whole serial, though I do love early serious Four more than later clownish Four so I shouldn't complain.
Okay lets all take a moment to look at the impressive jungle set.
I know quarries are the stable back in the old series, and space ships that look like an industrial factories seem to be for the new series, but Doctor Who really needs to use more jungle sets. Because if they can do it so well in the 1970s, surely they would be able to do it just as well today. They even did it well in the 1960s with Skaro.
The third lot of players is a starship crew come to rescue the research team. They’re not all that an impressive lot.
The Doctor and Sarah become number one suspects to the murder. This happens a lot through the serial. One moment they’re being treated like suspected, the next allies, and then they’re back to being suspects. I mean, as if you could ever think of these two plotting anything sinister.
Well, other than the odd jail spring.
What is committing the murders is an anti-matter monster, the very one referenced in Sarah and Rose’s monster-off in School Reunion, and happens to be a red outline.
The special effects of the monster unfortunately let down the brilliance of the jungle set, but what’s the point about moaning about special effects. They did what they could at the time.
Oh, and did I mention the big ominous black pit ‘o doom, from which the monster arrives. This is where the Satan Pit similarities are really prominent. Of course, first thing the Doctor does is throw a rock down it.
It all comes to be about the scientists stealing resources that have lead to the planet and anti-matter monster turning on everyone and killing them. So the Doctor offers to negotiate. But oh noes, the Doctor falls into the pit. Cue trippy sequence…
Anyway, Sarah - obviously having decided that she is the only person allowed to declare the Doctor dead - escapes and helps fish him out. One of the things I particularly like about SJA is that Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? gave us a scrap of info about Sarah’s childhood that can be used to re-interpret old episodes featuring Sarah - namely that she watched her best friend fall to her death, which has got to have given Sarah some death by falling issues (though I think this works better with Genesis of the Daleks and The Hand of Fear).
The second half of the serial sees the action move from the jungle to the Starship Notthe!Enterprise, where more of a Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde plot takes over as the sole survivor of the research team finds himself slowly being taken over by anti-matter.
Basically, you end up with an anti-matter monster running around, and then lots of anti-matter monsters running around the spaceship and all the while the spaceship is getting closer and closer to the planet, about to crash into it. It is very 42-esq. I didn’t like 42 at all and think this version is much better.
There’s a whole bunch of scientific explanations for what is going on in this serial, none of which sound particularly convincing. But I’m not much of a scientific nitpicker so it didn’t bother me too much.
It’s not the greatest serial ever, but visually, particularly because of the jungle set, the serial is impressive. There are some great ideas floating about - an evil planet, a Jekyll and Hyde type tale and a plain old run of the mill monster - but it feels a little too much for one serial. I did enjoy it immensely though.
So that’s my serious review done, now for a few random bits and pieces.
Remember in The Parting of the Ways how Rose was so brilliant because it never occurs to her to use the TARDIS to escape, well it occurs to Sarah all the time (well, she suggests it in this serial, and will suggest it in the next). Gotta love Sarah. I miss the days before Companions were lauded up as being this ideal of humanity. Sarah got to suggest they leave and go home, advocate genocide of the Daleks and threaten people with actual modern day (well, 70s) guns. Rose and Martha never got to do that kind of stuff because they were restricted to conforming to this moral ideal. Obviously, there has always been a line a Companion can never cross, but at least back in the classic series they didn’t have to be a saint. Apart from the gruesome deaths (which I’m pretty sure were not going to get in New Who) saints are boring.
Though I suppose Saint Rose and Saint Martha just goes hand in hand with the Jesus Doctor thing. Sigh. I miss when the Doctor was just an intelligence eccentric bloke with a time Machine, and Sarah was the latest in the line of long-suffering companions, who would complain about him to his face, mock him behind is back and defend him to no end when he wasn’t around. What happened to that show? And how did I manage to get all that from Sarah making one suggestion? You’d think these grievances had been building up for a while.
Anyway, speaking of morally dodgy things, the Doctor kind of incites a person to suicide, to save the day of course, but still…On the other hand, it’s quite a nice scene since the Doctor does so by appealing to him scientist to scientist.
Making an appearance in this serial is Billy Shipton from Blink (well, the actor who plays him Louis Mahoney). Billy Shipton unfortunately does not seem to be having a good run since he dies in this serial as well - accidentally falls down the big ominous pit o’ doom while attempting to empty Sarah’s pockets. He gave his life illustrating the pit was deep so there could be an episode cliff-hanger. A worthy cause I suppose.
Also in this serial we get one of the many references to the Doctor having met Shakespeare before:
Doctor: I met him once, you know
Sarah: Who?
Doctor: Shakespeare. Charming fellow. Dreadful actor.
Sarah: Perhaps that’s why he took up writing.
Doctor: Perhaps it was.
And in something that amused me at least, being the Antarctic geek I am, we get something of a reference to Titus Oates from the Doctor as he leaves Sarah behind to save the day:
“I’m going out now and I may be some time.”
The Doctor keeps his scientific equipment in one of those old medical briefcases. This really needs to be brought back in for the new series. Oh, and Sarah knows her way around it very well (probably where she learnt those inventing skills she displays in SJA).
And because I can: Doctor and Sarah cuteness spam!
Sarah discovers that the scarf can double as reins.
It takes more than merely visiting an alien planet to impress Sarah.
Sarah never had a TARDIS key, instead she had to borrow it off the Doctor. Obviously the key is a new series thing, and the key wasn’t just your ordinary Yale lock key then so I suppose running down to the key copy place wasn’t really an option.
And two more just to cap it off (I adore those two).
Planet of Evil
Kind of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit meets 42, Planet of Evil is itself drawn from Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and - apparently since I haven’t seen it to be able to compare - Forbidden Planet. It is kind of strange comparing Classic Who with New Who for me, since while Classic Who obviously came first, I always seem to be watching it after the comparable New Who episode so the orders are somewhat jumbled about.
Anyway, the serial starts with a Impossible Planet like premise with a research crew - dressed in what looks like the 1980s New Zealand cricket team uniform - are on a planet at the edge of the known universe looking for an alternative energy source.
Oh, and something is targeting and draining the life out of the beige brigade.
Meanwhile, the Doctor’s running about 30,000 years late and goodness knows how many light years away from dropping Sarah off in London five minutes after he left like he promised. Sarah is unimpressed. I love those two. They’ve got such an old married couple dynamic.
Anyway, they pick up a distress signal and end up on the evil planet. Alas, this is one of only a few times you get to see the Doctor grin in the whole serial, though I do love early serious Four more than later clownish Four so I shouldn't complain.
Okay lets all take a moment to look at the impressive jungle set.
I know quarries are the stable back in the old series, and space ships that look like an industrial factories seem to be for the new series, but Doctor Who really needs to use more jungle sets. Because if they can do it so well in the 1970s, surely they would be able to do it just as well today. They even did it well in the 1960s with Skaro.
The third lot of players is a starship crew come to rescue the research team. They’re not all that an impressive lot.
The Doctor and Sarah become number one suspects to the murder. This happens a lot through the serial. One moment they’re being treated like suspected, the next allies, and then they’re back to being suspects. I mean, as if you could ever think of these two plotting anything sinister.
Well, other than the odd jail spring.
What is committing the murders is an anti-matter monster, the very one referenced in Sarah and Rose’s monster-off in School Reunion, and happens to be a red outline.
The special effects of the monster unfortunately let down the brilliance of the jungle set, but what’s the point about moaning about special effects. They did what they could at the time.
Oh, and did I mention the big ominous black pit ‘o doom, from which the monster arrives. This is where the Satan Pit similarities are really prominent. Of course, first thing the Doctor does is throw a rock down it.
It all comes to be about the scientists stealing resources that have lead to the planet and anti-matter monster turning on everyone and killing them. So the Doctor offers to negotiate. But oh noes, the Doctor falls into the pit. Cue trippy sequence…
Anyway, Sarah - obviously having decided that she is the only person allowed to declare the Doctor dead - escapes and helps fish him out. One of the things I particularly like about SJA is that Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? gave us a scrap of info about Sarah’s childhood that can be used to re-interpret old episodes featuring Sarah - namely that she watched her best friend fall to her death, which has got to have given Sarah some death by falling issues (though I think this works better with Genesis of the Daleks and The Hand of Fear).
The second half of the serial sees the action move from the jungle to the Starship Notthe!Enterprise, where more of a Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde plot takes over as the sole survivor of the research team finds himself slowly being taken over by anti-matter.
Basically, you end up with an anti-matter monster running around, and then lots of anti-matter monsters running around the spaceship and all the while the spaceship is getting closer and closer to the planet, about to crash into it. It is very 42-esq. I didn’t like 42 at all and think this version is much better.
There’s a whole bunch of scientific explanations for what is going on in this serial, none of which sound particularly convincing. But I’m not much of a scientific nitpicker so it didn’t bother me too much.
It’s not the greatest serial ever, but visually, particularly because of the jungle set, the serial is impressive. There are some great ideas floating about - an evil planet, a Jekyll and Hyde type tale and a plain old run of the mill monster - but it feels a little too much for one serial. I did enjoy it immensely though.
So that’s my serious review done, now for a few random bits and pieces.
Remember in The Parting of the Ways how Rose was so brilliant because it never occurs to her to use the TARDIS to escape, well it occurs to Sarah all the time (well, she suggests it in this serial, and will suggest it in the next). Gotta love Sarah. I miss the days before Companions were lauded up as being this ideal of humanity. Sarah got to suggest they leave and go home, advocate genocide of the Daleks and threaten people with actual modern day (well, 70s) guns. Rose and Martha never got to do that kind of stuff because they were restricted to conforming to this moral ideal. Obviously, there has always been a line a Companion can never cross, but at least back in the classic series they didn’t have to be a saint. Apart from the gruesome deaths (which I’m pretty sure were not going to get in New Who) saints are boring.
Though I suppose Saint Rose and Saint Martha just goes hand in hand with the Jesus Doctor thing. Sigh. I miss when the Doctor was just an intelligence eccentric bloke with a time Machine, and Sarah was the latest in the line of long-suffering companions, who would complain about him to his face, mock him behind is back and defend him to no end when he wasn’t around. What happened to that show? And how did I manage to get all that from Sarah making one suggestion? You’d think these grievances had been building up for a while.
Anyway, speaking of morally dodgy things, the Doctor kind of incites a person to suicide, to save the day of course, but still…On the other hand, it’s quite a nice scene since the Doctor does so by appealing to him scientist to scientist.
Making an appearance in this serial is Billy Shipton from Blink (well, the actor who plays him Louis Mahoney). Billy Shipton unfortunately does not seem to be having a good run since he dies in this serial as well - accidentally falls down the big ominous pit o’ doom while attempting to empty Sarah’s pockets. He gave his life illustrating the pit was deep so there could be an episode cliff-hanger. A worthy cause I suppose.
Also in this serial we get one of the many references to the Doctor having met Shakespeare before:
Doctor: I met him once, you know
Sarah: Who?
Doctor: Shakespeare. Charming fellow. Dreadful actor.
Sarah: Perhaps that’s why he took up writing.
Doctor: Perhaps it was.
And in something that amused me at least, being the Antarctic geek I am, we get something of a reference to Titus Oates from the Doctor as he leaves Sarah behind to save the day:
“I’m going out now and I may be some time.”
The Doctor keeps his scientific equipment in one of those old medical briefcases. This really needs to be brought back in for the new series. Oh, and Sarah knows her way around it very well (probably where she learnt those inventing skills she displays in SJA).
And because I can: Doctor and Sarah cuteness spam!
Sarah discovers that the scarf can double as reins.
It takes more than merely visiting an alien planet to impress Sarah.
Sarah never had a TARDIS key, instead she had to borrow it off the Doctor. Obviously the key is a new series thing, and the key wasn’t just your ordinary Yale lock key then so I suppose running down to the key copy place wasn’t really an option.
And two more just to cap it off (I adore those two).