Fascinating. It's the word the Doctor repeatedly uses this episode. His burning curiosity not only encourages him to explore the dead planet but also to sabotage the TARDIS in order to prevent the others from forcing him to leave. Rather like his actions in the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, he acts impetuously and selfishly. You get the impression that Susan is used to following her grandfather about and putting up with his decisions.
After watching The Dead Planet, I'm convinced of a couple of things. First is that the Doctor is an adolescent in the form of a grumpy old man. Second is that the preoccupation of the writers seems to be presenting death in different aspects. Last time is was the threat of extinction caused by environmental change and now we have (what appears to be) the destructive threat of nuclear weapons.
In this episode we have Ian and Barbara's first experience of an alien world (if you believe that the Tribe of Gum took place on Earth), domestic life aboard the TARDIS, tensions between Ian and the Doctor and the exploration of a mysterious deserted city.
The production team take us from the ancient past, caves and forests full of dangerous creatures to radioactive world of petrified forests, metal creatures and retro-futuristic cities. The scope of the show - from pre-history to the far-future and from Earth to other worlds - is now established for the audience. Our point-of-view characters, Ian and Barbara, are used to acknowledge this is indeed the case.
The scene in which the travellers view the alien city from a distance and the Doctor uses his binoculars for a closer look creates a n impressive sense of awe. Of course, the models look naive with today's eyes - but are effective in establishing a sense of wonder. Same for the petrified forest and the metal dog-like creature with magnetic powers. (I'm less sure what the writers were trying to do with Susan's discovery of the tiny flower. Narratively, it's used to separate Susan from the others to set up the plot point of being touched by a hand but seems to hint at something else - perhaps the presence of life in remains of the dead world.)
We see a little more of the TARDIS. Barbara and Susan have a conversation that seems to be in another room, presumably in the living quarters of the ship. The Doctor takes readings from the fault locator, a wall of dials in a section of the console room behind a perspex screen. There's also a food machine which dispenses meals in the form of small foil-wrapped bars. Underneath the console is the fluid link, a tiny instrument containing mercury and without which the TARDIS can't travel. The Doctor uses codes for everything: J62L6 for food and K7 for a fault (it's almost as if the use of alphanumerical codes are used by the writers to signify advance technology in the 1960s).
More is learned about the mysterious Doctor: there's a "gulf" of age between him and Susan, he has problems with his memory and is solitary (Susan tells Ian: "I don't say that Grandfather doesn't know how to work the ship, but he's so forgetful, and then he will go off and. Well, he likes to work on his own."), he enjoys showing off TARDIS technology and condescendingly explaining things ("Food has component parts, dear boy. Flavours are rather like primary colours, you know, you blend two to achieve a third, a fourth, etc, etc."). The Doctor's also supercilious and completely self-centred ("I will not be questioned. Uninvited passengers. I didn't invite them to the ship. I shall do what I want to do.") and even sabotages the TARDIS to get his own way. He smirks like a naughty boy when he convinces the others that they need to travel to the alien city in order to find mercury in order to repair the TARDIS' fluid link. Once again, the Doctor finds physical travel tiring and has to rely on Susan for support.
Barbara and Ian dislike the Doctor (mainly for his arrogance) and notice that he has “a knack for getting himself in trouble”. In one exchange early in the episode, they joke:
BARBARA: Well, I suppose we'd better make sure he doesn't fall down and break a leg.
After watching The Dead Planet, I'm convinced of a couple of things. First is that the Doctor is an adolescent in the form of a grumpy old man. Second is that the preoccupation of the writers seems to be presenting death in different aspects. Last time is was the threat of extinction caused by environmental change and now we have (what appears to be) the destructive threat of nuclear weapons.
In this episode we have Ian and Barbara's first experience of an alien world (if you believe that the Tribe of Gum took place on Earth), domestic life aboard the TARDIS, tensions between Ian and the Doctor and the exploration of a mysterious deserted city.
The production team take us from the ancient past, caves and forests full of dangerous creatures to radioactive world of petrified forests, metal creatures and retro-futuristic cities. The scope of the show - from pre-history to the far-future and from Earth to other worlds - is now established for the audience. Our point-of-view characters, Ian and Barbara, are used to acknowledge this is indeed the case.
The scene in which the travellers view the alien city from a distance and the Doctor uses his binoculars for a closer look creates a n impressive sense of awe. Of course, the models look naive with today's eyes - but are effective in establishing a sense of wonder. Same for the petrified forest and the metal dog-like creature with magnetic powers. (I'm less sure what the writers were trying to do with Susan's discovery of the tiny flower. Narratively, it's used to separate Susan from the others to set up the plot point of being touched by a hand but seems to hint at something else - perhaps the presence of life in remains of the dead world.)
We see a little more of the TARDIS. Barbara and Susan have a conversation that seems to be in another room, presumably in the living quarters of the ship. The Doctor takes readings from the fault locator, a wall of dials in a section of the console room behind a perspex screen. There's also a food machine which dispenses meals in the form of small foil-wrapped bars. Underneath the console is the fluid link, a tiny instrument containing mercury and without which the TARDIS can't travel. The Doctor uses codes for everything: J62L6 for food and K7 for a fault (it's almost as if the use of alphanumerical codes are used by the writers to signify advance technology in the 1960s).
More is learned about the mysterious Doctor: there's a "gulf" of age between him and Susan, he has problems with his memory and is solitary (Susan tells Ian: "I don't say that Grandfather doesn't know how to work the ship, but he's so forgetful, and then he will go off and. Well, he likes to work on his own."), he enjoys showing off TARDIS technology and condescendingly explaining things ("Food has component parts, dear boy. Flavours are rather like primary colours, you know, you blend two to achieve a third, a fourth, etc, etc."). The Doctor's also supercilious and completely self-centred ("I will not be questioned. Uninvited passengers. I didn't invite them to the ship. I shall do what I want to do.") and even sabotages the TARDIS to get his own way. He smirks like a naughty boy when he convinces the others that they need to travel to the alien city in order to find mercury in order to repair the TARDIS' fluid link. Once again, the Doctor finds physical travel tiring and has to rely on Susan for support.
Barbara and Ian dislike the Doctor (mainly for his arrogance) and notice that he has “a knack for getting himself in trouble”. In one exchange early in the episode, they joke:
BARBARA: Well, I suppose we'd better make sure he doesn't fall down and break a leg.
Don't you ever think he deserves something to happen to him?
IAN: Yes.
As we see, the person who actually ends up with something happening to them is Barbara when she becomes trapped in the maze-like metal corridors of the alien city. The cliff-hanger is our first sight... of a dalek!
An annoyance with this episode is the way that the glass phials left outside the TARDIS are taken aboard and left behind while the travellers go on their journey to the city. And that no one checked the radioactivity meter more than once. When they arrive at the city they also decide to split up; I'm not sure I'd do that. Pairs, maybe.
As a final thought, I'm starting to appreciate the problem that many fans have with these early episodes is a consequence of trying to binge their way through stories. I'm enjoying watching them once a week for 25 minutes and the show holds my attention completely. I'm not sure this would be the case if I tried to watch the show for two or three hours at a time.
Next week: The Survivors.
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