4 out of 5

Director: Richard Martin & Christopher Barry

While the 7 episodes for this arc leaves a little bit too much room, ‘The Dead Planet’ more fully satisfyingly solidified Hartnell’s presentation of The Doctor as well as displaying the unique mixture of humanity and speculative sci-fi that would successfully fuel low budget epics for years to come.

In the first serial, DW came across mostly as a dick: taking two unwitting travelers (schoolteachers Ian and Barbara) into his TARDIS and hitting ‘go’ and then having to admit he didn’t know where they were and didn’t know how to get them back home.  Whoops.  First he prompts exploration in their new locale, and then when shit goes South he wants to beat a hasty retreat back to the Box, willing to smash some cavemen skulls to do so.  In ‘The Dead Planet,’ The Doc is still boastful and manipulative, but it becomes much more clear (or is made much more clear) that its that his heart is set on exploration and discovery first and foremost.  Thus when he fakes a problem with the TARDIS so the team has to go fetch supplies in a mysterious city, you’re shaking your head but you get it – you want to see what’s in the city as well.

…And what’s in the city are The Daleks, our first classic villain, and one with an origin story more unique than I recalled and stands out still, today, as a more thoughtful background story than most sci-fi tales attribute to machines (as in Battlestar’s ‘we built them and then they turned on us’ trope).  What’s also great is how well the design works – while the bubble coated rolling cones certainly bear the overall look of Flash Gordon-esque creations, that the creatures are functional enough to be fully mobile in frame without anything like a guy in a suit is an awesome accomplishment.  Never before has something so inhuman looking had such a recognizable role or personality, with their monotone commands voiced in that slightly alarmed tone the cherry on top.

Also on the planet are the peaceful Thals, a human looking race surviving on the dead planet in part thanks to some anti-radiation meds that they share with The Doctor’s party.  There’s some back and forth here with Susan thinking she’s helping to organize an understanding between The Daleks – who are already on their ‘Annihilate’ tip – and the Thals, until it turns out the whole thing was a ruse to shoot lasers at humans.  So now it’s go time, but unfortunately, the part that the Doc had faked as broken is now actually missing in the Dalek city… so back they go.  This amounts to a couple episodes in the serial where we’re finding different ways in and out of the city.  There are some interesting musings about the nature of each culture, and we do find out the fascinating history of the races along the way, but there certainly were ways to compress this so that we, as viewers, only had to make this trip for one full go around.

Directors Martin and Barry find some cool, cheap ways to shoot scenes in the City and effective sets for the same and for some underground tunnels.  The laser effect sets a nice cheapie precedent (the screen just goes negative and then the target falls down); it wouldn’t be too bad except the timing of these kinds of thing doesn’t really sell it.  (When I yell bang, look at the camera for a moment and then calmly lay down…)  Ian starts to become a pretty interesting character, steadfast and brave, with Barbara floating back and forth between helpful and panic-y female.  Susan, meanwhile, with the mystery of episode 1’s first few minutes resolved (i.e. she’s not from around here) can now just act her age, which is to say: sort of an annoying teenager.

‘The Dead Planet’ is chock full of promise, and has some really well-handled, organic dialogue at points, trusting in a level of audience competence that I wouldn’t have expected from the era.  Overall, it feels more sure of itself than the opener, and tosses in a villain that has stood the test of time for good reason.