Planet Of Evil: Doctor Who: Season 13

SYNOPSIS

DETAILS

CAST & CREW

REVIEWS

Goldby

Grob

Long

Planet Of Evil SYNOPSIS:

A Morestran expedition believes they are stranded on a planet of evil. But as the Doctor and Sarah and a military expedition discover Zeta Minor is merely trying to take back what it owns.

With Harry having decided to stay on Earth, Sarah has taken up the Doctor's offer of a lift home. However they answer a distress call to the jungle planet of Zeta Minor. There they find Professor Sorenson is the sole survivor of a science expedition, the rest having been killed off by invisible forces on the planet. A Morestran Military recovery expedition lands to collect Sorenson and the The time travellers are the main suspects in the killings.

Sorenson takes aboard anti matter samples mined from the planet and when the Doctor warns him against this Sorenson backs up the accusations against them. The ship is unable to leave the surface with the anti-matter aboard. The Doctor tries to communicate to the anti matter creatures on the planet that he will see the stolen samples returned. Sarah and second in command Vishinsky can not convince the increasingly paranoid Commander Salamar that the Doctor and his Tardis are the cause of the on going deaths.
The commander tries to jettison the travellers once in deep space while Sorenson infected by anti matter keeps transforming back into an anti matter beast and kills the crew one by one. As the orbit of the ship begins to decay and the ship gets dragged back to Zeta Minor the harder it pulls away, the Doctor knows they must return all of the anti matter and cure Sorenson or face death.

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Planet Of Evil SERIAL DETAILS:

Episode	Broadcast	Run Time	Viewership (In Millions)
Part One	27-Sep-75	24:02	10.4
Part Two	4-Oct-75	22:30	9.9
Part Three	11-Oct-75	23:50	9.1
Part Four	18-Oct-75	23:43	10.1

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Planet Of Evil CAST & CREW

Stars:
The Doctor:
Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions:
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)

Guest Stars:
Frederick Jaeger — Sorenson
Ewen Solon — Vishinsky
Prentis Hancock — Salamar
Graham Weston — De Haan
Louis Mahoney — Ponti
Michael Wisher — Morelli
Terence Brook — Braun
Tony McEwan — Baldwin
Haydn Wood — O'Hara
Melvyn Bedford — Reig

Production Staff for Serial 4H:
Writer - Louis Marks
Director - David Maloney
Script editor - Robert Holmes
Producer - Philip Hinchcliffe

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Planet Of Evil REVIEWS

Goldby

It's creepy and it's kooky, mysterious and spooky it's all together ookey...Yes it's Planet of Evil. Love the jungle sets! Got to be the best and most frightening jungle sets in Dr Who. It looks like an alien planet. See what happens when get people on a production with a little imagination? There's some good stuff for this one. It's the start of "the homage to other genre's" part of the Hinchcliffe era. This time round it's a Dr who version of the classic science fiction 1950's film Forbidden Planet crossed with the Jekyll & Hyde formula. Thankfully there's no sign of Robbie the robot but there are nasty invisible monsters that suck the life out of you and there's no hiding from them! They can go through anything!
The story ain't bad, unless you sit back with a physics book and scrutinize every tiny portion of logic in the science behind this tale. The studio jungle sets still look good but it's obvious when everyone's in the studio. Why not put all the jungle bits on film? The acting gets a bit hammy in some places Professor Sorenson is great, especially as he slips back and forth. But there seems to be a drop in production values for this one. The space ship sets are painfully under dressed, the guards guns very plasticky and fake looking even the signs on ship's doors are hung on by a bit of string and the jumpsuits for these guys are just awful, worst dressed people...EVER
Maybe too ambitious but still good, oh and it's hard not to miss Harry he should have hung around longer but your right the chemistry between the Dr and Sarah is still excellent and even taken up a notch. 7/10

Grob

Planet Of Evil often evokes evil laughter......Bwaaaa-haaaaa-haaaaa-haaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Should really be called Planet of Sci-Fi cliches really cos there are so many of them. Invisible monsters, misguided scientists, hot-headed captains, level-headed second-in-commands, dispensable crew members who need a red shirt from Star Trek, antimatter, futuristic jumpsuits, Prentis Hancock - all the stock sci-fi things are here. So you gotta wonder whether Holmes and Hinchcliffe are taking the piss here (they certainly do in a couple of stories time with the Brain of Morbius)
The whole anti-matter logic though is defying physics. You take anti-matter from a hole in the ground only to be flung back to the planet's surface on an elastic band if you try to take it with you when you leave. I thought it would explode or something as soon as it reached the surface? Dunno. Anyway, for the sake of safety please keep it in the ice bucket provided.On the plus side, the jungle looks great doesn't it? They make the most of filming those scenes which is a double-edged sword cos they jar so badly with the studio jungle scenes. The ocular devise is a great invention and the skeletons popping up all the time after their occupants have had their goodness sucked out is a nice (if again cliched) idea.
So the story works on the visuals, just lets itself down in the plot and character department. And Prentis Hancock is an appalling actor. I guess you can't have it both ways on this one and neither will I so I'll sit on the fence and go 5/10.

Long

Planet Of Evil - what has it got?Bloody colonists / scientific expeditions / people who go to other planets in jumpsuits... there's always got to be one that spoils it and goes all evil on everyone.
Yeah, there's a lot of familiar stuff in this one - but I really like it! There are a lot of great things in this - the studio bound planet looks fantastic, the concept of an anti-matter (basically invisible) enemy is brilliant, and exceptionally well realized (no need for dodgy latex here!), Sorenson is excellent in the Jeckyll / Hyde role, the cliff hangers (particularly the Doctor going into the pit and the Doctor and Sarah about to get jettisoned from the ship) are classics, and we get the return of the TARDIS interior for the first time in the Tom Baker era.
Plus, the we find that the wonderful chemistry between the Doctor and Sarah doesn't waver any when they lose Harry (or "Haddy"... I loved it when Tom used to call him "Haddy"!)
I reckon it's great, and I'm going to give it a 9.2/10

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