Planet of the Daleks (TV story)

Synopsis
The Doctor and Jo team up with a guerilla group of Thals, seeking to knock out an army of 10,000 Daleks in hibernation on planet Spiridon.

Plot
The TARDIS materialises in a hostile jungle on the planet Spiridon. Jo sets out alone to find help for the Doctor, who has fallen into a coma. She meets a party of Thals and is left in hiding aboard their crashed spaceship while they go to the Doctor's aid. The Time Lord, now recovered, learns of their mission to destroy a party of Daleks sent here to discover the native Spiridons' secret of invisibility.

Another Thal spaceship crash-lands in the jungle, and the survivors bring news that somewhere on Spiridon there is an army of ten thousand Daleks. Jo meanwhile meets a friendly Spiridon named Wester, who cures a deadly fungus disease that she has contracted.

It transpires that the Daleks' army is frozen in suspended animation in a cavern below their base. The Doctor, with the help of the Thals, explodes a bomb in the cavern wall and thereby causes one of the planet's natural ice volcanoes to erupt, entombing the army in a torrent of liquid ice.

The newly-arrived Dalek Supreme and his aides are left stranded on Spiridon as the Thals steal their ship and the Doctor and Jo depart in the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Taron - Bernard Horsfall
 * Vaber - Prentis Hancock
 * Codal - Tim Preece
 * Rebec - Jane How
 * Wester - Roy Skelton
 * Dalek Voices - Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton
 * Dalek Operators - John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town
 * Marat - Hilary Minster
 * Latep - Alan Tucker

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Managers - Sue Hedden, Graeme Harper, John Cook
 * Costumes - Hazel Pethig
 * Designer - John Hurst
 * Film Cameraman - Elmer Cossey
 * Film Editor - Dave Thomas
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Jean McMillan
 * Producer - Barry Letts
 * Production Assistant - George Gallaccio
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Derek Slee
 * Studio Sound - Tony Millier
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Clifford Culley

Story Notes

 * This story had a working title of: Destination Daleks.
 * Louis Marx Daleks are used to simulate an army (This same technique was used in The Evil of the Daleks).

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 11.0 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 10.7 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 10.1 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 8.3 million viewers
 * Episode 5 - 9.7 million viewers
 * Episode 6 - 8.5 million viewers

Myths

 * The Dalek Supreme was operated in this story by Tony Starr. (Starr could not have operated the Dalek Supreme in the scenes set in the Spiridon jungle, as he was not present when they were recorded. He did operate a Dalek in other scenes in Episode Six, and was credited for this in Radio Times, but there is no evidence that it was the Dalek Supreme and, particularly given that he was uncredited on screen, this seems unlikely. It is probable that John Scott Martin, who was credited as Chief Dalek in Radio Times, played the Dalek Supreme in all instances.)

Filming Locations

 * Beachfields Quarry, Redhill, Surrey
 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * BBC Television Centre (Studios 1, 4 & 6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The Doctor seems to have forgotten that he was following the Daleks to their base of operations in episode one.
 * The Daleks seem to have forgotten their plot to try and start a war between the empires of Earth and Draconia. (DW: Frontier in Space).
 * If the lake that the Daleks are pushed into is so cold, then why does it not affect the Thals standing in it?
 * Trapped in the TARDIS with a dwindling air supply, the Doctor takes time to change clothes.
 * When the Thals take cover on the plain of stones in episode four a huge, dark shape (probably a technician) appears behind the painted sky.
 * The second Dalek, pursuing Jo and Latep in episode five, knocks into a polystyrene 'rock' and moves it out of position.
 * The strings that operate the doors of the Dalek ship are visible, and the Dalek Supreme's lights are especially out of synch with his dialogue.
 * The Daleks seal themselves in to prevent the virus escaping. So what happens when the base blows up?

Continuity

 * Spiridon is revisited in BFA: Return of the Daleks.
 * It is also revisited in DWM: Emperor of the Daleks.

DVD, Video and Other Releases
VHS release Released in November 1999 as part of the second Dalek Tin set, alongside Revelation of the Daleks.

DVD release Episode 3 of this story is currently unavailable in colour but in March 2008 the BBC announced it was investigating technology to return this episode to colour.

Target Novelisations

 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks in 1976.