C029 The Tenth Planet

As I promised Ponken over Twitter, I’m coming into the review of “The Tenth Planet” with a potentially unique perspective. I own and have read the novelization of this serial via Kindle. The novelization is largely faithful to the television episode, with differences usually just being a case of different wording here and there. However, there are a few big differences that drew my attention:.
 
 * The Doctor’s increasing frailty is given much more prominence, as Ben & Polly’s narration notes the Doctor seeming to age rapidly early on, and makes it sound as if the Doctor is going up and down in terms of vitality. Weak one moment, back on his feet as strong as ever the next.
 * The conversation at the start of episode 3, in the TV serial, is held between General Cutler, Ben, and Barclay because William Hartnell was presumably too ill to film that week. In the novelization, their conversation is largely identical but held almost completely between Cutler and the Doctor.
 * When the Doctor says his body’s wearing a bit thin, he adds on that it’s “about time for a change.”
 * The regeneration scene itself plays out very differently. In the book, Ben & Polly have entered the TARDIS and are are changing out of their winter coats when they hear a shout. Upon investigating, they find the Doctor in a sleeping pod, face covered by his cloak. They notice his hands have changed to look more like a younger man’s, then the Doctor appears, looking very different, and introducing himself as the NEW Doctor.
 
 The plot felt weak in a few points, mostly because I initially had a hard time trying to work out why the Cybermen were even interested in the Snowcap base to begin with. Things made more sense when I remembered their intent regarding the Z-Bomb. I also had some issues with the resolution of “Mondas destroys itself”, on the other hand winning by stalling for time was definitely a different type of battle.
 
 This first iteration of the Cybermen were interesting, mostly for how different they were from their successors, even in the Troughton era. The odd little sing-song their voices have is unique to this batch. Personally, given they were trying to convince people to return to Mondas with them, I like to think they were trying to be sociable and were completely botching it as only creatures with no concept of feelings or emotions could. Perhaps more compelling as an antagonist is Cutler, whose actions are driven by his desperate desire to save his son’s life, one of the most basic of emotions
 
 The companions were quite active in the plot as well, in their own ways. Ben constantly trying to find ways to challenge the Cybermen and escaping captivity no less than three times. Polly (once again the only female in the cast) trying to reason with the Cybermen and, later, win over Barclay to their side.
 
 My confusion regarding the plot and the deus ex machina nature of its resolution works against the serial so I can’t feel like it rates a four or higher. Yet I also feel compelled to add to the score some due to this being William Hartnell’s finale story so my rating for this serial is a 3.9 out of 5.

Despite the cold, the Doctor, Ben and Polly emerge at the South Pole to have a little look around the frozen wastes. The place is not as deserted as imagined, and soon the trio are arrested for trespassing on a secret military testing site, under control of the UN.

Problems don’t come alone – a strange power drain is affecting the base, one of their spacecraft has gone out of control, and a sinister new planet has arrived in the Solar system on a collision course with Earth. Too late, the realisation dawns that these problems have a single cause – the Cybermen.

THE MAJESTY
In Doctor Who lore, this story is legendary. It is the first introduction of one of the series most enduring villains – second only to the Daleks. And it is the first time we ever see the Doctor regenerate, as Patrick Troughton enters the show for the first time.

However, even if that wider history did not exist, and the story stood by itself, it would still be a highly entertaining piece. General Cutler is a brilliant character, transforming from a tough-talking soldier to a hysterical maniac with a gun. This “base under siege” story would become a staple formula of future stories, with a long run of petty tyrants and megalomaniac commanders. But few are as credible as the first – General Cutler!

In addition, the Cybermen are particularly eerie here – their ‘body horror’ vibe is something they lose with their later development into mere robots. Here they have ordinary flesh hands, with cloth over their faces instead of skin, but with their eyes clearly visible underneath. Here they open their mouths in a silent scream while a sing-song pre-recorded answerphone voice recites their dialogue. They are a brilliant concept, and you can easily understand why audiences were keen to see more. Even their backstory is carefully crafted – trying to cheat death they have slowly replaced themselves with manufactured components, bit by bit. They’re easily one of the most horrifying things we have yet seen on the show.

THE MISERY
It’s not all good – there’s plenty to criticise about this series too. Not least is the question of why the Cybermen come to the base at all – what were they looking for, and how did they get there so quickly? And why – when they decided the base was a threat – did they not send in their spaceships to blow it up? Surely their civilisation has got some artillery-type weaponry and are not reliant upon foot-soldiers with handguns.

The first two waves of Cybermen are defeated far too easily for us to be particularly afraid of the third, even if there are more dots on the screen – spaceships flying in formation, we are told!

The Doctor’s absence for episode three is a bit less smoothly handled than previous departures. A body double collapses inexplicable in the first scene and he is carried out. Hartnell doesn’t reappear until episode four, where he simply walks in, telling everyone that he’s woken up again. It’s a shame that he is missing from a whole episode of his swansong.

MAGICAL MOMENTS
– In a daring moment of fanservice, we are introduced to one Italian soldier in a close-up shot of the pin-up girl postcards he has above his bunk, before we pull out to reveal him.
– This same Italian ogles at Polly through the periscope: “Mamma mia! Bellissima!” I don’t recall much else happening with this Italian soldier, which is a shame after building up his character so well.
– “Get the CO!” roars the Sergeant at the top of his voice. “Get him!” – “Why don’t you speak up a bit, hmmm?” grumbles the Doctor.
– When the CO, General Cutler turns up, things don’t go better. “I don’t like your tone, sir!” says the Doctor. – “Is that right?” says the General. “Well I don’t like your face … or your hair!”
– The end of the first episode with the arrival of the Cybermen is played for high tension and it really works. Give the director a medal!
The Cyberman explain their history and constitution in Episode Two. It should be a dull scene – sheer exposition – but they are such creepy and intriguing villains that we are hooked.
– The United Nations is an excuse for every comedy accent under the sun!
– Later in this episode, General Cutler discovers the astronaut who volunteered for a suicide mission is his own son. It’s a powerful character moment that sets up his later descent into madness.
– “The earth is about to fight its first interplanetary war” – there is a little frisson of anticipation that grips the audience on hearing these words.
– “We can destroy Mondas!” declaims General Cutler at the beginning of Episode Three. – “But that’s impossible!” – “Impossible is not a word in my dictionary, Dr Bartlett.” – “And just how do you propose to do it?” – “By using the Zee-Bomb!!!!!” Gasps and screams of horror erupt all round from the watching specialists. I, on the other hand, couldn’t resist a little chuckle – all the rising drama of the scene was dissipated in one moment by a Deus-Ex-Machina with a preposterous name.
– It later turns out this Zee-bomb is powerful enough to destroy half of all life on Earth if it explodes on Mondas. Wait… what? Seriously? What sort of fire power is this thing packing? Mondas is approaching the Earth, granted, but still it must be a good bit further away than the moon. And the blast from this Zee-bomb can still take out half the Earth’s population?! In comparison, even the Emperor’s “Death Star” looks like a peashooter. Credibility has been left long behind by this stage.
– “Can I do something?” asks Polly, as interplanetary war erupts around her. But what’s the job she gets given? Making the coffee…
Ben is tasked with crawling down a ventilation shaft because he is small enough to fit inside. Except that the said ventilation shaft is enormous… A pregnant pasta-mamma could fit inside – with triplets!
– Ben goes for an absolute bender over a barricade when a Cyberman attacks him. It’s surely a stunt double, but it’s a brilliant stunt!

IN SUMMARY
“The Tenth Planet” will always be remembered as Hartnell’s last story, and the first in which the Doctor’s regenerates – a remarkable concept that transforms “Dr Who” into a series that is always bigger and greater than the sum of its parts. Hartnell led the way in popularising the character of the Doctor and the show in general. But without this story, and the regeneration into Patrick Troughton, “Dr Who” would be long forgotten, expect by nerdy enthusiasts of UK TV from the 1960s.

Even without that mandatory inclusion in the Doctor Who ‘Hall of Fame’, “The Tenth Planet” is a strong story. Polly and particularly Ben are great here. General Cutler and the Cybermen are fantastic antagonists. The Doctor is missed from episode three, but it does help to avoid his regeneration merely being a tack-on at the end, as it can sometimes become in other stories. The idea of a base on the South Pole is a lot of fun, thought the action ends up feeling very constrained to just a couple of sets, especially when we are dealing with interplanetary war and global invasion. Nevertheless, the whole thing holds together very well despite it’s obvious limitations.

Overall: 4.3