The Tenth Planet - Episode 4

Well the moment has been prepared for. This is the 134^th and final episode with William Hartnell as the Doctor. Sadly this is the final episode and it no longer exists so before we get the animated episode on DVD we get a mix of existing footage and telesnaps. After being away for the previous episode, William Hartnell returns for his final episode. There is a nice mention in his first scene where he talks about ‘this old body wearing a bit thin’. General Cutler is boarding on maniac. The desperation for getting his son down is quite fun to watch. He’s not interested in the Cybermen invading but is more concerned with his son’s rocket.  It’s a great little scene where Cutler is blaming the Doctor for his son’s death even though its not official. Sadly Cutler is killed and it’s a shame but I suspect that with everything going on he would have just been getting in the way.

The Cybermen make a welcome return and there’s a nice moment where the Doctor tries to negotiate with the Cybermen in trying to live on Earth in peace. They are more concerned with the rocket and the next portion of the episode is focusing on the rocket and disarming the warhead. Polly has suffered in the last couple of episodes and she has been reduced to being taken as a sort of hostage. Her purpose in this episode seems to be interacting with the Doctor. Ben helps Barclay to try and disarm the warhead and he comes up with a plan and uses his intelligence to try and defeat the Cyberman that is standing outside. The thing about this part of the episode is that despite showing that Ben is quite good at putting plans together, it feels like this area drags on a bit.

The episode benefits from the telesnaps and also the captions that run at the bottom of screen. It does its best but I don’t really pay much attention to the caption as the plot was quite entertaining.

William Hartnell’s final few scenes are quite sad to watch. It’s unclear how much acting is going on and its weird to think that this is the same William Hartnell who was the cranky grandfather figure that we met in that Junkyard. The regeneration is quite a mesmerising one it’s the build up to its that quite interesting. The way that the transition from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton  was achieved was very good and works effectively even 47 years after it was done.

The way that the Cybermen are defeated is a bit odd. It’s got nothing to do with the Doctor’s involvement. Mondas’ destruction is solely of its own doing and its only by nothing being done on Earth that meant that Mondas was destroyed. The story is written so that the Doctor isn’t involved as much as he normally would be and its probably because Anneke Wills and Michael Craze that make you realise that the Doctor’s involvement is pretty small. It’s a weird episode to try and review because of what happens. It’s not a normal season finale or final episode of a story. It’s the end of the first era of the show. It’s a shame that the Hartnell era is over. It’s been quite an enjoyable ride since the very first episode way back with An Unearthly Child. As a story, it’s a great first story for the Cybermen and the whole under siege base format makes the story much more claustrophobic and enjoyable. A brilliant way to end the Hartnell era.