Planet of Evil - Episode 1

Planet of Evil is a story that I have never really had much love for this story. It’s not one that I have had any real interest but I am hoping that watching an episode a day will change my opinion. This story was written by Louis Marks who previously wrote ‘Day of the Daleks’ which was an ok story and before that wrote ‘Planet of Giants’ which is a highly enjoyable adventure. One thing that this story does have in its favour is the set of the jungle. It’s very dark and very claustrophobic which the point is presumably.

The death of Braun is quite simple but very effective and it pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the story. Baldwin is the next to go in a similar fashion. It’s very typical of the tone that Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were aiming for and the more that this progresses, the more that its clear that the show is trying to (in a nice way) distance itself from the Pertwee/Letts/Dicks era of the show.

The famous Ealing Studios is where several scenes were filmed and this is perhaps the first time that it looked like some money had been spent of the story. It’s still obvious when it’s a BBC studio and when its Ealing but they still match up pretty well and it’s a good quality of the story that perhaps doesn’t get flagged up when people are knocking the show about production values.

It’s six minutes before we see the Doctor and Sarah and their first scene is in the TARDIS and it’s the first time that we have seen the TARDIS interior since ‘Death to the Daleks’. Tom Baker’s first TARDIS scene is a very good one because he races around it and pressing buttons like he’s been doing it for ages. Now that Harry isn’t around it means that the Doctor/Companion relationship between the Doctor and Sarah can become stronger as the stories progress and I think that Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen have become closer than Sladen had become with Jon Pertwee.

In the first scene with Salamar (played by Prentis Hancock), we are told that there is only enough fuel on their ship for a return journey and some emergency supply. This seems not to relevant in the first episode but it’s a point that will have some importance in future episodes. I think that whilst they are good characters, I cant believe that someone like Vishinsky would be answerable to Salamar. Michael Wisher makes his second appearance in two seasons when he appears as Morelli. At first I didn’t recognise him but it was only when he spoke that his voice became recognisable.

The cliffhanger was ok. It was just the anti-matter creature approaching the screen. I will comment more on the anti-matter creature as it becomes more involved in the story. As an opening episode, I thought that it was a perfectly fine episode but I still don’t think that the four episodes together will be any better than I previously thought. Then again it’s fair to say that it wont be any worse than I thought.