UK, 7 April 1973-12 May 1973
4 episodes, average 25m each
videotape, colour, 4:3
mono, English
Previous Serial: Frontier in Space (1973)
Next Serial: The Green Death (1973)
Series: Doctor Who (1963-1989) – series 10, episodes 15-20
A British television science fiction serial directed by David Maloney from scripts by Terry Nation.
Plot Summary
On the jungle planet of Spiridon, The Doctor, aided by a group of crash-landed Thals, attempts to thwart the Daleks' attempt to learn the secret of invisibility, native to the Spiradons.
Credits
* = uncredited
Crew
Directed by: David Maloney [episodes 1-6]
© BBC 1973 [episodes 1-6]
BBC [episodes 1-6]
Producer: Barry Lets [episodes 1-6]
[Written] By: Terry Nation [episodes 1-6]
Script Editor: Terrance Dicks [episodes 1-6]
Studio Lighting: Derek Slee [episodes 1, 6]
Title Music by: Ron Grainer and BBC Radiophonic Workshop [episodes 1-6]
Title Music Arranged by: Delia Derbyshire *
Incidental Music by: Dudley Simpson [episodes 1, 2, 3, 6]
Music: Dudley Simpson [episode 4]
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson [episode 5]
Studio Sound: Tony Millier [episodes 1, 6]
Special Sound: Dick Mills [episodes 1-6]
Costumes: Hazel Pethig [episodes 1, 6]
Make up: Jean McMillan [episodes 1, 6]
Visual Effects: Clifford Culley [episodes 1-6]
Designer: John Hurst [episodes 1-6]
Production Assistant: George Gallaccio *
Assistant Floor Managers: Sue Hedden *, Graeme Harper *, John Cook *
Cast
Episode One
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Prentis Hancock (Vaber)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Episode Two
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Jane How (Rebec)
Prentis Hancock (Vaber)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Roy Skelton (Wester)
Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton (Dalek voices)
John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Dalek operators)
Episode Three
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Jane How (Rebec)
Prentis Hancock (Vaber)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Hilary Minster (Marat)
Alan Tucker (Latep)
Roy Skelton (Wester)
Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton, (Dalek voices)
John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks)
Episode Four
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Jane How (Rebec)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Prentis Hancock (Vaber)
Alan Tucker (Latep)
Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton, (Dalek voices)
John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks)
Episode Five
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Jane How (Rebec)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Prentis Hancock (Vaber)
Alan Tucker (Latep)
Roy Skelton (Wester)
Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton, (Dalek voices)
John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks)
Episode Six
Jon Pertwee (Dr Who)
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Bernard Horsfall (Taron)
Jane How (Rebec)
Tim Preece (Codal)
Alan Tucker (Latep)
Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton, (Dalek voices)
John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks)
Uncredited
Alan Casley [dead Thal pilot]
David Billa, Gary Dean, Terence Denville, Ronald Gough, Kevin Moran, Kelly Varney, Geoff Witherick [Spiridons]
Alternative Titles
Destination Daleks – working title
Links
Extracts included in
The Lively Arts: Whose Dr. Who (1977)
Production Notes
Producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks had hoped that the centrepiece of Doctor Who‘s tenth anniversary celebrations would be a huge, sprawling story that would, like The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-1966), unfold over twelve episodes. But they quickly realised that expecting audiences to stick with a single storyline unfolding over three months was going to be a tough act so hit on an alternative plan – two six-part stories that could stand on their own but which would have a single common thread running throughout. The result was Frontier in Space, featuring The Doctor's arch-nemesis The Master (Roger Delgado) which would culminate in a surprise appearance by the Daleks, leading into Planet of the Daleks.
The Daleks' real-world creator, Terry Nation, had not written for Doctor Who for many years, since Master Plan in fact and the Daleks themselves had been absent from the programme for five years between The Evil of the Daleks (1967) and Day of the Daleks (1972). Nation had allowed the production team to bring the Daleks back for Day so long as he had first refusal on any subsequent appearances. When Letts and Dicks approached him again for the tenth anniversary story, Nation offered to write the scripts himself. He was commissioned to write the six scripts (titled Planet of the Daleks from the very start though it briefly became known as Destination Daleks during the writing process), on 21 April 1972.
Dicks insisted on several changes to Nation's scripts, including the removal of individual episode titles (Doctor Who hadn't used individual episode titles since the last part of The Gunfighters in 1966), ensuring that the Thals weren't all killed off at the end of episode four and changing the name of the planet where all the action takes place from Destinus to Spiridon. Dicks also had to rewrite chunks of the first episode to make it smoothly fit with the ending of Frontier in Space.
Famously, for much of the time in the 1960s and early 70s, the BBC only had three Dalek props but the need for a more substantial Dalek force meant the construction of seven new Dalek casings, the first new ones since 1964. the new props were created by Westbury Design and Optical Limited, a company set up in 1970 by Cliff Culley, a long-serving special effects artist who had worked, uncredited, on the early Bond films and went on to provide the often derided effects for the Doctor Who serials Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and Robot (1974) as well as films like Warlords of Atlantis (1978), Murder by Decree (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
Unfortunately, director David Maloney was disappointed with what he saw as the poor quality of Westbury's workmanship and was forced to keep the new models in the background wherever possible. The Dalek Supreme was “played” by a modified prop from the 1966 feature film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., donated to the production by Nation himself. The production also uses a collection of painted Dalek toys to depict the 10,000-strong Dalek army with predictably less than realistic results.
As the story went before the cameras in January 1973, the title reverted back to Planet of the Daleks. Location shooting took place at Beachfields Quarry in Redhill, Surrey which stood in for the ice pool, the rest of the serial being shot at Ealing Television Film Studios between the 4th and 9th January at BBC Television Studios on alternate Mondays and Tuesdays from 22nd. Look closely and you'll see that Jo Grant looks different in the scenes shot on location and those shot in the studio, because Katy Manning had her hair cut after the location shooting.
Planet of the Daleks was one of the many Doctor Who episodes that fell foul of the BBC's habit of erasing videotapes for reuse. For many years, Episode Three only existed in the BBC Archives as a black and white 16mm telerecording after the master tape had been recycled in 1976. It was restored to colour in 2008 by Legend Films and the Colour Recovery Working Group.
The serial was broadcast on BBC One between 7 April and 12 May 1973 with a repeat between 5 November and 17 December 1993 as part of the Doctor Who and the Daleks season and Episode Three was broadcast in black and white.
References
Periodicals
Doctor Who Monthly no.115 p.23 – credits
Doctor Who Monthly Autumn Special 1987 p.41 – credits
Books
Doctor Who Program Guide 25th Anniverary Edition by James C. Armstrong Jr, Michael L. Brown p.41 – credits, episode list
Doctor Who: The Television Companion by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker pp.244-246 – credits, synopsis, review
Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction p.125 – credits, synopsis
