133 The Tenth Planet: Episode Three

EPISODE: The Tenth Planet: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 133
STORY NUMBER: 029
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 October 1966
WRITER: Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
DIRECTOR: Derek Martinus
SCRIPT EDITOR: Gerry Davis
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Tenth Planet

"It's a doomsday weapon, Mister, and rightly primed it could split that planet in half. There are two or three at strategic positions round the globe. We have one of them and the means of delivering it to Mondas!"

The Doctor collapses in the control room and is taken to the bunk room to rest. Cutler contacts his superiors for permission to use the Z-Bomb against Mondas. They refuse but grant him permission to take what action he deems necessary against the Cybermen which he interprets as permission to use the bomb which he prepares for launch. Barclay, his chief technician objects and aids Ben & Polly in attacking the bomb. A second Cyberman craft lands at the polar base but it's crew are repelled by the base guards using their hoard of captured Cyberman weapons. The guards collect more from the Cybermen they have shot. Ben is discovered interfering with the bomb and is knocked unconscious. Coming to in the control room he can only watch helplessly as the countdown approaches zero.

This episode has problems, and most of them are due to illness. First writer Kit Pedler was hospitalised while writing it, leading to the lion's share of the work being done by script editor Gerry Davis. Then William Hartnell was taken ill with bronchitis at the start of the week of rehearsals that preceded recording on the Saturday. This lead to the episode, which like all of Tenth Planet is rather Doctor-lite to reduce the work load on it's ailing star, being restructured to exclude the Doctor from the action, and dividing The Doctor's role between Ben & Barclay. Gordon Craig, who doubled for the Doctor in the previous story, is once again pressed into service as a substitute prone Doctor. Unfortunately the episode also has minimal involvement from the Cybermen themselves showing up for a brief attack on the base only to get mown down by the guards using the weapons from their deceased comrades. Lumping all this together it makes it such a shame that this is the last episode of this story, and the last episode of William Hartnell's reign as Doctor Who to exist.

What Tenth Planet as a whole represents, besides being the first Cyberman story and the last First Doctor story, is that it's the start of a particular genre of Doctor Who story: The Base Under Siege. Take a small cut off outpost of humans and throw an alien menace at it. Most also feature a large central set, where most of the action takes place and most of the money is spent! In this case it's the central control room at the Bunker, with it's multi levelled design:

The First Doctor era has been all about experimentation and variety. Right at the end it throws up a winning formula that would be used as a template for many stories, indeed some of the best stories, in the years to come.

Up until this point Cutler has just been an arrogant stubborn general. What changes things for him is when the situation becomes personal:

WIGNER: Yes. Establish contact immediately. One other thing. This is a dangerous mission. We needed for a brave man, so we asked for volunteers.
CUTLER: So?
WIGNER: Your son volunteered. Cutler? Are you there?
CUTLER: Yes, sir. Yes I'm here. You've sent my son to his death. You realise that, I hope.

It's at this point his perspective on the situation goes completely

CUTLER: Now listen, men, the situation as I see it is this. We've got three major problems on our hands. One, my son has been sent up on a foolhardy mission and we've got to get him down. Two, another visit from these creatures is almost a certainty. Three, the Earth is being drained of it's energy by this so-called planet Mondas or whatever it's called.

Note the order, and thus the priority: Son, Us, Rest of Planet. A military commander thinking under clearer conditions would have that in reverse.

The lengths he will go to to save his son quickly becomes clear.

DYSON: There's nothing we can do about any of them.
CUTLER: That's where you're wrong, Mister Dyson, we can do something. We can destroy Mondas.
BARCLAY: But that's impossible.
CUTLER: Impossible is not in my vocabulary, Doctor Barclay.
BARCLAY: And just how do you propose to do it?
CUTLER: By using the Zee-bomb.
BARCLAY: You can't do that!
CUTLER: I can and I will.
DYSON: What about the radiation effects on Earth?
CUTLER: That's a risk we'll have to take.
BARCLAY: But to use this bomb you'll have to get authority from Geneva.
CUTLER: I'll get authority, fella, right now. Get me Geneva.
BEN: What is the Zee-bomb?
CUTLER: What is it? It's a doomsday weapon, Mister, and rightly primed it could split that planet in half. There are two or three at strategic positions round the globe. We have one of them and the means of delivering it to Mondas.

He will risk exposing everyone on Earth to radiation to save his son.

I think you can do some reading between the lines with Cutler from this. He's wearing a wedding ring throughout the serial which suggests to me that he is, or has been, married. I'd suggest he's been widowed and he's taken the snowcap posting in order to escape from his old life. Suddenly his son is a part of that life again and in extreme risk and that pushes him over the edge into making decisions that aren't sensible from a command point of view. of course the Z-Bomb itself appears just like that in the episode as needed, which is possibly a symptom of what was going behind the scenes.

Heading the guest cast for this story as General Cutler is Canadian Robert Beatty. Beatty knew Hartnell from several previous productions 1946's Appointment with Crime and two episodes of the Police series Dial 999 that Beatty starred in and Hartnell guested in: The Killing Job and 50,000 Hands, the later of which is available to watch on the internet and includes one Patrick Troughton, who is about to replace Hartnell in the lead role of Doctor Who! This isn't Beatty's only brush with science fiction: he's one of the very few actors from Doctor Who to appear in 2001: A Space Odyssey where he plays Dr. Ralph Halvorsen, one of the scientists at the lunar dig. Incredibly one of the other actors who's been in Doctor Who and 2001 is also in this episode! He appears in the very first episode of Blake's 7: The Way Back as Bram Foster and has not one but two roles in the Superman series appearing in Superman III as the Tanker Captain and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace as the President of the United States!

Cutler's son, Terry, is played by Callen Angelo who's only work post Doctor Who would appear to be a recurring role in Coronation Street in 1970.

Chief Scientist Barclay is played by David Dodimead. I can see one of incoming Doctor Patrick Troughton's better known series, Paul of Tarsus on his CV but he appears to have not made any other cult television that I'm aware of.

Dudley Jones as Dyson had also been on television with Patrick Troughton appearing as Much in Robin Hood. Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler use him again in the Doomwatch episode The Red Sky. He's got an appearance in a first season Rentaghost episode to his name which I have here on DVD somewhere.

The Radar Technician is played by Christopher Matthews. He crops up in two Space: 1999 episodes, Breakaway and Matter of Life and Death as a Main Mission Operative.

Appearing as an uncredited Silo Technician in his episode, but easier to spot as the TV Announcer in the second episode is Glenn Beck. In addition to an appearance in the classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb as Lt. Kivel he's the other member of this cast to be in 2001, a prior Stanley Kubrick film, where he plays an Astronaut. In fact I can find only five actors who've been in the original series of Doctor Who who were also in 2001 and FOUR of them appear in the space of three stories! In addition to the two in this story stuntman Bill Weston, who we drew attention to as a stunt Militiaman in The Smugglers episode 4 is another astronaut and Kenneth Kendall, who was himself in The War Machines, is the BBC-12 Announcer in 2001. Odd man out Bob Wilyman appears as German / Roman Soldiers / Alien Student in The War Games episode 4 and as a British Soldier in episode 7 of the same story. Recently Burnell Tucker, the photographer at the TMA crater in 2001, made an appearance in the new series as Old Garner in The Angels Take Manhattan.

The head of Space Command, Mr Wigner, is played by Steve Plytas. A Turkish born Greek he made a career out of playing Mediterranean roles on TV and film. He too has a role in Paul of Tarsus on his CV as the Master. I spot Z Cars: Who Said Anything About the Law? immediately, where he plays Stavros Papadopoulos, because I know that's directed by Douglas Camfield! I spotted him recently in The Professionals: Blind Run where he plays a Foreign Observer. He's got a Bond to his name appearing in 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service as a Greek Tycoon and was a Doctor in the huge hit Batman revival. Like Robert Beatty he's also in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace where he plays a Russian General.

Wigner's staff is made up of Ellen Cullen, the Geneva Technician, Stanley Davies, the Spanish ISC Officer and Chris Konyils, the African ISC Officer, giving International Space Command a truly international flavour, although I'm slightly unsure about wearing traditional African dress to work in Geneva. Maybe as a visiting diplomat but as someone there day in day out doing a job? Of the three only Chris Konyliss has been in Doctor Who before playing a Saracen in The Crusade and returns as a Wheel Crewmember in The Wheel in Space: Episode

There are several extras who appear as Tracking Room Technicians in every episode. Gordon Lang as was an extra in The Savages: Episode 1. Richard Lawrence returns as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 1, a Technician in Inferno episode 1 and a Villager in The Dæmons episodes one & two while William Gossling is a villager in episode 3 of the same story.

The Cybermen find their ranks boosted in this episode: John Haines was a Man in Bar in The War Machines: Episode 4. Bruce Wells hasn't appeared in the series proper before but was a Thal in the Dr. Who and the Daleks film. He'll be back as an Alien Guard/Union Recruit in The War Games episode three and an Ogron in Day of the Daleks episodes two to four and again in Frontier in Space episode two, three & five.

Roy Pearce is a Soldier in Snow Camouflage/Engineer #2: He's previously appeared in The Massacre 4: Bell of Doom as a Guard. He returns as a Chameleon in The Faceless Ones episode 1, the Cyberman in The War Games episode ten, an extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 6, a Villager in The Dæmons episode one & two, a Solos Guard in The Mutants episode three to five, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks parts one & two, a Courtier in part one and a Brother in part three The Masque of Mandragora. He's for three Blake's 7 first season appearances to his name as an Armed Crewman in Space Fall, a Federation Trooper in Time Squad and a scientist in Project Avalon. He's also in Davis & Pedler's Doomwatch as a Man in Invasion & Flood.

This is Director Derek Martinus' third Doctor Who story after the four part Galaxy Four and single episode Mission to the Unknown, a precursor to Dalek Masterplan. When he died in 2014 following a long illness (BBC Obituary and Toby Hadoke's Obituary in The Guardian) I dug out some of Derek Martinus' work to watch and watched Galaxy 4 episode 3: Airlock, some of Tenth Planet 1 & 2, Evil of the Daleks 2 and Spearhead from Space. While doing this a few things struck me:

Derek Martinus seems to have been handed some of the more historically important directing jobs in Doctor: he handles the first appearance of the Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Autons and Third Doctor. He handles the famous Doctor & Companion free episode Dalek Masterplan, the prelude to the grand Dalek Masterplan. And he's on hand for the departure of William Hartnell and the intended final appearance of the Daleks. In all he directs 26 episodes which puts him fifth on the all time list of Who episodes directed. The four directors above him on the list are all recognisable names to Doctor Who fans.

	DIRECTOR	EPISODES	EXISTS	MISSING	EXISTS %	MISSING %
1	Douglas Camfield	52	38	14	73.08	26.93
2	David Maloney	45	45	0	100	0
3	Christopher Barry	43	33	10	76.75	23.26
4	Michael Briant	30	30	0	100	0
5	Derek Martinus	26	13	13	50	50
6	Barry Letts	24	24	0	100	0
7	Pennant Roberts	24	24	0	100	0
8	Richard Martin	22	22	0	100	0
9	Michael Ferguson	21	21	0	100	0
10	Peter Moffatt	20	20	0	100	0
	Ron Jones	20	20	0	100	0

If we limit the episodes to the end of 1970's Season 7, the point where Martinus stopped working for Doctor Who, he'd directed the second most episodes behind, inevitably, the great Douglas Camfield:

	DIRECTOR	EPISODES	EXISTS	MISSING	EXISTS%	MISSING%
1	Douglas Camfield	42	28	14	67	34
2	Derek Martinus	26	13	13	50	50
3	Richard Martin	22	22	0	100	0
4	Christopher Barry	20	10	10	50	50
5	David Maloney	19	19	0	100	0
6	Michael Ferguson	17	17	0	100	0
7	Morris Barry	13	11	2	85	16
8	Hugh David	10	0	10	0	100
9	Mervyn Pinfield	10	10	0	100	0
10	Waris Hussein	10	4	6	40	60

Of note in that list is relative newcomer David Maloney's 19 episodes, all in Troughton's last season.

But as you'll also see from that list over half of Martinus' 26 episodes are missing.

In terms of numbers of episodes missing he stands second behind Douglas Camfield who directed significantly more episodes during the period that episodes are missing from - 42 of Camfield's 52 episodes fall before the end of Season 7.

DIRECTOR	EPISODES	EXISTS	MISSING	EXISTS %	MISSING %	Stories Missing
Douglas Camfield	52	38	14	73.07	26.92	Crusade Dalek Masterplan Web of Fear
Derek Martinus	26	13	13	50	50	Galaxy 4 Misison to the Unknown 10th Planet Evil of the Daleks Ice Warriors
Christopher Barry	43	33	10	76.74	23.25	Savages Power of the Daleks
Hugh David	10	0	10	0	100	Highlanders Fury from the Deep
Waris Hussein	10	4	6	40	60	Marco Polo
Julia Smith	8	2	6	25	75	Smugglers Underwater Menace
Gerald Blake	12	7	5	58.33	41.66	Abominable Snowmen
Michael Hart	6	1	5	16.66	83.33	Space Pirates
Paddy Russell	18	14	4	77.77	22.22	The Massacre
Gerry Mill	6	2	4	33.33	66.66	Faceless Ones
Tristan de Vere Cole	6	2	4	33.33	66.66	Wheel in Space
John Davies	4	0	4	0	100	The Macra Terror
Michael Leeston-Smith	4	0	4	0	100	The Myth Makers
Bill Sellars	4	1	3	25	75	The Celestial Toymaker
Morris Barry	13	11	2	84.61	15.38	The Moonbase
Henric Hirsch	6	4	2	66.66	33.33	Reign of Terror
John Crockett	5	4	1	80	20	Marco Polo

Reordering the list by percentage reveals some surprises! 3 directors Hugh David, Michael Leeston-Smith and John Davies have their entire Doctor Who directing career wiped out by the episode junkings, but Hugh David is the only one of these to work on more than one story.

DIRECTOR	EPISODES	EXISTS	MISSING	EXISTS %	MISSING %	Stories Missing
Hugh David	10	0	10	0	100	Highlanders Fury from the Deep
John Davies	4	0	4	0	100	The Macra Terror
Michael Leeston-Smith	4	0	4	0	100	The Myth Makers
Michael Hart	6	1	5	16.66	83.33	Space Pirates
Julia Smith	8	2	6	25	75	Smugglers Underwater Menace
Bill Sellars	4	1	3	25	75	The Celestial Toymaker
Gerry Mill	6	2	4	33.33	66.66	Faceless Ones
Tristan de Vere Cole	6	2	4	33.33	66.66	Wheel in Space
Waris Hussein	10	4	6	40	60	Marco Polo
Derek Martinus	26	13	13	50	50	Galaxy 4 Mission to the Unknown 10th Planet Evil of the Daleks Ice Warriors
Gerald Blake	12	7	5	58.33	41.66	Abominable Snowmen
Henric Hirsch	6	4	2	66.66	33.33	Reign of Terror
Douglas Camfield	52	38	14	73.07	26.92	Crusade Dalek Masterplan Web of Fear
Christopher Barry	43	33	10	76.74	23.25	Savages Power of the Daleks
Paddy Russell	18	14	4	77.77	22.22	The Massacre
John Crockett	5	4	1	80	20	Marco Polo
Morris Barry	13	11	2	84.61	15.38	The Moonbase

Derek Martinus is the only Director with episodes missing from FIVE stories:

STORY	EPISODES	EXISTS	MISSING	EXISTS	MISSING
Galaxy Four	4	1	3	3	1, 2 & 4
Mission to the Unknown	1	0	1	-	1
Tenth Planet	4	3	1	1, 2 & 3	4
The Evil of the Daleks	7	1	6	2	1, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7
The Ice Warriors	6	4	2	1, 4, 5 & 6	2 & 3
Spearhead from Space	4	4	0	1, 2, 3 & 4	-
	26	13	13

In fact of the six stories he worked on only the last, Spearhead from Space is complete.

Which bring us onto the sad fact that this episode is the final episode of this story, and indeed the final episode featuring the First Doctor remaining. The countdown at the end is somewhat ominous when you know at the end of it there are no more complete William Hartnell episodes to watch. However, as we'll see next week, there have been two official attempts at bringing Tenth Planet Four back to life!