OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 345
STORY NUMBER: 068
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 14 April 1973
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 10.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Dalek War: Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video
"The signal we intercepted was to Dalek Supreme Command. It stated that the force assembled on Spiridon was now complete. It gave their numbers. Well, somewhere on this planet there are ten thousand Daleks!"
The Thals tell the Doctor that there are a small force of Daleks on Spiridon experimenting with invisibility. Back at the ship the fungus continues to spread up Jo's arm. Vaber is attacked by a snake like plant and the Doctor saves his life. Delirious, Jo wanders out of the ship and drops the Tardis log before collapsing. Spiridons approach the Thals and Codal separates from the others leading them off. The Daleks locate the Thal ship and arrive before the Doctor & the Thals. When they decide to destroy the ship the Doctor attempts to stop them watching it go up in smoke with, he believes, Jo Grant still aboard. Jo has already been removed by an invisible Spiridon, Wester, who is treating her infection helping her to recover. The Doctor finds himself imprisoned with Codal and the start to plan an escape. Taron & Vaber retrieve their explosives but argue on how they should complete their mission, Vaber pulling a gun on his crewmate. They are interrupted by the crash landing of a second Thal ship under the command of Taron's love Rebec. She tells them that Thal command have intercepted transmissions saying there is an army of Ten Thousand Daleks on Spiridon.
Nice episode that rolls along fine. We move some of the characters round, make the Doctor think Jo's dead and stick him in a cell with Codal.
CODAL: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Codal. So, they captured you too, did they?
CODAL: Where are the others, Taron and Vaber?
DOCTOR: Well, they're all right as far as I know. How are you?
CODAL: I'm fine. Splitting headache, but I'll survive.
DOCTOR: That's good.
CODAL: Why didn't they kill us straight away, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Oh, I expect they're saving us for interrogation. They'll want to know what we're doing on this planet. You know, what you did back there, leading the searchers away from us, was very courageous.
CODAL: I just didn't give myself time to think. If I had, I certainly wouldn't have taken the risk.
DOCTOR: Oh, I don't know. I think you're doing yourself rather an injustice there. If you hadn't acted the way you did, we'd have all been captured. They give medals for that sort of bravery.
CODAL: Bravery? I've been terrified ever since I landed on this planet. It's different for Taron and Vaber, they're professionals. They've seen action before.
DOCTOR: And do you think they're any the less brave because of that?
CODAL: They know how to deal with fear. They're used to living close to death. I'm not. I'm a scientist, not an adventurer.
DOCTOR: Well, forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a volunteer?
CODAL: Yes.
DOCTOR: Then you must have known what you were getting into?
CODAL: No. None of us did. We're not a warlike people, Doctor. We've only just developed space flight. No one had attempted a voyage of this length before, but every man and woman from my division volunteered. Over six hundred of them. You see, I didn't even have the courage to be the odd man out. What are you laughing at?
DOCTOR: Ah, you, my friend. You may be a very brilliant scientist but you have very little understanding of people, particularly yourself. Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know.
CODAL: What is it, then?
DOCTOR: It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway, just as you did.
CODAL: I'm not convinced, but thanks anyway.
DOCTOR: Right, well, after that little tutorial on bravery, let's see if we can find a way of getting out of here.
CODAL: Escape?
DOCTOR: Yes, escape. Well, let's take a look in our pockets and see if we can come up with something that might prove useful.
As we'll see it's one of the more productive cell stays the Doctor has.
More references to the past here: The Doctor's description of the Dalek tactics on Spiridon "mass exterminations followed by absolute suppression of the survivors" and Wester's account of what happened would appear to be a nod to both the Dalek Invasion Of Earth & Day of the Daleks. The tale is backed up by Wester's account of what happened to Jo:
WESTER: All trace of the infection has gone. Your arm will be sore for a few days, but that's all.Then the Doctor being temporarily paralysed by the Daleks is similar to how Ian was in the first Dalek story.
JO: Thank you. I'm very grateful to you. Tell me some more about your planet.
WESTER: Before the Daleks invaded, they bombarded the planet with bacteria. Only a handful of my people survived. When the Daleks landed, we could offer no resistance. Those that were left were forced to cooperate with the Daleks.
JO: But you don't?
WESTER: No. There are a few of us, not many, who do what we can to fight back, and that's little enough.
JO: Why did the Daleks invade you? What did they want?
WESTER: To master our techniques of invisibility, and they seem very close to doing it.
JO: Is there no way of stopping them?
WESTER: They're too powerful. I had hoped the aliens from the spacecraft might help us, but there are so few of them. Two more were captured today.
JO: You've seen them?
WESTER: When they were taken to the city. A tall fair haired man, and later, one with silver hair, also tall, wearing strange clothes.
JO: The Doctor! Oh! Where is he?
WESTER: You know him?
JO: Well, yes. And I thought
WESTER: He's imprisoned in the city.
JO: Well then we must find a way of helping him. Get him out!
WESTER: There is no way. The Daleks will interrogate him, and then use him in their experiments. He'd be better off dead.
Of course once we're inside the Dalek base we get treated to the control room noise, which always sends a little shiver down my spine. And as a final little nod we're treated to a "reverse the polarity" from the Doctor as he starts to build his device.
Having made one previous appearance as a Dalek Voice (and plenty as other monsters) Roy Skelton returns to the role he's now forever linked with by Doctor Who fans. He was first heard providing Monoid voices in The Ark episode 4: The Bomb before returning in The Tenth Planet as the Cybermen's voices, with a bonus go as the control room countdown voice. At the end of that season he finally starts work on his most famous Doctor Who role, as the Dalek voice, in The Evil of the Daleks episode 1 before playing the Computer voice in The Ice Warriors and reprising the Cyberman voice in the Wheel in Space, both in the next season. His one appearance in Patrick Troughton's final season as The Krotons' voice in The Krotons after which he didn't feature in the series again until Colony in Space where he's first seen on screen as Norton. The Daleks aren't his only role in this story he's also playing Wester the Spiridon. He's called back to Doctor Who quickly as an emergency substitute playing James in The Green Death episode five after another actor fell ill. He's the Daleks' voice in Genesis of the Daleks before making two on-screen appearances under make up as Marshall Chedaki in The Android Invasion and Rokon in The Hand of Fear. He's returns to Dalek voices in Destiny of the Daleks, where he also briefly plays K-9's voice too, before providing Dalek voices in The Five Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He's got an Out of the Unknown appearance to his name, providing Robot voices in The Prophet, which is the story who's robot costumes were reused for The Mind Robber and features The Stones of Blood's Beatrix Lehmann as Dr. Susan Calvin. Alas no recording of the episode survives so the only trace of it on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set is a series of off-screen images. Despite this mass of Doctor who work the roles which Skelton is most famous for are the voices of Zippy and George in Rainbow and when interviewed for Doctor who: Cybermen: The Early Years he can't resist signing off as his most famous creations!
He's joining Michael Wisher who made his Dalek Voice debut at the end of the previous story Frontier in Space. We first heard him providing voices in The Seeds of Death, directed by Michael Ferguson who then used in The Ambassadors of Death as John Wakefield. It would have been there that Barry Letts first saw him and he uses him in Terror of the Autons as Rex Farrel and Carnival of Monsters as Kalik . We'll hear his voice again as a Dalek in Death to the Daleks and, uncredited, in Genesis of the Daleks where ascends to Doctor Who superstardom as Davros, the Daleks creator. He's then back in the very next story as Magrik in Revenge of the Cybermen then two stories later in the Planet of Evil as Morelli and the voice of Ranjit. Producer & Director Barry Letts had previously used him on his Z-Cars story The Saint of Concrete Canyon and he later appears in Moonbase 3 as Harry Sanders in Departure and Arrival.
Regular Dalek Operator John Scott Martin has been in every Dalek Story since the Chase and, with one exception, will be till the end of the original Doctor Who series. He made his Doctor Who début in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks, Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space. He'll return as a Dalek in Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He has also played a Mechanoid in The Chase, the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie & a Coven Member in the Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, a gell guard in The Three Doctors and a Mutant in Frontier in Space. After this story his non Dalek rolls include Hughes in The Green Death, a Ministry of Defence Guard in Robot, Kriz in Brain of Morbius, the Virus Nucleus in Invisible Enemy. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.
Alongside him is his frequent colleague Murphy Grumbar making his penultimate appearance as a Dalek in this story. He was first a Dalek, credited as Peter Murphy, in The Daleks & The Dalek Invasion of Earth, then as Murphy Grumbar he's Dalek in The Space Museum, Mechanoid in The Chase, a Dalek in The Evil of the Daleks, a Dalek in Day of the Daleks, Arcturus in The Curse of Peladon, a Gell Guard in The Three Doctors, a functionary in Carnival of Monsters and a Dalek in Frontier in Space. His final role in the series, miscredited as Murphy Grunbar, is in Death to the Daleks as a Dalek.
Like Michael Wisher the final Dalek Operator Cy Town made his Dalek debut in Frontier in Space and he will be in every Dalek story from now onwards returning in Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He was also previously an Auton in Spearhead from Space returning as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a technician in Inferno, a Prisoner, Audience Member & Medical Orderly in The Mind of Evil and a Gel Guard in Three Doctors. Later he plays a Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, an Android Villager in Android Invasion, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, an Bi-Al member in The Invisible Enemy, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment, a Passerby in Attack of the Cybermen, Execution Victim Harold L/drone in The Happiness Patrol and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. Outside of Doctor Who appears in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes Spam as a Surfer and - The Money Programme as a Trumpeter plus the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life as a Restaurant Diner. In Doomwatch he's a Man in Flood, he's a Technician in all six episodes of Moonbase 3, a Security Guard in The Sweeney Golden Boy, in Quadrophenia he's a hairdresser, in Blake's 7 he's a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake, he's a Coach Passenger in Miss Marple: Nemesis and in Jeeves and Wooster he's the Vicar in Wooster with a Wife (or, Jeeves the Matchmaker). And if you want to know what he looks like outside of his Dalek shell then there's some screencaps of him on his Aveleyman page.
Information in this story finally lets us have a stab at dating the events of the Daleks. Planet of the Daleks has to contemporaneous with Frontier in Space which is dated onscreen to 2540. So the events of the Daleks, said by the Thals to be "Thousands" (plural) years ago can be no later than about 500AD. The desire to arbitrarily date them at 1AD is strong..... This makes it the earliest encounter with the Daleks to have occurred so far. Material from the time, ans calculations carried out during the story place Power of the Daleks at 2020. We know Dalek Invasion of Earth is c2164 (due to a calender) and that Day of the Daleks is roughly contemporaneous with that (the Daleks having travelled back in time from the future to reverse that earlier defeat). The Chase's Dalek control segments are hard to date but since they have the same Supreme Dalek and the same time travel technology as seen in The Dalek Masterplan we can date both of these plus Mission to the unknown to c4000. Since the Day Daleks had Time Travel to achieve their aim you can probably guess that the force that conquers Earth comes from around this time too originally. This leaves us with Evil of the Daleks: The Daleks are already using Time Travel here so there's no reason to think that the Skaro segments must be in the same time zone as the Victorian era. Since the battle at the end is relatively final the temptation is to date it AFTER Masterplan when they seem pretty powerful. So in order that makes:
c 0AD The DaleksSimple. And you'll be surprised how easily the rest of Dalek history slots into this when we get there.
2020 Power of the Daleks
2164 Dalek Invasion of Earth
2164 Day of the Daleks
2540 Frontier in Space
2540 Planet of the Daleks
4000 The Chase
4000 Mission To The Unknown
4000 The Dalek Masterplan
4000+ The Evil of the Daleks
Join us next week for one of the true miracles performed on classic Doctor Who as we watch Planet of the Daleks Episode Three in colour!
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