347 Planet of the Daleks Episode Four

EPISODE: Planet of the Daleks: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 347
STORY NUMBER: 068
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 28 April 1973
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Dalek War: Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Whilst the aliens are at liberty, a full state of emergency will be maintained. Normal operations will be suspended. Spiridon slave workers will cooperate with Dalek patrols in saturation level search. The aliens must be located and destroyed!"

The makeshift balloon begins to lift and by the time the Daleks enter the room they find it empty. A Dalek spots them rising up the shaft. A patrol is dispatched to the surface and an anti gravitational disc summoned. Another Dalek patrol locates the explosives and sets all three bombs to detonate on timer control. After they return to the city Jo deactivates two of the bombs but is knocked out by a falling rock. The plastic sheet balloon begins to tear as the Dalek on the anti gravitational disc ascends the shaft. Waking as the bomb nears detonation Jo grabs the two deactivated bombs and flees as the remaining bomb explodes destroying the Daleks passing by on their way to the top of the ventilation shaft. The sheet tears leaving the Doctor clutching the side of the shaft. The Thals, having reached the top, lower a rope for him and when he reaches the top the throw a boulder down the shaft destroying the pursuing Dalek. The Doctor is reunited with Jo but Taron is unhappy Rebec has come Spiridon and would prefer she was safe on Skaro. The Daleks begin to prepare a bacteria to destroy all living tissue: Daleks & Spiridon slaves will be inoculated but all others will be destroyed. The Doctor explains to Jo that the Daleks have their army on Spiridon. Vaber & Latep find the others and the whole group moves to the plain of stones where the boulders absorb the heat during the day and release it overnight allowing them to keep warm. Jo goes with Latep to retrieve the explosives and befriends him. Hiding from a patrol the Doctor notices that the Daleks are slowing down and reasons that the cold might be affecting them. Codal believes destroying the refrigeration plant will destroy the Daleks. Vaber wants to attack immediately but Taron overrules him and they struggle. The Daleks are successfully growing their bacteria which will kill all animal life within an hour of release. The Spiridon slaves have spotted the aliens in the Plain of Stones and Daleks are sent to search it. Waking the Thals find Vaber has absconded with the explosives. Codal & Taron go to stop him leaving the others behind who spot animals approaching. Vaber is captured by Spiridons who take him to the Daleks.

This episode calms things down a bit and finally brings the cast back together, Jo & The Doctor having been separated since episode 1.

DOCTOR: Jo!
JO: Oh, Doctor, I thought, I thought you were dead! I thought, oh, I don't know what I thought. I'm so pleased to see you.
DOCTOR: Jo, you were on that Thal spaceship. I saw it destroyed.
JO: No, I wasn't.
DOCTOR: But you were.
JO: No, I wasn't. Look, Doctor, what's been happening? Where've you been?
DOCTOR: Well, it's a long story and there were a few moments that were a trifle worrying
JO: Look, Doctor, the last I'd heard about you, you'd been captured by the Daleks, right
DOCTOR: Yeah, but
JO: And I was told that they were going to take you
DOCTOR: Yes, I know that
JO: Because they're doing all these experiments
DOCTOR: All right, all right, Jo
JO: And then I thought you were going to be in them and I didn't know what I was going to do
DOCTOR: Jo! Jo! Jo! Please? Look, will you excuse us for a moment? My friend has rather a lot to tell me about.
JO: Doctor, wait till you hear what happened to me. It was terrible, and then I got rescued by this bowl....
DOCTOR: But, Jo, why on earth didn't you stay in the Tardis? We'd have been safe there.
JO: Well, Doctor, you didn't look very safe. Well, I thought you were dying and I went out to try and find some help for you.
DOCTOR: On a planet full of Daleks? Well, surely I warned you?
JO: Well, Doctor, you didn't tell me anything. You just rushed into the Tardis, you rattled off some sort of a message and, well, then you flaked out.
DOCTOR: Did I?
JO: Uh huh.
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm sorry, Jo. I'm afraid I wasn't myself.
JO: Doctor? What did you say to the Time Lords in your message?
DOCTOR: Well, I told them about the Dalek spaceship leaving the Ogron planet and told them to send the Tardis after it.
JO: But what are the Daleks doing on this planet?
DOCTOR: They've got an army based here, Jo, the mightiest army of Daleks there's ever been.
JO: But when we were on the Ogron planet, we put a stop to their plan to sort of cause a war?
DOCTOR: Well, evidently that was only part of their plan, to make their conquest easier perhaps. With an army this size, we now know they intend to invade the galaxy anyway unless we can stop them.
JO: Just us?
DOCTOR: And our Thal friends.

We then begin the process of moving things round for the final few episodes. We get another little reference back to the past with the Daleks' anti gravitational disc, a throwback to their comics appearances in the Sixties, which get a special feature on the DVD.

DALEK: Our patrols report no contact with the aliens. Temperatures falling rapidly.
LEADER: The search will continue.
DALEK: I obey.
LEADER: Supreme Command has decreed that we prepare a bacteriological culture that will destroy all living tissue. Daleks and Spiridon slave workers will be given immunity to the disease.
DALEK: If the aliens are not taken, the bacteria is to be released. Without immunity, no living thing can survive the disease. All will be exterminated!

We also get a little glimpse in Terry Nation's current thinking as he introduces the Daleks bacteriological weapon, a theme he'll return to in Death to the Daleks and then again in Survivors, where it becomes part of the premise for the series.

DALEK: The bacteria are multiplying.
DALEK 2: We have calculated that after the release of the culture into the atmosphere, it will totally contaminate the planet within the space of one Spiridon day.
DALEK: All plant life will wither and die.
DALEK 2: All unimmunised animal life will die within one hour of inhaling the contaminated air.
LEADER: Approved. Continue with preparations.
DALEK: The most virulent form of the bacteria will be ready for release in half a Spiridon day.

I mentioned It's a Knockout! last episode in connection with the ice tunnels. Thinking about it trying to use the balloon to rise up the chimney would work as a game there too.

Finding themselves short of working Dalek props the BBC constructed a number of new stationary props for this story.

Liz walked in as I was watching this episode and remarked, as she does every time we see this story, that the Spiridons remind her of furry Ribena berries!

Playing the Spiridons are a number of familiar names:

David Billa first appeared as a Guard in The Savages then played a German Soldier in The War Games episode one, German / Roman Soldiers / Alien Technician in The War Games episode four and a Time Lord Technician in The War Games episode ten, a Waxworks Visitor/Auton in Spearhead from Space, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a UNIT Soldier in Three Doctors and a Prison Guard & Earth Guard in Frontier in Space. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in The Green Death, a Soldier/Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks and a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen. In Moonbase 3 he's a Technician in Departure and Arrival and Behemoth while in Doomwatch he was a Man in Flood.

Ronald Gough was an Atlantean Guard in Underwater Menace, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Technician in Inferno and a Skybase Guard in The Mutants. He returns as an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygons and a Marine & The Krynoid in Seeds of Doom.

Kevin Moran was a UNIT troop in Time Meddler and a Draconian in Frontier in Space. He returns as an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon part five and a Soldier & Brethren in The Masque of Mandragora. He's also in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood.

Terrance Denville had previously been a double for Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones, worn a Cyberman costume during The Invasion, and then played a Foot Soldier & Alien Technician in The War Games, a Waxwork visitor/replica in Spearhead from Space, a Technician & UNIT Soldier in The Silurians, a UNIT trooper in The Three Doctors, a Cyberman again, briefly, in The Carnival of Monsters and a Guard in Frontier in Space He returns as an an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks and an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon. He plays a Technician in Moonbase 3 Departure and Arrival, Behemoth and Outsider, appears as a Russian Security Council Member in the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film GoldenEye and appears in the Miranda episode Before I Die as an Old Man. Geoffrey Witherick had previously been a Cricketer / Reveller in Dalek Masterplan 8: Volcano, a Guard in The Massacre: Bell of Doom, a Worker in The War Machines episode, an Airport Policeman in Faceless Ones, a Villager & Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a Solos Guard in The Mutants and a Prison Guard/Earth Guard in Frontier in Space. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in Planet of the Spiders, a SRS Member in Robot, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin and a Security guard in Image of the Fendahl. --> He was in Doomwatch as a Man in Burial at Sea, one of the missing first season episodes.

Gary Dean was a Technician in The Ice Warriors, a Kanowa Guard in Enemy of the World, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, a German Soldier in The War Games, a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians and an Earth Control Guard in The Mutants and Lunar Guard in Frontier in Space. He returns as a Guard in Pirate Planet, a Medic in Nightmare of Eden, a Passenger in Time Flight and a Pallbearer in Remembrance of the Daleks. In Doomwatch he was a Man in Project Sahara and he's a Hotel Guest in the Fawlty Towers episode Communication Problems.

All the Spiridon Voices are provided by Roy Skelton, who plays Wester and also voices the Daleks.

Two important events happen between the broadcast of this episode and the next plus we pass an important milestone: we'll tell you what they are tomorrow.