Terry Nation remade The Daleks, threw in elements from his other scripts and presented a Pertwee era classic.
Story: 7
Terry Nation builds up the tension well in the first episode, by having Jo slowly uncover the secrets of Spiridon by herself, including mysterious plants and invisible creatures. That's a great way to give Jo more attention while slowly cluing is in on what is going on.
Less impressive is the fact that this serial reuses most of its story details from earlier Nation scripts. We have a planet with Thals and Daleks at conflict with each other, a deadly weapon and someone hiding inside a Dalek shell (The Daleks, 1963-1964); mysterious invisible inhabitants of the planet Spiridon (The Daleks' Master Plan, 1965-1966); Daleks using the natives of a planet as a slave force (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, 1964) and the Episode 1 cliffhanger (pretty much every preceding Dalek serial). It's not without reason this story is referred to as a remake of The Daleks.
Despite being so similar to The Daleks, Planet of the Daleks also manages to improve upon many things. This story is much more exciting and varied for instance, and the Daleks are better utilized.
Jo and the Doctor spends large parts of the story separated from each other, both facing separate troubles related to the bigger picture. I particularly like how well Jo fares on her own. Meanwhile, the Thals feel more fleshed out this time around, with internal tensions almost breaking up the group.
I kind of like how the story leaves the ultimate fate of the Daleks open while also introducing Jo's longing to settle down (which she does at the end of the next story).
Acting: 7
Bernard Horsfall, who is mostly known for playing Time Lord characters on The War Games (1969) and The Deadly Assassin (1976), appears here as Taron. He's the most memorable of the Thal bunch. Tim Preece is also quite fine as Codal. He feels the most humane of the Thals.
Rebec, played by Jane How, was a last-minute addition to include some variety in the script. He isn't given much interesting material, which is a shame since she is pretty good.
The Doctor: 9
The Third Doctor has arguably his most well-known words of wisdom in Episode 2, when he tells Codal that "courage isn't just a matter of being afraid, it's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway".
This story marks another bad-ass adventure for the Third Doctor, who gets to use his wits and his dashing energy to overpower the Daleks.
The Companions: 10
This story is one of Jo's most important and heroic adventures on the show. She has to stand against deadly plants, unexpected natives and Daleks all by herself and does so better than any companion that has come before her.
The Monster/Villain: 7
The Daleks are back in ugly black cases and with a new gimmick och being able to turn invisible - except that the gimmick is barely used after its initial reveal. Other than that, they talk and plan a lot but aren't particularly effective, unfortunately.
Production: 9
I quite like the ominous music sprinkled throughout the story. It fits the very alien-looking rain-forest landscape of Spiridon. Most of the plants have been realized very well, but the Spiridons, and the floating things they are holding, look somewhat dated today.
This serial has some pretty spectacular action set pieces, surprisingly well-made. It's lovely to see David Maloney back directing after his previous work on The Wart Games. He uses some well-placed angels for just the right effect. This is one of the finest-looking Dalek serials of the classic era.
Pacing: 7
After a tense beginning and pretty exciting middle-part, the story, unfortunately, drags out its ending, losing speed in the process. There are some moments of excitement leading up to the climax, and the final episode is pretty exciting again.
Atmosphere: 7
As stated above, the story initially builds a tense and mysterious atmosphere, that turns into excitement by the halfway point and then into painful anticipation for the climax after the halfway point.
Impact: 6
While it failed to revive 60s Dalekmania, Planet of the Daleks returned Terry Nation to the spotlight as the one and only Dalek writer and kept him in the position for many years to come.
Replay Value: 7
There are better Dalek stories to replay but also worse. This falls in the middle of them all, but I would still rather watch Death to the Daleks (1974) over this one.
Random Observations:
The Episode One is probably the most pointless and stupid use of the classic "OH MY GOD! IT'S A DALEK!" cliffhanger from most previous Dalek stories - Frontier in Space already spoiled the appearance of the Daleks as does the title of the story.
The rescue at the beginning of Episode 4 must be the most spectacular and implausible ever seen on the show.
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParent2020-06-16T10:25:54Z
Terry Nation remade The Daleks, threw in elements from his other scripts and presented a Pertwee era classic.
Story: 7
Terry Nation builds up the tension well in the first episode, by having Jo slowly uncover the secrets of Spiridon by herself, including mysterious plants and invisible creatures. That's a great way to give Jo more attention while slowly cluing is in on what is going on.
Less impressive is the fact that this serial reuses most of its story details from earlier Nation scripts. We have a planet with Thals and Daleks at conflict with each other, a deadly weapon and someone hiding inside a Dalek shell (The Daleks, 1963-1964); mysterious invisible inhabitants of the planet Spiridon (The Daleks' Master Plan, 1965-1966); Daleks using the natives of a planet as a slave force (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, 1964) and the Episode 1 cliffhanger (pretty much every preceding Dalek serial). It's not without reason this story is referred to as a remake of The Daleks.
Despite being so similar to The Daleks, Planet of the Daleks also manages to improve upon many things. This story is much more exciting and varied for instance, and the Daleks are better utilized.
Jo and the Doctor spends large parts of the story separated from each other, both facing separate troubles related to the bigger picture. I particularly like how well Jo fares on her own. Meanwhile, the Thals feel more fleshed out this time around, with internal tensions almost breaking up the group.
I kind of like how the story leaves the ultimate fate of the Daleks open while also introducing Jo's longing to settle down (which she does at the end of the next story).
Acting: 7
Bernard Horsfall, who is mostly known for playing Time Lord characters on The War Games (1969) and The Deadly Assassin (1976), appears here as Taron. He's the most memorable of the Thal bunch. Tim Preece is also quite fine as Codal. He feels the most humane of the Thals.
Rebec, played by Jane How, was a last-minute addition to include some variety in the script. He isn't given much interesting material, which is a shame since she is pretty good.
The Doctor: 9
The Third Doctor has arguably his most well-known words of wisdom in Episode 2, when he tells Codal that "courage isn't just a matter of being afraid, it's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway".
This story marks another bad-ass adventure for the Third Doctor, who gets to use his wits and his dashing energy to overpower the Daleks.
The Companions: 10
This story is one of Jo's most important and heroic adventures on the show. She has to stand against deadly plants, unexpected natives and Daleks all by herself and does so better than any companion that has come before her.
The Monster/Villain: 7
The Daleks are back in ugly black cases and with a new gimmick och being able to turn invisible - except that the gimmick is barely used after its initial reveal. Other than that, they talk and plan a lot but aren't particularly effective, unfortunately.
Production: 9
I quite like the ominous music sprinkled throughout the story. It fits the very alien-looking rain-forest landscape of Spiridon. Most of the plants have been realized very well, but the Spiridons, and the floating things they are holding, look somewhat dated today.
This serial has some pretty spectacular action set pieces, surprisingly well-made. It's lovely to see David Maloney back directing after his previous work on The Wart Games. He uses some well-placed angels for just the right effect. This is one of the finest-looking Dalek serials of the classic era.
Pacing: 7
After a tense beginning and pretty exciting middle-part, the story, unfortunately, drags out its ending, losing speed in the process. There are some moments of excitement leading up to the climax, and the final episode is pretty exciting again.
Atmosphere: 7
As stated above, the story initially builds a tense and mysterious atmosphere, that turns into excitement by the halfway point and then into painful anticipation for the climax after the halfway point.
Impact: 6
While it failed to revive 60s Dalekmania, Planet of the Daleks returned Terry Nation to the spotlight as the one and only Dalek writer and kept him in the position for many years to come.
Replay Value: 7
There are better Dalek stories to replay but also worse. This falls in the middle of them all, but I would still rather watch Death to the Daleks (1974) over this one.
Random Observations:
The Episode One is probably the most pointless and stupid use of the classic "OH MY GOD! IT'S A DALEK!" cliffhanger from most previous Dalek stories - Frontier in Space already spoiled the appearance of the Daleks as does the title of the story.
The rescue at the beginning of Episode 4 must be the most spectacular and implausible ever seen on the show.
Score: 76/120