Serial 74: The Planet of the Spiders

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companion: Sarah Jane Smith

Written by: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts)
Directed by: Barry Letts

Background & Significance: So the first thing I'm obligated to say is that "The Planet of the Spiders" is a regeneration story. Yes. It's the final story starring Jon Pertwee as The Doctor and in the end of this story he regenerates into Tome Baker. But more than anything what it does is bring to a close what is, arguably, the longest single-vision run on Doctor Who.

Now I know what you're thinking. Tom Baker was around for longer. So was John Nathan-Turner. But that's not the same. For these five years of Jon Pertwee, the show was guided by the same producer and script editor, overseeing the same Doctor, giving all the stories a similar tone and feel across those five years.

Between Jon Pertwee, Barry Letts, and Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who held a consistent feel throughout the five years of Pertwee. They were based on UNIT, lots of alien invasions, and kept a constant feel of adventures with Pertwee as the leading man of action. With Dicks leaving the show to return to freelance writing at the end of this story, Pertwee moving on to bigger and better things, and with Letts departing after Tom Baker's first story, "Robot", this story becomes not just the end of Pertwee, but for the end of this era of five years of mostly solid stories. And because one of the things I notice about creative types as they go on and hone their craft is that they only seem to niche closer and closer to what they want, this is the most Pertweeian, Dicksian, Lettsian story they ever did.

And really, it's one of the most wonderfully cathartic stories out there.

Because of the way television used to work, Doctor Who was structured very episodically, with each story being a one-and-done serial spread across several episodes. There weren't ongoing plot lines or mysteries. There weren't long story threads to build towards and wrap up, no "Bad Wolf" hints to seed throughout the season with promises of paying off in some big explosive finale. Hell, even the concepts of big explosive finales was barely something the show was starting to play with. All these elements would eventually grow more and more prevalent as you push Doctor Who towards something more and more modern (the 7th Doctor/Ace stuff is the most ready example because, quite frankly, it's the most modern of Doctor Who in every sense of the word), but "Planet of the Spiders" definitely defies that to give us a crazy cathartic trek that seems to capture everything great and weak about the Pertwee era.

The only thing noticeably missing from "Planet of the Spiders" is Roger Delgado's Master, who made an appearance in every story of Pertwee's second season and then recurred throughout the next two years up until "Frontier in Space". The plan, originally, was to bring him back for Pertwee's finale, which would feature a Doctor/Master team-up/adventure in which The Master sacrifices himself to save The Doctor and we find out that The Master is the id to The Doctor's ego and that they are, in fact, the same person just divided into two halves. And, okay. I'm not exactly okay with that. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of Freud, but I'm really kinda glad that they didn't end up with that as the definitive word on The Master. I mean, why does that need to be who The Master is? Why does he need to be tied to The Doctor like that forever? Why can't it just be enough that he's an evil Time Lord from The Doctor's past?

But I'm sidetracking.

Before they could do this, though, Master-actor Roger Delgado died in a car crash in Turkey before they could move on this Master finale and writers Robert Sloman and Barry Letts chucked out what they had and re-wrote an entirely story entirely, focusing on a new villain with different themes and this whole "Id/Ego Master/Doctor" thing is lost to a parallel universe and we don't have to deal with an absurd level of Freudian over-explaining of continuity. And while Delgado was a huge loss, I must admit I'm glad because knowing me and my views on Freud I woulda hated that and (quite frankly) it would have severely weakened the character of The Master.

But alas, "The Planet of the Spiders" is the end of Pertwee and it's a hell of an ending. Not as good as "War Games," but certainly one of the best final stories a team could ask for.

So let's get to it!

Serial 72: Death to the Daleks

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companions: Sarah Jane

Written by: Terry Nation
Directed by: Michael Briant

Background & Significance: My question? What's up with the title?

Pertwee's final season is something of an odd bird. For one thing, we're long past the point where The Doctor is having proper UNIT adventures, so he's s free to swan off to wherever and whenever he wants, and he does. Which is good and he earned it and I'm happy for him... But it feels...

This story sees the return of the Daleks for the third season in a row. It's weird how The Daleks always move in waves. They appear like crazy in the Dalekmania of the first four seasons of Doctor Who and then just kinda... disappear for the rest of Troughton's run and then for the first two years of Pertwee and then appear like clockwork for four years. Although it's interesting to see how much the Daleks just become your standard, rote villains after a so many rote and unimportant or uninteresting appearances. They've just shown up too much and they've become stagnant (after just three Pertwee appearances), so it was time for The Daleks to get a massive, game-changing reboot in "Genesis of the Daleks", but I suppose that's another discussion.

It also sees the return of Terry Nation for Doctor Who. Nation, of course, gets first crack at writing any Dalek story because... god knows creative rights (which I'm all for, I just wish Nation was a better writer), but... man. Terry Nation. But I'll save the rest of that thought for commentary.

As a final point before we dive head long into the bulk of the discussion, it was around this time that Pertwee was starting to really become disillusioned with the programme, bored and ready to move on and all that. Of course this disillusionment/boredom happens with a Dalek story. I mean, Pertwee never exactly kept it secret that he totally never ever did have a thing for the fan-favourite pepper potts.

But with the slow weaning off of Pertwee we get the prominence of Robert Holmes, who you can almost feel conducting the background of the first episode at the very least. And... well... you know me. I loves me some Robert Holmes.

So let's get to it!

Serial 71: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companion: Sarah Jane


Written by: Malcolm Hulke
Directed by: Paddy Russell


Background & Significance: As this is his last story, this becomes Malcom Hulke's legacy.

He's an interesting fellow, Malcolm Hulke, one of my favourite writers  in the classic era and of a great very many stories I very much enjoy, some of which are iconic ("The War Games", "The Silurians") and others of which are just plain fun ("The Sea Devils"), so it only makes sense that this story is perhaps his most refined in terms of theme and tone and excitement.

Also Dinosaurs.

"Invasion of the Dinosaurs" came about because of the excellent result of the CSO (color-separation overlay, think of it like primitive green screen/CGI) work done in "Carnival of Monsters" just a season previous. Excited at the prospects of new technology and making Doctor Who look even cooler and even more awesome, Producer Barry Letts sought to push the boundaries of CSO and shoot for something even more ambitious than just Drashigs flitting about or what have you. No. He wanted Dinosaurs. And he wanted them to invade.

And invade they did.

The story itself is not terribly well-regarded. Most people will judge a story by poor special effects work and its relative cheapness (when compared to the cheapness with which Doctor Who was put on, of course) rather than... you know, a good story. To me, it's disappointing, but I understand it. Poor effects work will suck you out of a story while excellent work will immerse you in it (it's why people like movies). For me, the effects only ever magnify what is there in terms of story. If it's a good story, good effects work will make me love it more but poor effects won't kill it for me. The contrary is true for a bad story, with poor effects making me HATE it (as we'll see next week) and excellent effects seeming as little more than a consolation prize.

It then leaves me, therefore, rather enjoying "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". Like so many other Pertwee stories, it's very padded in the middle, but that's neither here nor there in the grander scope of things. There's a lot to love, not the least of which is the fantastic character development on Mike Yates or the really impressive guest cast and overall story, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Also, dinosaurs.

So let's get to it!

Serial 73: The Monster of Peladon

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companion: Sarah Jane Smith

Written by: Brian Hayles
Directed by: Lennie Mayne

Background & Significance: "The Curse of Peladon" is one of my favourite Jon Pertwee stories. To me, it's a political intrigue story in the vein of Star Trek, featuring not only the return of The Ice Warriors and the introduction of such memorable characters as Alpha Centauri and King Peladon but also some of the best Jo ever, with her being a right bad ass in her a lovely dress and hairstyle. It's a really great story that I love for... so many reasons, not the least of which is because of its elegant simplicity and total departure into the realm of "something different".

Thankfully, I'm not the only one to think so.

After "Curse" went over as a hit, Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks sought to recapture the magic. They re-assembled the Peladon dream team: same writer, director, crew, aliens, cast... Granted, Doctor Who magic is a rare thing. It's like lightning in a bottle. Individual stories tend to be anomalous in their perceived construction, and trying to redo something or recapture the magic in a "sequel" never seems to quite work out. There are exceptions ("Kinda"/"Snakedance"), but recapturing that same first experience is hard to replicate. It's the curse of sequels, I suppose. Dancing the same dance twice. Cliche cliche. All that. Such is the way with "Monster of Peladon", Jon Pertwee's second to last story.

Comparatively, the two are quite similar. Both deal with intrigue surrounding the Federation's plans and involvement in the affairs of Peladon and the various mysteries that come associated with this quirky little society. But while "Curse" was the story of royalty, aristocratic nobles, exotic ambassadors and delegates, courtly intrigue, a mystery in a castle full of guards and secret passageways, and a cage match (dear god that cage match), "Monster" is a story about Marxism, workers' rights, grievances, and a checklist through which we can tick off all of what made the original Peladon so great, none of which is (at least to me) nearly as interesting or compelling. Not only that, but all of the nice surprises in the original Peladon (specifically the Ice Warriors) all go out the window in favour of something that is... so much less special. And with two extra episodes.

In the run-up to "Monster of Peladon", there was a joke around the Classical Gallifrey offices about how "Monster of Peladon" would essentially be "The Curse of Peladon" but with more. "Curse of Peladon" was four episodes? "MONSTER" WILL BE SIX. Instead of two Ice Warriors, THERE WILL BE FOUR. The Doctor gets into a cage match in "Curse of Peladon"? In "Monster", HE WILL BE IN TWO. Well, two out of three ain't bad.

But man, I wish there were two cage matches instead of none.

So let's get to it!

Serial 70: The Time Warrior

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companion: Sarah Jane Smith

Written by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: Alan Bromly

Background & Significance: Again, we come back to Robert Holmes for his last Pertwee story.

I know, I know. I mention him a lot. But Doctor Who, as television is, is very writer-centric. Different writers sculpt different types of stories and have different visions of what the show could be. They write slightly tweaked and different variations on particular Doctors and use unique conventions and world views to sculpt their stories.

"The Time Warrior" is a bit of a departure from the typical Pertwee story. Rather than getting some future far-off alien planet or modern-day UNIT story, we see The Doctor go into the past on Earth and solve a big giant story.

What makes this story most interesting, I think, is the insertion of Robert "The God Damn" Holmes. It's not necessarily particularly Holmesian, but his behind-the-scenes input made this story all the more important. Holmes apparently refused to do a straight historical story because he saw that as too much of the "educational" show mission statement of the Hartnell. He would only agree to it if it was the story was rooted in the deep science fiction vision he had for the show.

Luckily, the production team of Letts/Dicks agreed, and Holmes turned around a story that introduced not just fan favourite and long-time companion Sarah Jane Smith but also the occasionally recurring, B-list Doctor Who alien-villains The Sontarans.

Which is awesome. And besides being another very good and compelling story, it's another notch on the belt of contributions by the wonderful Robert Holmes. And what a hell of a delightful contribution it is.

So let's get to it!