The Tenth Planet

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Episode of the Doctor Who series
Original title The Tenth Planet
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
length 4x25 minutes
classification Season 4, episodes 5–8
131st - 134th episode overall ( list )
First broadcast October 8, 1966 to
October 29, 1966 on BBC
Rod
Director Derek Martinus
script Kit Pedler
Gerry Davis (partly episode 3 & 4)
production Innes Lloyd
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Smugglers

Successor  →
The Power of the Daleks

The Tenth Planet is the 29th story arc of the British science fiction - television series Doctor Who . It consists of 4 episodes that aired between October 8, 1966 and October 29, 1966. The serial includes the first regeneration in Doctor Who history.

action

With his companions, Polly and Ben, the doctor landed with the help of the TARDIS in 1986 near a scientific base at the South Pole . The base investigates the mission of the Zeus IV spaceship within the earth's atmosphere. Due to strange readings on the scientific instruments, the base team determines that they must have discovered a new planet near Earth. The planet is Mondas, which circled the sun together with the earth as a sister planet millions of years ago before it drifted into the depths of space.

While a team of scientists and the doctor work to land the Zeus IV spacecraft safely at the South Pole, the Mondasians gain access to the base and can easily overwhelm the scientists. Polly and other scientists ask the Mondasians to show compassion so that the team can at least save the crew of the spaceship from a crash at the South Pole, but the intruders are uninterested because, as cybermen, they do not know anything like "pity". Without the warmth of a sun, a perpetual ice age broke out on Mondas in the past, which forced its inhabitants to gradually adapt to the changing climate of the planet and to replace more and more organs and body parts with inorganic components. This went so far that the Mondasians also no longer felt feelings, emotions and pain and viewed them as a weakness.

The planet Mondas slowly absorbs the earth's energy until it is finally destroyed, but Krang, the leader of the Cybermen, promises that he would take humanity to Mondas to turn them into Cybermen. However, Ben does not want to know anything about it and briefly manages to take the Cybermen by surprise, whereby the team can save the Zeus IV team, but the victory is short-lived, because the Cybermen can regain the upper hand over the team.

At the same time, the doctor seems weaker and weaker and can hardly stand on his feet, which makes it easier for the Cybermen to take him and Polly hostage. But with the help of the station's radiation reactor, Ben can provide an effective weapon against the cybermen and he manages to keep them in check. Unexpectedly, the planet Mondas absorbs too much energy from Earth and explodes, causing all cybermen on the station to suddenly stop functioning. Back in the TARDIS, the doctor falls to the ground and Ben and Polly can only watch in amazement as his face slowly transforms into that of another man.

production

The serial uses a title sequence specially created for it, which, according to designer Bernard Lodge , is supposed to represent the print version of a computer. William Hartnell does not appear in the third episode of the series because he was unable to survive the shoot due to his illness. Gerry Davis then had to rewrite the script to explain the doctor's absence and all of the texts the doctor was supposed to speak were assigned to other characters. Originally, episode 4 of the series was written without a doctor's regeneration.

Lost episode

Episode 4 of the series is missing . It is one of the most coveted missing episodes in the series, especially because the end of the episode shows the regeneration of the first doctor (William Hartnell) in the second (Patrick Troughton). The corresponding clip of regeneration was retained over the years, however, as it was shown in the Blue Peter children's program in 1973 and was archived within this series.

In 2013, the episode was animated using animation technology by Studio 55 for DVD release in England and America.

Audience ratings

  1. The Tenth Planet - Episode 1 - 5.5 million viewers
  2. The Tenth Planet - Episode 2 - 6.4 million viewers
  3. The Tenth Planet - Episode 3 - 7.6 million viewers
  4. The Tenth Planet - Episode 4 - 7.5 million viewers

actor

  • Doctor - William Hartnell
  • Doctor - Patrick Troughton (not listed)
  • Polly - Anneke Wills
  • Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
  • General Cutler - Robert Beatty
  • Barclay - David Dodimead
  • Dyson - Dudley Jones
  • Schultz - Alan White
  • Williams - Earl Cameron
  • Terry Cutler - Callen Angelo
  • Sergeant - John Brandon
  • Tito - Shane Shelton
  • Wigner - Steve Plytas
  • Radar Technician - Christopher Matthews
  • Geneva Technician - Ellen Cullen
  • R / T Technician - Christopher Dunham
  • TV Announcer - Glenn Beck
  • Cybermen Voices - Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins
  • Cybermen - Harry Brooks, Reg Whitehead and Gregg Palmer

publication

The serial was first released on video in 2000, episode 4 was modeled as close as possible to the existing soundtrack using photos from the shoot. The video was only available for purchase as part of the Doctor Who: The Cybermen box set along with the serial attack of the cybermen . The serial was released on DVD in England on October 14, 2013, episode 4 was reproduced by Studio 55 in the form of an animated version with the existing soundtrack.

Prehistory and continuation

  • In July 2002 the genesis of the Cybermen was published under the title Spare Parts ; in it, the fifth doctor and his companion Nyssa land on the ice planet Mondas, which is confusingly similar to the earth.
  • In the serial attack of the cybermen from the 22nd season of the series, the cybermen try to travel back in time to prevent Monda from being destroyed and have to face the sixth doctor and his companion, Peri.
  • The end of the fourth episode was picked up in 2017 to let the first doctor experience an adventure with the 12th doctor in the episodes The Doctor Falls and Twice Upon a Time . The 1st doctor is played by David Bradley , who played Hartnell in 2013 in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time .

Web links

  • The Tenth Planet on the official website of the BBC with photonovel with telesnaps to illustrate the episode
  • The Tenth Planet - Detailed summary in the Doctor Who Reference Guide.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/tenthplanet/detail.shtml
  2. ↑ http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2013/09/original-tenth-planet-script-found.html
Doctor Who Serials and Episodes
First doctor

The Child of the Stars  (1963)  • The Daleks  (1963/1964)  • The Daleks' Master Plan  (1965)  • The Tenth Planet (1966)

Second doctor

The Power of the Daleks  (1966)  • The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) 

Third doctor

The Three Doctors (1972/73) 

Fourth doctor

City of Death (1979) 

Fifth doctor

The Five Doctors (1983)  • The Androzani Caves (1984)

Sixth doctor

Attack of the Cybermans (1985)  • Planet of the Dead (1985)  • The Judgment: The Enigmatic Planet (1986)  • The Judgment: Mindwarp (1986)  • The Judgment: Vervoid Terror (1986)  • The Judgment: The Worst Enemy (1986)

Seventh doctor

The Hand of Omega (1988)

Eighth doctor

Doctor Who: The Movie (1996)

Ninth doctor

Rose  (2005) 

Tenth doctor

The girl in the fireplace  (2006)  • The nature of man  (2007)  • Blood ties  (2007)  • Don't blink  (2007)  • The red garden (2009)  • The end of time (2009/2010)

Eleventh doctor

Doctor's Day (2013)

Twelfth doctor

Fallen Out of Time (2017)

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