Tenth Planet of How 1986 Would Ben Leaves a Uranium Fuel Rod Recovered

THE TENTH PIANET Seven Who fans out of ten positions of power in this brave would probably suggest The Tenth new world - perhaps the most Some of the technological Planet 4 to be the missing episode accurate prediction made in The elements seem ridiculous today. they would most like to see Tenth Planet of how 1986 would Ben leaves a uranium fuel rod recovered. This is somewhat actually turn out to be. lying around in a corridor, and at surprising given that most fans no time does anyone caution him have probably not seen The Tenth against radioactivity. It seems Planet 1-3, unavailable on BBC somewhat over-literal of the Video or (to our knowledge) UK production team to resolve that the Gold, and as such have little idea twinned nature of the planets of the quality of the production. should be shown by giving We recently viewed a fan Mondas land-masses equivalent to produced copy, cornpnsmg our own but...upside down. episodes one to three, plus the Unfortunately, in order for the soundtrack to episode four married characters to realise this within 24 with loosely appropriate images hours, when Mondas appears on The near-realism of the script is from the first three episodes, the screen, it is seen turning at about carried into the set design, which John Cura telesnaps and such film one revolution every two seconds, is, for the most part, convincing footage as survives. 43 200 times faster than its "twin" rather than spectacular. The main Earth! Nevertheless, the space set, the tracking room, follows the The tenor of the piece is very tracking aspect of the story is familiar pattern of rows of desks similar to The War Machines, the convincingly done, and as such it lined up behind one another. The previous season's concluding carries the first episode very well. Antarctic exterior is surprisingly instalment, which is not well realised: the fake snow is particularly surprising since each The Cybennen themselves make more convincing than that of The was written by the Gerry Davis their entrance at the conclusion to Seeds of Doom a decade later. We and Kit Pedler partnership. The episode one. The stock "cyber- probably have the forgiving black story is set in the then-futuristic music" accompanies them, and it's and white medium to thank for world of 1986. A tenth planet, interesting to think that whereas this. The least impressive element Mondas, is discovered moving this is a signal to Nineties fans of of the visual design is the towards Earth; it has already the presence of the giants, it would "futuristic" hatch into the passed Mars before it is detected. have had the same effect for Snowcap base, a pyramid which It begins to drain Earth's energy viewers of, say, Tomb, who had opens along its four sides. by some unexplained device, and already seen The Tenth Planet and Cybennen take control of key The Moonbase. Possibly the most The script has some pretensions to positions, including the Antarctic effective feature of these early scientific accuracy, such that the tracking base, Snowcap, where the versions is their human hands, a orbiting spacecraft must choose TARDIS has recently landed. horrifying emphasis of their their moments to land, and do so Interesting stabs are made at former, human, nature. The huge at the correct velocity, for fear of creating the future - we see a lamps on their heads make them overshooting, burning up, or multinational community at the appear huge: truly giants. Their exploding. It is made clear that base and at Space Control in voices, however, are ludicrously fuel is used to change speed, Geneva. The attempt is brave but, camp, and not properly rather than simply to keep going, alas, some of the accents can't synchronised with the actors' oral as on Earth. The eponymous quite come up to scratch (the movements. Although these body's existence is first hinted at worst being that of Tito, a guard Cybennen have more individuality by the effects of its gravity on a who establishes his Italian than their later counterparts, space capsule, echoing the credentials by calling Polly having names, their alien nature is discoveries of Neptune and Pluto. bellissima). The Cybennen, made absolutely clear through We see very little of the cybership, however, show excellent taste and Krail's puzzled reaction to human since although some film of it in the course of the story succeed feelings: "Why should I care?" survives from episode four, this is in killing off every major character mostly confined to close-ups of without a British accent (rather The cast in general give the piece Polly and the Doctor, and is of like the feminism of The Caves of their best shot, and are, like the rather low quality in any case. Androzani, in which everyone scenery, convincing without going Nevertheless, the model shot of male - the Doctor included - kicks over the top. I had the impression the ship landing, in episodes one the bucket). It's also worth noting from the novelisation that Cutler and three, is considerably better (as The Discontinuity Guide points was a paranoid madman, but executed than those in The out) the absence of any women in Robert Beatty's performance Moonbase: no visible wires. 4 reveals a man obviously afraid for the days of Leela or Peri. Anneke his son, and willing to go to Wills herself is rather good, but almost any lengths to save him, shamefully underused, but always sane. David Dodimead contributing absolutely nothing is very good as the put-upon beyond being taken hostage and Barclay. However, the acting making coffee (is it significant that honours, surprisingly, go to the beverage of choice of her Hartnell. He is always convincing successor, Victoria, as revealed in as the Doctor, from his The Web of Fear 2, is tea? astonishingly authoritative Probably not). Then again, to performance in the first two contribute very little to the plot episodes to his crumbling was the fate of virtually all female vagueness in episode four, as his companions from Vicki to first Change comes on. The only Victoria (with the exceptions of obvious manifestation of his Sara Kingdom, and Victoria's illness is his absence from episode impressive role as a secret agent in three, when the Doctor collapses The Enemy of the World 2-3). So (eerily reminiscent of The Dalek maybe it's a little unfair to single Invasion of Earth 3) and Ben out The Tenth Planet for this kind starts saying lines beginning, "The of criticism. Doctor said that..." This is unfortunate, as the third episode is The reconstructed episode four on left without an anchor. It is the version we saw was obviously something of a transition piece, as a labour of love. Footage culled For more information on since the first cyber-invasion has from the first three episodes far Telesnap Reconstructions, see been foiled, our heroes wait for outweighed the use of still the website at: the next. Rather than being telesnaps. While making for some suspenseful, the waiting is rather variety of viewing, this can be http://members.aol.coml dull, a shame after the first two distracting. At first the lack of lip- dwundergrd/ parts, which are always synching makes one imagine one interesting. is watching a dubbed Japanese film, and the recurrence of Reconstructed versions of many particular film sequences can be a stories are available, sometimes in little wearing. Nevertheless, this is multiple versions. Some of these a more than competent effort, and (as The Tenth Planet) use clips probably the closest that we can from surviving episodes, others come to seeing the production as "simply" present telesnaps over the the makers intended. It was surviving soundtrack. particularly exciting to see cine- film clips from episode four on the For whatever reasons, many tape other than the well-known episodes of Doctor Who were regeneration sequence, although wiped in the sixties and seventies. these were mostly close-ups. One Although there are some survivors surviving clip, however, shows the (see back cover), many stories impressive effect achieved in the With Hartnell veering in and out remain incomplete. Naturally BBC TARDIS set simply by use of of the action, much of his Video prefers to market complete flashing lights, reflecting the workload is shifted onto Ben and stories rather than fragments (at his Doctor's confusion. Polly, perhaps the least known HT 98 visit to the society, BBC companions in Doctor Who Who supremo Steve Cole All in all, then, a highly competent history because of the wiping of so mentioned that the Years tapes did production. The third episode is many of their episodes. Ben is not sell as well as hoped). There is, rather slow, and it would be nice actually rather good despite the however, a "black market" among to have the fourth back, but the rather off-putting premise of his fans, passing around copies of the first two, at least, are solidly worth being a cheerful Cockney sailor. unreleased episodes. This is, of watching, and the epoch-making Michael Craze makes him a course, not strictly legal, but done events of the last few minutes convincing, likeable character and in good spirit and, of course, non amply repay listening to. When the indeed he effectively carries the profit-making. Doctor scampers back to the show in the Hartnell-less episode TARDIS and almost leaves his three. As for Polly, we can see companions behind he appears to here a fairly blatant attempt to get be suffering from what we might the fathers of those children call an early case of post- watching the show to pay attention Alastair Harrison and regenerati ve shock ..

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