The Tenth Planet by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
8 - 29 October 1966
It’s the end, and I’m not totally prepared… Ever since resuming my marathon when the lockdown began in March, I have been moving at a fair clip, motivated by the desire to distract myself from a dreary world with the adventures of Doctor Who. I flew through Season Three, drinking everything in, always eager for the next episode. The inevitable consequence was that I landed here at The Tenth Planet sooner than I ever expected. Intellectually I knew that the end of the Hartnell era was coming on fast, but that still didn’t prepare me emotionally for it. I just sat there in silence while he turned into Patrick Troughton in the last moments of the last episode, wondering at how surreal it all was. It took two and a half years, but I made it. That’s something worth celebrating.
It’s almost unfair to the story itself, however, to burden it with the weight of this monumental change, as well as the mythological significance of the Cybermen first coming into being. Like I said last time, event television does not yet exist. This is a serial like any other in the season before it, though in terms of layout (being one of the first real Bases under Siege) it more resembles the Troughton era… It is only through the lens of the future that it transcends past its serialized status and becomes something more uncommon: a milestone.
It’s important to recognize that the Cybermen aren’t iconic monsters yet. Accordingly, it comes as no surprise that the show doesn’t treat them with the awe that a viewer spoiled by the future (like me) might expect. In fact, they’re almost totally missing from the third episode of the serial, just like the Doctor, leaving Ben and Polly with the unenviable job of carrying the show and butting heads with the ur-base commander, General Cutler. However, it speaks to the lasting strength of the Cybermen’s core concept that this brief appearance led to them being the second longest recurring monster in the show’s history. They are deliciously creepy, with the body horror inherent to them being offered mostly through suggestion rather than through any blatant means. They’re also startlingly polite, and in fact very rarely seem to directly menace the humans they’re holding captive. It’s an odd portrayal to modern eyes, but is nevertheless compelling.
Cutler works well as a secondary antagonist; although his stubbornness occasionally beggars belief, the actor plays the role well enough that it lands. His single-minded focus on getting his son down from space adds a human edge to the character. I’d never apply the adjective “convincing”, but “entertaining” fits just fine…
Ben and Polly both come across a little better here than they did in The Smugglers, working together behind Cutler’s back while the Doctor is out of commission to help prevent the General from sterilizing half of the Earth’s surface with the Z-bomb. Barclay is also a nice side character, fulfilling a bit of the Doctor’s role while he’s out of commission in Episode 3. I wish the Doctor came out of this looking as good as the other characters did, but Hartnell isn’t at his best in these episodes, and it’s sad to see. He does get a few standout lines (particularly his mysterious remarks to Ben and Polly when the Mondasian ship is disabled and they’re freed) but he still barely gets to star in his own farewell story.
Overall, this is a fairly strong story, but one that wouldn’t be particularly remarkable if it weren’t for its own mythological importance. While I’ll stand by my remarks that this story should be judged on its own merits rather than on its relevance to the evolution of Doctor Who, I have to admit that this relevance helps its standing rather than hinders it.
We’ll get to The Power of the Daleks soon, but first we have to take a pause and give this era a proper wrap-up. See you soon.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 10 May 2020.)
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