Doctor Who (1963) 13.02.02

Planet of Evil - Part Two

The creature kills one of the Morestran troops. Salamar and Vishinsky. the leaders of the Morestrans military expedition, assume that the Doctor and Sarah are the killers. The Doctor and Sarah take off. The Morestrans use an ocular probe to find them and then send a team of men after them. The team catches up to them as the Doctor is examining a pit.

The Doctor and Sarah are brought back to the Morestran spaceship but they return short another man who fell into the pit while trying to search Sarah for weapons. The Doctor and Sarah protest, say they are innocent but the Morestrans don't believe them and lock them up.

Salamar orders his men to launch their spaceship from the planet but it won't. The creature returns. They are forced to link the force field to the atomic accelerator in order to protect the space ship. More troops are killed.

The Doctor explains that they won't be able to leave alive if they try to take the mineral samples that Sorenson has collected. The planet they are on is in another universe. The samples are antimatter and will cause a huge explosion if they try to cross back to their own universe.

The Doctor talks Salamar into letting him go and try to communicate with the creature. Sarah stays behind on the spaceship. Salamar has the ocular probe follow the Doctor, who returns to the pit. The creature rises from the pit. The episode ends with the Doctor falling into the pit.

Thoughts

I'm pretty sure that the Doctor will survive the fall into the pit. I think I might even know how and why he survives.

I can't help but see similarities between this story and one from Leela's tenure with the Doctor: 15.5 Underworld.

This is a decent story but it isn't a favorite. The supporting cast are okay but none of them really stand out, so far. The story is shot mostly if not entirely in studios. The alien world is kind of sad by today's standards. Even by the standards of 1975, the year in which this story was made, it isn't terribly special. I do like the use of the ocular probe.

Notes

Frederick Jaeger played the part of Sorenson. This is the second of three stories in which he appeared. He was also in 15.2 The Invisible Enemy where he played Professor Marius, the previous owner of K-9.

Michael Wisher played the part of Morelli, one of the members of the Morestran military expedition. This is the 10th of 10 Doctor Who stories in which he appeared, including 8.1 Terror of the Autons, 12.4 Genesis of the Daleks (in which he played Davros), and 12.5 Revenge of the Cybermen.