Doctor Who (1963) 13.02.04

Planet of Evil - Part Four

There's an emergency on the bridge. The man who was left on duty on the bridge is dead. Everyone rushes there. Vishinsky recalls the sleds that the Doctor and Sarah Jane were in when Salamar ejected them at the end of the previous episode. 

The Doctor confronts Professor Sorenson. He talks Sorenson into doing the right thing, getting rid of the antimatter and himself. Sorenson reverts to anti-matter man before he can follow through.

The Morestran spaceship continues to be pulled back to the planet. Vishinsky takes takes command of the spaceship. Salamar goes looking for Sorenson and gets himself killed. The Doctor goes after Sorenson and knocks him out. He drags the professor into the TARDIS and pilots it back to Zeta Minor.

The Doctor lures the professor, who has reverted to antimatter man, out to the pit and pushes him in. Miraculously the professor returns cured of the antimatter poison and materializes tight near the TARDIS. The Doctor helps him into the TARDIS and then returns to the Morestran ship which by then has started to accelerate away from Zeta Minor.

The Doctor and Sarah say goodbye, get in the TARDIS, and depart.

Thoughts

How did the Doctor and Sarah get out of the sleds that they were in at the beginning of the episode? I thought they were restrained. They don't show it but somehow they got out of the sleds on their own.

How many men were there on board the Morestran ship? At one point it seemed like Vishinsky was the only one left but then right at the end, after the Doctor returned from the surface of the planet, there were more.

Why is Sara the only woman in this episode? Enough with the sausage fests.

I think there's a big gaping flaw in this story which is that Professor Sorenson's idea was stupid. It wasn't going to work. Salamar was an idiot. He wouldn't listen to anyone and in the end he paid for it but a number of other crew members, at least 10, also died. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if they had made some effort to work through the issue with the antimatter. Maybe if Sorenson had claimed to have made contact with the creatures or something, anything.

There is the ground work for a good story hear but there is a definite lack of follow through.

I'm pretty sure that I watched this story in the 1980s but I don't have any clear memories of it and the story feels very much the usual Doctor Who fare of this era without all the bells and whistles that could make it truly memorable.