The TARDIS Project

The Tenth Planet episode 4 discussion:

H: So here we are.

R: The beginning of a new Er-rar.

H: Sure.

R: That’s the General’s occasional American accent.

H: Actually, I think the actor who played the General was really American, although his son was definitely not.

R: And speaking of the General, I really thought they did more psych profiling on the people they give nuclear weapons too. “My son is dead! We’re all gonna burn!!”

H: It could be worse. They could have been stealing his precious bodily fluids. . <A “Dr. Strangelove” reference.>

R: True

Sp: Well, he who lives by the planet busting nuclear weapon…

H: Dies by the…?

Sp: Dies by the phase pulse thingy that they were carrying. Really the writers wrote themselves into a corner with General, so he had to get offed.

E: It is horrible that I kind of felt this slight feeling of happiness when he got killed off?

H: No, I think that was intended.

E: He was a jerk. I didn’t like him at all.

P: A poor representation of Americans.

E: Sometimes when the Cybermen were talking I swear it sounded like they were singing in autotune instead.

H: Yeah, it was intended to sound like a mechanical sing song.

E: It was creepy, but kind of cool.

P: <Cyberman voice> I THINK IT WAS CO-OL.

R: I thought Krang did a really good job with it, but the other guy not so much. The Cyberman speaking in Geneva was definitely someone else, and he sounded more like he was singing than talking. Krang sounded like he was speaking but getting stuck on certain syllables, where the other guy seemed to be hitting musical notes more than syllables.
I also have one other problem with this episode, it promotes poor reactor safely among the nation’s youth. If you see a reactor control rod lying around some place, DON’T pick it up. Get an adult.

H: Very wise. Very wise.

Sp: They solved the immediate problem. It doesn’t matter than all of them died from cancer 60 years later.

R: Cancer? No. 60 years? No. Radiation poisoning? Yes. 3 days? Yes.

Sp: They were little rods.

R: Other than that, I quite enjoyed the episode. And this is the only time I believe we’ve seen the Doctor undergo a natural regeneration.

H: It’s not clear.

R: There was not a proximal cause.

P: I think the energy somehow involved in the planets was effecting him. That was my take on that.

H: There have been a few fanish speculation kind of explanations. One is exactly what you just said. And another one has to do with the fact that he was badly aged and had a lot of his energy taken in “The Savages” just a few stories before. It was not clear if it was a natural thing. He does say “This old body is wearing a bit thin.” This is a time where it doesn’t involve some immediate trauma, but it’s not the only time it doesn’t involve some immediate trauma.
About the regeneration effect – originally in the original camera script the Doctor was only going to fall on the TARDIS floor with his cloak covering his face, which is why they made a big point of Ben giving him back his cloak. And in the next episode the cloak will be pulled away and Patrick Troughton will appear. But one of the production assistants was fooling around with a broken video mixer and figured out they could do this effect. So they hired Patrick specifically for this episode with a special contract, so they could do this effect. It won’t be called a regeneration effect until Tom Baker.

<Discussion of various “first Doctors”>

K: You never forget you first Doctor.

Sp: So did Ben get given a bunch of Doctor lines and Doctor plot, or was he captain clever?

H: He was Captain Clever.

E: Sounds like a pretty great super hero name.

H: Ben is pretty dang resourceful.

Sp: I also thought it was a good choice not to have the General’s son asking after his dad. We didn’t really form enough of an attachment to him to have that mean anything, and it would have been obvious and smaltzy, and I’m glad they didn’t choose to do it.

H: So, do we want to talk about Harnell in general?

Sp: <bursts into tears!>

H: Or do we want to save that for another time?

Sp: <sobs> I’m ready.

H: So, I think I can speak for the Project in saying that we formed a much greater attachment to William Hartnell’s Doctor than anyone was expecting.

Sp: <Hartnell Voice>Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

H: Thank you Chesterfield.

R: Cheddarbaum.

E: I think I laughed too hard and now I’m dizzy. Thanks a lot!

P: This is one of the times where the story doesn’t relate on getting back to the TARDIS as it does to solving the issue at hand. I think that really added to the story in my opinion. Also I thought the continuance of the story was carried more by other actors, and I’m guessing that was because Hartnell is ill, which was pretty obvious to me.

H: Okay.

P: Also I like the Cybermen. I know we talked about this before, but overall the characters were designed well, and spaceships and weapons all fit together as a unit and you don’t often see that. Where you can look at a ship or control panel and recognize it as one of theirs. It’s all well designed to each other.

H: So what did people think about the plot point about all of their power being derived from Mondas, so Mondas’s destruction eliminates the threat. Because the Doctor says during most of the story that all they had to do was wait and everything would be fine. Did you guys think it was a cop out?

P: I don’t think it was a cop out. It was clear that the Doctor was familiar with the Cybermen and this planet already. It just wasn’t clear how.

Sp: Again, they sort of wrote themselves into a corner.

R: They dug themselves a hole, but it wasn’t as deep a hole?

Sp: Yeah. It didn’t stick out as much. It worked, as the Historian said, because the Doctor warned them all along that they would run themselves out if you just let them.

R: They’re like interstellar toddlers. You just have to let them fuss until they warn themselves out and go nappies.

K: Nappies means something different in British.

Sp: Well, some of them did that too. CRAAAAAAP! <dies>

H: In all seriousness, getting back to Hartnell in general, and all the stories we’ve been watching, does anyone have anything to say about Bill? I think we’re all going to miss him.

E: Don’t remind me!

Sp: I think the best praise, off the top of my head, is that the character and the actor was a comforting presence. We could tease because we love…

K: I know nothing about that!

Sp: We notice when the story worked around him, or worked in spite of him.

H: Or worked better because of him.

Sp: But even in the stories where he didn’t seem to have that much to do, the character and the actor held it together.

P: It’s been a long time since two teachers walked into a Junk Yard.

K: I have this sort off montage vision in my brain, like a YouTube Video. The Romans, The Keys of Marinus, The Reign of Terror – that hat.

R: Oh god, that spectacular hat!

Sp: ZAARRBII!

P:<Chumbly sound>

H: There was just so many great moments.

R: Mr. Wearp.

P: The Haunted House in the Chase.

H: And him and Peter Butterworth’s Meddling Monk doing a double act.

K: And foiling the Daleks many times!

H: Basically, William Hartnell’s Doctor was just awesome.

R: Even when he was being a total douchenozzle.

Sp: Like meddling with the Monk’s time machine.

R: Or “Hum, I’m afraid we can’t leave the really interesting planet because I broke.. because the TARDIS is broken!”

Sp: Or when he first introduces himself to Steven. “That is the lateral control. That is the view screen. That is a panda in a chair. Now get out of my way!”

K: He was the first.

H: And of course, he could make fire. So, final thoughts?

Cz: I need to go back and watch the ones I missed.

E: For this episode, I kind of thought the end was a little anti-climactic, personally. I was expecting a slightly more intense climax near the ending, but they just kind of disintegrated. I was expecting something else to happen with the Cybermen. I can see how it makes sense, but I was still expecting there to be something more there.

K: Maybe because this was the only one that was a Recon too.

H: And this is the first Recon that wasn’t done by Loose Cannon.

P: First of all, at one point after Polly goes to the Spaceship, she’s forced into some sort of nasty chair. I thought they were going to turn her into a Cyberman. The next scene we see she’s in a sort of prison cell. There was a continuity loss there. Another thing is that I’m sad to see this Doctor go, of course. While I haven’t been part of the Project the entire time, I am also attached to him, in part at least because of his flaws. As for this whole arc, I think it was very well done. I can see why the Cybermen have such appear to the viewers if they started out so well.
I also think this Doctor did very well with each of his travel companions, and having a good unique relationship with each of them.

Sp: With one notable exception.

H: Katarina? He had a unique relationship with her as well.

Sp: But a short one.

H: I’d been reading an article from a fanzine who’d been watching it since 1963 who liked Katarina for the very reasons we didn’t. He thought it would be interesting because everything would be new and exciting to her, and was absolutely shocked when she died. It was interesting to get that perspective because we really can mostly look back, and someone watching it at the time was looking forward.

R: It still seems like a real failure to me. They had that interesting idea available, but they never ended up doing anything with it. She was like a boat anchor most of the time.

P: I think it would be really hard to write that character well, but I think it’s possible.

H: Definitely the production team at the time, after she was introduced, decided that it was too difficult and wouldn’t work. So I think you’re absolutely right.

P: JK Rollings did a good job with it with Gilroy Lockhart with that same concept.

K: Lockhart didn’t know what a key was?

Cz: Pretty much.

R: Fortunately they did work out the kinks by the time Leela was introduced. The concept of the Savage on a Spaceship was very much there. It wouldn’t surprise me if they did go back and look and go “okay, we’re not going to screw it up this way again.”

K: I really doubt that when they invented Leela they were thinking of Katarina.

H: Leela was created in a reaction to Sarah Jane.

K: Anyway, WAY off topic from TARDIS Project material!

Sp: I can tie us back. This just reminds me how hard it is to watch this episode specifically, and some of the stories in general, objectively. Because we know about future plot lines, future Doctors. We knew tonight this was the last main Hartnell episode. So any plot points, or anything about the Doctor today was scene through the lens of “This is the last Hartnell episode.”

K: Should we get back to final thoughts?

Sp: I think I just covered mine, actually. But I do wonder at the time if viewers thought that just something generically strange that something happened to the Doctor and it was a setup for the next story, as opposed to “this is now the new actor.”

H: It had been covered in the news, so certainly the adults would know. If the children knew is an open question. Some of the audience report from a sampling they did every week of opinions is available on the web.

Sp: Wow. BBC samples?

H: Yeah.

R: <Hartnell voice> ” Good heavens, you children will be the death of me!”
I don’t think he would have nearly gotten into the amount of trouble that he did without his companions, but then I don’t think he would have done as much living without them. I think if it had just been him and Susan something would eventually have happened so split the two of them up. I think having the companions mellowed him and invigorated him and reminded him that he has a TIME MACHINE!
Bye Bill.

K: Part of the big reason of doing the TARDIS Project was so I could get to see (or at least see picture of) stories I’d never seen before. I’d seen a lot of Hartnell before this, and now I definitely have a greater appreciation for him. But I’ve only seen maybe four Troughton stories. I’m really looking forward to the next three years.

H: They say that your first Doctor is your favorite Doctor. But I’ve often found that my favorite Doctor, with a few exceptions, is the one I’m watching at the time.

K: I AGREE!

H: So at this moment, my favorite Doctor is William Hartnell. I’m really looking forward to my favorite Doctor become Patrick Troughton, and I’m really looking forward to y’all sharing it with me. I like Pat a lot, and I think you all will too.

R: He already has one thing that Hartnell didn’t have. Eyebrows.

<laughter>