This morning marks a huge milestone all around. For me personally, I weighed in at a new low record since I started this project, which is particularly nice given the frustrating trend last week. For Doctor Who, this morning's viewing was the end of the First Doctor's era. Yes, he is my least favorite Doctor. And yes, although I feel badly about his health struggles in later life, I am not much enamored of his behavior and attitudes on set. Even so, he was enormously popular at the time and was by all accounts a great ambassador to the children who loved the program. His final performance (minus his absence from the third episode due to illness) was spot on, and he was given a superb story to have as his swan song.

Let's talk about that.

The Tenth Planet - Episodes 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The third episode begins with a body double wearing a wig and the Doctor's clothes suddenly collapsing for no apparent reason. He spends the entire episode unconscious in a bunk, occasionally with Polly fretting over him. As for the story itself, it is all a race between the military commander rushing to set up and deploy a doomsday weapon -- one which will certainly destroy Mondas, but will probably also destroy half the Earth's population along with it -- and with Able Seaman Ben Jackson rushing to find a way to dismantle or delay the missile. The Cybermen make a brief appearance when another ship lands, but they are handily defeated by the base soldiers using the weapons confiscated from the previous invasion party. The end of the episode has Ben found out, the missile primed and ready to launch, and a tense final countdown that ends just as the credits roll.

The fourth episode begins with the missile failing to launch. Ben's sabotage turns out to have worked. Unfortunately, more Cybermen have landed and they quickly overwhelm the base, killing the military commander in the process. The Doctor has deduced, however, that all the have to do is delay and Mondas will destroy itself. On top of that, Ben tumbles to the fact that the Cybermen cannot withstand being near any kind of nuclear radiation. Using some hot reactor rods from the base power plant, Ben is able to push back the Cybermen and buy enough time for Mondas to self-destruct. As soon as the planet is gone, all the remaining Cybermen collapse. Apparently they drew their energy directly from the planet, and without it they all melt away to dust. 

And then comes the pivotal scene, in which the Doctor himself begins to falter. He barely makes it into the TARDIS before collapsing in a heap on the floor, with a strange light washing over his face. His first regeneration has begun.

I absolutely loved this story. I particularly liked the odd vocal cadence of these original Mondasian Cybermen. It is hard to describe, and unlike the later incarnations. It is somehow both mechanical and lilting, with odd stretches where the voice seems to hang up on a vowel for an extra second or two before completing the word. It is somehow humanly inhuman, if that makes any sense. Later Cybermen might get a bigger budget for costuming, but I definitely have a fondness for these originals. Just ask me how excited I am that true Mondasian Cybermen will be appearing in a story this season with the Twelfth Doctor.

One other cool bit of trivia. Check this out:

The costumes used for the astronauts in this story were later re-used and re-worked into the costume for Bossk, one of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. How cool is that?

So that's a wrap for the First Doctor. In summary, here is an excellent info-graphic designed my my friend Michael Montoure (who also did the site banner image and other pieces, as well as the cover of my book and several t-shirt designs, you should check out his Doctor Who fan film project.)

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Ben Jackson, Polly Wright
Episode(s): The Tenth Planet - Episodes 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 6,897 today, 460,585 total
Distance Walked:  3.48 miles today, 216.31 miles total
Weight: 286.44 lbs (five day moving average), net change -20.86 lbs