Today has been a busy day, what with a regular dental checkup, plus juggling work and some other family stuff. Even so, I did manage to work in an hour to watch some more Doctor Who. I was a little nervous about this new story, but I have to say my worries were completely unfounded. I thought Day of the Daleks was pretty weak sauce, but with Planet of the Daleks the Third Doctor finally has a great Dalek story to be remembered by.

Let's talk about that.

Planet of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The Daleks are, and forever will be, the child if Terry Nation. There are times when negotiations between him (and later his estate) and the BBC have been tense, but there is no question at all that the only reason Doctor Who survived past the first few stories was because of the breakthrough popularity of the Daleks. As weary as I get of Dalek stories -- there is no question the series returns to that well far too often  -- I also have to give solid credit that when Terry Nation is writing them the stories really sing. Well, with the notable exception of The Chase, but at least that gave us Peter Purves as Steven so I can forgive a lot for that one.

After bowing out halfway through the epic Daleks' Master Plan at the end of 1965, Terry Nation quit writing for the series for eight long years. He finally returned for today's new story, and wowser it's a corker. For half of the first episode the Doctor is comatose due to a head injury from the end of the last story, and so Jo Grant finds herself alone on an alien world searching for help. In many ways the planet Spiridon reminds me of the planet Kembel from The Daleks' Master Plan. The alien vegetation is weird and aggressive, spurting fungus-laden pus at any unfortunate passers-by, attacking with ropy tentacles, following with flowering eye stalks, and just generally being creepy as hell. Toss in the fact that the natives are invisible, and that there are also Daleks roaming around, and you have Peak Doctor Who. 

By the end of the second episode we have met some space-faring Thals, the Doctor has been captured by the Daleks, Jo has been first infected and then cured of the alien fungus and is currently being cared for by an invisible Spirodon, and the last surviving Thals have just discovered that there aren't just the dozen or so Daleks on the planet that they already knew about. There are actually ten thousand Daleks hidden away somewhere, preparing to launch a new galactic offensive.

Not only does this six-parter have no padding so far, I would have to say it has anti-padding. The story cooks along so briskly that it hardly feels like any time has passed at all. I am absolutely psyched to get back on the treadmill tomorrow morning to find out what happens next. Terry Nation is a master at creating a creepy and dangerous setting, and making the Daleks properly terrifying. Hurrah!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Third
Companion(s): Jo Grant
Episode(s): Planet of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,049 today, 1,185,788 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 585.13 miles total
Weight: 263.66 lbs (five day moving average), net change -43.94 lbs