Move aside, ‘The Claws of Axos.’ Take a breather, ‘The Daemons.’ There are hidden gems lurking in your Jon Pertwee collections. Now is the time to dust them off and admire their beauty!
Planet of the Daleks
A famous Doctor Who producer once pointed out to Terry Nation that he had a habit of reusing the same tropes. It’s true (and apparently he had no idea) but ‘Planet of the Daleks’ is a Jon Pertwee story which shows Terry Nation at his predictable best – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are bombs, countdowns and invisible creatures, to name a few – all ingredients in a meal that, if you pace yourself, can be quite tasty.
At the same time, there’s no denying that six part Doctor Who stories do tend to struggle, and this particular Jon Pertwee adventure is no exception, despite featuring his most famous adversary. ‘Planet of the Daleks’ is best enjoyed in bitesize chunks over the course of a few days so that you can really appreciate its gorgeous production design and somewhat ‘gentler’ pacing.
Also, take a moment to enjoy the stunning colour recovery work on episode three, which for many years existed only as a black and white print. The restoration team has done an incredible job breathing life back into this ‘missing’ instalment, and it looks incredible.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Speaking of six-parters, our next Jon Pertwee story had another big gap to fill in the transmission schedule, although this particular adventure is surprisingly well paced.
First, let’s address the elephant in the room: the special effects are far from special. They weren’t even good by 1974’s standards. The producer Barry Letts had been assured by an outside contractor that they could produce a convincing array of fearsome dinosaurs to rein terror on London’s streets, and… well, they couldn’t. In the end, Jon Pertwee was up against an army of poorly-realised puppets which did very little except turn their heads and occasionally wobble.
But if you can look past the unconvincing models, there is a great story to be told here, with a number of twists and turns which we won’t spoil in this article. Even the setup is effective; the production team cannily dubbed the first episode ‘Invasion’ to preserve the surprise of the story’s narrative. Of course, this is lost on us today, but episode one is still a tense one as the Doctor and Sarah Jane wander the city’s abandoned streets trying to figure out exactly what has happened.
Planet of the Spiders
On the surface, ‘Planet of the Spiders‘ may seem like an anticlimactic end to the Jon Pertwee era given its ‘gentler’ pacing (that’s right, it’s another six-parter.) But there’s no faulting its ambition. Indeed, the second episode is all one epic chase sequence as the Doctor jumps from vehicle to vehicle in pursuit of the story’s villain: there’s the Whomobile, a speedboat, and even a gyrocopter. Eat your heart out, Bond.
Certainly, Barry Letts (the story’s uncredited writer) knew the significance of this adventure and wanted to give Jon Pertwee a good send-off. There is even an attempt at character development and ‘spiritual growth’ as the Doctor resolves to confront his fear by tackling the queen spider, only to be exposed to lethal doses of radiation which ultimately cost him his life.
This Jon Pertwee story is also a significant one in Doctor Who lore. Believe it or not, ‘Planet of the Spiders’ marks the first time that the term ‘regeneration’ was used to explain the process by which Time Lords change their faces. This adventure also marks the debut of Tom Baker – a man who would go on to become one of the most popular and best-remembered incarnations, even if the transition itself is a little uninspired.
Death to the Daleks
According to legend, Jon Pertwee himself dubbed the Daleks “boring” and didn’t delight in coming up against them. (He was a much bigger fan of the Draconians from ‘Frontier in Space,’ as he found them more believable.) But there was no denying the popularity of the metal mutants from Skaro, and the producer Barry Letts was keen for them to return for Jon Pertwee’s last season.
We’ve spoken already about classic Terry Nation tropes, and there are a few of them in this adventure. But ‘Death to the Daleks’ also offers something new. In this story, the Doctor is dealing with an isolated group who have crash-landed on the planet Exxilon after a surprise power loss. This loss has affected the Doctor too, meaning that he is forced into an uneasy alliance with his greatest enemies as they seek to resolve the problem, together.
Now, you may raise your eyebrows at the somewhat ‘spoilery’ title, but one would hope that the Doctor would defeat his arch enemies in all his adventures. After all, it would be rather strange if the story were called ‘Victory of the Daleks,’ wouldn’t it? (Oh wait… never mind!) So forget the uninspired title, enjoy the ride, and beware the floor of death…
The Mind of Evil
It’s not easy judging an underrated Doctor Who story. We once posited that ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ was an ‘underrated’ Matt Smith tale, and the internet never let us forget. There’s the same danger with our next Jon Pertwee adventure, because it happens to be a masterpiece – but it’s not a masterpiece that gets spoken about very often, and it’s our job to speak up in its defence.
Back in Doctor Who‘s VHS days, you could judge the quality of the story by how quickly it was released on video. ‘The Mind of Evil’ didn’t come out until quite late in the day (1998) which suggests that the BBC didn’t rate it quite as highly as ‘The Daemons‘ and ‘The Claws of Axos‘ or, heck, even ‘The Monster of Peladon.’ This may have been because it only existed as black and white film prints… Perhaps the Beeb was hoping that some colour copies would emerge if it waited long enough.
Whatever the reason for the delay, don’t be fooled; this is one of the greatest Jon Pertwee stories of all time. It’s all about a machine which uses people’s deepest fears to kill them. It’s terrifying. It’s also a great UNIT story where everyone gets a fair slice of the action, and it features the Master at his moustache-twirling best.
Even better, we can now enjoy this Jon Pertwee adventure in its ‘original’ colour, thanks to the magic of chroma dot recovery and (in the case of episode one) frame-by-frame colourisation. It looks incredible, and it’s an incredible story. Go and watch it!
So over to you, the internet: what do you think is the most underrated Jon Pertwee story? And which is your favourite from this list? Let us know in the comments below.
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