13x2. Planet of Evil
Writer: Louis Marks
Director: Davis Maloney
Script Editor: Robert Holmes
Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe
Synopsis: The TARDIS arrives at
Zeta Minor, a planet at the boundary of the known universe where a
portal between this universe and a universe of antimatter, just as a
ship from the planet Morestra arrives to search for a lost expedition.
The expedition, led by Professor Sorenson, has been attacked by
entities from the other universe due to their attempts to remove
antimatter from the planet to power Morestra's dying sun. The Doctor
and Sarah must avert a catastrophe while having to deal with further
attacks as well as the suspicion of the ship's Controller, Salamar.
Review: The good and bad news
is that the serial I was most reminded of while watching "Planet of
Evil" is "Inferno." Good because it would be hard to find a better
template for a successful Doctor Who
story, but bad because it inevitably suffers by comparison.
Beginning with the good, "Planet of Evil" is a conceptual success in
the way it imagines the consequences of Sorenson's attempts to harvest
antimatter. The creatures from the antimatter universe are never given
much of a personality or motivation, manifesting only as barely visible
entities who appear only to launch attacks and who seem incapable of
and/or disinterested in communication, aside from the Doctor's brief
successful attempt towards the end of Episode 2. Another reviewer once
said that the earth functioned as a sort of offended fire-god in
"Inferno," and these aliens function in a similar manner: they're not
individuals so much as angry elementals avenging the breaking of a
taboo. I'm not normally a fan of undermotivated villains who exist only
to kill people, blow things up, and generally wreak havoc, but in this
case, keeping a certain element of mystery about what exactly lies
within the antimatter universe actually adds some gravity that would
have been lacking if they'd been individualized characters (and again,
they're not so much villains as they are forces of nature). And
although they're not the scariest thing Doctor Who has ever produced, they
do have one genuinely frightening scene towards the end, when Vishinsky
and Sarah are trapped at one end of the room and they slowly and
deliberately advance towards them. The sense of loss of control, which
John Carpenter once (correctly, I think) tagged as the essence of
horror, is palpable here: the two of them know that, unless the Doctor
is successful, they are about to be killed, even though they don't
completely understand why or by whom, and there is absolutely nothing
they can do on their own to stop it.
Incidentally, another thing "Planet of Evil" shares in common with
"Inferno" is the ability to make a convincing story out of what is,
scientifically speaking, complete bunk. Maybe things were different in
1975, but I certainly don't think there's any scientist today who
thinks that you would hit an antimatter portal at "the edge of the
known universe," that "antimatter" is the same concept as what was once
considered "nothing," or that you could just pick some of it up without
going out in a pretty spectacular explosion (much less suffer brain
damage for it, as is allegedly happening to Sorenson). Paul Clarke
suggests in his review over at Outpost Gallifrey (www.gallifreyone.com)
that perhaps the script meant to imply that the normal laws of physics
don't apply on and around Zeta Minor, given that the issue of an
antimatter explosion is actually acknowledged at one point. I suppose
it's possible, but that still doesn't explain the portal or the
Doctor's strange assertion that "antimatter" and "nothing" were two
attempts to understand the same concept. Nothing, in terms of physics,
is exactly that: nothing. It has no presence and no properties, because
it's . . . well, nothing. Antimatter, on the other hand, has exactly
the opposite properties, in
terms of electric charge, of matter, but it exists just as much as you
or I. (And no, that is not an invitation for someone to e-mail me on
the topic of the subjective nature of reality.)
I mentioned when discussing my "Terror of the Zygons" review online
that I thought we were seeing a bit of a shift away from the Doctor's
moral side (which was most prominent in the Pertwee era) and back
towards his intellectual side. Not that the new Doctor is not a moral
person, just that Tom Baker and the writers tend to underplay that
element of his character and sort of take it for granted, while
emphasizing his alien intellect and unusual abilities. That's certainly
the case again in "Planet of Evil," as he manages to communicate with
someone or something on the other side of the portal in a way that he
can't really explain to Sarah, and the gravity and unusual wisdom that
Baker conveys as he speaks about the antimatter universe is a large
part of what makes the concept believable. This is also manifest in a
scene with Sorenson towards the end, where he finally gets through to
his fellow scientist with the fact that not only was his theory wrong,
but he must now sacrifice himself to save the others by ejecting
himself (along with the antimatter in his body) into space. "The
hypothesis...was false?" Sorenson asks, his voice conveying a
devastating sense of disappointment and suggesting that his scientific
failure is more upsetting to him than the prospect of immediately
impending death.
The problem with "Planet of Evil," however, is that while it has some
good ideas and a few riveting scenes, most of the script just seems to
be going through the obligatory motions, and it's here that the
"Inferno" comparisons become uncharitable. Unlike "Inferno," "Planet of
Evil" doesn't have a very strong supporting cast, nor does it manage to
advance the plot through any but the most standard devices of captures
and escapes, the Doctor being falsely accused of murder, and minor
characters getting killed.
Sorenson is the only particularly compelling guest character, and
that's mostly because of the aforementioned scene with the Doctor.
Vishinksy and Salamar are a reversal of the standard cautious
leader/restless young subordinate dynamic, with the elder Vishinsky
eventually trying to remove Salamar from command for what amounts to
insufficient
caution, but other than that they are not particularly memorable. The
ending, in which Sorenson falls into the antimatter portal, but then is
returned in his pre-antimatter state and unable to remember what
happened, also feels a little too easy under the circumstances.
"Planet of Evil" ends up playing as "'Inferno' in Outer Space" in the
lesser sense: it returns to themes and devices we've seen before, but
it doesn't really do anything new with them other than letting a
different
Doctor confront them and, well, putting the whole thing in outer space.
Rating: **1/2 (out of four)
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