Planet of the Daleks

Injured after a shoot-out between his old nemesis the Master and the Ogrons, slaves to the evil Daleks, the Doctor sends a message to the Time Lords, asking them to pilot his TARDIS and follow the Daleks to their new base. After he slips into a coma, it falls to his assistant Jo Grant to explore the planet where the TARDIS finally materializes.  Not only must the Doctor contend with the Daleks' new stratagem, but he must try to stop them from unleashing a plague that will exterminate all organic life. When a rescue ship of Thals arrive, they bring with them the darker news still - somewhere on Spiridon 12,000 Daleks are waiting to emerge and take what they believe is their rightful place as the Universe's supreme beings!

This six-part adventure featuring the Dalek Supreme was first broadcast 7 April - 12 May, 1973. Although made entirely in color, Episode Three unfortunately no longer exists in that format and so is presented here in black-and-white.

• Although the story gets a bit silly in some places, "Planet of the Daleks" is more noteworthy because episode 3 only exists in black and white form.  The BBC (in their infinite wisdom) trashed most of the Pertwee stories in the mid to late 70's.  While all of them have been recovered, a few episodes only exist as black and white copies.  Although computer re-colorization does exist, it proved to be too costly for the amount of video sales expected, and so the story was released with 5 episodes in color and one in black and white.

• The events in "Planet of the Daleks" continue from the previous Doctor Who adventure "Frontier in Space."

• Beware of alien tropical plants trying to spray Jo Grant with their projectile fluids.  Not for the feint of heart I think. 

• "Planet of the Daleks" was released in the U.K. as part of second Dalek box set (the first one was released several years ago and contained the Hartnell story "The Chase" and the McCoy story "Remembrance of the Daleks").  The other story released with in this new box set was "Revelation of the Daleks" starring Colin Baker.

• Bernard Horsfall (Commander Taron) would later return to Doctor Who in the Tom Baker story "The Deadly Assassin" as Chancellor Goth.  Prior to his "Planet" appearance he was a Timelord in "The War Games" and as Gulliver in "The Mind Robber."

• Another familiar face is Prentis Hancock (Vaber).  He played a reporter in "Spearhead from Space," Commander Salamar in "The Planet of Evil," and the captain of the guards in "The Ribos Operation."