Although not generally recognised as such, this story is the second half of a single 12-episode story arc. It sees the welcome return of the Daleks - having been seen aiding The Master - and so continuing the storyline begun in "Frontier in Space".
During the filming of episode four, Director David Maloney also recorded some new material for the end of "Frontier in Space" to help bridge the two stories.
Despite this story being commissioned as "Planet of the Daleks" during production it had the working title "Destination Daleks".
Even though episodes stopped having individual titles as of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Savages" the individual episodes for this story had working titles. These being: "Destinus" (1), "Mission Survival" (2), "Pursued" (3), "Escape or Die" (4), "The Day Before Eternity" (5) and "Victory" (6).
Since Producer Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks had decided to include the Daleks in every season as a ratings booster, this story saw the return of Terry Nation to screenwriting for the program after a contractual agreement over the previous Dalek story, "Day of the Daleks" resulted in a clause that Terry Nation had first refusal on writing any future Dalek stories.
As well as providing Dalek voices Roy Skelton also provided, uncredited, the Spiridon voices. It is also probable that John Scott Martin, who was credited as the Chief Dalek in the Radio Times, operated the Dalek Supreme.
Rebec was named after Terry Nation's daughter, Rebecca, while the character of Latep was originally Petal. However, the name was transposed to avoid confusion with a character in "Frontier in Space".
Bernard Horsfall, who plays Taron, had previously appeared as Gulliver in the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Mind Robber" and as the First Time Lord in "The War Games". He appeared once more in the 1976 Fourth Doctor story "The Deadly Assassin" playing the part of Chancellor Goth. On all occasions the director for these stories was David Maloney.
Prentis Hancock (who played Vaber) had appeared as a reporter in "Spearhead From Space" and would return as Salamar in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Planet of Evil" and as a guard in "The Ribos Operation". He also appeared in the Gerry Anderson television series Space: 1999.
Director David Maloney last work on the show had been "The War Games" three and a half years before.
Given the requirements of this story, for the first time since 1964, four new Daleks were constructed to join the three which had been retained from the Sixties. David Maloney though was disappointed to discover that these were of generally inferior workmanship and were completely static. He therefore elected to keep them in the background as much as possible. It wasn't until the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Revelation of the Daleks" that new, fully working Daleks were made. Strangely brand new Dalek were also made for the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks".
For the Dalek Supreme, Terry Nation suggested using a refurbished casing from the 1966 Amicus Doctor Who film Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD which he had been given. The most notable modification was its eye stalk which was replaced with a conventional torch. This was made to flash when the Dalek speaks. Unfortunately this was sometimes out of sync with his words.
For the scenes depicting the Dalek army in the cave Louis Marx toy Daleks were used. This same technique was used in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Evil of the Daleks".
A new, almost musical sound effect is introduced for the Dalek energy weapon. This is the only time it is used. In the next Dalek story, "Death to the Daleks", their energy weapons are not used at all.
This is the only story where a Dalek Leader has punished his subordinates failure with Extermination.
In the second episode, a Dalek weapon is used for a purpose other than killing, for the second and so far the last time in the show's history, and in both cases the purposes was paralysis of the legs - in this case, of the Third Doctor. The other paralysis was the very first use of a Dalek weapon, which was on Ian Chesterton in the 1963 First Doctor story "The Daleks". The scene with the Third Doctor being shot makes this the first of only two times a Dalek has shot The Doctor, the second being in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
It is revealed that the Daleks have amassed their greatest ever invasion force, about 10,000 strong, on Spiridon, and have subjugated the population in order to apply their invisibility techniques to themselves – though this does not seem to be very affective as it requires much power and can only be achieved for short periods of time. For the first time we get to see the Dalek Supreme, one of the ruling elite, who comes to Spiridon to take charge of operations.
The Daleks emit an automatic distress call if their casings are tampered with. They can also lower the strength of their weapons and their guidance systems are based on high frequency radio signals. They have developed anti-gravity technology in the form of gravitational disks. This technique to levitate is used despite the fact that in the earlier 1965 First Doctor story, "The Chase", it was implied that the Daleks were able to move independently between the decks of the Marie Celeste. In the later 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Revelation of the Daleks" and subsequent stories featuring the Daleks, they are clearly depicted as readily able to fly.
This is not the first time that a Dalek casing is used as a disguise. In "The Daleks" Ian Chesterton posed as a Dalek.
In the Seventh Doctor story "Remembrance of the Daleks", The Doctor constructs a device to disorientate a Dalek and is heard to say ‘I built something like it on Spiridon’, in reference to the converted TARDIS recorder.
The Thal race returns for the first time since "The Daleks". They say they come from Skaro, implying that either the war between the Thals and the Daleks is still continuing, or that the Thals have expelled the Daleks from their homeworld. The latter is supported by The Doctor's observation that the Daleks 'have returned' to Skaro in the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "Destiny of the Daleks". As in "The Daleks", the Thals are portrayed as fair skinned with golden hair. They would return to the show in the classic 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Genesis of the Daleks".
The Doctor is heard to mention events that occurred in "The Daleks" - loosely describing his first visit to Skaro as being 'during the Dalek War' and mentioning Susan, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton. It seems that the tale of the Thals' penetration of the Dalek city, in this earlier story, has become a legend.
The flora and fauna on Spiridon include aggressive and visually enabled plants, various hostile animals, and the Spiridons, humanoid creatures who have developed a way of rendering themselves invisible. The core of the planet is composed of ice.
Despite his injuries The Doctor attempts to contact the Time Lords telepathically via the console. He was forced to do this before in "The Three Doctors".
When The Doctor falls into a coma his body temperature lowers to sub-zero levels and his heartbeat stabilises at six beasts per minute. This is not the first time that Jo Grant has witnessed The Doctor in this state. Jo is heard to say that she's seen him like this before. Referring to "The Dæmons".
This story features an addition to the TARDIS set in the form of a cupboard unit containing a slide-out bed.
When the TARDIS materialises itself on Spirodon Jo attributes this to 'the Time Lords working it by remote control again' as they did previously in "Colony in Space", "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Mutants".
Listen out for when The Doctor plays back Jo's recordings as Katy Manning's voice can be heard in the studio in addition to the sound of her voice in the recorder, suggesting that she was reading her lines live and an additional microphone picked up her untreated voice.
Episodes two and four do not feature a reprise of the previous episode's cliffhanger ending, while the reprise in episode three is a re-performance. Though this latter technique was commonplace in 1960s episodes, by this time in the show's history this was an approach that was almost no longer being used.
For many years, episode 3 of the story existed in the BBC Archives only as a black-and-white 16mm telerecording, as the 625-line colour PAL transmission master videotape for that episode was wiped for reuse by the BBC in 1976 – despite the colour masters for the other five episodes being kept. The black-and-white version of episode 3 was therefore used in the 1999 VHS release of this story. Episode 3 was eventually restored to full colour in 2008, using a combination of computer colourisation by Legend Films, and software developed by the Colour Recovery Working Group. This version was released on DVD in 2009.
This story was repeated on BBC One in 1993 as part of "Doctor Who and the Daleks", celebrating 30 years of Doctor Who. Like the VHS release episode three was shown in black and white. Each episode was preceded by a specially made 5 minute vignettes. These were "Bigger Inside Than Out", "The Antique Doctor Who Roadshow", "Missing in Action", "I Was That Monster", an untitled article on The Master and a "UNIT Recruiting Film".
The novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks and published by Target Books in October 1976, opens with the cliffhanger from "Frontier in Space" of a comatose Doctor pursuing the Daleks through space, even though this was removed from the novelisation of this previous story.
In the Seventh Doctor Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story "Emperor of the Daleks" (Issues 197 - 202), Davros reconditions the survivors of the Dalek army on Spiridon to be loyal to him, using them to conquer Skaro and set himself up as Emperor, leading into the events of "Remembrance of the Daleks". The Big Finish Productions audio story "Return of the Daleks" has the Daleks attempting to awaken their army on Spiridon to assist their war effort. This though contradicts events in "Emperor of the Daleks".
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The Firsts:
The first Dalek story written by Terry Nation since the 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan".
The first appearance in the show of the Dalek Supreme.
The first (and only) story where a Dalek Leader has punished his subordinates failure with Extermination.
The first appearance in the show of the Thals since the 1963 First Doctor story "The Daleks".
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