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William Hartnell
The Tenth Planet
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Synopsis


A Cybermen on Earth
A Cybermen on Earth
 Many eons ago, Earth’s twin planet, Mondas, drifted away to the edge of space. Its inhabitants grew weak, so their scientists created spare parts for their bodies. Li Limb and organs were slowly replaced by metal and plastic, and emotions were removed. The Cybermen were born.

 The TARDIS lands at the South Pole Tracking Station late in 1986, just as a routine space mission starts going wrong. When the base personnel’s suspicions are raised, The Doctor informs them that the space capsule is being affected by the gravitational pull of another planet. A tenth planet…

 As Mondas returns to the solar system, The Doctor warns that a visit from Mondas’s inhabitants is imminent. The Cybermen want Earth’s power and resources for themselves. Only The Doctor offers the base any hope against these silver giants. But is this one battle too many for the ailing time traveller?

Source: BBC VHS Video


General Information

Season: Four
Production Code: DD
Story Number: 29
Episode Numbers:131 - 134
Number of Episodes: 4
Number of Incomplete/Missing Episodes:1
Percentage of Episodes Held:75%
Production Dates: August - October 1966
Broadcast Started: 08 October 1966
Broadcast Finished: 29 October 1966
Colour Status: B&W
Studio: Ealing Television Film Studios and Riverside (Studio 1)
Location: None
Writers:Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis (Episodes 3 & 4)
Director:Derek Martinus
Producer:Innes Lloyd
Story Editor:Gerry Davis
Production Assistant:Edwina Verner
Assistant Floor Manager:Jenny McArthur
Designer:Peter Kindred
Costume Designer:Sandra Reid
Make-Up Designer:Gillian James
Lighting:Howard King
Incidental Music:From Stock
Special Sounds (SFX Editor):Brian Hodgson
Studio Sounds:Adrian Bishop-Laggett
Title Sequence:Bernard Lodge
Title Music:Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Cybermen Created By: Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
Number of Doctors: 1
The Doctor: William Hartnell (The First Doctor) (Regenerates)
Number of Companions: 2The Companions: Anneke Wills (Polly Wright) and Michael Craze (Ben Jackson) Additional Cast: John Brandon (American Sergeant), David Dodimead (Barclay), Roy Skelton (Cyberman Voice), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman Voice), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Eileen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Gregg Palmer (Gern), Reg Whitehead (Jarl), Reg Whitehead (Krail), Harry Brooks (Krang), Christopher Dunham (R/T Technician), Christopher Matthews (Radar Technician), Alan White (Schultz), Gregg Palmer (Shav), Glenn Beck (TV Announcer), Harry Brooks (Talon), Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Shane Shelton (Tito), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Earl Cameron (Williams)Setting: Snowcap Space Tracking Station, South Pole (1986) Villain: Cybermen

The Episodes

No. Episodes Broadcast
(UK)
Duration Viewers
(Millions)
In Archive
131Episode 108 October 196623'08"5.516mm telerecording
132Episode 215 October 196623'15"6.416mm telerecording
133Episode 322 October 196623'31"7.616mm telerecording
134Episode 429 October 196624'02"7.5Missing

Total Duration 1 Hour 34 Minutes


Audience Appreciation

Average Viewers (Millions) 6.8
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (1998)78.43%  (Position = 26 out of 159)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2009)75.92% Lower (Position = 55 out of 200)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2014)74.56% Lower (Position = 85 out of 241)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2023) Position = 6 out of 29


Archives


 Only episodes 1, 2 and 3 exist as 16mm telerecordings. Only the regeneration sequence is held (it was borrowed for the children's "Blue Peter" series). In addition some Australian censor clips and about 78 seconds of 8mm footage taped off air by a fan's film camera exists. Telesnaps (off-air camera photographs) from this story also exist.



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Notes


This story marks the end of an era as it is William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor. It is also the first story to feature the Cybermen and Patrick Troughton makes his first, uncredited appearance as the Second Doctor.

William Hartnell's departure from Doctor Who came after many months' discussion about William Hartnell's deteriorating health. When this came to a head, Producer Innes Lloyd decided not to renew Hartnell's contract. It is unclear if Hartnell was contractually obliged to appear in this story or if he agreed to do so after being informed of Lloyd's decision. Despite this The Doctor does not appear in Episode 3 as William Hartnell was unwell during the week when it was recorded. Gerry Davis rewrote the script to explain The Doctor's absence (his sudden collapse) and gave his dialogue to other characters, most noticeably Ben Jackson.

For the only time in the Cybermen’s history in the television show the Cybermen have names. This was done perhaps to highlight the last vestiges of their individuality. The brains of the Cybermen are 'human', but lack emotions, and, despite having 'normal' hands, their bodies are impervious to bullets and extremes of temperature, but not to radiation.

When the Cybermen’s planet, Mondas, first appears it is vaguely said to be between Mars and Venus. Its continental land masses are similar to Earth's, and The Doctor is aware of the existence of the planet.

The Doctor attributes his seeming 'illness' to his body 'wearing a bit thin', perhaps accelerated by 'an outside force of some kind' – possible the effects of Mondas on Earth especially considering that the astronauts close to Mondas suffered from fatigue as well. Just before he regenerates he says 'No, I can't go through with it! I can't. I will not give in' - indicating that he has, perhaps, clung onto his first body for too long. Story Editor Gerry Davis later stated that it was intended for the energy drain from Mondas to be the cause of the regeneration, but that it didn't come across clearly on screen.

All four episodes of this story feature a specially designed graphics sequence used for the opening titles and closing credits. Designed by Bernard Lodge, they were intended to resemble a 'computer tape' printout.

Episodes three and four were co-written by Gerry Davis. Interestingly the writing credit for the first episode has Kit Pedler is incorrectly identified as 'Kitt Pedler' and title music is incorrectly identified to 'Byron Grainer'; for episode three, Gerry Davis is incorrectly identified as 'Gerry Davies'.

Sometimes the Cybermen start to talk before their mouths open.

This story was originally filmed as part of the third season bloc. Along with "The Smugglers", these stories were held over to Season Four.

The 8th October 2006 marked the end of William Hartnell's tenure on Doctor Who. The first scene recorded on this day was the renewal sequence itself. Originally, this would have simply seen William Hartnell collapse on the floor of the TARDIS Console Room with his cloak covering his face; in the first episode of the next story, "The Power of the Daleks", the cloak would have been pulled back to reveal Troughton. However, vision mixer Shirley Coward was able to design a way to actually depict the renewal. This took advantage of a malfunctioning mixing desk, which tended to cause the image to flare noticeably, to create an effect by which the image of the First Doctor became overexposed almost to a white-out, then settled down again to reveal the Second Doctor. Patrick Troughton was therefore asked to sign a new contract on 16th September so as to appear in the final episode. Once this was completed, the remainder of part four was taped, whereupon the cast and crew retired to a farewell party in William Hartnell's honour at Lloyd's home.

While The Doctor regenerates at the end of this story, the process was unnamed. In the subsequent programme, "The Power of the Daleks", The Doctor states that he had been ‘renewed’, implying a restoration of youth rather than a change of body. The concept was not called ‘regeneration’ until the

Third Doctor’s final story "Planet of the Spiders". (The Doctor would again use the term ‘renewal’ as a synonym for ‘regeneration’ in "The Twin Dilemma").

Ben and Polly Wright, having returned to their own lives in 1966, meet again in 1986 to sit through the same events in the spin-off short story "Mondas Passing" by Paul Grice.

The Sixth Doctor story, "Attack of the Cybermen", takes place in 1985, a year before the events of this story.

The events leading up to this story, from the Cybermen's perspective, are heard in the Big Finish Productions audio story "Spare Parts" with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

William Hartnell would reprise the role of the First Doctor on only one occasion: the 1973 Tenth Anniversary Special "The Three Doctors", although a clip of him would be seen briefly at the start of Patrick Troughton's first story, "The Power of the Daleks", as well as at the beginning of the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special, "The Five Doctors" (where Richard Hurndall would play the First Doctor during most of the episode). A clip from this episode was also used in "Earthshock". His return to the show in "The Three Doctors" was far more limited than he had originally aspired due to ill health. "The Three Doctors" turned out to be William Hartnell's final performance. Crippled by a series of strokes, William Hartnell passed away on 24th April 1975.

Unfortunately the final episode of this story is missing. It is possibly the most sought-after of the missing episodes, because it contains the historic first regeneration scene (even though a low-quality, truncated copy of this sequence survives and is held in the BBC Archives), and also because it is William Hartnell's final episode. In fact, it is included in a list of the ten most wanted missing programmes, alongside the BBC studio footage from the Apollo 11 landings (which is currently held only in soundtrack form). Because of this in 1992 rumours started that a videotape recording of this missing episode existed. Before this was revealed as a hoax, the BBC produced a special introduction for an intended VHS release of the story, hosted by Michael Craze; two versions of which were filmed: one explaining that episode four was still missing, the other introducing the story as if it were complete.

From the last episode only the regeneration sequence remains (retrieved from footage used in the children’s programme Blue Peter) and about 78 seconds of 8mm footage, taped off air by a fan, and Australian censor clips. Telesnaps (off-air camera photographs) from this story exist in both the BBC archives as well as the hands of private collectors.

A novelisation of this story, written by Gerry Davis, was published by Target Books in February 1976. It was the first William Hartnell-era novelisation to be commissioned by Target, and the first new adaptation of a First Doctor adventure to be published in nearly ten years. It would take until 1990 for the complete First Doctor era to be novelised. The novelisation largely follows the original script and so places the action in the year 2000 as well as restoring The Doctor to the third episode.

This story was released on DVD, in December 2013, with an animated version of the fourth episode along with the original soundtrack.



First and Last

The Firsts:

 The first appearance of the Cybermen.

 The very first regeneration scene.

 Patrick Troughton's first (albeit uncredited) appearance as the Second Doctor.

 The first Doctor Who story to be written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis.

 Gillian James' first involvement in the show as Makeup Artist.

 Sandra Reid's first involvement in the show as Costume Designer.

 The first William Hartnell-era serial novelisation to be commissioned by Target, and the first new adaptation of a First Doctor adventure to be published in nearly ten years.


The Lasts (Subject to Future Stories):

 William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor.


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Story Images

Show Text
The Cybermen
The Cybermen
Ben with The Doctor
Ben with The Doctor
Cyberleader Krang
Cyberleader Krang
A Cyberman and General Cutler
A Cyberman and General Cutler
 
Polly Pleads to a Cyberman
Polly Pleads to a Cyberman
Cybermen at Antartica
Cybermen at Antartica
The Cybermen
The Cybermen
A Cyberman
A Cyberman
 
Polly and The Doctor
Polly and The Doctor
The Doctor by the Console
The Doctor by the Console
The Doctor Collapses
The Doctor Collapses
Regeneration
Regeneration




Quote of the Story


 'Come to Mondas and you will have no need of emotions. You will become like us.'

Krail



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Release Information

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)Code NumberCover ArtRemarks
Video
VHS
The Missing YearsNovember 1998BBCV 6766Photo-montageA 56 minute documentary presented by Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) and Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield) Includes a reconstruction of the regeneration scene using existing footage from "The Tenth Planet" and "The Power of the Daleks" Released as part of The Ice Warriors Collection (BBCV 6387)
Audio
CD
Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume One - The Early Years 1963-1969June 2000WMSF 6023-2Music and sound effects
Video
VHS
The Tenth PlanetNovember 2000BBCV 6874Photo-montagePart of "The Cybermen Box Set" (BBCV 7030) along with "Attack of the Cybermen" Contains the first three episodes and a reconstruction of episode 4 by the Doctor Who Restoration Team
Audio
CD
Dr. Who: Music From the Tenth PlanetJanuary 2001OCH 050Photo-montageMusic score
Audio
CD
The Tenth PlanetNovember 2004Photo-montageNarrated by Anneke Wills (Polly Wright) Double CD Release Released as part of "The Cybermen Audio Box Set" including "The Invasion" and bonus CD "Origins of the Cybermen")
Video
DVD
Doctor Who: Lost in TimeNovember 2004BBCDVD 1353Photo-montageIncludes existing clips from the missing final episode and 8mm film recordings made by fans
Audio
CD
The Tenth PlanetJanuary 2006Photo-montageNarrated by Anneke Wills (Polly Wright) Double CD Release
Audio
CD
The Tenth PlanetAugust 2011Photo-montagePart of the "Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes: Collection Three 1966-1967" Box Set Narrated by Anneke Wills (Polly Wright)
Video
DVD
The Tenth PlanetDecember 2013BBCDVD 3382Photo-montageIncludes an animated version of episode 4.
Video
DVD
The Tenth PlanetJune 2013BBCDVD 3801Photo-montagePart of the "Regeneration" Box Set. Includes an animated version of episode 4.
Audio
CD
The 50th Anniversary CollectionDecember 2013Photo-montageOriginal Television Soundtracks


In Print

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)PublisherAuthorCover ArtRemarks
Novel
Novel
Doctor Who and the Tenth PlanetFebruary 1976Target No. 62Gerry DavisChris AchilleosISBN: 0-426-11068-4
Novel
Novel
Doctor Who and the Tenth PlanetAugust 1978Target No. 62Gerry DavisChris AchilleosSecond edition cover reprint. ISBN: 0-426-11068-4
Novel
Novel
The Tenth PlanetFebruary 1993Target No. 62Gerry DavisAlister PearsonVirgin new cover reprint.
ISBN: 0-426-11068-4
Novel
Novel
Doctor Who and the Tenth PlanetMay 2012Target No. 62Gerry DavisChris AchilleosBBC reprint with introduction by Tom MacRae. ISBN: 978-1-84990-474-2
CD
CD
The Tenth PlanetDecember 2017Target No. 62Gerry DavisChris AchilleosAudio version of the Target Novel read by Anneke Wills (Polly Wright).
Doctor Who CMS Magazine (An Adventure in Space and Time)Issue 29
Doctor Who Monthly - Article/FeatureIssue 46 (Released: November 1980)
Doctor Who Magazine - ArticleIssue 180 (Released: November 1991)
Doctor Who Magazine - Telesnap ArchiveIssue 207 (Released: December 1993)
Doctor Who Magazine - ArchiveIssue 214 (Released: July 1994)
Doctor Who Magazine - Time TeamIssue 297 (Released: November 2000)
Doctor Who Magazine - ArticleIssue 297 (Released: November 2000)
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of FictionIssue 352 (Released: February 2005)
Doctor Who Magazine - Missing In ActionIssue 500 (Released: July 2016)

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Photo Gallery


The Doctor and Companions

 
William Hartnell
The First Doctor

   

Anneke Wills
Polly Wright
 
Michael Craze
Ben Jackson
   




On Release

Missing Years VHS Video Cover
Missing Years VHS Video Cover

BBC
VIDEO
Audio - Volume 1: The Early Years
Audio - Volume 1: The Early Years

BBC
AUDIO
VHS Video Cover
VHS Video Cover

BBC
VIDEO
Ochre Records CD Cover
Ochre Records CD Cover

Ochre Records
AUDIO
   
The Cybermen Box Set
The Cybermen Box Set

BBC
AUDIO
Lost In Time DVD Cover
Lost In Time DVD Cover

BBC
VIDEO
Soundtrack CD Cover
Soundtrack CD Cover

BBC
AUDIO
The Lost TV Episodes: Collection Three CD Cover
The Lost TV Episodes: Collection Three CD Cover

BBC
AUDIO
   
DVD Cover
DVD Cover

BBC
VIDEO
DVD Box Set
DVD Box Set

BBC
VIDEO
The 50th Anniversary Collection Cover
The 50th Anniversary Collection Cover

BBC
AUDIO



In Print

Original Target Book Cover
Original Target Book Cover

Target
NOVEL
Second Edition Target Book Cover
Second Edition Target Book Cover

Target
NOVEL
Reprinted Virgin Book Cover
Reprinted Virgin Book Cover

Virgin
NOVEL
Reprinted BBC Book Cover
Reprinted BBC Book Cover

BBC
NOVEL
   
Target Audio CD Cover
Target Audio CD Cover

BBC
CD



Magazines

Doctor Who CMS Magazine (An Adventure in Space and Time): Issue 29
Doctor Who CMS Magazine (An Adventure in Space and Time): Issue 29

CMS
Doctor Who Monthly - Article/Feature: Issue 46
Doctor Who Monthly - Article/Feature: Issue 46

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Article: Issue 180
Doctor Who Magazine - Article: Issue 180

Marvel Comics
   
Doctor Who Magazine - Telesnap Archive: Issue 207
Doctor Who Magazine - Telesnap Archive: Issue 207

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 214
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 214

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Time Team: Issue 297
Doctor Who Magazine - Time Team: Issue 297

Marvel Comics
   
Doctor Who Magazine - Article: Issue 297
Doctor Who Magazine - Article: Issue 297

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of Fiction: Issue 352
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of Fiction: Issue 352

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Missing In Action: Issue 500
Doctor Who Magazine - Missing In Action: Issue 500

Marvel Comics
   

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