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Doctor Who: Planet of Evil [1975] Returning to outer space after an earthbound spell, this has the surviving regular cast [Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen] mixed up in an alien jungle at the edge of the universe where a crowd of 'Morestrian' human astronauts on a scientific expedition have been killed off by a night-prowling superimposed red outline. Reminiscent of the Forbidden Planet's 'monster from the id', this turns out to be the anti-matter alter ego of a tormented scientist [Frederick Jaeger] who later goes all hairy and growly. It's a case of a lot of pseudo-science, including a black pool of nothingness,
in the service of very old monster ideas. Little separates the supposedly
awesome antiman from the plain old Primord growlers of Inferno,
for instance - surely something that allegedly dangerous to the entire
universe ought to be a bit more impressive? The guest cast [Ewen Solon,
Prentis Hancock] wear blue jumpsuits with thick white piping and shoulder-pads,
and hardly seem to be 30,000 years further on from us. The jungle atmos
is effective, though, with a studio full of alien vines. It has its
creepy moments, even if the overall effect is of wheel-spinning before
a batch of much stronger serials [next up was Pyramids
of Mars, and the season would also include The
Brain of Morbius and The
Seeds of Doom] which make more interesting uses of ideas left around
from 1930s horror and 1950s science fiction. Unusually, Professor Sorenson
is cured rather than killed in the last episode. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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