Doctor Who (TV Series) Planet of the Daleks: Episode Two (1973) User Reviews

Planet of the Daleks: Episode Two

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 11 August 2021]

The Doctor and the Thals discover an invisible dalek.

The reason why the Daleks are in this planet is to utilise the technology of invisibility from the Spridon's.

Jo steps out of the spaceship and has been infected. Lucily a Spridon rescues her.

It's the old trick of the Doctor and the companion being split up. It even leads the Doctor to think that Jo has been killed at one point when the daleks blow up the Thal spaceship.

The production struggles showing the jungle effect. Even the invisibility blue screen work is a bit naff. On the other hand it is a homage to 1950s B movies.

The Blu Ray restoration really had its work cut out for this one. So what is on the screen was actually improved.

The Invisible Dalek

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 19 October 2014]

Review of all 6 episodes:

Following on from the Daleks appearance in the final part of the previous story this story follows their latest plot to conquer the galaxy. The Doctor has been injured and calls for help from the Time Lords. They cause the TARDIS to travel to the planet where the Daleks are massing their army and perfecting their new weapons (including a power of invisibility). While The Doctor goes into a coma Jo ventures out onto the jungle like planet. They end up teaming up with a small group of Thals to try to stop the Daleks.

The story is decent with excellent moments and a good helping of fun action along the way. There are some good ideas, nice dialogue and decent acting and whilst far from perfect this is an enjoyable and solid quality adventure.

Part 1 has a tense beginning with the Doctor's life seeming at risk and after some jungle peril with dangerous plants there is a great cliffhanger with the discovery of an invisible Dalek. Part 2 is the strongest episode with the excitement of the Daleks, the Doctor getting more involved in the action and some really good dialogue such as the Doctor's great chat to Codal about bravery. After that there continue to be interesting elements such as the ice volcano and the exciting prospect of a huge army of Daleks waiting to be put into action. There is plenty of action and confrontation with Daleks too but these confrontations are less effective when they involve people grappling Daleks, throwing cloaks over themor pushing them into waterholes. The threat of the Dalek army and speeches of menace from them are great but it is made less thrilling when they are also shown to be so vulnerable to attack from unarmed humanoids. There are also some less than convincing aspects to other scenes along the way.

Overall though this is solid entertainment and a decent adventure on an interesting alien world.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Part 2 - 9/10, Part 3 - 8/10, Parts 4 & 5 - 7.5/10, Part 6 - 8/10. Overall - 8/10.

A great second episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 30 January 2019]

I was a little critical of the opening episode, it felt a little detached from the last few seasons of the show somehow, possibly to do with Nation's break from writing on the show. However, this second episode sees it get on form, after the not so shocking reveal of the Dalek, the Doctor faces some grave threats, from the locals, Daleks and environment. The story gets an epic feel when Rebec announces Spiradon houses thousands of Daleks.

Nice production values in terms of sets and costumes, some of the CSO looks a little naff, but of its time I guess. Good music here too. 9/10