The Tenth Planet (TV Story) Review

Title: The Tenth Planet
Writer: Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
Original Broadcast Date: 8 October 1966 - 29 October 1966

The Tenth Planet is the first of many things: the first appearance of the Cybermen, the first base-under-siege story and the first regeneration of the Doctor, but beyond its legendary status, the story remains standing as a clever and genuinely creepy bookend to the Hartnell era.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly land in the South Pole, 1986 where the most recent routine space flight has taken off, but strange things begin to happen. Outside the window of the spaceship the pilots see a tenth planet, that looks exactly like earth, moving towards them. And then something lands by the arctic base, something that was once human, but not anymore.

In their first ever story the Cybermen are incredibly menacing, and dare I say, scarier than the Daleks. The image of the blank faced creatures, lacking all human emotion, making its way across an icecap is particularly frightening; it is no wonder they were brought back only four stories later. My minor and only issue with them (and this story in fact) was the voiceover was sometimes out of sync with the actors, so the suspense was stunted a bit.

On the other end of the spectrum, in Hartnell's final regular appearance, he is stunning, despite his absence from the third chapter. He brings a definite gravitas to his scenes and proves his worth, making this a fantastic episode to leave in. His absence is written out fairly well, improving the regeneration with some lead up to the event, but it would have been nice to have had one of the very best Doctors at centre-stage the entirety of his final story.

His regeneration is short but sweet, and I proudly admit I shed a few tears at his final and heartbreaking line, which was such a major contrast from his frosty personality in his first few episodes, showing his growth as a character, but also seemingly a line talking directly about the show, because it didn't finish with Hartnell's departure; no; it was, it is far from being over:

"...It isn't all over. It's far from being all over... I must go now... Ah yes! Thank you. It's good! Keep warm."

9.5/10

Thank you, Mr Hartnell!