Planet of Fire

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Blazing Hour

And this story begins Doctor Who's history of filming in the Canary Islands and hey! I've been there before! This unique filming location does a lot to set this story apart from others, atleast visually. It also serves as the place where we first meet Peri. Her eagerness to travel is shown immediately along with an American accent that managed to fool the country. It'll be interesting to see her character develop.

We also say farewell to Turlough, it's good to see the shady side of Turlough; hiding things from the Doctor but what surprised me more is how heroic he is here. There really are no companions like Turlough. Not only is he so unique but he also gets such a satisfying character arc, going from coward to hero. It's good to finally get all the mysteries surrounding him resolved aswell.

I seem to rarely praise him but Anthony Ainley as the Master is one of the best castings in the show, he veered a little too far on the side of camp here in my opinion but that's mainly down to being a tiny Master trapped in a box than any grievances I have with Ainley's portrayal.

Peter Davison was really good, especially his dynamic with Mark Strickson and their characters really feel like good friends. The plot is alright, it's a stereotypical "spaceship-crash-turned-primitive-civilisation" story (that's a surprisingly common thing) but it makes up for it in a solid supporting cast.

This is also Kamelion's last story, a rather anticlimactic end to a puzzling character but atleast he got a great run on audio. Overall, it's a solid story and a definite improvement on the last. It is a bit strange to consider that this is Peter Davison's penultimate story on TV, he's really grown on me.

Next Story: Red Dawn

The first part of Planet of Fire could not look more distinct than typical Doctor Who. It is great to see them go further afield when shooting this one and provide some visual treats due to the Lanzerotti setting. Whilst I’m not sure we needed to be introduced to a new companion through scenes where she almost drowns in a bikini, there is no doubt the sea, sand and villas used across episode one majorly level up the production. It's a small shame that they were not able to capture anything for episodes 2-4 whilst they were out there, I especially liked the villa setting which lifted the scenes with the superstitious locals - everywhere else they inhabit looks more like a cave!

Peri is a daring new companion - quite different from anyone who has gone before. She is charming but has a bit more bite to her than most. Less interesting is her uncle Howard who I’m delighted will not be joining The Doctor full time (he is quickly relegated to in the story to some aspect of Kamelion). Turlough is straight back to being the mistrusted companion again, sneaking behind The Doctor’s back - has there ever been a time with more unique companions?

If there is a unique recurring character that I was not looking forward to it would have to be Kamelion who is just as embarrassing a lump of metal here as he was in The King’s Demons. Thankfully he spends most of the running time transformed into Howard and The Master, who want to take over and steal the TARDIS. Kamelion seemingly turning evil was a wonderful surprise and a great use of this character.

The “planet of fire” plot is not quite as interesting as the character development that sits around it with our regulars. Early on, the way the ancient priests and unbelieving citizens interact and hold a power struggle isn’t a million miles away from the cave man exchanges from An Unearthly Child, though I’ll accept the dialogue and performances are a million times more polished and they do improve considerably over parts 3 and 4.

It's great seeing how Turlough’s planet and father link up with what is happening on Sarn. The genius move Grimwade makes with his character is expertly explaining how he, an alien, ended up at English public school with naturalistic and exciting dialogue. You feel for Turlough and his family of punished prisoners, and get a strong understanding of why he is the way he is. Peri, who has also unwittingly been transported to Sarn is an absolute treasure - a fizzing and engaging new part of the show. Whilst this iteration of the Master is never going to be my flavour, I am at least used to him by now and enjoy his performance being decked out with a cool tissue compression eliminator and amazing black clad TARDIS (reflecting The Doctor’s TARDIS neatly).

Davison is on blistering form here. He is so much more confident and exciting in season 21. It’s a shame it all has to end so soon!