The Tenth Planet

The Tenth Planet is a story that logically shouldn’t work.

Think about it for a second. It is a story entirely set within a very, very small base. Its main character doesn’t show up for half of the episodes. None of the main characters have an influence on the events that take place. And all the while this is supposed to be a sort of soft reboot for the program! That’s madness!

Yet it has become one of the most mythologized pieces of Doctor Who history. A milestone for its further success. How did that happen?

Our party lands on the North Pole, where they soon come across a small underground base made to trace the trajectory of rockets and space stations. Problems arise, however, when the base loses contact with one of their rockets. On top of that, they discover a new planet in our own solar system. And its inhabitants are on their way…

Those “inhabitants” are the now iconic cybermen. Showing up for the first time. Their original look has gotten a lot of praise in recent years and it is easy to see why. Their depiction of a human race that has destroyed themselves shows in every little detail. When they talk, they sometimes stretch out vowels, which makes you feel like they have a lobotomized brain. When you see their human hands or spot an eye, it doesn’t feel like not a budget constraint, but a glimpse at what they once were. It all adds up to an eerily familiar creature that feels uncanny in an oddly familiar way.

They are an obvious highlight, which is kind of surprising because it is mostly on principle. Their mythology carries them through the story. On screen, they mostly do the standard monster behavior. Be threatening, shoot stuff. But their background gives you an image of a society that completely imploded on a planetary scale. And now that awful planet is bringing its ideals to earth. In person no less.

The sense of dread the planet brings is further strengthened by the resolution. In the end, neither side has truly won. The cybermen may run on logic, but their lack of urgency destroys them. On the other side, General Cutler almost destroys the entire planet because he wants to save his son as quickly as possible. This eventually costs him his life. It promotes the idea of balance. Humans are both logical and emotional, and can’t succeed unless they accept both parts of themselves.

Maybe that’s me reading to deep into things. But I think that’s exactly why this story has its reputation. Its ambiguity allows for watchers to speculate. To think deeper about the subject matter presented. It makes you ask questions and think about things in a new light.

Hell, that even extends to the Doctor, who suddenly changes face as the credits roll. Maybe the already established sense of inquiry allowed viewers to accept the change a bit more readily? To be less judgmental as the status quo changes?

The Tenth Planet is a story that logically shouldn’t work. But luckily, it is a story that works on an emotional level. It uses a sense of dread, mystery and ambiguity to lodge itself into your brain. And once it has wormed its way in there, it might just make you a little bit more introspective. A message of growth hidden between the brain-butchering cybermen. What’s more human than that?

The good: The first appearance of the Cybermen is chilling, and the first regeneration of the Doctor is thrilling. Good sense of tension throughout, and Cutler is the kind of foe I love to hate.

The bad: If it weren't the first Cyberman story or first regeneration story, it would fall flat. Thrilling as it is in execution, it must be admitted that the Doctor doesn't exactly do much about the Cybermen, just lets them gorge on Earth's energy until their planet goes kerblooey. They did stop the launching of the Z-Bomb, admittedly, so it's not as though they didn't make an impact, but the Doctor was completely asleep for that.

That said, I still love it a lot; you just have to be willing to look at it through the lens of a viewer of the time. 8/10

Obviously it's a landmark story, being the intro of the Cybermen and Hartnell's last episode. These things lend it some points at a base level, but what about the story itself? and I think it's probably one of the best use of Cybermen in the show purely by virtue of focusing some on their origin story. Ultimately they still kinda amount to generic baddies but there's something about the way they used to be human that comes through in their design and the way they talk in this episode, that never quite feels the same in later appearances... well, until 2017, but that's another story.

What else to say? The American guy is funny, Hartnell's great as always especially near the end, and this is probably Ben's best episode as he gets a chance to take down the Cybermen. We even see a bit of his softer side when he shows a moment of upset after killing that one Cyberman. (meanwhile Polly's reduced to the one who makes the coffee, but that's the 60s for you.)

I did find the actual solution to the invasion kind of disappointing, where they just have to wait til Mondas takes too much energy and everything gets destroyed – the Cybermen's plan was always doomed to fail. You could make a case that it's trying to say something about the Cybermen's brute resolution and lack of humanity, but in the episode itself it just feels lazy. Still, we do get a more proper climax with Ben using radioactivity against the Cybermen, which helps.

This is perhaps a more notable serial for its place in the show's history than its actual plot, but I do think there's things to enjoy in it as a story, even if it never quite rises above the ranks of other "fairly good" stories. Also, props to Planet 55 for what I think is probably some of the best animation of any missing episode in part 4!