Planet of Fire is the penultimate story for Peter Davison as the Doctor. It’s fair to say that the 1984 season hadn’t been quite as successful as previous years and this is why Davison left the role after three years in the next story. This story also sees the debut of Nicola Bryant as Peri, the departure of Mark Strickson as Turlough and more thankfully, the departure of Chameleon who was even more useless that Adric. Planet of Fire was the second story to be written by Peter Grimwade who’s previous contribution to the show was the less that successful ‘Time-Flight’. The story is also the fourth story to be directed by Fiona Cumming who has become one of my favourite directors. Planet of Fire is one of the rare stories that feature some location filming away from Britain’s green and pleasant land. Script Editor Eric Saward always seems to be grumpy on this situation but to be honest, I think that it’s nice to film away from Britain as it gives the story a new feel that most stories don’t have.
The story is set on Sarn where yet again we are treated to some primitives who think that fire is somehow related to a god. There is talk about chosen ones and to be honest this story is somewhat boring and it gets in the way from the main drama which is that Anthony Ainley is back as the Master. Ainley was last seen in ‘Time-Flight’ and his contract was expiring so what we were getting was in effect his swansong. Which is of course isn’t the case as we all know. The Master is much more effective in this story than he was in Time-Flight. This is due to the fact that he starts off the story as a mini version of his normal self and uses Chameleon to help move the box that the Mini-Master is into a flame that has special qualities.
Nicola Bryant spent close to three and a half years on the show and the only thing that she is really remembered for is that bikini scene which is a shame really because she is quite good in this story. She has a lot to deal with in this story including Chameleon that takes on the appearance of her step-father who then changes into the Master. She also has to do a lot of running on the rocky landscape of Lanzarote. In his final story, Mark Strickson finally gets to put some meat to his character which had spent the best part of a year doing pretty much nothing. We learn that his family was a bunch of criminals and his father was being sent to Sarn as a prisoner. As a result, this is Turlough’s story and he leaves the show as someone who has been redeemed from his past mistakes and is able to go back to Trion as a hero of sorts. It’s well played by Mark Strickson and his departure is actually quite well handled. Anthony Ainley puts in his best performance as the Master (so far), there is less of a pantomime feel to it and his ‘final’ scene was the best scene of the entire story because it leads to the possibility that the Master has died but also that the last line Ainley gives might have said ‘Brother’. We will never know which is probably the best thing.
Planet of Fire is better than Time-Flight because it was a lot more sensible. The story benefits from some lovely location filming and as Fiona Cumming’s swansong, it’s a very well directed story that has a nice pace despite having some less than sparking characters. As the penultimate story for Davison, it’s the sort of story that Davison should have been doing from the beginning.
The story is set on Sarn where yet again we are treated to some primitives who think that fire is somehow related to a god. There is talk about chosen ones and to be honest this story is somewhat boring and it gets in the way from the main drama which is that Anthony Ainley is back as the Master. Ainley was last seen in ‘Time-Flight’ and his contract was expiring so what we were getting was in effect his swansong. Which is of course isn’t the case as we all know. The Master is much more effective in this story than he was in Time-Flight. This is due to the fact that he starts off the story as a mini version of his normal self and uses Chameleon to help move the box that the Mini-Master is into a flame that has special qualities.
Nicola Bryant spent close to three and a half years on the show and the only thing that she is really remembered for is that bikini scene which is a shame really because she is quite good in this story. She has a lot to deal with in this story including Chameleon that takes on the appearance of her step-father who then changes into the Master. She also has to do a lot of running on the rocky landscape of Lanzarote. In his final story, Mark Strickson finally gets to put some meat to his character which had spent the best part of a year doing pretty much nothing. We learn that his family was a bunch of criminals and his father was being sent to Sarn as a prisoner. As a result, this is Turlough’s story and he leaves the show as someone who has been redeemed from his past mistakes and is able to go back to Trion as a hero of sorts. It’s well played by Mark Strickson and his departure is actually quite well handled. Anthony Ainley puts in his best performance as the Master (so far), there is less of a pantomime feel to it and his ‘final’ scene was the best scene of the entire story because it leads to the possibility that the Master has died but also that the last line Ainley gives might have said ‘Brother’. We will never know which is probably the best thing.
Planet of Fire is better than Time-Flight because it was a lot more sensible. The story benefits from some lovely location filming and as Fiona Cumming’s swansong, it’s a very well directed story that has a nice pace despite having some less than sparking characters. As the penultimate story for Davison, it’s the sort of story that Davison should have been doing from the beginning.
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