From: ensalada@cats.ucsc.edu (Kevin Charles Rubio)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: PLanet of the Daleks
Date: 17 Nov 1992 07:32:45 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
Reply-To: keeper@deeptht.armory.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


In article <17023@umd5.umd.edu> otten@quark.umd.edu (Neil Ottenstein) writes:
>This weekend I just saw Planet of he Daleks and I was wondering what the
>details are about the "missing" episode in this story.  I believe it is
>the third episode in the story.  From what I could gather from the other
>episodes the Doctor manages to escape from his holding cell in the city,
>passes the giant refrigeration unit, and maybe some other things happen
>as well.  If anyone has some good details on just what did happen I
>would like to know.  I was quite surprised that it seemed that I didn't
>miss all that much.

I wrote a long description of what happens in episode three and the first
parts of episode four ... but did I save it?  I'll search for it...

Can't find it, so I'll just be brief.

The Doctor uses a little gadget to confuse a Dalek, but it gets smashed
in the process, so it can't be used again.  They are chased by Daleks.

Jo goes into a cart of furs and sneaks into the Dalek headquarters, after
hearing that the Doctor had been taken there.  She sneaks around the control
room, and hears that the Doctor and his cellmate will be used for biological
experiments.  (This is before the Doctor escaped.)  I believe she hears
the Daleks mention that they have found the location of the Thal bombs,
but this is later in the episode.

The Thals on the surface talk about the ice eruptions on the planet
before going down a ventilation shaft into the Dalek HQ.  While they
are in there, there is an ice eruption, and the freezing liquid (not
water ice, but some unknown very cold liquid) begins to fill the shafts.

The Doctor and his companion are chased down to the lower levels, under
ground.  They pass by a ventilation screen and see the other Thals inside.
They help them out, and then a Dalek comes.  They run, and the Dalek and
its companions follow, but the ice flow comes through the shaft (for the
Doctor and the Thals had to break the safety door as it began to close)
and plops all over the Daleks.

The Thals enter a room, and the cowardly Thal, who was the Doctor's
cellmate, stays behind to guard the room.  It is futile, though, for
Daleks come and exterminate him.

In the room, the Doctor breaks the door mechanism as they realise that
there is no way out.  They see there a giant refrigeration unit, and
wonder why the Daleks need it.  They also see a shaft leading up, taking
the heat generated by the refrigerator's engine away from the room.
The Thals are confused by the Doctor asking them what they think the
tensile strength of a plastic material is.

Jo leaves the Dalek HQ to try to save the Thal bombs which the Daleks
have sent a patrol to detonate.

The Thal leader (the one played by Bernard Horsfall) says, "We're certainly
not going to float out of here," but the Doctor replies, "On the contrary --
that's precisely what we're going to do!"  He has made a sort of parachute,
with rope on the ends for them to put their feet into.

The Daleks have got a door-cutting machine at this point, and the Thals climb
aboard the parachute, as the Doctor sees through a hole in the wall, or
perhaps through a frosted window, an enormous army of Daleks, frozen by
the machine.  (This is where the ten thousand Daleks are that the female
Thal mentioned at the end of episode 2.)  The Thals begin to rise, but
then the Doctor climbs aboard and one Thal cries out "It isn't going to
work!" just as Daleks are nearly through the door.

End of episode 3.

"Give it time," the Doctor says, and, indeed, they begin to rise.
Daleks enter the room and proclaim that there is no way out of the room,
so they must be hiding.

Jo watches as a Dalek patrol sets the Thal bombs to detonate (this scene
is intact in the aired version).  She then turns the timers off on all
but one of them -- a boulder falls on her head before she can fix the
last one, and she is knocked unconscious.

One of the Daleks in the room spots the Doctor and company floating up
the shaft.  The Doctor says, "You know, after this, I might just take
up hot-air ballooning.  It really is most exhilerating."  The female
Thal says she can't stand heights.  The Daleks call for an anti-gravity
disc to be brought to the room.

The disc arrives and is placed at the bottom of the shaft.  A Dalek
climbs on it and begins to float up the shaft.  The Doctor and company
see this, but the Doctor says that they should reach the top of the shaft
before the Dalek is in firing range.  Just then, however, the female
Thal sees that there is a tear in the plastic where the Doctor hangs.
The Thals are able to climb to the top of the shaft, but the Doctor
falls for a while before grabbing onto one of the holes or rungs in
the wall.

A patrol of Daleks is ordered to go to the top of the shaft.

Jo wakes up, and sees that the remaining bomb is about to go off.  She
grabs the other bombs and scampers away.  The patrol of Daleks ordered
to go to the top of the shaft passes by just as the remaining bomb
detonates, and they're blown to smithereens.

The Thals toss a rope to the Doctor, but it isn't long enough.  Another
Thal tries his rope, and it is just long enough.  They pull the Doctor
out and heave a large boulder down the shaft, knocking the Dalek all the
way down.

After that, the aired versions are complete.

(Of course, my order of scenes is not quite right, but general story
continuity should be OK.)

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