Season 8, Episode 4 | 6 parts | First broadcast: 10 April – 15 May 1971 | Writer: Malcolm Hulke | Director: Michael E. Briant
Cast
- Jon Pertwee as the Doctor
- Katy Manning as Jo Grant
- Roger Delgado as the Master
- Bernard Kay as Robert Ashe
Summary
Freed by the Time Lords for a special mission, the Doctor and Jo travel to a struggling mining colony on the planet Uxarieus in the far future, where settlers face both a hostile alien native species called the Primitives and a ruthless mining corporation seeking a legendary doomsday weapon buried beneath the planet. When the Master arrives with his own designs on the weapon, the Doctor must protect the colonists and prevent the device from falling into the wrong hands.
Interesting Facts
- This is the first time the Doctor is permitted to travel beyond Earth again since his exile began, marking a turning point after a full season and a half confined to the present day.
- It marks the first of several Doctor Who scripts by Malcolm Hulke to grapple with themes of colonialism and corporate exploitation, echoing his earlier work on Doctor Who and the Silurians.
- The story was filmed on location in a Cornish china clay quarry, whose alien, otherworldly terrain proved ideal for depicting Uxarieus’s landscape.
- It was the first time viewers saw the Master pursuing an agenda separate from an immediate scheme against the Doctor and UNIT on contemporary Earth.
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