Season 13, Episode 2 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 27 September – 18 October 1975 | Writer: Louis Marks | Director: David Maloney
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith
- Frederick Jaeger as Professor Sorenson
- Prentis Hancock as Salamar
Summary
Answering a distress call, the Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive on Zeta Minor, a jungle planet at the very edge of the known universe, where a Morestran expedition led by Professor Sorenson is dying one by one to an invisible, vengeful force. The planet, it emerges, sits on the boundary between matter and antimatter universes, and Sorenson has unwittingly infected himself with antimatter energy that is transforming him into a monstrous, unstoppable creature. As the antimatter entity seeks to reclaim what has been taken from its realm, the Doctor must convince the panicking survivors to return what was stolen before the antimatter forces destroy them all.
Interesting Facts
- The story is often noted for its visual debt to gothic horror and science-fiction cinema, particularly evoking Forbidden Planet in its themes of a hostile, ancient planetary force.
- Its exploration of an antimatter universe was one of the more overtly hard-science-fiction concepts attempted in the classic series.
- The jungle sets were built using extensive real foliage and moody lighting, giving the studio-bound serial an unusually atmospheric, oppressive feel.
- Frederick Jaeger’s escalating transformation into the antimatter creature required increasingly elaborate makeup across the four episodes.
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