Season 9, Episode 4 | 6 parts | First broadcast: 8 April – 13 May 1972 | Writer: Bob Baker and Dave Martin | Director: Christopher Barry
Cast
- Jon Pertwee as the Doctor
- Katy Manning as Jo Grant
- Geoffrey Palmer as the Administrator
- Rick James as Ky
Summary
Sent by the Time Lords to deliver a mysterious box to the planet Solos, the Doctor arrives amid a brutal colonial regime in which the native Solonians are being persecuted and their natural life-cycle mutations feared as a plague. As a corrupt Earth official schemes to poison the planet’s atmosphere to suit human colonisers, the Doctor must help the oppressed Solonians embrace their true, transformative destiny.
Interesting Facts
- This serial is a pointed allegory for the decolonisation movement and racial politics of the early 1970s, echoing real-world debates over independence movements in the British Empire.
- Its depiction of Solonian mutants transforming into a more advanced life form was an ambitious effects challenge for the production team.
- Geoffrey Palmer, later a prolific British sitcom actor, appears here as the ruthless human Administrator.
- The story was among several scripts by Bob Baker and Dave Martin that used science-fiction allegory to comment directly on contemporary social issues.
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