Battle of the robots made this best yet
- Publication: The Stage and Television Today
- Date: 1965-07-01
- Author: Marjorie Norris
- Page: 12
- Language: English
DR. WHO BBC-1, Saturday, June 26
DIRECTOR Richard Martin certainly gave a good send-off to Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian (William Russell) in this their farewell episode. Visually speaking, The Planet of Decision was far and away the most dramatically successful episode that I can recall in the two years that the serial has been running. The battle scene between the two opposing robot armies —the Daleks and the Mechanoids—was handled with imagination and ingenuity to provide a spectacle as exciting as many that have been achieved at far greater cost in feature films. Dudley Simpson's music that accompanied the scene was strikingly apt and atmospheric.
Raymond Cusick and John Wood, the designers, also had a ball. The weirdly beautiful city of the Mechanoids really did seem to belong to another world and another age.
Terry Nation has, of course, become profitably trapped by the success of his Daleks into having to find variations on the same theme instead of letting his imagination take wings. This latest story—which has had the Daleks chasing Dr. Who and his three companions throughout time and space—has frequently shown signs of tiredness, but the final episode made up for the patchiness of the preceding ones.
As two of the cast leave of their of wish, it is time to comment on the consistently good quality of their work. No matter how ridiculous the story or (sometimes) poor the dialogue. they have carried off every absurdity without once looking bored. The peculiarities of this space-time marathon made it practically impossible for them or for William Hartnell (as Dr. Who) to develop the characters a great deal. The standard of writing has varied so much that what they have gained on the swings with one they have immediately lost on the roundabouts with another. But when the rare opportunity has arisen it has not been missed.
William Hartnell deserves much praise for the way he points the comedy of the role without losing the authority and wayward brilliance of the man of science.
Maureen O'Brien now makes him a worthy 'adopted' granddaughter. Appearing for the first time land supposedly left behind for dead--but we know better), Peter Purves, showed every sign of making Steven Taylor a lively character cast in a more obviously heroic mould than (an who was. after all, originally a schoolteacher.
I am glad we were allowed to see Barbara and Ian back in London. This sequence. too, proved you can't keep a good director down.
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Norris, Marjorie (1965-07-01). Battle of the robots made this best yet. The Stage and Television Today p. 12.
- MLA 7th ed.: Norris, Marjorie. "Battle of the robots made this best yet." The Stage and Television Today [add city] 1965-07-01, 12. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Norris, Marjorie. "Battle of the robots made this best yet." The Stage and Television Today, edition, sec., 1965-07-01
- Turabian: Norris, Marjorie. "Battle of the robots made this best yet." The Stage and Television Today, 1965-07-01, section, 12 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Battle of the robots made this best yet | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Battle_of_the_robots_made_this_best_yet | work=The Stage and Television Today | pages=12 | date=1965-07-01 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=8 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Battle of the robots made this best yet | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Battle_of_the_robots_made_this_best_yet | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=8 May 2025}}</ref>
