Doctor Who: Planet of Evil: Part 4 starts as it is discovered Professor Sorensen (Frederick Jaeger) is responsible for the death's aboard the Morestran spacecraft as it is pulled back on a collision course towards the surface of Zeta Minor, Sorensen has become an anti-matter monster & is killing everyone aboard. The Doctor (Tom Baker) knows their only hope is to return all the ant-matter back to the surface including Sorensen who is now comprised of anti-matter but that's easier said than done...
Episode 8 from season 13 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during October 1975, directed by David Maloney this story started off really well but by the time Part 4 finished those early episodes are a distant memory. The script by Louis Marks has taken it's influence from horror as much as sci-fi but went in the wrong direction for me, the alien world which was the best thing about Planet of Evil is underused & except a brief scene at the end not featured at all during Part 4. This episode is also very dull & not that exciting, even though some of the questions I asked in my comment for Part 3 are answered not all of them are & it's very sketchy at best. A better explanation of all this anti-matter & forces from another universe might have made for a better story but as it is the exposition is patchy & doesn't really register that well. Overall this has ended in a disappointing way & doesn't really deserve the evocative title of Planet of Evil since this so-called planet of evil barely feature in parts 3 & 4.
While parts 1 & 2 looked great with a cool alien world parts 3 & 4 have returned to bog standard cheap looking spaceship sets, boring. The acting hasn't been anything special here, the character's weren't very good which didn't help though. The infinitely watchable Tom Baker as the Doctor & Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane save it to some extent but a bad story is a bad story no matter who's in it. The monster that Sorensen turns into looks almost exactly like the monsters encountered by Jon Pertwee in Inferno (1970) during season 7.
Planet of Evil: Part 4 is a disappointing end to what started out as a great creepy little sci-fi horror story, unfortunately everything that might have made this a classic was abandoned in favour of lots of people in silly spacesuits running up & down the same spaceship corridor. Overall I'll give Planet of Evil 6 out of 10 across it's four parts, it's OK but nothing special.
Episode 8 from season 13 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during October 1975, directed by David Maloney this story started off really well but by the time Part 4 finished those early episodes are a distant memory. The script by Louis Marks has taken it's influence from horror as much as sci-fi but went in the wrong direction for me, the alien world which was the best thing about Planet of Evil is underused & except a brief scene at the end not featured at all during Part 4. This episode is also very dull & not that exciting, even though some of the questions I asked in my comment for Part 3 are answered not all of them are & it's very sketchy at best. A better explanation of all this anti-matter & forces from another universe might have made for a better story but as it is the exposition is patchy & doesn't really register that well. Overall this has ended in a disappointing way & doesn't really deserve the evocative title of Planet of Evil since this so-called planet of evil barely feature in parts 3 & 4.
While parts 1 & 2 looked great with a cool alien world parts 3 & 4 have returned to bog standard cheap looking spaceship sets, boring. The acting hasn't been anything special here, the character's weren't very good which didn't help though. The infinitely watchable Tom Baker as the Doctor & Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane save it to some extent but a bad story is a bad story no matter who's in it. The monster that Sorensen turns into looks almost exactly like the monsters encountered by Jon Pertwee in Inferno (1970) during season 7.
Planet of Evil: Part 4 is a disappointing end to what started out as a great creepy little sci-fi horror story, unfortunately everything that might have made this a classic was abandoned in favour of lots of people in silly spacesuits running up & down the same spaceship corridor. Overall I'll give Planet of Evil 6 out of 10 across it's four parts, it's OK but nothing special.