Doctor Who (TV Series) Coronas of the Sun (1965) User Reviews

The Doctor has a trick in store for the Daleks.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 23 October 2015]

It seems like the Daleks have won, but just as they demand the tiranium from the Doctor the native Visians attack, allowing the Doctor, Steven and Sara to escape. The Doctor uses this time to make a study of the tiranium, his plan is to copy it and manufacture an escape. The challenge facing the Doctor is how match the tiranium's powerful glow, the solution is found rather surprisingly by Steven, who nearly kills himself in the process. The Doctor's deception works, and the trio escape into the safety of the TARDIS. The episode ends with the TARDIS landing in a poisonous atmosphere.

It's possibly the flattest episode of Master plan to date, a few of the elements seem a little repetitive. There's a little bit more padding in this one, it's refreshing that the creative and intelligent character in it is Steven, it made a nice change.

I wonder if the TARDIS force field that protected Steven from the Dalek's blast during the hand over of the tiranium is the same one that protected the Doctor and Clara in the 2015 story The Witch's Familiar. 7/10

Very Jarring But Still Good

[icewarrior-26727 · 8/10 · 13 January 2017]

This is the first episode of the story to be written by Dennis Spooner as Terry Nation was not available to write the whole story and it's pretty clear throughout that they both write in a different style and on a different level, but I'll get into that properly with episode 8 as Spooner does do a decent job here.

The tension and pace is killed off a fair bit apart from their escape from Myra which is actually pretty good but it does seem like a turbulent hand over of writers. The dialogue as well certainly isn't as good as under Nation and the whole script doesn't feel as tight.

However it's still got some great things going for it, the episode does what it needs to do and mostly props up the atmosphere in a diminished state but as I said the escape from Myra is brilliant and Chen as usual is stealing the show when the crew are forcefully returned to Kembel. I specifically love that line when Chen addresses Sara and she just says "traitor" in reply.

Overall this episode is good but you can definitely notice a drop in quality from the previous fantastic episodes but it does hurt it.

The good and scary stuff.

[mbellfield · 8/10 · 8 August 2021]

This a long story to review so I've decided to review it in parts

Parts 1-6 (The scary tense stuff): First a massive well done to Donald Tosh/Dennis spooner/the whole production team for making this at all, with Terry nations lack of scripts more outline, it's a miracle this worked/looked as great as it did. This 12 part epic can be very daunting/long winded to get through, even as a dalek fan I find it a struggle. But parts 1-6 are so enjoyable, exciting, scary and well written, it's easily the stronger half. There is of course dragging throughout (part 3). But its incredibly bleak and creepy for the Daleks. There's a great theme of "power" nearly every character here wants a form of it, from the most extreme such as Chen or less like the dr/Steven who want to stop this. I also really loved the background story/arcs building up, Marvic Chen is an incredible villian, he's incredibly dedicated, spending years to collect the core. He's so naive/cocky. He doesn't just want to have power/rule the Daleks, he thinks he deserves it. A perfect politician. He gets some great power play scenes here, such as when he and Zephon talk about their importance. Testing each other for who is really important to the Daleks. This comes brilliantly full circle as Chen makes them aware of his bragging, resulting in his death. I just loved the parallels between him and the Daleks. We also get Nick Courtney's first role as Bret, a great character determined to warn earth only to be backstabbed and killed by his manipulated sister Sara. It's an incredible arc and just adds to this society. Making the Daleks/Chen look far more scary as they are one step ahead, with the plan making horrific sense. We also get the first companion death, Katarina. It's a very shocking scene that just leaves you feeling cold and adds to the storys tension. Sadly it doesn't work as well is it thinks, we barely know her and shes not exactly a good character. Vicki would of been perfect here, imagine the drs/audiences horror to see Vicki die like that, someone so sweet who which we actually spent time with. Finally the music score, my absolute favourite classic score, it's so creepy/beautiful at the same time, adding another fear factor.

Rating: 4/5, 8/10.

The Daleks' Master Plan: Part 6 - Brilliant epic adventure

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 19 August 2014]

Review for all 12 parts:

This is an epic 12 part story from writers Dennis Spooner and Dalek originator Terry Nation, beginning with the episode The Nightmare Begins.

This adventure continues the story introduced in the episode Mission To The Unknown and features the Doctor trying to thwart the Daleks evil plans to conquer the solar system. It also features Nicholas Courtney (later to play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a series regular), as Bret Vyon. He, along with the regular cast, Kevin Stoney as villainous Mavic Chen and most other cast, perform superbly. The Daleks too are at their peak in many ways and are great villains for this epic. In addition there are the other interesting alien characters and even the return of the Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth) from the Doctor's home world! The story even has the shocking deaths of no less than 3 of the Doctor's 'companions'!

The word epic is absolutely right for this mammoth story and it is incredible how the quality and interest is kept over an unprecedented 12 episodes. The only slight drop in quality being the 7th episode The Feast of Steven which is a Christmas special of a far more light- hearted and whimsical kind. To compare that episode and criticise it as a blot on the story is very unfair, you have to take it on its own as a special episode more comparable to the kind of comedy spoof used for charity telethons in later years. On that basis it is successful. The other 11 episodes are brilliant, exciting and well made.

A classic.

My Ratings: Episode 7 - 7/10, all other episodes 10/10