Planet Of Fire

This is a story that had a great deal to do - write out Turlough as well as providing a background for his hitherto obscure origins, write out Kamelion, seemingly write out the Master (I'm unsure if this was ever actually intended to be his last story although I suspect not), and introduce Peri. Bearing in mind all of the elements Peter Grimwade had to juggle it's not surprising if at times the story feels confused and difficult to follow, although this is mainly a problem in its early stages. I am still not quite sure how the Trion beacon reached the sea off Lanzarote, or why the Master's distress call would have led Kamelion to take the TARDIS there, and find that that aspect of the plotting smacks of a need to shoehorn Peri into the format.

The character has quite a promising debut though. Although physically she follows in the longstanding tradition of generally attractive young women (although the camera lingers a little too voyeuristically on her when she's in the bikini), the character is interesting insofar as she seems to have a very abrasive relationship indeed with her stepfather, Howard. She quarrels bitterly with him at the start, and is clearly desperate to be off the island even to the extent of concocting schemes to travel about getting jobs and befriending men she barely knows for help. In the event, of course, she will indeed fly the nest, with the Doctor and Turlough substituting for the two "nice English guys", and this is obviously partly a way of showing the audience how unhappy she is in her old life. Further, Howard's treatment of her is disturbing - his stranding her on the boat, even if he thinks it's in her best interests, is a rather cruel deception, and it's even been suggested that her frightened ramblings about him when she is still asleep and recovering in the TARDIS might be a hint that he could have been mistreated her in childhood.

Unfortunately she isn't destined to be respected much in this story (or indeed her subsequent ones either for the most part), and she ends up spending a lot of it either struggling with the Kamelion-Master, or trying to get away from him. The scenes in the TARDIS where Kamelion shifts rapidly from Howard to the Master and his own form and back do have a certain potential for psychological horror, in the sense of Peri being stranded with, and at the mercy of, a being who keeps shifting from sympathetic to malevolent in his attitudes to her. She also puts up a good show of defiance against him ("I'm Perpugilliam Brown, and I can shout just as loud as you!").

In a way, having Kamelion adopt the Master's identity, to compensate for the original being in a position of weakness, is a clever means to get round the difficulties of using the prop extensively. Anthony Ainley gives his usual florid and over theatrical interpretation, relishing his lines too much for my taste, although he does at least cut quite an imposing figure in that dark suit his Kamelion persona wears.

The location filming is attractive even if Lanzarote and Sarn are rather too similar to each other (a similar problem to The Five Doctors, where the Eye of Orion looks a bit too much like the Death Zone). There are some particularly beautiful sweeping shots of the landscape as Timanov and Malkon emerge outside during their discussion, and these are helped by some pleasantly dreamy and wistful music.

The main problem I tend to have with this story really, is that although the central religion-based theme is a worthy one, few of the characters or the actual plot mechanics are interesting enough to do it sufficient justice. For instance, Malkon's dilemma - needing to serve his community but in doing so, having to sanction deeds he feels are morally wrong - is a valid one dramatically, but he comes across as so wet, it's difficult to care much about him.

The best character is definitely Timanov, played with a suitably grave authority by Peter Wyngarde. He's really the only one here does inspire much interest because despite calling for heretics to be burned, the story still manages to depict him with sympathy, and allows him both dignity and integrity. Normally in Dr Who, High Priests of this or that religion are depicted as unscrupulous villains who often don't even believe in the doctrines they profess to uphold but are just in it for power. Timanov is not like that. He genuinely and honestly believes that the "heretics" who deny Logar's existence are endangering his civilisation, even to the point of threatening its survival. His remark about how it can be beneficial for unbelievers to be burned, with reference to their being "such unhappy people", show he isn't acting out of sadism and megalomania, as would usually have been the case in a story like this. He truly believes he is purifying their souls, and as such, helping them.

Of course, Timanov is wrong, the story makes that clear when the basis for his beliefs is shown to be false in the third and fourth episode. But the fact that he refuses to be rescued and trusts to Logar instead (meaning that he will ultimately be killed by the volcano) attests to his integrity. His beliefs and actions are wrongheaded and dangerous, but the fact of his being prepared to sacrifice his life for them might possibly redeem him.

Turlough gets a last chance to follow an apparently different agenda to the Doctor's, in the first episode at least, lying to him and seemingly killing Kamelion, as well as the Doctor later threatening to end their friendship on suspicion he might be holding back useful information. The back-story given for him and his family is adequate enough (probably as well we had never seen Turlough's bare arms in any previous story though, given the addition of the Misos triangle for this one), and his decision to leave at this stage makes reasonable sense.

Rather a dry story overall, functional and of interest, but it often struggles to come to life and is rarely as involving as it could be.