There episodes of any TV show that have made a huge impact on not only the show that they are apart of but also pop culture as a whole. With that being the case for the episode that i'm about to review for you all today as this is one of the most important episodes in all of Doctor Who history due to the one key thing that it adds to the overall lore of the show which has allowed the show to survive really for as long as it has done and so then join me as I review the episode that introduced us to the Cybermen with the episode in question being called simply just "The Tenth Planet" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is The Doctor , Ben and Polly land in the South Pole where they find themselves trying to stop a bunch of robotic alien men from destroying the earth for good only this fight might cost The Doctor his life. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episodes plot doing a very good job of building up the Cybermen as a genuine threat whilst at the same time still being a rather compelling story with the plot of the episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , Anneke Wills as Polly and Michael Craze as Ben Jackson. Also starring in this episode is Robert Beatty as General Cutler , David Dodimead as Barclay , Dudley Jones as Dyson , Alan White as Schultz , Earl Cameron as Williams , Callen Angelo as Terry Cutler , John Brandon as American Sergeant , Shane Shelton as Tito , Steve Plytas as Wigner , Christopher Matthews as Radar Technician , Ellen Cullen as Geneva Technician , Christopher Dunham as R/T Technician , the great Roy Skelton as The Voice Of The Cybermen , the great Peter Hawkins as The Voice Of The Cybermen and Patrick Troughton as The Doctor.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the acting in this episode being alot better then what it really had any right to be which really isn't all that surprising as the acting in alot of the early Doctor Who episodes is always really top notch with this episode being no exception as every cast member in this episode really does nail there performances with the best examples being both William Hartnell and Robert Beatty who both turn in some really good performances in this episode with the acting in this episode really being helped buy the fact that the episodes script is just so good that all the cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
Doing the animation for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Planet 55 Studios. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episodes animation being very experimental in it's animation style as it looks like that they just quite literally traced over the very few surviving segments from episode four which isn't a bad approach given the fact that there are few scenes from that missing episode still around in some way shape or form but at the same time alot of the characters just don't look like there original actors with alot of them being more like stylized takes on the actors in question when it really shouldn't be.
As was mentioned at the very start of this review this episode is a really important episode of Doctor Who as it's the first episode of the show to feature what we now know is regeneration. With this episode being the final time to feature William Hartnell as a series regular and unlike alot of the more modern regenerations are all done in really big and over the over the top ways and yet this first one was the complete opposite of that as it's done on a small scale with there only being three actors in the scene and that's it where as the more modern ones go really over the top with CGI and explosions all going off everywhere and the music being really epic and yet here there really was none of that and that was something that works really as it makes it more mysterious and it makes you want to watch the next episode just to see who this person as don't forget in 1966 regeneration hadn't been done before and as such nobody would have blamed the audience if they didn't know that this was still The Doctor and as a result of that they would have had to have seen the next episode in order to see that that was indeed still The Doctor and not a new character.
The regeneration itself is something that could have been worked into the story a bit better as as things stand it just comes up in the final moments of episode four and that's really it. Which mean that it does loose some of it's impact in someways as alot of us more modern Doctor Who fans who didn't grow up with classic Doctor Who would find this episodes regeneration something that comes out of nowhere and that wouldn't be the case if the episode really took the time to include some lines of dialog of how The Doctor's body is getting a bit old or you could show that The Doctor is now walking a bit more slower paced now due to his old age just to really set up that this version of the character might not make it out of the episode alive and this would really have the knock on effect of making the regeneration not feel out of nowhere as it's something that really would have been set up as a possibility in the first place instead of having it really just come out nowhere in the final moments of the final episode of this serial.
Not only did this episode introduce the idea of regeneration but it also introduced the Cybermen as villains. With them not really being that creepy looking in this episode but that does make as outside of The Daleks the show never really nailed the look of a villain on there first go but to the episodes credit the Cybermen have a robotic voice which does make them really creepy sounding but even with that going for them they don't have a good plan which does hinder them from being good villains in this episode as there plan hinges on The Doctor working with them which is never going to work and as a result of that it makes them look dumb as he's course not going to work with the people that are trying to blow up a planet that's full to the brim with innocent people which is a shame as there plan is a solid plan it just needs a bit more refining in order to make it work in a way that will them both smarter and scarier then what this episode makes them out to be.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty minuets. With this episode being four four episodes long with only episode being animated but this story really could have been done with being at the very least five or six episodes just to really give the story time to breathe and it would give us the chance to really see what the Cybermen can do which is something that the episode can't do with a shorter episode count because as things stand the plot does feel rushed as it has to get to the next plot point really quickly which is something that just wouldn't be the case if the serial was around six episodes in length but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As we do get one action scene that's near the end of episode four which was really well done especially for the time that was episode was originally produced as classic Doctor Who especially the William Hartnell era of the show never really had that much action in it and yet the action that we got in this episode was really good with the show doing a good job of showing all of the creative ways that these original Cybermen can get killed off in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode was a great episode in order to send of the first Doctor in what is undoubtedly the most iconic regeneration scene even if The Doctor himself doesn't play a big part in the episode as a whole it's still a really good episode that's a must watch for any self respective Doctor Who fan in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . UK and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being the great and legendary Google Images simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not all of the images that are really from this episode and are of course on Google Images are really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.