The Tenth Planet Part 4
Cutler blames everyone from the Doctor to Ben to his own personnel for the failure of his plan to render Earth toxic to the Cybermen, who have now invaded other parts of Earth and taken Polly as a hostage to ensure the Doctor’s cooperation. Time is running out for the Cybermen as Mondas continues to drain Earth’s energy, something which the Doctor warns will destroy their world as well as damaging Earth. The Doctor seems to know about the fate of Mondas and its people already…but he also seems to have a premonition of something else, a momentous change that could render him helpless in the ensuing battle with the emotionless Cybermen.
written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited
Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Anneke Wills (Polly), Michael Craze (Ben), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), David Dodimead (Barclay), Christopher Dunham (R/T technician), Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Harry Brooks (Krang), Reg Whitehead (Jarl), Gregg Palmer (Gern), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voice), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voice), Bruce Wells (Cyberman), John Haines (Cyberman), John Knott (Cyberman), Sheila Knight (Secretary), Patrick Troughton (The Doctor)
Notes: For the first Doctor, the entirety of the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon A Time (a story in which he meets his fourteenth incarnation) happens in the interval between the Doctor rushing out into the Antarctic cold, and Ben and Polly catching up to him in the TARDIS.
LogBook entry & review by Earl Green
Voice Cast: Katsuji Mori (Ken Washio), Isao Sasaki (Joe Asakura), Kazuko Sugiyama (Jun), Yoku Shioya (Jinpei), Shingo Kanemoto (Ryu), Toru Ohira (Kozaburo Nambu), Mikio Terashima (Berg Katse), Nobuo Tanaka (Sosai X), Teiji Omiya (Director Anderson)
Notes: Timed and themed for broadcast just before Halloween 1977, The Phantom Planet is a highly unusual episode of Space Academy, trading in shaky “science” for psychic phenomena (complete with a seance and the Gentry siblings taking a walk on the astral plane). The ghost of Proteus IX-B appears and disappears with a sound effect that would later become the familiar sound of another Saturday morning series: Pac-Man powering up with power pellets. The term “oraco” appears here, and from context it would seem to be analogous to “yes sir” or “I’m on it” (the actual script, included in the Space Academy DVD set, offers no definition). Also ill-defined is the nature of Chris and Laura’s astral walk: if they can do that, why bother to send the Seeker anywhere? And if their physical bodies aren’t at risk, why worry about what’s happened to their spirit forms on the asteroid?
McMonagle (Les Johnson), Roy Boyd (Joe Lustig) 
The Doctor, Ace and Bernice arrive at a hotel in Kent which is playing host to three simultaneous conventions: one for a cross-stitch club, another for a con artist holding a seance, and the third for the demonstration of a physics experiment that could lead to time travel. But the seance actually does make contact with something otherworldly – an alien group consciousness hell-bent on emerging into Earth’s dimension to feed upon the despair and guilt of the human race. The time travel experiments provide a convenient interdimensional conduit through which the Scourge travel. The Doctor, of course, has orchestrated all of this very carefully…but this time, whether he’s planned it or not, whether he wants it or not, the Scourge have him, and can consume his mind on their whim. With the Doctor out of the way, only Ace and Benny stand in the way of the Scourge…but they, like everyone else on the doomed Earth, have their own personal demons which will render them helpless to the power of the Scourge.
Notes: Arik Soong is the father of Noonian Soong, the cyberneticist who invented the Enterprise-D’s Lt. Commander Data. As Arik obviously admires the augments of the Eugenics Wars, it’s not inconceivable that he could have named his son after one of the leaders of the augments, Khan Noonien Singh (Space Seed, Star Trek II). In reality, both characters, created by Gene Roddenberry, were named after an acquaintance of Roddenberry’s, and no direct link between the two was envisioned by him, though this neatly ties up the similarities in their names.) Guest star J.G. Hertzler portrays yet another Klingon, something he’s been doing since his recurring role as General Martok on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (he made an earlier appearance as another character in Judgement). Alec Newman made his genre mark as Paul Atreides in Sci-Fi Channel’s two miniseries based on Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novels.
Notes: Welsh actor Gareth Thomas holds a legendary place among fans of British SF; he played revolutionary leader Roj Blake in the late 70s/early 80s space opera