623 Planet of Fire Part Three

EPISODE: Planet of Fire Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 623
STORY NUMBER: 136
TRANSMITTED: Thursday 01 March 1984
WRITER: Peter Grimwade
DIRECTOR: Fiona Cumming
SCRIPT EDITOR: Eric Saward
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 7.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Kamelion Tales Box Set: The King's Demons / Planet of Fire

Malkon attempts to interrupt the burning but is shot & badly injured by one of the elders for his efforts. Turlough returns to the Trion instrumentation and deactivates the flame. Peri attempts to overcome the Kamelion Master but he takes her prisoner and has the Doctor sealed in a cave with the rebels. The Kamelion Master takes the Master's Tardis to a control room buried deep in the Volcano where Kamelion begins preparations. Turlough uses the Misos Triangle on his arm to assume the role of the Chosen One and has the Doctor freed. They identify the Sarns' vision of Logar as a man in a thermal protection suit. The Doctor finds traces of Numismaton gas deposits in the cave and sees a blue Numismaton as flame burning from the Volcano which he speculates the Master has come to Sarn to use. Peri escapes from Kamelion and hides in the Master's Tardis. She attempts to switch off what she believes is the Master's Tardis but on opening it she discovers a miniaturised room inside containing the real Master shrunk to tiny size.

Really am enjoying this, rolling along nicely, everyone's doing a decent and it's all making sense. Finally the reasons for the Master's activities are being revealed, and that revelation at the end he's been miniaturised is quite a shock! Doesn't his Tardis look good in black?

Playing Timanov is well known actor Peter Wyngarde , the star of ITC action shows Department S and it's spin off Jason King. Following a very public fall from grace in 1975 where he was arrested & convicted for an act of "gross indecency" in the toilets of Gloucester Bus Station, Wyngarde all but disappeared from public view. He appeared in the 1980 film Flash Gordon under the golden mask of General Klytus but this is probably his most prominent acting work since then. Playing Chosen One Malkon is Edward Highmore, soon to find recognition in Howard's way, playing Leo Howard the son of Maurice Colbourne's character Tom. We saw Colbourne in the previous story as Lytton. More Howard's way to come... Highmore has a recurring role as Boll in the second series of The Tripods which also features a race coming from a planet called Trion. He is now the father of Freddie Highmore who was Charlie Bucket in the modern version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Retuning as the Master, and the Master disguised Kamelion is Anthony Ainley while Gerald Flood once again provides Kamelion's normal voice.