Classic Era Doctor Who TV Hour-ish: Planet Of Evil, or The Strange Case of the Doctor & Mr Antiman

The Fourth Doctor & Sarah Jane on Zeta Minor.

     The Doctor & Sarah Jane, emerging from the time vortex 30,000 years too late on their way to London from Loch Ness (the scene for the previous serial, The Terror of the Zygons, also the last serial to feature the eponymous aliens, set to appear in the upcoming 50th anniversary), answer a distress call that take them to the planet Zeta Minor, the planet farthest out in the known universe.
     There they encounter a creature of pure energy that has attacked a Morestran geological expedition attempting to remove samples from a pit serving as a link to the creature's own universe, a universe comprised entirely of antimatter. The TARDIS duo also find themselves at odds with a Morestran military crew that arrived at the same time to investigate the distress call, as well as fighting the only survivor of the expedition, a Professor Sorenson, who becomes infected by the antimatter & morphs into a deformed monster that can drain the life from others.
     This Fourth Doctor serial, the second of the 13th series, was deliberately conceived as a Doctor Who-brew of Forbidden Planet and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. It was originally broadcast in four 25-minute weekly parts between September 27th & October 18th, 1975.
     I'd rate Planet of Evil as a 7 out of 10, based on a completely arbitrary & utterly meaningless scale & criteria, 88% (another random) of which I forgot milliseconds before I made it up. It elegantly exhibits the "Three E's": Engaging. Exciting. And Egads, Cheap SFX!! I love the Red Outline Creatures that end up wandering the ship & the Jetsons-like roundness of the Morestran's blue & white military uniforms. Tom Baker & Elisabeth Sladen are both in solid form & its not-so-surprisingly obvious why their era is often considered the epitome of the classic series & most probably Doctor Who as a whole. In other words, speaking with no authority in or even knowledge of what to call the particular area of study required to mathematically make such a claim, there's a pretty good chance Planet of Evil is more satisfying than what you're watching now. Unless you're watching Game of Thrones. In that case, you should go ahead & finish whatever season you're on first. Trust me. Then Planet of Evil, then eight other random serials.