The Monster of Peladon

Six episodes
Aired between 23rd March 1974 and 27th April 1974

Written by Brian Hayles
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Lennie Mayne

Synopsis

The society of Peladon has moved on since we last saw them.  They are now a member of the Galactic Federation and as such, the Federation have set up trade agreements to mine for the rare mineral: Trisilicate.  The only thing that hasn't progressed in an age, is the miners superstitions.  They are wary of the Federation's sonic lance and become terrified when using the lance causes an apparition of the fabled monster Aggedor to appear and vaporise one of them,

It is into this setting that the TARDIS materialises.  The Doctor intends to visit and introduce Sarah Jane to his old friend, King Peladon, but the TARDIS dumps them in the caverns under the citadel, a cause of much teasing on Sarah's part.  Despite Sarah wanting to take off again, the Doctor forces her to go with him through the tunnels to find the citadel.

In said citadel, the miners go with the federation consultants - Vega Nexos and a human called Eckersley to see the ruler of Peladon - Queen Thalira, daughter of King Peladon, and her political priest, Ortron.

The miners, led by Gebek and Ettis inform her that Aggedor is clearly unhappy that they are delving deep for the trisilicate, and Ortron is quick to fan the flames, making no attempt to hide the fact that he doesn't think they should be part of the Federation as they will be drawn into the current Federation war with Galaxy 5 (the reason why they need the trisilicate is the war effort).

Vega Nexos and Eckersley manage to convince the miners to go back and have a look.  When they get there, they use the sonic lance to blow a hole in a tunnel wall and Aggedor's spirit turns up again and vapourises Vega Nexos.  Eckersley and assures them it's all alright and blames the apparition of Aggedor on saboteurs from Galaxy 5.  Ortron sends his guards through the tunnels to capture anyone in there.

It just so happens that the Doctor and Sarah are wandering down the caverns, lost.  It's no surprise then when they are captured and brought before the queen as saboteurs.  It's only the appearance of Alpha Centauri who can vouch for the Doctor that saves them both.

After the Doctor and Sarah get up to speed with the goings on with Ortron advising the Queen that Aggedor's spirit is unhappy at the mining, Ettis' intent to cause an uprising and force the federation employees off world, and Gebek's insistence for a peaceful settlement; it's not long before the Doctor concludes that someone's causing Aggedor's spirit to appear and thereby manipulating this course of action.

The Doctor, with the Queen's permission, goes into the tunnels with her mute champion, Blor, to investrigate the last Aggedor sighting, entering the cave blasted open by the sonic lance.  Once they get there, Aggedor appears once again and vapourises Blor.

Whilst they're inside, Ettis and his miners turn up and blow the cave shut with the sonic lance, intending to seal the Doctor inside with Aggedor.  Luckily for the Doctor, Aggedor disappears again, and Gebek shows up.  Ettis tells Gebek that he's given the cave back to Aggedor to appease his spirit and trapped the Doctor inside.  Gebek tells him the Doctor's the only one helping them and so he uses the sonic lance to open up a gap in the rockfall for the Doctor to escape just as Aggedor appears again.

Once free, the Doctor and Gebek agree to join forces and convince the rest of the miners to defeat a bunch of guards that turn up.

Sarah, meanwhile hears about the cave in and decides to go into the caverns to find the Doctor.  It's not long before she's lost.  She comes across a strange metal door with a window in the caverns.  This is the refinery.  She see's someone through the window but when she tries to talk to them, they disappear.  She tries the door and a loud alarm sounds, hurting her brain.

Back in the Citadel control room, Eckersley and Alpha Centauri hear the tripped defenses and rush off to save Sarah.  

The Doctor meanwhile settles down with Gebek, Ettis and the Miners and tries to convince them that he will lobby on their behalf.  He just needs to go see the Queen without Ortron being there.  Gebek agrees to help him and the Miners say they will too, but once they leave, Ettis gives back word, convincing some of the others to attack instead.

Luckily, the refinery defences were turned off and Eckersley and Alpha Centauiri can revive Sarah.  She tries to convince them of the figure on the other side, but they both insist the place is empty.

Given the fact that the Doctor has been seen helping the Miners fight the guards, Ortron convinces the Queen to order the guards to find and kill him.

As Sarah, Eckersley and Alpha Centauri return to the control room, Ettis and his group capture them (knocking Eckersley unconscious) and order them to open the armoury doors.

Alpha Centauri manages to find the right switch and the Miners get federation guns, but accidentally sets off  an alarm.  Ettis is forced to flee and takes Sarah as a hostage.  She manages to get free of him and is caught by Ortron, who sees her as a Conspirator.

Ettis and his men run into the Doctor and Gebek and tell them about the weapons.  Gebek goes back with the Miners, leaving the Doctor to try and find the Queen.

Sarah is taken to Ortron's temple.  Ortron refuses to listen to her excuses and he arrests the Doctor too as he comes in through the secret entrance.  He consults with the spirit of Aggedor for a fitting punishment.

Alpha Centauri and Eckersley meanwhile, hear of Sarah's arrest and go to the Queen to try and get her freed.  The Queen says Ortron's rule in the temple is final.  The Queen gets some courage and goes to the temple to overturn Ortron's verdict.  She finds however that the Doctor and Sarah have already been thrown into a pit to face the judgement of Aggedor.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane face the mighty creature, Aggedor, but to Ortron's surprise, the Doctor calms Aggedor using the Venusian Lulaby as he did fifty years ago.  The Queen stands up to Ortron and demands he obey her and release the Doctor and Sarah.

Meanwhile, Alpha Centauri talks to Eckersley about how messed up the situation is.  He suggests for the safety of Federation interests, perhaps Alpha Centauri should send for some Federation troops.  Alpha Centauri does indeed call in the troops, whilst Eckersley rushes off to secure the sonic lance still at large.

Now that the judgement of Aggedor has been determined and the Doctor has survived, Ortron is forced to accept it.  He storms off, leaving the Queen to talk with Sarah and the Doctor.

Together, they convince the Queen to speak with Gebek and look at ways of making concessions to the miners.  The Doctor goes off to find and bring Gebek back, leaving Sarah to have more of a chat with Queen Thalira about womens liberation, challenging her views by saying "there's nothing 'only' about being a girl."

The Doctor calls to see Alpha Centauri on his way to find Gebek and learns that troops are coming.  He chastises Alpha Centauri and Eckersley for being short sighted.  Sarah finds him and mentions what she found in the refinery to him, shortly before Ortron announces his presence.  He says that they may have passed the judgement of Aggedor, but he believes them to be saboteurs.  He says they cannot leave the Citadel.  The Doctor tries to disobey this and is unsurprisingly arrested again and taken to the dungeons.

 As Ortron is occupied with the Doctor, Sarah sneaks through the corridors and goes to find Eckersley to make sure the sonic lance is out of the way of the miners.

When the Queen challenges the Doctor's imprisonment, Ortron refuses to comply, justifying the fact that the Doctor willfully broke the law.  She cannot change his mind, but she forces him to leave Sarah alone.

As Eckersley and Sarah move the lance, they are indeed attacked by the miners and overpowered. Much to Ettis' disdain, Gebek allows Eckersley and Sarah to go free, but keeps the lance once Sarah tells him that the Queen wants to discuss terms.

Sarah and Eckersley go back to the throne room and tell the Queen and Ortron about what's happened.  Ortron again spins conspiracy theories about them letting the device go so easily, but Eckersley insists that the miners had guns and none of the Queens guards did.  The sides will be evened up though when the Federation troops land.  Ortron is outraged that Federation troops are coming.  Alpha Centauri confesses to messing up, but says that the troops cannot be stopped once they are called.  Once they find out that the miners are causing problems, they might get rid of them and bring in great mining machines, to Peladon's detriment.  Together, they start to come up with a plan to cover up the problems and make sure everything looks fine.

Afterwards, Sarah goes to the dungeon to break the Doctor free.  She meets Gebek who takes the mission off her, sending her back to the safety of the Citadel.  Sure enough, Gebek finds the Doctor's cell and disables the guard, freeing the Doctor.

Once free however, the Doctor asks Gebek to take him to the refinery rather than the throne room. The Doctor believes something fishy is going on don there and it could just be the key to whoever's behind the unrest.  On their way, they see the miners going back to work, supervised by the Queens guards.  Gebek doesn't like it, but the Doctor keeps him focused on the refinery.  Once they get there, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to disable Eckersley's defence system.

Eckersley sees them on CCTV, but Sarah insists that there's someone hiding down there and the Doctor is just trying to find them.

As the miners get back to work, the spirit of Aggedor appears and attacks them, forcing everyone to flee.  They run down the corridor towards the refinery as the Doctor hot-wires the door controls.  The refinery opens to reveal an Ice Warrior!  The Ice Warrior takes them both prisoner as the Federation fleet arrives, the fleet and troop consisting of Ice Warriors, led by the Ice Lord Azaxyr.

Azaxyr wastes no time in establishing martial law.  He gathers the royalty and other key members in the throne room.

He tells them he's no interest in any petty arguments, he only wants to assure the trisilicate will be mined.  He orders the miners back to work, who will toil under the supervision of the Ice Warriors.  The alternative is death.  The miners and the royalty are united in saying that they prefer death.

As the discussions are ongoing, Ettis and a bunch of the miners try to storm the throne room with their Federation weapons.  They are cut down and only Ettis escapes.

Azaxyr wants to kill the Doctor, but is convinced otherwise as it's pointed out that he had a good relationship with Gebek and could be the one to convince the miners back to work. Azaxyr allows him to live and goes with Eckersley to check the refinery.

The Doctor is putting the pieces together, and determines that the Ice Warriors are somehow involved for their own ends.  He believes the soldier, Sskell was the figure Sarah Jane saw in the refinery before the Federation troops were ever called.  To buy some time, he and Gebek tell the miners to cooperate with the Ice Warriors in the same manner that they cooperated with the royalty of Peladon. They get the message and the miners go back to work.

Azaxyr is pleased, but still mistrusts the Doctor.  He confines him and Sarah to the control room.  That suits the Doctor just fine, as he can control the "air conditioning" in the mine.  He raises the temperature to affect the Ice Warriors.

Elsewhere, Ettis shows up and tells one of the miners that he intends to use the sonic lance to blow up the citadel.  The miner tries to warn Gebek but Ettis is insane and he knifes the miner to stop him.

The Queen demands Azaxyr lets her speak to the federation and give a formal complaint, but Azaxyr refuses.  He says there's a communications blackout until the emergency is over.  The Queen points out that the miners are working so the emergency is over, but Azaxyr simply states that the victory came too easy to trust it.

He's right. As the Ice Warriors become groggy due to the heat in the mines, the miners rise up and overpower them.  The Doctor and Sarah escape the control room in the chaos and meet up with Gebek.  They find the knifed miner who fills them in on Ettis' plan.  Sarah looks after the miner, Gebek goes to help the miners and the Doctor goes after Ettis.

As sarah comforts the miner, she is grabbed by Sskell and taken to Azaxyr.  He demands to know where the Doctor is.  Sarah is stubborn at first but relents and tells them he's trying to stop Ettis.

The Doctor finds Ettis as he's about to fire the sonic lance, the pair have a sword fight and a fist fight.

Azaxyr watches the fight on CCTV.  Alpha Centauri is nervous that Ettis might win and blow up the citadel but Azaxyr says it won't because he's booby trapped the lance, setting it to explode as soon as anyone tries to fire it.

Sure enough, Ettis wins the combat and goes to set off the lance, blowing himself up in the process, and most likely, the Doctor too.

Sarah watching through the CCTV camera is distraught but can do nothing.

Azaxyr commands Eckersley to go to the refinery and turn the heating down, which he does.   They all move away from the screen and don't notice that the Doctor survived the blast.  He heads back through the mine until he finds Gebek.  He asks about Sarah, but Gebek only knows that she's disappeared.

The political situation progresses, with Azaxyr declaring a planet wide martial law.  He intends for Queen Thalira to rule in name only.  Working together, the Queen, Ortron, Sarah and Alpha Centauri try to escape to the communications room.  Ortron is shot in the attempt and the queen is recaptured.  Azaxyr demands to know the plan and the Queen tells him they've escaped to the tunnels.

Not knowing where Sarah is, the Doctor goes to the refinery again with Gebek to try and get some evidence of Azaxyr's corruption.  Sure enough, they both come across Eckersley and Azaxyr, talking about how their little plan is working perfectly.

Sarah and Alpha Centauri meanwhile get to the communications room.  Alpha Centauri sends out a general distress call on the long range radio, whilst Sarah checks the CCTV.  She hears Azaxyr and Eckersley's conversation too.  They discuss how to find the Doctor, Sarah and the rebels whilst they're in the tunnels.  Eckersley said he'll turn off the ventilation in the mines and use the spirit of Aggedor to panic everyone and force him out.  They all watch as Eckersley reveals a statue of Aggedor with a directional heat ray inside it.  He can matter-transport it to anywhere in the mines and does so, killing another miner and sending the rest into panic.

Alpha Centauri is astounded that Eckersley is part of the conspiracy, but Sarah is more surprised to find the Doctor is still alive.

Azaxyr and Eckersley head back to the communications room, leaving an Ice Warrior guarding the entrance.  Sarah Jane heads through the mines to reunite with the Doctor and provides a good distraction for the Doctor to disable the Ice Warrior.

Eckersley and Azaxyr find Alpha Centauri and demand to know what it's done.  Azaxyr see's through Alpha Centauri's bluffs, and determines that a distress signal has been sent.  He wants to kill the ambassador, but Eckersley convinces him to keep Alpha Centauri alive.  They all go to the throne room and Azaxyr tries to get everything back under control.  It's not long before Alpha Centauri opens it's mouth again and denounces Azaxyr and Eckersley as traitors, stating they're working for Galaxy 5, the enemy of the Federation.  Queen Thalira defies them but Azaxyr threatens her with death if she doesn't comply.

Eckersley questions Alpha Centauri about how it found out their plans, and Alpha Centauri accidentally reveals that Sarah and the Doctor are at the refinery.  Azaxyr sends Sskell and some other Ice Warriors to go and kill the Doctor, Sarah and Gebek.

Meanwhile, in the refinery, the Doctor turns on the ventilation again, and begins to work out the controls for Aggedor.  Sskell and the other Ice Warriors begin to burn through the door.  Time is tight, but he manages to use the spirit of Aggedor to destroy the Ice Warriors just as they break through the refinery door.  Sskell survives though and rushes back to Azaxyr.

With a bit of a reprieve, the Doctor sends Gebek back to rally the miners.  He promises to use the spirit of Aggedor to convince the miners that their "god" is now on their side.

As the Doctor gets back to the controls, Eckersley's voice comes over the loudspeaker.  He warns the Doctor to surrender, but the Doctor refuses, forcing Eckersley to use the defence system to mash the Doctor's brain.  The Doctor sends Sarah away so she's safe from the defence system and he prepares to tough it out, manning the controls as the defence system gets more intense.

Azaxyr is forced to send his Ice Warriors into the mines to deal with the rallying miners, but as they get closer, the Doctor uses Aggedor to kill them.

The Doctor keeps the miners safe until they get to the Citadel, then he finally succumbs to the defence system, falling unconscious.

Sarah sneaks some distance behind the miners and finds a gun on one of the dead guards.  She takes it and finds Eckersley in the control room.  She demands he turn the defences off but Eckersley smiles and tells her it's too late, the Doctor's dead.  She sees the CCTV image and believes him.  This gives Eckersley the chance to snatch the gun from her.  He threatens to kill her, but locks her in the room instead.

Meanwhile, the miners fight their way to the throne room and find Azaxyr holding a gun to the Queens head.

They put down their weapons, but jump the Ice Warriors.  In the ensuing fight, the men manage to kill the Ice Warriors and stab Azaxyr to death.

Once the Ice Warriors are dealt with, Alpha Centauri goes to the communications room and finds Sarah.  Sarah is upset at the apparent death of the Doctor and heads morosely down to the refinery.

Eckersley meanwhile sneaks through the tunnels to the throne room and takes the Queen hostage.  He rushes through the tunnels to try and reach his secretly parked spaceship.

As Sarah looks on the Doctor's body, he miraculously begins to move.

She's mad at him when he tells her he simply put his body into total sensory withdrawl.  They head back to the Citadel and soon learn that Eckersley has kidnapped the Queen.

The prospects of finding Eckersley in the maze of tunnels is grim, until the Doctor comes up with an idea to use the real Aggedor to track his scent.  Needless to say, Aggedor finds Eckersley and attacks him.  Both are killed in the struggle.

In the aftermath, the Queen thanks the Doctor and Sarah for their help and tries to convince him to stay as her new advisor.  Sarah says she's a strong enough leader anyway.  The Doctor suggests Gebek would make an excellent Chancellor.

Alpha Centauri rushes into the throne room and exclaims that as soon as news of Eckersley and Azaxyr's failure had got out, Galaxy 5 sued for peace.

Gebek tells the Doctor that they've retrieved the TARDIS from the tunnels and the Doctor and Sarah slip away to return to Earth.

Trivia

• This is the last time we see the Ice Warriors on screen for 39 years!  They were in Doctor Who related audio adventures and novels however, and if the Sixth Doctor's run would have had enough of an audience, they were scheduled to come back around 1984, but those plans were scrapped to do the Trial of a Time Lord.

• Brian Hayle's original script was intended to have the Federation be like the priests in the old west and out in Africa, trying to civilise the primitive "Pels".  It could be said that Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks didn't think the public would get it though, so the script was altered 

• Jon Pertwee's back trouble was playing up by this time, so we get very clear shots of Terry Walsh in a wig when the doctor's fighting Ettis instead of Pertwee strutting his stuff. 

• There was significant pressures when filming this one, due to the short timespan afforded to make it.  This of course, occured during the 3 day week.  Click here if you don't know what that is.  In a way, it's effectively what this story's about.

What worked

• The dark sets, lit by flaming torches offer a good sense of primitive society

• The fact that Elizabeth Sladen was given the feisty Sarah Jane back again rather than the "What's that, Doctor?" version we got in Death to the Daleks

• The Ice warriors are still good at what they do, even if the way they're defeated is the same in almost every story

• It was nice to try a political spin on the story, with most people having motive and actively working towards it

• It was sort of nice, if unnecessary to visit old friends like Alpha-Centauri.

What didn't work

• Why did the Doctor go into the temple and announce himself when he knows it's a death penalty?

• I hate the way that Ortron just doesn't listen to reasonable arguments

• The inclusion of the real Aggedor was a bit pointless

• Why lock everyone up in the one place that they can control everything from?

• In fact, why lock them up at all?  After the 2nd and 3rd time they'd interfered with plans, surely Azaxyr and Eckersley would be thinking it's easier to kill them and think of an excuse later

Overall Feelings

Given everything that's gone on with England at the moment, what with leaving the EU and all the uncertainty that it brings, it's sort of easy to see where this story was aiming.  It's not quite right though.  I mean, the original story was meant to show how the "Pel" high society was keeping all the trisilicate profits for itself and not letting any trickle down to the miners (which does come across), but as a side effect, we also get arguments about why it's in Peladon's best interest to be part of the Federation or not, as the case may be.

I think it handles the crux of the politics quite well, but it gets the whole thing over to the viewer in a very boring and predictable way.  There's lots of back and forth, storming armouries, getting locked up in a vital communications room and at least two occasions of Sarah being upset that the Doctor's dead.  It was just all a bit tedious for me.  I mean, was anyone really surprised that the Ice Warriors were the bad guys?

One upside to this though, is, like Curse of Peladon, there's a little bit of room to explore Sarah Jane Smith's beliefs.  It's not as much as Jo Grant's I admit, but it is still there.

This story might have been refreshing the first time round (as in the Curse of Peladon), but Monster of Peladon just repeats the same tropes as the first story and expects us to be satisfied just because a funny rude looking alien turns up and an ancient furry creature that serves no purpose in the story apart from the one OBVIOUSLY used to justify it's existence.

If it was a three or four parter, I think it would be infinitely better, but the padding and regurgitated scenes and tropes make it a chore to watch.

Rating

6 out of 10

A nice try, but far too long, meaning there's no tension and a lot of repetition

Rewatchability Factor

2 out of 10

A long and often boring see-saw of miners and soldiers fighting over an armoury.  Once is enough.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Curse of Peladon

• The Green Death 

• The King's Demons

Consulting the Matrix

Do you like the Ice Warriors better as good guys or bad guys?

The Curse of Peladon

4 Episodes
Aired between 29th January 1972 and 19th February 1972

Written by Brian Hayles
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Lennie Mayne

Synopsis

Peladon is a distant planet with ancient medieval like customs.  One dark and stormy night, the King of Peladon summons his Chancellor, Torbis, and his High Priest, Hepesh to discuss with them the impending meeting to discuss whether Peladon should be allowed to enter the Galactic Federation.

Torbis is forward thinking and openly welcomes the chance to be in the Federation, but Hepesh is cynical, warning the King that the Federation will see them as little more than savages and will seek to exploit Peladon and mine it's minerals for their own good.  He emphasises his view by warning the King that his actions might just bring the curse of Peladon around them.

The King, who has been brought up to adulthood by both Torbis and Hepesh following the deaths of his father (the previous King) and his earth mother, is clearly torn between the two views.  He ultimately chooses to side with Torbis.

The old Torbis grows tired of listening to Hepesh's negative ranting and storms out, only to be killed in the darkened hallway by some strange bear-like beast.

Thinking he might have finally fixed the TARDIS and wrestled it from under Time Lord control, the Doctor takes Jo out for a spin, despite her protests that she was all ready to go for a night out with Captain Yates.

They materialise on the side of a mountain, just below the castle of Peladon.

As the Doctor and Jo step out of the TARDIS, the balance of weight shifts, sending it crashing down the mountainside.  Jo is distraught at the thought of it, but the Doctor reassures her that it's indestructible; the only problem is  how to get to it.

He notices the castle above them and decides that they need to go there to ask for help retrieving the time machine. They climb for a good while up the perilous cliff face, braving the storm and eventually find a tunnel.

In the castle, the Federation delegates arrive: the giant eyeballed Alpha Centauri,

the head in a bowl known as Arcturus,

and the Ice Warriors, namely the Ice Lord Izlyr and his guard Ssorg.

They quickly learn of Torbis' strange death and become concerned.  King Peladon assures them that the matter is an internal affair and they're doing everything they can to look into it.

The Doctor and Jo travel through the cavernous tunnels, mindful of the roaring echos of some beast in there with them, until they pass a strange shrine and emerge in the castle.

The Doctor sees Ssorg and assumes the Ice Warriors are up to no good.  They are captured shortly afterwards by the castle guards.

In the throne room, Hepesh begins ranting about the curse of Peladon again, saying that the King's actions will anger their deity - Aggedor, and bring his fury upon them.  There is even a prophecy starting with the arrival of a stranger... at that point the Doctor and Jo are shown into the throne room.
Izlyr mistakes them for the Earth delegates, also members of the Federation.  The Doctor thinks quick and confirms that he's a delegate and Jo is a princess sent as an observer (because only females of royal blood are allowed into the throne room).

King Peladon welcomes them and brings them up to speed.  The Doctor quickly learns that Hepesh believes that Torbis was killed by the spirit of Aggedor.  This sparks a lot of debate, which allows the King's mute bodyguard, Grun, to sneak away and loosen a statue of Aggedor outside the throne room.
The Doctor calls the squabbling delegates to order and suggests they retire from the throne room and discuss elsewhere.  On their way out, Grun drops the statue on them, nearly killing Izlyr if it wasn't for the Doctor's lightning reactions.  Hepesh blames the spirit of Aggedor again.  The delegates clearly see that their own lives are in danger and want to call off the conference, but King Peladon pleads with them to reconsider.

Whilst everyone else is distracted, Jo takes her leave and sneaks up to where the statue fell, finding a large set of footprints and a small device lying on the floor.  She sneaks back just as the decision is reached for the delegates to retire and talk.

As everyone leaves, King Peladon asks Jo to stay behind.  He tells her about his human mother and highlights the struggles he's had growing up alone and trying to bring Peladon out of the dark ages.

He asks her to carry his favour to the other delegates which gets Jo really annoyed, probably because he came on a bit strong and she thought he was after something else.

In the shrine of Aggedor, Grun secretly comes to meet with Hepesh, who tells the mute to kill the Doctor because he's getting in the way.

Jo returns to the Doctor, and tells him what she found at the statue.  She says she wants to get off Peladon, but the Doctor is still suspicious of the Ice Warriors.  They suddenly hear alarm bells ringing and rush off to find the cause, ultimately discovering Arcturus in his room dying as an element of his intensive care machinery has been removed.  The Doctor works fast and bypasses the missing component, stabilizing Arcturus just as the Ice Warriors and Alpha Centauri turn up.

Hepesh once more blames the curse of Peladon, saying it was Aggedor, but the Doctor dismisses it as mumbo jumbo, instead accusing Izlyr of the sabotage.  The Ice Lord gets offended and counter accuses the Doctor.  All this arguing allows Jo to once again slip away.  She heads to the Ice Warrior's room and searches it, easily finding the missing component but gets discovered by Ssorg.  The Ice Warrior denies any involvement and keeps her prisoner until Izlyr returns.

Unfortunately, as Arcturus returns to normal, he says he didn't see who was responsible.  As they all retire once more, Grun motions to the Doctor, asking him to follow.  He leads the Doctor into the tunnels and abandons him to the approaching roars of Aggedor.

Jo climbs out of her window and tries to find the Doctor, but instead runs into Aggedor!  She flees and encounters the Ice Warriors again, who don't believe her story.  It turns out that the Ice Warriors really aren't bad guys at all.

They've rejected their violent history and left Mars to become proud members of the Galactic Federation.  Izlyr is also trying to figure out who the saboteur is.  He says it's interesting that Arcturus was never in danger.  He's discovered that there was a fail safe switch on his machine.

Back in the tunnels, the Doctor makes his way through until he gets back to the shrine, where Hepesh arrives and has him arrested for trespassing.

The Doctor is taken to the throne room and everyone is summoned back.  Once gathered, Hepesh tells them that no one but the High Priest is allowed in the shrine of Aggedor under penalty of death therefore the Doctor must die.

The Doctor protests, explaining about the tunnel system that led him there.  It's clear that King Peladon is unaware of them, but Hepesh tells them all that the Doctor is lying.  King Peladon says he's no option but to pass sentence, but Jo convinces him to take the only other alternative: trial by combat to the death.  The Doctor accepts only to find that he'll be fighting Grun.

The Doctor is taken away and everyone but Jo leaves.  She begs King Peladon to overturn the rule but he cannot.  She's amazed and disgusted that he follows up this conversation by proposing to her, seemingly for mutual benefit and helping bring Peladon out of the dark ages.

Whilst the Doctor is held prisoner, Hepesh gives him one final chance to leave the planet, he will leave the cell door open along with a map of the tunnels to escape back to his TARDIS that Hepesh has had recovered.  The Doctor has figured out by now that the Ice Warriors have nothing to do with the sabotage and asks Hepesh why he's done all this.  Hepesh admits that he's afraid of the Federation's influence.  The Doctor tries to reason with him, pointing out that he can't possibly take on the whole Federation alone.  Hepesh becomes passionate and lets it slip that he does have powerful allies ready to help him.

Jo meets with Alpha Centauri, Arcturus and Izlyr to ask them to stop the trial.

They point out that as delegates, they must remain neutral to local customs and practices.  Jo storms off and Izlyr goes after her, telling her that despite this, he is willing the help the Doctor as a return for him saving his life from the statue falling.  Arcturus overhears this conversation and skulks away.

That night, the Doctor decides to take Hepesh up on the offer and sneaks out of his cell, going through the tunnels where he encounters Aggedor.  He uses a spinning mirror and a light to hypnotize the beast, singing a Venusian lullaby as he does so.

Jo goes to see the Doctor and finds him gone.  She goes into the tunnels and sees Aggedor.  Panicking, she scares the beast away, drawing admonishment from the Doctor who says that he was just starting to get through to it.  Despite Jo's protests, the Doctor returns the castle and tries to tell everyone again about the tunnels and the real Aggedor hiding in them.  Hepesh rants and raves, demanding that the Doctor be taken straight to the pit.

The King reluctantly nods in agreement and he is taken away to the combat pit and lower down into it with Grun.  The two fight for a good while with all manner of weapons and unarmed.

Eventually, the Doctor comes out victorious but refuses to kill Grun.  At that instant Arcturus and Ssorg draw their weapons and fire.

Ssorg is faster on the trigger and kills Arcturus, causing Hepesh to flee into the tunnels.

It comes to light that Hepesh was working with Arcturus, being the one who sabotaged his intensive care machine to throw them off the scent.  It seems that Arcturus is a planet of low mineral wealth whilst Peladon is rich in it, so they came to a deal to keep the corrupt and exploitative Federation at bay and his own planet would make a separate treaty.  King Peladon asks the delegates to help him convince the rest of his people and avoid civil war, as his men track down Hepesh.

Grun takes his manipulation personally and goes into the tunnels to find the High Priest.  He does indeed find Hepesh in there, gathering a group of loyal guards.  Grun attacks them but is overpowered and left for Aggedor to deal with whilst they stage a coup.

Because Arcturus is dead, this matter is still internal to Peladon and the other delegates have a hard time convincing Alpha Centauri to back a motion to bend galactic law and interfere.  When they finally achieve this, they go to radio their respective fleets only to find that the radio's been sabotaged by Arcturus prior to his death.

The Doctor goes back into the tunnels to find Aggedor and discovers Grun.  He teams up with the mute guard and together they go off to find the creature.

Back in the castle, Hepesh sneaks in his force of soldiers and overpowers the rest, staging a successful coup and putting King Peladon under arrest.

The Doctor and Grun find Aggedor once more.  This time, the Doctor is able to successfully hypnotise Aggedor and he leads the beast back into the castle.

In the throne room, Hepesh puts the King under the threat of death unless the Federation delegates agree to leave immediately.  The Doctor arrives with Aggedor and tells Hepesh it's over.  Hepesh tries to command the beast to kill the Doctor, but Aggedor turns on him instead, killing him and leaving King Peladon without any mentors.

The traitorous guards all become terrified at the embodiment of their deity and drop their weapons.

Kind Peladon is devastated at the deaths of those who raised him, and it looks like he might slaughter the traitors in retribution but he tells them that they will go unpunished and the events will be struck from their histories as they finally move forward to become part of the Galactic Federation.

Perhaps a couple of days later, the Doctor and Jo have the TARDIS brought up into the castle.  The Doctor explains to her that he doesn't think they came here by accident after all and that the Time Lords still have control over his ship.  They joke that Aggedor has grown too fond of the Doctor and won't leave his side now.

As the Doctor leaves to take Aggedor back to his cage, Jo is visited by King Peladon on the eve of his official coronation.  He asks Jo to stay and marry him, but she says she can't and anyway, she's not even a real princess.

He smiles and says it doesn't even matter.  They kiss but are interrupted by the Doctor.  Peladon leaves to take his place among his people and the Doctor and Jo intend to watch the ceremony, but luckily see the true Earth Delegate arriving, having awkward conversations with Izlyr and Alpha Centauri.

The Doctor and Jo make themselves scarce and run into the TARDIS as the delegates come to find them.  They all watch in stunned silence as the TARDIS dematerialises in front of their very eyes.

Trivia

• It is pretty well known that this story was made as a parody on the UK entering the common market,  It was a debate of considerable importance around that time.

• This story marks the welcome return of Patrick Troughton's son, David.  See The War Games and Enemy of the World for his other appearances. 

• This story also sees the arrival of wet behind the ears visual effects technician Matt Irvine.  He would go on to do much loved work on the show for decades to come.  His first job here was to make the tiny TARDIS model with the flashing light.

• When Director Lennie Mayne first set eyes on Alpha Centauri, supposedly he looked astonished at the visual effects team and yelled that it looked like a f****ng pr**k!  They scurried away and tried to develop the creature a little more, bringing it back with a shower curtain around it.  Mayne shook his head and said "now it lucks like a pr**k in a cape!

• That wasn't the end of his crude outbursts.  When filming the end sequence of Aggedor arriving in the throne room, he wasn't happy with the cast's reactions.  He told them they should be surprised to the point where they would yell Holy F****ng Cow!  As they got ready for the next take, Pertwee conspired with the cast and as Aggedor turned up, they all in unison cheekily cried out "Holy F****g Cow!

• Although the torches and low lights were great effects, the production team did get their hands slapped for it because the soot smeared all over the lighting rigs in the studio and they had to be taken down and cleaned at considerable cost to the show

• And speaking of darkness, the continuity announcers had to give recaps of the shows previous episodes at the beginning of each transmission because there were scheduled power cuts going on across Britain in response to miners strikes.  (See The Green Death for more on this.)

• Finally, if you watch the beginning interior TARDIS scene, you'll notice that the Doctor is rather fixated on the console.  That's because the crew as a joke put a pornographic picture on the console to try and put him off his lines!

What worked

• This is one of the few classic Who stories that had its dark tones lit perfectly.  The production team often battled with lighting engineers to make sets "dark and gloomy" but this one definitely worked

• The film sequence of climbing the cliff and the fighting pit worked really well

• The chance that Katy Manning was given for some real dialogue

• The Ice Warriors were also quite good and it's nice to finally see them in colour

• I liked the political overtones of the episode, with complex reasons to stay out of stuff needing to be overcome

• I also liked the true relationship you can see that's been formed between Jo and the Doctor.  She really would do anything for him

• The return of "Klokleda Partha Menin Klatch, Naroon, Naroon, Naroon"

What didn't work

• Alpha Centauri

• Arcturus (although I really liked him in a naff but lovable sort of way)

• Peladon's ignorance of the tunnels

• The reasoning behind Hepesh's plans

• Arcturus' suicidal attempt to kill the Doctor

• Aggedor 

• The fact that it's called Curse of Peladon when there's not really a curse

Overall Feelings

The thing that I take away from the Curse of Peladon is that it comes across as a far better episode than it deserves to be.  You don't have to look far to find things wrong with it, starting most obviously with a certain one eyed alien.  But remember, this was the 1970's so I'm not going to just judge it on visual effects alone.  The problems do run deeper.

Throughout the first episode, Hepesh makes a big deal of the curse of Peladon, but when they explain it, they make it out like the curse is Aggedor coming to protect the King....how's that a curse?  Going on from that, Hepesh suffers from Dalekitis where one scene he wants to kill the Doctor, and the next he doesn't.  Some of the aliens are suspect too, I mean, was Arcturus so arrogant that he thought he could easily kill the Doctor in one shot, turn, and take care of the Ice Warriors before anyone could stop him?  How would he explain it all to the Federation?

Perhaps the biggest faux pas this story shows is the argument between the Doctor and Hepesh about the existence of hidden tunnels beneath the castle.  Why not just say, come with me and I'll show you them, right now.  Not that Peladon needs to.  I mean, how does he know about the shrine at all if it's within the tunnels, and come to think of it, how can you grow up in that castle and not discover those tunnels?

Rant aside, I think there are things this story does that push boundaries in a way that has been missing for some time.  We get a myriad of aliens in the mix, even the natives of Peladon have different hairstyles to denote that they're not quite human.  Alpha Centauri isn't male or female and yet no one in this 1972 time is encouraged  to be repulsed by it, much the opposite in fact.  And obviously, the expectations of the Ice Warriors are totally subverted.

The lighting is great too as we discussed, the film sequences of the cliff side are great too.

But perhaps the best part about this story is that it isn't really about the Doctor.  Jo comes into her own and gets some juicy dialogue to go at.  The bits where the Doctor would tell her she's being stupid and explain everything are in part taken over by Izlyr, but he encourages her to come around to his way of thinking.

In summary, this is a decent story not because of the plot or the visuals, but because it catches us off guard with a fairly adult approach to plot and character development.

Rating

8 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

6 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Ice Warriors

• The Seeds of Death

• The Monster of Peladon

• The Kings Demons

• The Hound of the Baskerville's

• Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo

Consulting the Matrix

Which was your favourite delegate?