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?

The Seeds of Death

6 episodes
Aired between 25th January 1969 and 1st March 1969

Written by Brian Hayles
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Michael Ferguson

Synopsis

In the last century or so, the human race has developed a groundbreaking technology - matter transmission.  Instantaneous travel is possible across the globe, and even to the moonbase, a station that monitors and facilitates all T-Mat travel.

This system has run well for years, until a strange ship lands on the moonbase, undetected.  The ship is of course, manned by Ice Warriors who enter the control room and demand that the crew help them operate the T-Mat controls to Earth.  Osgood, the commander of the moonbase sabotages the controls and is killed for his troubles, along with half the crew.

Because Osgood sabotaged the T-Mat, the station in London recognises that something's wrong, but cannot T-Mat up to the moon to find out what.  Even the radio link goes unanswered.

Meanwhile, on the moon, Fewsham, one of the three surviving humans is ordered by the Ice Lord Slaar to fix the controls.

The other two humans, Locke and Phipps tell him not to, but he fears for his life, so begins to do as he's asked.

Back on Earth, Commander Radnor orders his second in command (and purveyor of the T-Mat technology) Gia Kelly to fix the fault.  After a quick investigation, Miss Kelly explains that the fault is on the moonbase and it can only be rectified there.  Miss Kelly says the situation is hopeless because T-Mat is the only way of getting to the moon now, but Commander Radnor has an idea of how they might solve it.

Elsewhere in London, the TARDIS lands and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe soon discover that it's materialised inside a space museum.  The Doctor encourages them to explore, but they get a frosty welcome from the museum's curator, Professor Eldred.

He expects them all to be making fun of him when they say they're really interested in all the rocket models about.  He explains that everyone loves T-Mat, to the point where the human race gave up on the idea of space travel after the technology was discovered.  Now, rockets are nothing but museum pieces.

As they discuss things further, Commander Radnor and Miss Kelly enter the museum.  It turns out Radnor and Eldred have a history of working together, but Radnor stabbed Eldred in the back to go and work on T-Mat.  Radnor reveals that he knows Eldred has been secretly building a rocket in his back garden and says that they need it to get to the moon to fix the T-Mat system.  In return, Radnor will ensure that Eldred gets government funding to build rockets again.

Back on the moonbase, Locke, manages to get a video message to Earth explaining that they've been taken over, much to the fright of Fewsham who reckons he's going to get them all killed.  As Locke is transmitting the message, Slaar enters and smashes the comm. system up and orders Locke killed.

Everyone in the museum is stunned when Eldred refuses to use the rocket.  Radnor points out that whole continents rely on T-Mat to give food and medical supplies and if it's not repaired, millions will die.  Eldred is stubborn though and refuses, partially because it's a neener neener to Radnor, partially because he wants people to see how crap T-Mat is, and partially because the rocket has never been tested and so it's probably a suicide mission to use it.  He only reluctantly agrees when the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe become adamant that they will pilot the rocket.  Miss Kelly wants to go up too, but Radnor won't let her because she know most about T-Mat and if she dies, they're really up the creek.

The rocket is prepared and sent into space with the TARDIS crew on board.

Miss Kelly, Commander Radnor and Professor Eldred return to T-Mat control in London to monitor from there.

With the death of Locke spurring him on, Fewsham finally completes repair of the controls, bringing T-Mat back online.  He's so busy that he doesn't see Phipps sneaking out and escaping into the moonbase corridors.

Down in London, Miss Kelly sees that the T-Mat has come online and goes to meet up with Osgood and the crew on the moon, ignoring Radnors protests.  As she arrives, she sees the panicked Fewsham at the controls.  He tells her a tale about Osgood going mad, killing the crew and then taking a space walk without a pressure suit.  Kelly thinks it's a bit fishy but begins to look over the controls as the Ice Warriors wait in hiding.  Once the T-Mat is fully operational again, the Ice Warriors show up and capture Miss Kelly.

Elsewhere in the complex, Phipps finds an equipment room and patches together a radio to contact Earth and warn them.  He's soon interrupted by an Ice Warrior, but he quickly jury riggs a solar device together that melts the Ice Warrior!

The problem is that to do this, Phipps has to disconnect the homing beacon from the solar power supply.  It's a homing beacon that the rocket the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are on will need to find its way safely to the moons surface.  Needless to say, when the Doctor and Zoe realise this, they begin panicking as they will likely either crash into the moon or float aimlessly through space forever.

Luckily for them, they manage to pick up Phipps' radio signal and follow it to the base instead.

Once safely down, the Doctor orders Jamie and Zoe to stay put whilst he goes and finds Phipps. Knowing that the Ice Warriors are aiming to invade Earth, he convinces the human that they need to destroy T-Mat.  As they go to do that though, the Ice Warriors chase them, ultimately capturing the Doctor.

As he is captive, he subtly enquires how they are going to invade Earth with such a small force.  Slaar makes it clear that they're not....just yet.  The Ice Warriors begin putting white seed pods into the T-Mat cubicle.  As the Doctor examines one, it expands and explodes, releasing some kind of dust spores into the air.

He collapses in a bout of coughing.

Elsewhere, Jamie and Zoe prepare the rocket but to their dismay find that it's useless now and cannot take off again.  This means that the T-Mat the Doctor went to destroy is the only way back to Earth.  They rush off into the base to find the Doctor and stop him before it's too late.  They eventually meet up with Phipps and a newly escaped Miss Kelly, who fill them in on what's happened.  Together they come up with a plan to turn up the heating in the base to disable the Ice Warriors.  Jamie and Phipps head off to find the thermostat.

Back in the control room, Slaar intimidates Fewsham into sending the seed pods down to all cities connected by T-Mat.  Sure enough, one arrives at the London T-Mat control.  One of the station crew examines the pod and it explodes in his face, killing him. Radnor thinking on his feet orders the extractor fans on, sucking out the harmful spore cloud. He orders the dead crewman taken away and an autopsy performed to find out how he died.

Content with the plan, Slaar turns back to the Doctor's body only to find that he's unconscious, not dead like any other human would be.  He casually orders Fewsham to T-Mat the Doctor into space.  Fewsham is wrestling with his conscience, but obeys orders.  None of them see Phipps sneak into the room and take the Doctor out of the cubicle just before the T-Mat takes place.  Abandoning the thermostat plan, Jamie and Phipps take the Doctor back to the equipment room.

Back in London, Radnor is told that the crewman died from asphyxiation.  The seeds release a fungus that depletes oxygen.

With the Doctor seemingly dealt with, Slaar next orders Fewsham to send one of his Ice Warriors down to T-Mat control in London.  Again, he argues until he's threatened with death and then relents.

As soon as the Ice Warrior reaches Earth, it goes on a rampage, killing crew and guards alike, making its way to the outside world.  Radnor and Professor Eldred barely escape alive.

They get guards to track the monster but it kills them all as they fight with the fungus spores expanding all over the countryside.

Finally alone, the Ice Warrior shambles along to the weather control station where it kills the man controlling the weather in England and sets all controls to "dry".  It then shoots them, locking them in place.

Back on moonbase, Jamie, Zoe, Phipps and Miss Kelly encounter another Ice Warrior and are forced to use the solar energy weapon again, turning the monster into slush.  Phipps places the unconscious Doctor on a table and they try to go for the thermostat again, this time taking Zoe as she's the only one small enough to fit through the vent.  They get to the control room and are soon spied by Fewsham.  He hesitates, but begins destracting the only present Ice Warrior so Zoe can sneak by and turn up the heating.  As they make their way back, the Ice Warrior sees them and kills Phipps, making Zoe freeze with fright as the Ice Warrior prepares to kill her.  She screams and begs for Fewsham to help her.

He grabs the Ice Warrior but is no match for its strength.  Luckily, the heat kicks in and the Ice Warrior collapses.

Similarly, an Ice Warrior enters the equipment store, forcing Jamie and Miss Kelly to hide.  They try to activate the solar energy weapon but it doesn't work.  The monster notices the Doctor as he begins to recover.  It prepares to deal with him, but similarly collapses when the heat level rises.

The Doctor, Jamie and Miss Kelly all go to the control room and meet up with Zoe and Fewsham.  They all T-Mat back to London, with Fewsham tricking them into believing that he'll follow last.

As they arrive in London, they find that Sir James Gregson from the UN has turned up and is demanding resolution of the T-Mat system as the world is entering crisis due to food shortages etc.

The only one who seems to want to acknowledge that the fungus expanding all over the world is somehow connected is Professor Eldred.  They plan to send up another rocket to take back the moonbase.

Back on moonbase, Fewsham acts unconscious as Slaar stumbles into the control room and manages to turn down the heating again.  He explains that they knocked him out when he refused to help them.   Slaar questions why he wouldn't help, and Fewsham states that he'd face undesirable consequences if he was to be held accountable for his actions on the moonbase.

Slaar is pleased and says that he will be allowed to live if he helps the Ice Warriors guide their fleet to the moon.  As he prepares the homing equipment and Slaar updates the Grand Marshall of the fleet, no one sees Fewsham discreetly activate the video link to London.

In T-Mat control, the Doctor and co. watch as Fewsham points out the frequency of the Ice Warrior homing beacon and the fact that if it was to be switched off or tampered with, the Ice Warrior fleet would head into the Sun.

Slaar realises what's happening a little too late and kills Fewsham for his treachery, as well as destroying the video link.  Armed with this information, the Doctor gets them to cancel the second rocket launch and use it instead to fire a satellite into space with the same frequency and thus lead the fleet into the Sun.

As the T-Mat personnel work on the satellite, the Doctor goes and gets some samples of the foamy spores and does some lab work with Professor Eldred to find out exactly what it is.  It turns out that the spores are reconditioning the Earth to be more like Mars, the Ice Warriors home planet, and moreover, they can be neutralised with simple water.  The Doctor calls Jamie and Zoe and tells them to get Radnor to contact weather control, making it rain and thus disabling the seeds effects.

Jamie and Zoe do as he's asked but find out that Radnor, Miss Kelly and Sir James Gregson are in a meeting, so they decide to head out to the weather control station themselves.  They find that the controls are bust and the crewman is dead, indicating that an Ice Warrior is inside the centre with them.

Later on, the Doctor catches up with Radnor and realises that Jamie and Zoe have gone to the station.  Eldred gasps and says that's the direction the Ice Warrior was headed when they lost it.  The Doctor rushes out into the foamy fungus landscape to get them.  He gets to the weather control station, but bangs on the door as the seeds begin to inflate and explode around him.

Hearing the Doctor's cries, Jamie distracts the Ice Warrior, allowing Zoe to pull him inside just in time.

Jamie locks the Ice Warrior inside the control room, buying the Doctor just enough time to create another solar powered weapon. As the Ice Warrior begins to cut through the door, more human guards turn up to get shot by the green scaly alien.

The Doctor emerges from the store and mushes the Ice Warrior.

Once the threat is gone, the Doctor has enough time to get the wires of the control board and bypass the shot controls, setting them to heavy rain.  Jamie complains when it doesn't cause a downpour immediately.  The Doctor reassures him that it takes time.  Together, they head back to T-Mat control, taking the now portable solar powered gun with them,

When they get back, they discover that the satellite has just been launched.  The Doctor takes the solar gun and goes up to moonbase to destroy the Ice Warrior signal.  He kills the lone warrior guarding the signal, but he's captured by Slaar and his remaining Ice Warrior.

The Ice Lord gets the Doctor to confess his intent to destroy the beacon, and it looks like he's failed, but the Ice Warrior fleet starts to follow the satellite into the Sun.  Slaar is furious when he realises that the Doctor has simply limited the range of their homing signal, making it useless.  In a rage, he orders the Doctor to be killed, but the Doctor grabs hold of the Ice Warriors hand, aiming it instead at Slaar.

The Ice Warrior goes into a rage and intends to kill the Doctor, but Jamie comes through the T-Mat and provides an eleventh hour save, ending the Ice Warrior threat forever.

The Doctor and Jamie return to Earth, finding Radnor and Eldred arguing about the prospects of relocating all T-Mat functions to London, thus putting their eggs once again into one basket.  Eldred asks the Doctor for his opinion but discovers that he, Jamie and Zoe have all sneaked off into the rain.

Back at the museum, Jamie complains that the Doctor set the rain to come down too heavy.  The Doctor grumbles that some people are never satisfied and all three enter the TARDIS, off on their next adventure.

Trivia

• Brian Hayles' original script called for the TARDIS to go to Mars itself, where they would find significantly more backstory on the Ice Warriors, including offshoot races.  Unfortunately, the story included mind control beams which were too similar to the modus operandi of the Cybermen in the Invasion being written at the time, so the script was bought, but never used.  Hayles was however asked to come up with a different story, which ended up as the Seeds of Death.

• Watch carefully at the scene where the Doctor is trapped outside the weather station and you might just see the subtle differences in his appearence between when the outdoor locations were shot and the studio shots.

• Also notice when Zoe lets the Doctor in, Wendy Padbury couldn't stop herself from laughing when the Doctor slips on the floor.  It made the cut and thus her beaming grin is on the finished article.

• This story gained a bit of a bit of an urban legend.  For the location shots, the production crew used Hampstead Heath.  Between filming, the actor playing the Ice Warrior lit up a cigarrette and stood by a tree minding his own business.  It just so happened (as the story goes) that a lady was driving past and was so shocked by the sight of the "alien" that she crashed her car into the curb / a tree / a police car depending on which version you believe.  

What worked

• Fewsham's cowardly reasons work really well and the acting is superb

• The Ice Lord costume sort of worked, although the helmet looks very suggestive.

• One final outing of the foam machine and in an outdoor setting provided much fun, mainly because of Patrick Troughton's facial expressions.

• The solar gun effect is awesome

What didn't work

• The monotonous voice of the computer that can't seem to understand the meaning of full stops.  I mean, imagine if your smartphone talked to you like that alllllll day long.  No wonder Radnor keeps telling it to stop the reports!

• What madman builds a thermostat that can go up to 100 degrees C?!

• I guess it's the same madman that builds and extractor fan that can suck the air out of a control room in double quick time!

• Ok, so following the Ice Warriors plan, they might get London, but how do they think they'll control the other cities without controlling the weather?

• Is everyone so inept that they can't manually steer a spacecraft to a planet they can see without a radio beacon?

Overall feelings

Ask anyone born up to 1985 if they liked Superman III as a kid and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't, myself included.  However, I watched it the other day with my friend and you would not believe how surreal and illogical it all is.  Sure, everyone's acting is superbly corny and funny, especially Richard Pryor, but I couldn't help shake my head at all the random and frankly bonkers stuff that happens in it.

What has this got to do with Doctor Who?

Well, if you ask anyone who likes the classic series of Doctor Who if they like the Seeds of Death and I'll wager that the majority of people will say it's a great episode without strictly noting why.

The background for the story is initially elaborate and the premise of poisonous pods being used to suffucate everyone on earth is refreshingly good.  Likewise is the moral quandary of Fewsham.  The actor really pulls this off and gives us a sense of urgency about his plight.  On the surface, this story IS great, and it's the last Troughton example of a base under siege which adds extra nostalgia.  However, look under the thin veneer and it just doesn't stand up well at all.

To really enjoy some of the classic series, it's a prerequisite to be able to look beyond the shoddy rubber costumes and rickety sets.  This story made it impossible, not because of the sets or the costumes (although the crew shell suits are a bit much).  The biggest problem is just the rationalisation of everything.  The fact that people stopped wanting to go into space because they found T-Mat; the fact that there's absolutely no failsafe for T-Mat crashing; the speed in which nations go into crisis; the lack of foresight for the Ice Warriors to realise that if it rains on Earth their plans will fail or the scope of troops they would need to capture all weather control bases on Earth in an impossibly short amount of time, and lets not forget the fact that like the Wheel in Space and the Invasion, nobody can pilot a ship without a homing beacon and if it goes wrong, you automatically get sent to the Sun.

A lot of these faults could perhaps be forgiven if the story was shorter, because they wouldn't have needed half of the excuses, but there we go.

Rating

6 out of 10

A half decent attempt at a base under siege, but spoiled by rubbish logic

Rewatchability Factor

6 out of 10

Quite boring to watch through in its entirety, but it still has some good bits.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Moonbase

• The Ice Warriors

• The Wheel in Space

• Fury From the Deep

Consulting the Matrix

What was the most bonkers part of this story for you?