61: The Curse Of Peladon - Doctor Who At Its Multifaceted Finest

Written by: Brian Hayles.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant.

Monsters/Villains: Aggedor, Arcturus, Ice Warriors, Alpha Centauri.

Brief Synopsis: The Ghost of Aggedor threatens to stop the planet Peladon from joining the Galactic Federation.

Rating: 10/10.

Okay it's been nearly a month since I reported back on Day of The Daleks and I can't apologise enough. So much has been happening. I've started as a staff writer for The Gallifrey Times and a regular reviewer for Blogtor Who but now I'm back here to give you the skinny on an old favourite of mine, The Curse of Peladon.

The Curse of Peladon was the very first story in Doctor Who to be broadcast in a different order from which it was filmed, when it switched places with the previously produced story The Sea Devils. This doesn't sound like the most fascinating fact, but it meant a great deal to all the stories that would follow. Due to the narrow gap between recording and broadcast it had been impossible before this time to broadcast out of production order this extra time gave space for more editing, although you could argue that after this some of the immediacy of the series was gone.

The Ice Warriors are back!

The Curse of Peladon marks the return of writer Brian Hayles and his creations the Ice Warriors, this time appearing somewhat more civilised and in attendance on the planet Peladon to assess it's bid to join the Galactic Federation. Unlike many other Who stories this one doesn't feature just one bug-eyed monster, not even two, but three. Joining the martians we have delegates from Arcturus and Alpha Centauri. It's surprising that we don't get this sort of thing more often; whenever the Doctor arrives on a new planet  he rarely seems to meet more than one alien species. In this instance the Doctor crash lands  on a mountainside beneath a castle and is mistaken for the Chairman delegate from Earth introducing Jo Grant as HRH Princess Josephine of TARDIS.

We also see the return of second Doctor Patrick Troughton's son, David Troughton. This time giving a beautiful performance as the young King Peladon, struggling with this difficult decision that will effect all the people of his planet. From the get go people are murdered and the Doctor assumes that the Ice Warriors must be behind it.

The design is unusual but brilliant. Red and white hair and purple robes.

I have always been a big fan of "political Who," and this story certainly falls under that heading. The story is a then-topical, political allegory for the UK's accession to the EEC (European Economic Community). When The Curse of Peladon was aired in January 1972 the whole country were talking about PM Edward Heath's decision for the UK to join the common market. In this story Peladon stands in for the UK, with it's fears and hesitations to join the Galactic Federation (the EEC). Which countries Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and the Mars represent isn't made abundantly clear, although I like to think the Martians are Germany (previous enemies) Arcturus is France or maybe Italy and Alpha Centauri is Luxembourg or more likely Belgium (somewhere relatively small).

Brian Hayles.

Unlike another political Who writer Malcolm Hulke, who tended towards fairer representation of both sides of the argument, Brian Hayles clearly comes down on one side of things. He is clearly in favour of the join drawing connections between religion and tradition vesus science and progress.

However The Curse of Peladon isn't just a political intrigue story, it's also a murder mystery, a shakespearian tragedy, the personal story of a young King and a romance between Peladon and the Princess Josephine. In short it's a truly multifaceted story, which surely forms a large part of it's appeal.

Jo actually gets quite a bit to do in this one and certainly has a real baring on proceedings. Her romantic side story with the King is handled beautifully. I always wonder what might have happened had she decided to stay on Peladon.

When he accidentally sets foot in the Temple of Aggedor, the Doctor is forced to take part in trial by combat, and manages to best the King's champion, Grun. Delegate Arcturus shows his true colours when he tries to shoot the Doctor, but the Ice Warrior, Ssorg shoots Arcturus first. To the viewers surprise it turns out that it wasn't the Ice Warriors behind the attempts to stop Peladon joining the Galactic Federation. King Peladon's High Priest Hepesh was so afraid of change that he allied himself with the delegate from Arcturus; a planet poor in mineral wealth and hoping for a mining treaty, to stop Peladon's accession and take over the planet. 

Arcturus.

Hepesh's men storm the castle defeating the royal guard and capturing the King. The Doctor wins the day when he comes across a rare specimen of Peladon's sacred beast Aggedor, and using hypnosis, empathy and a Venusian lullaby he calms the creature. It transpires that Hepesh previously found a lone  Aggedor beast and trained it to do his bidding. The Doctor produces the creature to the King as proof and it attacks and kills Hepesh. 

The oddly loveable beast, Aggedor.

The Curse of Peladon is a brilliant story because it is multifaceted, entertaining, mysterious, charming, dramatic, political, exciting and romantic. It's everything Doctor Who can be when it's at its very best. It has an excellent and memorable cast, it's overflowing with atmosphere and both Pertwee and Manning are at the top of their game. 

Join me next time for another old favourite, The Sea Devils.

48: The Seeds of Death - Or "The White Balloons Filled With Talcum Powder Of Possible, Yet Unlikely, Death"

Written by: Brian Hayles.

Companions: The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot.

Monsters/Villains: Ice Warriors/Martians, Ice Lord.

Brief Synopsis: Some familiar alien invaders take control of T-Mat and hold the world hostage.

Rating: 5/10.

Hello faithful readers, apologies that I have been a tad on the absent side recently. I am now returned and excited to let you know about how I got on with The Seeds Of Death or as I have re-dubbed it: The White Balloons Filled With Talcum Powder Of Possible, Yet Unlikely, Death. I was thrilled to be unexpectedly joined for this one by my good friend Phil who happened to be staying with me last week.

T-Mat cubical. 

So here we are at some point in the 21st century. It's not quite a base-under-siege but more like the whole planet. Completely scrapping cars, trains, ships, planes and space rockets, the world's travel has been completely dominated by T-Mat: a matter transmitter that sends food, supplies and people anywhere on earth and to the moon in the blink of an eye. Sounds good huh, but what happens when control of that technology is seized on the moon by alien invaders?

Osgood, one of the technicians on the Moonbase (presumably the same base from The Moonbase at an earlier point in time) sacrifices himself but not before disabling T-Mat, halting the aliens' invasion plans.

Commander Radnor and Miss. Kelly.

Fortunately the TARDIS arrives in a Space Museum (not the same one from Hartnell's story) and the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie meet Professor Eldred, who just happens to be the one man on earth still interested in space rockets and he also happens to have been building one on the sly; convenient that! T-Mat is overseen by Commander Radnor but actually controlled and run by a woman, Miss. Kelly. Towards the end of the first episode one of the moonbase technicians manages to get a message to earth. He tells them of Osgood's death but unfortunately he gets iced before he can say more. I think if it had been me I'd have led with Alien invaders as apposed to one man's death.

Radnor persuades Eldred to let them use his rocket.
(The real one not this model)

Episode two is filled with some pretty flimsy, farfetched plot points. Phil and I both agree that it is totally ridiculous when the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie, whose presence there is totally unexplained, are chosen to man the rocket to the moon. If the whole world were in danger, would you send three complete strangers in the one and only rocket you have to get to the moon, without even knowing if they have the knowledge to pilot a rocket or to repair the damaged machinery in the base once they get there, if they get there? 

The irreplaceable Miss. Kelly.

As if that wasn't enough Radnor refuses to let Miss. Kelly go, because she is "the only one who understands T-Mat." Well that's a little irresponsible, isn't it?! Phil points out what, " what if she's hit by a car." (He then realises there aren't any cars due to T-Mat.) "Well what if she get's killed... somehow?"

Three rather unlikely rocket pilots.

Phil points out a hilarious moment when we see the weakness/ingenuity on the budget of Doctor Who in the 60's when the Doctor and his two companions simulate space weightlessness by waving their arms around; priceless. 

The Aliens are revealed to be non-other than the Ice Warriors, or Martians for the less xenophobic. To keep their return a surprise, Steve Peters was credited as Alien in the Radio Times for Episode 1. We are also introduced to the first Ice Lord. They are smaller and have different armour and helmets than their ice warrior brothers; they are also more intelligent and speak better. The Second episode climaxes as Phil describes it when Phipps, one of the moonbase technicians 'arranges some heat lamps and uses them to melt one of the Ice Warriors.'

Fortunately for Radnor, Miss. Kelly and everyone one else on earth, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie make it to the moonbase, but they are captured by the Ice Warriors. The Doctor points out there are too few (Phil and I tried to work out how many there were, we recon about seven) of them to invade the earth and learn that they plan to send "seeds" down to earth to change the atmosphere making the planet uninhabitable for humans and perfect for Martian colonisation. 

Miss Kelly and Zoe fix the "heat lamps."

Miss Kelly manages to get to the Moonbase when T-Mat is briefly operational again and fix the damage. She soon learns of the Martians and meets up with the Doctor and Phipps. They want to use the same booby trap as before but it is broken. Fortunately Phipps changes the bulb in one of the "heat lamps" and miraculously the signal returns. Miss. Kelly then plugs in the "heat lamp" and another Ice Warrior is melted to nothingness! Meanwhile conditions on earth are worsening and major cities are suffering food shortages. "After one day," points out Phil! 

Fewsham.

Fewsham, the moonbase’s second in command, fears for his own life and continuously aides the Ice Warriors to save himself including T-Matting their "Seeds" down to earth. We then encounter the aforementioned and titular "Seeds" or "White balloons filled with talcum powder" of (possible, yet unlikely) Death. I think maybe they thought that if everyone in the story who sees one of these organic devices seems to think that they look like seedpods we as the audience will accept this and agree. I think they look like balloons. As if that wasn't bad enough they reclassify the "seeds" as fungus. Now it's been a while since I last did biology but seeds and fungus are different things. It seems to me if you're gonna name a story" The Seeds of Death," you should be pretty damn certain your main threat should definitely be a seed and not a fungus. The Fungus of Death doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

When the "seed" arrives it emits fumes that cause oxygen starvation. Phil points out that Radnor and Professor Eldred; the oldest guys there, are unaffected but the young, healthy, yet dispensable technician guy - dead! Oddly, one guy whom a coughing and spluttering Radnor orders to activate the air conditioning to rescue them seems entirely unaffected. 

Zoe and Phipps plan to literally turn up the heat in the Moonbase to take care of the Ice Warriors, rather hilariously the temperature control says 'cold' and 'full on.'  Zoe gets caught and is just about to be killed by one of the Martians when as Phil points out the huge cavernous space that is the moonbase control room is almost instantly filled with heat, immobilising the Ice Warrior. Meanwhile one of the Warriors is T-matted to earth with the important mission to sabotage the weather control centre.

The Doctor handles a ball or "seed."

The Doctor discovers that ordinary H2O destroys the fungus and runs really fast to the Weather control centre. I laughed as I realised that the rain and weather for London or possibly the whole county or even the world is all controlled from one console; again, seems a little irresponsible. The best/silliest cliff-hanger ever then takes place when the Doctor is obscured by foam as he tries to enter the Weather control centre.

As silly and farfetched yet undoubtedly enjoyable the majority of this story is, the plot takes an unfortunately dull turn for the worst towards the end that is sadly reminiscent of the Wheel in Space. Back on the moonbase the Ice Lord Commander Slaar speaks to Grand Marshal Sparkly Sequins who informs him that the Martian fleet is enroute. Slaar commands Fewsham to connect a homing beacon to guide the fleet to earth. 

Grand Marshal Sparkly Sequins.

In an act of redemption, Fewsham activates the video link so the Ice Warriors’ signal can be overheard on earth. The earth forces form a plan to send a false signal, which draws the Ice Warriors fleet off track and into the sun. It seems to me that with all this futuristic technology an alien fleet like the Cybermen or the Ice Warriors could find their way to earth from mars without a signal to guide them, and for that matter if they were following a signal that took them straight into the sun they would think: "hmmm, perhaps we ought not to follow this signal anymore, cause I don't know about you guys but I'm getting a little on the warm side."

In this largely futuristic story Zoe has really flourished but Jamie on the other hand seems a little surplus to requirements. They throw him a bone at the very end where he gets to razzle some Ice Warriors, but overall this scenario really exposes his character's weakness in 'future' based stories.

I ask phil for his overall thoughts and his main criticisms seems to centre around the programme's poor/flat direction and shoddy camera work. He says he liked the special effects, for the time, he likes Troughton and his credits but he seems most impressed with Zoe, which I can understand. Phil gives The Seeds of Death 6/10; just one point more than myself.

Phil and I agree we both love Zoe.

Regardless of it's often weak plot points I did really enjoy The Seeds of Death, even if they weren't technically seeds. One must bare in mind that in 1969 the world was obsessed by space travel. It's great to turn this on it's head and have a population entirely reliant on T-Mat and uninterested in space travel, which leads to all the problems in the first place. I'm not sure if this was meant to be a comment on space travel as a fad, but if so Brian Hayles was spot on as the worlds space programme is no longer breaking boundaries as it once did. As fun as this ironic premise is, it isn't always enough and the story often doesn't know how to get from A to B, however it still has much to offer.

Join me next time for Troughton's penultimate adventure, and the last of the incomplete stories The Space Pirates...

39: The Ice Warriors - A Morality Tale On The Misgivings Of Reliance On Computer Technology, With Martians.

Written by: Brian Hayles.

Companions: The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield.

Monsters/Villains: Ice Warriors.

Brief Synopsis: In the year 3000 AD a group of scientists living through a second ice age discover a frozen Martian.

Rating: 7/10.

Hello blog-a-teers! I have to start this one again by apologising for my total lack of blogs lately. I have been incredibly busy with auditions for the last month and have neglected you the worst yet. All things being well, I should have some more time on my hands and be ready to continue my epic pilgrimage through the annals of Doctor Who. I should also say although I am writing up my blog on this story now, I actually watched it about a month ago, so if I miss anything out or get anything wrong, that's why!

It's the Ice Warriors, and it's nearly all here, which makes a pleasant change. Only episodes 2 and 3 are missing. In my opinion this isn't one of the best stories ever, but it does introduce one of my all time favourite aliens, the Martians or as they are dubbed here: Ice Warriors.

They're very impressive looking creations, turtle like and huge, although to this day it is still not exactly clear wether their bodies are armour or their actual torsos. They do not have a name, but take one from their planet Mars. However like a lot of Doctor Who, somewhere along the way someone has picked up that they are actually called Ice Warriors and it kind of stuck. In their first outing they do look impressive however their mouths don't move with their words, which one could say gives them an eerie edge or 'looks a bit crap.' 

The faults with this story tend to lay in it's length, there are lots of good ideas in the mix, however they are stretched so thinly over the 6 episode structure it is hard for the tension to really build. It is a fairly unusual story. There are no evil 'take over the world' villains, merely some aliens who want to return home. But in order for them to do so they must disable and cannibalise the Earth base's reactor which would leave the human's without heat or power and allow the massive ice glaciers held at bay to break across the earth. So there's quite a lot at stake.

The first episode opens with this odd soprano music. It adds atmosphere but it is also quite funny. We see the white "futuristic" Brittanicus base from which some humans are trying to stop the Earth's glaciers from moving. Some of the base's scientists find a man buried in the ice.

The TARDIS materialises on it's side, and the doors open outward. This has only happened twice in the whole history of Doctor Who, here and again in Matt Smith's first episode The Eleventh Hour. Both times the TARDIS had landed on it's side. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria climb out. Jamie thinks they're still in Tibet but the Doctor quickly spies a huge dome made of plastic. The trio enter and meet the commander, Clent. There are odd moments in this story where they pass from room to room and one will look like a futuristic control room and the next a victorian house. The production team probably used bits of set from previous episodes or other programmes. They explain this by saying that they commandeered a house for their base of operations. It's a bit odd but a clever way to get around budget issues.

The Doctor and co are tagged as scavengers who are all being evacuated, but when the Doctor enters the control room and manages to prevent an imminent reactor explosion, Clent decides to test the Doctor further. If he succeeds he'll stay and help, if not he will be evacuated to Africa with the other scavengers. The Doctor passes the test and as Penley, the base's chief scientist is 'missing' the Doctor is asked to join the team. The current problems have been caused by a severe drop in the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere following the wholesale extermination of plant life. The Doctor expresses his misgivings of total reliance on computers.

Peter Barkworth as Clent.

Jamie and Victoria have an interesting discussion concerning the fashion of the current time. Only in Doctor Who could you get a highlander from the mid-18th century discussing fashion trends from the year 3000 with a girl from the landed gentry in the 1850's. Meanwhile Arden, another scientist from the base returns with his ice man, which he begins to defrost quickly. It is alive. 

'Interesting' fashion.

Both episodes two and three are missing. The green warrior knocks down Jamie and takes Victoria away. The Doctor explains to Clent that the Warrior's helmet has electric connections meaning it must be alien and they realise that there must also be a space craft buried in the glacier.

The warrior tells Victoria that he is from Mars and is called Varga. Victoria explains that Varga has been in the ice for thousands of years, since the first ice age. The warrior only wants to defrost his colleagues and return home. Varga uses his sonic gun to defrost four more warriors. He orders his fellow warrior Zondal to locate the buried space ship. Zondal and the other warriors use their sonic guns to blast a tunnel to the ships airlock.

Peter Sallis as Penley.

Jamie and Arden enter the cave created by the Martians, but the warriors emerge and shoot Arden who takes the full force of the blast saving Jamie who is only knocked out. The missing scientist Penley (who is played by Peter Salis of Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit fame) finds Jamie and brings him to his hideout, and his friend, Storr (played by Angus Lennie who returns to Doctor Who in Terror of the Zygons); a savage who is against scientists tampering with nature. Victoria tries to contact the base and Varga trains the space craft's weapon on her in case she gives up too much information. The warriors are about to fire on her but decide to use her as bait. They lose contact as the glacier is moving and Victoria runs.

Miss Garrett says that Mars' atmosphere is chiefly made up of nitrogen, which although at the time was believed to be so we now know to be untrue. The Doctor goes to the ship to rescue Victoria but she has already escaped and a warrior chasing her is famously killed by an avalanche caused by her screaming.

Look out mate, you don't have a name and Victoria Waterfield
is screaming in a cave made of ice! Watch it!

Penley and Storr are looking after Jamie as he wakes, his legs are paralysed due to the warriors' rays. Storr goes to meet the Warriors but finds Victoria, he pretends to help her but instead takes her back to the ship, and tries to throw in with the Warriors thinking them to be against the scientists. They kill him for being useless to them.

Angus Lennie as Storr.

The Doctor meets Penley and they go to Jamie. Penley takes Jamie back to the base and the Doctor goes to see the warriors and enters their ship's airlock. We then get a fantastically silly cliffhanger where Varga gradually reduces the pressure in the airlock unless the Doctor agrees to answer his questions.

Walters goes a bit mad.

Varga threatens Victoria so the Doctor tells him that he will find the fuel he needs for their ship's ion reactor at the base. Varga rallies his warriors for an attack. Penley and Jamie arrive at the base, but Clent orders them stunned and they are taken away. Varga contacts Clent ordering him to surrender. Clent suggests a peace meeting. A technician, Walters becomes crazed and tries to smash the computer but Miss Garrett stops him by using the stun gun. Walters then tries to attack the warriors at the peace meeting but they kill him. Varga wants to take the mercury isotopes from the ioniser reactor without any regard to how this will affect the humans, the dome and the world. Without the ioniser the glaciers begin to move forward.

Wendy Gifford as Miss Garrett.

Back at the Martian ship the Doctor alters the Warriors' sonic cannon to harm the Martians and not the humans. Penley adjusts the temperature controls making it uncomfortable for the warriors. The Doctor fires the cannon forcing the warriors to retreat; he then fuses it and leaves.

Victoria and the Doctor return to the base. The Doctor tells them that the ships reactor is ion based. The computer states that there is a fifty-fifty chance that the ioniser will explode when trained on a space craft with an ion engine. Penley enters and points out to Clent that choice is the strength of man. Acting on his own volition, Penley starts the ioniser. The warriors discover that their ship has power as the ice melts around it. The martian ship begins to take off but is destroyed by the ioniser. The ship explodes with only a minor explosion destroying both the oncoming glacier and the warriors. Clent thanks Penley and the TARDIS crew slip away.

The tale certainly has a good moral which is still valid today. We as a race are becoming more and more reliant on technology. This story, however silly in places, certainly points out the eventual extremes that could happen to a society that depends too fully on computers and technology.The Martians are pretty cool and will certainly be back. On paper this story sounds great, it's a shame it was so clumsily handled when being produced.

Join me next time for The Enemy Of The World.