OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 370
STORY NUMBER: 073
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 23 March 1974
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video
"I've been meaning to pay a return visit to Peladon for ages!"
On the planet Peladon, miners are menaced by the spirit of Aggedor and Federation mining expert Vega Nexos is slain. The miners, fearing Aggedor, refuse to work and use Federation equipment which the Federation need them to use to mine enough Trisilicate to win their war with Galaxy Five. The Doctor & Sarah arrive and are chased by guards who think they're spies and then are arrested for violating the temple of Aggedor. They are taken to the throne room of Queen Thalira, the daughter of King Peladon, where they are recognised by the Doctor's old friend Alpha Centauri who vouches for them. Disgruntled miner Gebek comes to the citadel to speak with the Queen to put his view that the aliens should be sent home. Militant miner Ettis leads miners to the citadel to try and seize Federation weapons. They take engineer Eckersley hostage but the Doctor frees him and takes the captive Ettis to the Queen. Chancellor Ortron demands Ettis & Gebek's execution but the Doctor allows them to escape. The Doctor believes Aggedor's appearances are caused by trickery and asks to investigate. The Queen's champion Blor takes the Doctor to where the apparitions were seen but the miner Ettis sets off explosives sealing them in a cave. Aggedor appears and disintegrates Blor.
Back to Peladon we go. Same tunnels as before, but a new Queen on the throne and some disorder amongst the miners. Is this the first time that Doctor Who has done a direct sequel to a story? Not just brought the monsters back, but the same location and some of the same characters? Hmmm. Yes. Ish. Web of Fear is a sequel to the Abominable Snowman (Yeti & Travers) and The Invasion is in turn a direct sequel to Web of Fear, and the Auton stories Spearhead from Space & Terror of the Autons but none are quite the same league as this/
So as you'd expect with a direct sequel there's some returning personnel: Writer Brian Hayles & Director Lennie Mayne were both present for the earlier Curse of Peladon as were those responsible for Alpha Centauri:
Inside the Alpha Centauri costume is regular stunt man Stuart Fell. Curse of Peladon was his first credited appearance having previous been a UNIT soldier & Auton in Terror of the Autons, UNIT staff member & a photographer in The Mind of Evil and a UNIT Soldier & Axon in The Claws of Axos. He then appeared as a Guard, Sailor & Sea Devil in The Sea Devils and a Functionary in Carnival of Monsters, before appearing as Alpha Centauri again here. He goes on to play the Tramp in Planet of the Spiders part two, who the Doctor drives the hovercraft over, and a Guard later in the same story, a Wirrn Larvae & Wirrn in The Ark in Space, Double for Styre in The Sontaran Experiment, The Kraal in The Android Invasion part three, the Monster in The Brain of Morbius, Forking peasant / Guard / Acolyte in The Masque of Mandragora, a Policeman, Coolie & the Giant Rat in Talons of Weng Chiang, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Sontaran in The Invasion of Time, a Shrivenzale in the Ribos Operation, Roga in State of Decay, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a masked villager in The Visitation and a Cyberman in The Five Doctors plus he did stunts in Terror of the Autons, was fight arranger in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, more stunts in The Ribos Operation & Full Circle and served as fight arranger again in State of Decay. In Blake's 7 he was Dortmunn in Mission to Destiny, a Subterron in Project Avalon, a Goth Warrior in The Keeper, a Sarran in Aftermath, a Labourer in The Harvest of Kyros, a Guard in City at the Edge of the World, a Federation Trooper in Rumours of Death, a Guard in Moloch, a Gunman in Death-Watch, a Link in Terminal & Rescue and a Hommik Warrior in Power plus he was the stunt coordinator for Project Avalon, The Keeper, Aftermath, Volcano, The Harvest of Kyros, City at the Edge of the World, Rumours of Death, Moloch, Death-Watch, Terminal, Rescue & Power. He plays a man in the Doomwatch episode Spectre at the Feast. He's in The Empire Strikes Back as a Snowtrooper and does stunts in Return of the Jedi. He also does stunt work on the Roger Moore James Bond films For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy & A View to a Kill. And so much more.
Meanwhile the voice of Alpha Centauri is provided by Ysanne Churchman who also returns in the same role in The Monster of Peladon then voices some of the eponymous monsters in the Planet of the Spiders before returning in the new series episode Empress of Mars as Alpha Centauri's voice after a 40 year absence!. She's most famous for voicing Grace Archer, the character killed off in the Radio Soap Opera the night ITV was launched.
Shall we say we'll be seeing some more of Curse's cast before this story is out and leave it at that for now ;-)
Alpha Centauri's engineer friend Eckersley is played by Donald Gee who was Major Ian Warne in the awful Space Pirates, coincidentally the penultimate second Doctor story as this one is the penultimate Third Doctor story. He has a recurring role inWhatever Happened to the Likely Lads%3F as The Vicar and appears in Yes Minister as Reporter Alex Andrews in The Skeleton in the Cupboard.He played Radagast the Brown in the BBC Radio The Lord of the Rings alongside his Space Pirates co-star Jack May, who played General Hermack in the Doctor Who story, as Theoden. Other Doctor Who personnel involved include Gerard Murphy (Richard in Silver Nemesis) as the Narrator, Bill Nighy (the guide in Vincent & The Doctor) as Sam, David Collings (Mawdryn in Mawdryn Undead) as Legolas, Peter Howell (The Investigator in the Mutants) as Saruman, Philip Voss (Acomat in Marco Polo & Wahed in The Dominators) as the Lord of the Nazgûl, Michael Spice (the voice of Morbius in The Brain of Morbius and Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang) as A Nazgûl/Háma and Stephen Thorne (Azal in the Daemons, Omega in the Three Doctors and an Eldred in Hand of Fear) as Treebeard. It's fab, buy the CDs.
The slain Federation miner Vega Nexos, made famous by the Doctor Who cards given away with Weetabix in the 1970s is played by Gerald Taylor here making his final Doctor Who appearance. He first appeared in the sixth episode of Doctor Who, The Daleks part 2: The Survivors as a Dalek, a role he repeats in Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, Dalek Masterplan, Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks and the Dr. Who and the Daleks film. He was in The Web Planet as a Zarbi and The War Machines as a War Machine and the Voice of Wotan. His first on screen appearance as a human was as Damon's Assistant in The Underwater Menace and he can be seen again as the Baker's Man in The Dæmons. He's also in one of the currently missing Out of the Unknown second season episode The Naked Sun as a robot.
Playing Queen Thalira is Nina Thomas: she's in The Sweeney episode Tomorrow Man as Caroline.
Chancellor Ortron is played by Frank Gatliff. He's got an Out of This World on his CV playing The Commander in Pictures Don't Lie. He also appears in The Tomorrow People AS Father Martin O'Connor in Secret Weapon: Not Quite a Sleeping Beauty and Blake's 7 as Dastor in The Harvest of Kairos.
The Queen's Champion Blor is played by Michael Crane who returns as a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks. In Blake's 7 he's Mall in Powerplay.
Somewhere in this episode is Thalira's Guard Captain played by regular stuntman Terry Walsh. He was a Militiaman in The Smugglers, a Soldier in The Web of Fear, a UNIT Soldier in The Invasion, The Ambassadors of Death & Inferno, in the last of which he also played a Technician and an RSF Soldier, an Auton Policeman & Unit Soldier in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Motorcyclist in The Mind of Evil, a Primitive, Colonist & IMC Guard Rogers in Colony in Space, Castle Guard Barclay & a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, an Overlord Guard in The Mutants, the Window Cleaner in The Time Monster, a Guard in The Green Death, a Warehouse Looter in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Jack, an Exxilon & a Zombie in Death to the Daleks. He returns as the Man with Boat in Planet of the Spiders, a Bouncer in Robot, Zake in The Sontaran Experiment, a Thal Soldier, Muto and Kaled Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks, a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Crew Member in Planet of Evil, the Executioner in The Masque of Mandragora, a Horda Pit Guard in The Face of Evil, Mensch in The Power of Kroll and Doran in The Creature from the Pit.
Walsh stunt doubled for the Doctor in Inferno, Terror of the Autons, Day of the Daleks, Curse of Peladon, The Sea Devils, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, Revenge of the Cybermen, Planet of Evil, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara, The Creature from the Pit. He was also the double for The Master in The Sea Devils, the Minotaur in the Time Monster, Mike Yates in The Green Death & Planet of the Spiders, Harry Sulivan in The Sontaran Experiment, Sorenson in Planet of Evil, Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin, Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara and a Stuntman on Power of Kroll. He was Fight Aarranger for The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Monster of Peladon, Planet of the Spiders, The Sontaran Experiment, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Androids of Tara & The Creature from the Pit. He also doubled for The Doctor in the Children In Need Spoof The Dimensions in Time and played the Duelling Guard and a Mercenary in The Ultimate Adventure where he also staged the fights.
He was also in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode - D for Destruction as Watts, which we like because it has Patrick Troughton and a load of control panels in it! In Space: 1999 he was Clan Guard in Journey to Where, the Rescue Eagle Pilot in The Mark of Archanon, a Technician in Space Warp and a Security Guard in The Seance Spectre. He was in Superman II as a KFC Man / French Officer and An American Werewolf in London as the Taxi Driver Who Crashes His Cab. He did stuntwork on The Italian Job, the Roger Moore James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman, Superman III & Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes' The Nightmare Man, the aforementioned An American Werewolf in London, Krull and Robin of Sherwood.
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