OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 375
STORY NUMBER: 073
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 April 1974
WRITER: Brian Hayles
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Peladon Tales: Curse of Peladon & Monster of Peladon
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video
"Tell your men to lay down their arms, or the Queen will die!"
The Doctor uses the Aggedor apparition and heat ray to attack the Ice Warriors, destroying all bar Sskel. Aggedor appears before the miners convincing them to side with Gebek. Eckersley deploys the refinery's security system against the Doctor. He sends Sarah to warn Gebek. Eckersley steps the system up to maximum as Azaxyr prepares to ambush the miners, but the Doctor uses Aggedor to kill the remainder of Azaxyr's troops causing him to flee. The Doctor is overcome by the security system and collapses. Sarah forces Eckersley to deactivate the alarm but he escapes. Azaxyr and Sskel hold the queen hostage, but are overcome by the miners and killed. The Queen is taken hostage by Eckersley as he flees to a hidden shuttle. Sarah goes to the refinery and discovers the Doctor is still alive. He fetches Aggedor to track Eckersley & the Queen. Thalira attempts to escape, allowing Aggedor to attack Eckersley but both are killed. Thalira asks the Doctor to stay and become her new chancellor but he declines and nominates Gebek. Alpha Centauri announces that when news of Azaxyr & Eckersley's scheme's collapse was received Galaxy Five sued for peace. Gebek's miners locate the Tardis for the Doctor allowing him & Sarah to leave.
I enjoyed that. Sure it's standard enough fare as the people rise up and overthrow their oppressors with a little help from the Doctor but that's what you want to see a lot of the time. I approached Monster of Peladon with some trepidation due to it's reputation of being Curse's poorer cousin but once again watching episodically reveals that the first three episodes are what drags the story down and that the last three are quite good, albeit pretty standard fight the monsters fare.
There does seem to have been real social change on Peladon though, firstly with the Queen now firmly in control in her own right and not being reliant on or a figurehead for elderly statesmen.
THALIRA: Once again, Peladon owes you a great debt, Doctor, just as in my father's time. But this time, I hope that you'll stay long enough for us to show our gratitude.Then there's her eventual Chancellor, recommended by the Doctor, with a miner being elevated to high rank.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, as a matter of fact, your Majesty, I
THALIRA: I shall want your help and your advice, Doctor.
SARAH: Oh, your Majesty. You stood up to Ortron, and to Azaxyr and the Ice Warriors. You don't need anyone's help.
THALIRA: I shall be needing a new Chancellor. I had hoped that you might stay.
DOCTOR: Well, I know just the man, your Majesty. Gebek.
THALIRA: We have the greatest admiration for Gebek, but he has no title. He's only a miner.
SARAH: There's nothing only about being a miner, your Majesty, anymore there was about being a girl.
DOCTOR: It's the man that counts, your Majesty. You can always give him a title.
THALIRA: It seems that all I can give you is my thanks.
DOCTOR: Well, I shall always be grateful for the honour, your Majesty. But I'm quite certain that Gebek is the right man.
There's perhaps a little prefiguring of what's to come next story when Sarah finds The Doctor in The Refinery?
SARAH: Oh!
DOCTOR: Tears?
DOCTOR: Anyone would think you thought I was dead.
SARAH: Well, of course I did. You looked dead.
DOCTOR: Well, even I couldn't stand the row from Eckersley's patent alarm system any longer, so I put myself into a complete sensory withdrawal.
SARAH: What?
DOCTOR: Well, a sort of trance. I shut myself off.
SARAH: You did it on purpose? You mean I had all that worry for nothing!
DOCTOR: Well, don't sound so aggrieved. Anybody would think you prefer me dead. Come on, let's go and find the others.
Or did Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks like this bit and choose to echo it during the scene at the end of Planet of Spiders 6?
Max Faulkner, a regular actor and stuntman, receives his second on-screen credit in this episode as a Miner following The Ambassadors of Death where he was a UNIT soldier - he also played a UNIT soldier in Inferno and an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks He'll be back as on of the Guard Captains in the next story, the Planet of the Spiders, a Thal Guard in Genesis of the Daleks, an Astronaut in Planet of Evil, Corporal Adams in The Android Invasion, Doctor Carter's stuntman in The Hand of Fear, which he also was the Fight Arranger on, a Horda Pit Guard in Face of Evil, a Coolie & Policeman in Talons of Weng-Chiang, an Other in The Sun Makers, Nesbin in The Invasion of Time and a guard in Creature from the Pit. In The Prisoner he's the First Horseman in Living in Harmony and the Scots Napoleon in The Girl Who Was Death. He then appears in Space: 1999 as Ted Clifford in Ring Around the Moon, Survivors as Phil in Mad Dog, Blake's 7 as a Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, God's Wonderful Railway as the Scarecrow in The Permanent Way, The Day of the Triffids episode 2 as Jo's Attacker and twice in Robin of Sherwood as Gisbourne's Helper in The Children of Israel and Oliver in The Power of Albion. In the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film GoldenEye he's a Guard at the Helicopter Show.
One more new Miner this episode Eden Fox, who the DWAS production file says is replacing John Cannon, a miner in earlier episodes, for this episode only. He had previously been a Highlander in The Highlanders, a Man in Firing Squad & Machine Gunner in The War Games, an Axon blob in Claws of Axos and a Scientist in The Time Warrior. In Porridge he was a Prisoner in No Way Out & Rough Justice.
This is the last Doctor Who script from Brian Hayles, who died on October 30th, 1978. In between this story and his death he novelised the Ice Warriors & Curse of Peladon, while Monster of Peladon was eventually novelised by Terrance Dicks in February 1980. Monster of Peladon was the last Pertwee novel released until 1984. I can remember seeking this book out as a youngster, probably soon after I'd seen Curse on the television in the Doctor Who & The Monsters repeat season. I enjoyed it a lot which made my subsequent first encounter with it on video such a struggle. As I've said, watching it episodically in recent years has somewhat redeemed the second half. Some of Hayles' Doctor Who work I struggled with: Celestial Toymaker and bits of the Ice Warriors & Seeds of Death. But I love the Smugglers, one of the better historical tales, and Curse of Peladon, with it's playing with you expectations for the Ice Warriors.
In addition to it being Hayles' last script it's also the last appearance for both Alan Bennion, who's played every "Ice Lord" a term that never is heard on screen, and Sonny Caldinez who's been in every Ice Warrior story as a hulking presence in the background. It's the last time we see Hayles' Martian creations too in the original series of Doctor Who, although they have since made a new series return in 2013's The Cold War, but we'll visit their home shortly in The Pyramids Of Mars.
Monster of Peladon was a double pack video release and later was released on DVD in the Doctor Who - Peladon Tales boxset with Curse of Peladon, one of the more sensible boxset pairings!
Join us next week as we start the last story for Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor: The Planet Of The Spiders.
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