The Monster of Peladon

You forget, Doctor, I am your judge. Your jury and executioner too. Perhaps.

Azaxyr

Synopsis

The Doctor brings Sarah Jane back to Peladon, fifty years after his original visit. Whilst time has passed and Peladon is now part of the Galactic Federation, circumstances do not seem to have improved on the planet, disgruntling the miners, especially when Aggedor appears to them and starts killing them.

Review

The Monster of Peladon is certainly a story with a pretty rotten reputation, so I was coloured surprised that I found myself enjoying it. It is by no means a good story, but it is perhaps not as awful as its reputation would have you believe.

The idea at the heart of The Monster of Peladon is fundamentally a good one. The Curse of Peladon is a story that creates a good alien world for the Pertwee era and it is understandable why the show would want to go back there. It’s also not a terrible idea to have a time jump, so as to allow the audience to see the impact of the Doctor’s last visit. It is, perhaps, in the fact that the story does not seem sure about what it is trying to say where The Monster of Peladon falls short.

Whilst The Curse of Peladon was about the benefits to Peladon of joining the Galactic Federation, Monster shows that the reality is not all that rosy. The miners of Peladon are exploited by the Federation for the valuable mineral trisilicate, which they need for their war against Galaxy Five, and are understandably disgruntled as they see that the planet’s rulers are benefitting from Federation membership more than them. Ultimately, it feels as though Brian Hayles doesn’t really commit to coming down on one side or the other, showing the Federation to be deeply flawed whilst the people of the Peladon are superstitious barbarians, with some of them, namely Ettis, seem unwilling to listen to reason. With the rebellious miners able to easily gain access to the citadel on numerous occasions across this story’s six parts, it does seem to be a form of padding the story out further as Hayles has little more to say or have the characters do. This ultimately to the detriment of the story as it doesn’t feel as though the story has a coherent idea of what it has to say, unlike The Curse of Peladon, and feels like it just exists to retread the ideas of the original story. The story also suffers from having six parts, which feels as though the

Eckersley, played by Donald Gee, smacks as a villain, albeit it one of the more charming ones. Clad all in black, Eckersley smarms his way through the early stages of the story, ultimately forcing Alpha Centauri to agree to call in the Federation army, formed of the Ice Warriors. However, this is a conspiracy to assist the enemies of the Federation, with Axazyr’s Ice Warriors and Eckersley attempting to win the war for Galaxy Five. The show previously span the Ice Warriors by making them allied with the Federation in Curse, and although the Ice Warriors are villainous again here, the story is at pains to mention that Azaxyr’s troops are part of a breakaway faction. Using Aggedor to spread fear and discontent amongst the people of Peladon is a rather good idea, and it easy to see why when the creature is capable of killing indiscriminately.

A lot of reviews of this story and Season 11 state that Jon Pertwee seems as though he is on autopilot but The Monster of Peladon might just be the first story where that felt like the case to me. It’s not meant as disrespect to him, and he was clearly attached to Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney and Roger Delgado, and the departure, phasing out and death of those individuals respectively was always going to have an impact on him. Doctor Who in 1974 was very different to the show he took the lead role of in 1970, and perhaps the reality of what leaving meant was finally starting to catch up with him at this stage of production. I think that, in praising his predecessor Patrick Troughton for ensuring that the show survived passed its initial three years and Tom Baker for being at the helm at the time of the show’s peak, Jon Pertwee is occasionally overlooked for his importance in ensuring the show got to its first decade. All of this is to say that this is not a bad performance from Pertwee as the Third Doctor, but rather that it is not amongst his best. He continues to be a force of calm and stability throughout The Monster of Peladon.

Whilst Pertwee was undoubtedly missing Katy Manning, he does certainly have good rapport with her successor, Elisabeth Sladen. It is definitely a different relationship than the one that she will have with his successor, but there is a lot to enjoy about Sarah Jane here, and the story is definitely stronger when she is on screen, which is an enormous amount of credit to Elisabeth Sladen. Sarah is given a chance to promote women’s liberation on Peladon, encouraging Queen Thalira, to stand up for herself and be more assertive, which is certainly something the young ruler of Peladon needs as she seems to be rather subservient to her Chancellor, Ortron. Sladen is particularly good in the scenes when she believes that the Doctor is dead, setting up Planet of the Spiders really well.

Verdict: The Monster of Peladon is not the best story but not the worst one of the Pertwee era and has some good ideas, but fails in its execution. 4/10

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Nina Thomas (Thalira), Donald Gee (Eckersley), Frank Gatliff (Ortron), Rex Robinson (Gebek), Alan Bennion (Azaxyr), Sonny Caldinez (Sskel), Ralph Watson (Ettis), Ysanne Churchman (Voice of Alpha Centauri), Stuart Fell (Body of Alpha Centauri), Gerald Taylor (Vega Nexos), Graeme Eton (Preba), Michael Crane (Blor), Terry Walsh (Guard Captain), Nick Hobbs (Aggedor), Roy Evans (Miner) & Max Faulkner (Miner).

Writer: Brian Hayles

Director: Lennie Mayne

Producer: Barry Letts

Composer: Dudley Simpson

Original Broadcast Dates: 23rd March to 27th April 1974

Parts: 6

Behind the Scenes

• This story had the working title Return to Peladon.
• The story was originally envisaged as a direct sequel to The Curse of Peladon, meant to occur a few years after that story.
• This is the last television story to feature the Ice Warriors for 39 years, with the creatures appearing in Cold War in 2013.

Cast Notes

• Donald Gee had also appeared in the penultimate Second Doctor serial, The Space Pirates.
• Rex Robinson had previously played Dr Tyler in The Three Doctors and would go on to play Dr Carter in The Hand of Fear.
• This is the third and final story to feature Alan Bennion, who played Ice Lords Slaar in The Seeds of Death and Izlyr in The Curse of Peladon.
• The fifth and final appearance of Sonny Caldinez, who had played Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks and Ice Warriors in The Ice Warriors, The Seeds of Death and The Curse of Peladon.
• Ralph Watson had played Captain Knight in The Web of Fear and would go on to play Ben Travers in Horror of Fang Rock.
• Gerald Taylor had been a Dalek Operator from The Daleks to The Evil of the Daleks. He also appeared in The Web Planet, The War Machines, The Underwater Menace and The Daemons.
• Nick Hobbs also played Aggedor in The Curse of Peladon, as well as being a Wirrn Operator in The Ark in Space and playing Mr Nainby in Amy’s Choice.
• Roy Evans played Trantis in The Daleks’ Master Plan and Bert Pritchard in The Green Death.
• Max Faulkner appeared in The Ambassadors of Death, Planet of the Spiders, Genesis of the Daleks, The Android Invasion and The Invasion of Time.

Best Moment

The cliffhanger at the end of Episode 3, revealing the Ice Warrior in the refinery.

Best Quote

The citadel of Peladon, Sarah. One of the most interesting and –

Oh no it isn’t – is it Doctor?

Well, no, not exactly.

No, it’s not your precious citadel at all. It’s another rotten gloomy old tunnel!

Yes, well, with the scanner still on the blink, there was no way I could really check!

There’s more than the scanner on the blink.

The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith

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