"The Citadel of Peladon, Sarah! One of
the most interestingly-"
"Oh no it isn't, is it Doctor?"
"No, not exactly..."
"No! It's not your precious citadel at
all, it's another rotten, gloomy old tunnel!"
So, fusses Sarah Jane Smith as the Doctor makes his return to Peladon
fifty years after the events of his first adventure there. A lot has changed on
the planet since that time, and then again nothing much has changed at all.
Peladon has now joined the Galactic Federation, but things are not working out
well for the planet at all.
Peladon as a planet is at once one of the strongest realised planets.
the caves and interior of the citadel are superbly rich and give the story a
very realistic feel and tone. The feeling of medieval corridors and flambeaus
is a rich tapestry in which to set a truly decent story. All credit must go to
the set designers. The setting feels totally authentic.
The Monster of Peladon is a story that never seems to garner much
applause or commendation. It is frequently stated as a dull and tedious rehash
of the earlier Curse of Peladon. But this easy classification is unfair and not
true at all. There is a whole lot of merit within this six part adventure.
Firstly, the cast is of an exceptional quality. Frank Gatliff as
Ortron is arrogant and unyielding. He performs the role with a hge amount of
aplomb and zeal and relish. Nina Thomas portrays the slightly niave, youthful
Queen wonderfully too. The notion of a female struggling with what is usually
only a man's job on Peladon is a vein that she handles perfectly well. In fact,
her innocence and charm are totally beguiling and instantly makes you like her.
Donald Gee makes a fine return to Doctor Who after his first
appearance with Pat Troughton in The Space Pirates. It has been amusingly
reported that Donald thought maybe his appearance on the show was a curse for
the two lead actors, as both left in the next story after the one, he had
appeared in! That is most assuredly not the case Donald! Haha! In fact, the
performance Donald gives here is understated, so much so that he luls you into
genuinely thinking he's a goodie, when in reality he turns out to be a snake.
It's a supreme performance, wonderfully judged.
Another two prime performers are Ralph Watson as Ettis and Rex
Robinson as Gebek. Whilst Ralph injects total hot-headed venom into his
performance as Ettis as he descends into madness throughout the story,
culminating in a pretty brutal beating bestowed on the Doctor when he tries to
make him see sense. Gebek is a more
restrained and approachable character,and Rex works so well with Jon Pertwee.
Alan Bennion makes his last performance as the twisted Ice Lord
Commander Azaxyr. Shades of the sadistic Slaar of the Seeds of Death run through
this similarly dispicable villain. Azaxyr is a memorable and worthy foe for the
Doctor and the Peladonians. Sonny Caldinez makes his fourth appearance as the
Ice Lord's underling Sskel. Sonny is still the only man to have appeared in all
four classic era Ihce Warrior tales. A little known fact of the Monster of
Peladon was that the voices in this story for the Ice Martians were provided by
the Producer Barry Letts! The Ice Warriors again make a brilliant foe.
The story also has several very memorable moments of merit. All scenes
with Alpha Centauri as voiced by Ysanne Churchman are charming. The
Haemaphrodite Hexapod is impossible to dislike. She may be slightly cowardly,
but she has a hell of a lot of spirit. And Ysanne's voice is just wonderful for
the character.
Elisabeth Sladen has to be commended again in this story too. She
always seemed to be far better served in what her character contributed in a
story when she was opposit Jon Pertwee. Later on, she was rather reduced when
she was next to Tom Baker. But in The Monster of Peladon there are plenty of
brilliant Sarah moments. particularly her talk with the Queen on Women's
Liberation. Then later her portrayal of being grieved at the Doctor's apparent
death is superbly performed. A special scene of when her tear falls on the
Doctor's face is a brilliant scene. And her cry of shock as the Doctor's eyes
open at that exact moment is brilliant acted. A definite favourite moment.
Some could apply some moral objections to the Doctor using the heat
ray of the Aggedor Statue back against the Ice Warriors. But when in a life or
death situation, what other real avenues could he possibly have taken? The
Doctor knows Azaxyr would wipe out everyone in his way without a quarm, and the
only way is to fight back and try to halt the Ice Warriors plans to steal the
trisilicate for the neferious use of Galaxy Five!
The rough ride the Doctor goes through in this story too is pretty
stark. He gets attacked by guards, gets arrested, gets brutally beaten up, then
subjected to mental agony by Eckersley's pattented alarm system! Sometimes one
wonders why the Doctor puts up with this constant bad treatment in all his
travels. We have to be glad his spirit of compassion and his belief in good win
out over all these impediments!
There are a few tiny flaws, but these are not detracting to the flow
of the story at all. There is the blatantly obvious face of Terry Walsh
doubling for Jon in the fight scene with Ettis, and Max Faulkner as a
Peladonian is killed twice, but maybe its identical twin brothers?! Once you
can even see the feet of Stewart Fell protruding from the bottom of the Alpha
Centauri costume! But this was a show always made at speed and on a very tight
budget.
For all the little goofs, this still doesn’t stop this story from
being actually very action packed and very well paced. This does not feel like
the usual six parter, as it never once feels protracted. In fact, this story doesn’t
feel as endlessly talkative and static as the Curse of Peladon.
The story also ends on a bit of sad downer, as Aggedor is killed when
defending the Queen against the criminal Eckersley. One is also hugely amused
by Sarah's asking the Doctor whether he should truly consider Queen Thalira's
offer of being her new chancellor and the Doctor grabs her ear and pulls her
into the TARDIS, with Sarah protesting but laughing at the same time. It’s an
amusing way to finish a very finely crafted story indeed. It is not the dull
rehash of its earlier prequel. It is a very strong sequel and surely cements
Peladon as a highly memorable segment of the Jon Pertwee era.
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