Thursday, 4 July 2019

Who Reviews The Monster of Peladon by Matt Rabjohns





"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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