Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Who Reviews The Curse of Peladon by Matt Rabjohns



The richness of the atmospheric setting aids the story no end. The medieval look of Citadel of Peladon is superbly realised, and the set design is amazing. It gives the whole story a rich feel of believability. And the costume design too is extremely rich and colourful. And another area where the story also shines is the brilliant array of aliens that we see in this story. Alpha Centauri is just incredibly voiced by Ysanne Churchman. The panic she injects into her childlike voice makes you totally love Alpha and root for the Hermaphrodite Hexapod every time! Arcturus looks really good too, and the sacred Beast of Peladon, Aggedor himself has a reliably eerie roar and Ive always thought he looked really good. Nick Hobbs is perfect to portray the quite short but ferocious beast.
David Troughton is extremely good as King Peladon too, one must admit that. He gives the role just the right mix of naiveté and yet he manages to make you really feel for the fate of his planet. David of course has now become a fantastic and respected actor, and here is one of his earliest shining moments. King Peladon is a very strong character indeed and feels totally authentic and credible as the leader of a benighted and troubled medieval world.

Geoffrey Toone is absolutely sublime as the deviant Hepesh. He injects real spice and venom into the role so that he is instantly memorable and three-dimensional character. He portrays the fear of a man of the old school fearing the future of his planet in the Galactic federation very well indeed. And his death is moving, and that Geoffrey manages to make you feel sorry for the character in his final moments is testament to what a brilliant actor he is in this story.

The fight scene between the Doctor and Grun too is extremely well done. The confines of the small pit making it feel very tense and claustrophobic indeed. This is much better realised than the later fight between the Doctor and Ettis in the sequel story. I also like the development of Grun, as he goes from being trusty sidekick to Hepesh to realising how misguided Hepesh is towards the end of the story.
This is also a very good story for Jo. In fact, I would probably state that Katy Manning gets about the best piece of story ever within this story. The King is clearly drawn to her, and she beautifully plays her stoic No no stance to him. Some of the scenes between them are really well done and charged. Perhaps she has reached the height of her powers as the charming and brilliant companion she truly is here.
Sadly, though for me that is where the good points of the story end. I just can’t find a terribly huge amount of great moments to pick out from this story. I find great swathes of the story are just laden with too much talk and not really a great deal of action. Just to have the characters spending a good deal of the time squabbling and doing nothing much else makes some scenes rather bland and tedious. Perhaps the best episode for this reason is the first past, where the Doctor and Jo's perilous climb up the Mount Mageshra is a well shot scene and a bit of good edge of your seat stuff. But once they get into the citadel the story for me just becomes far too talky and theatrical. I am just not a fan of stand around talking drama. But the story does also improve in its final episode, where Hepesh storms the throne room and the guard’s riot. The showdown with Aggedor is memorable and well executed too. Just a shame about the episodes in between.
Ah, one more good thing though is the characterisation of the Ice warriors in the story. It’s fascinating to have them here portrayed as the good guys. It gives their race more interesting flare, and it’s a great snippet of Martian development. The best alien races are ones that are shades of grey, so you never know if in their next appearance whether they will be good or bad! This does make them more believable as an alien civilisation. And the Ice Warriors always look extremely impressive. A truly marvellous piece of design work. And they work well against the medieval backdrop with their nobility and Warrior stance. ​
If only there could have been a touch more action in this story, it might have helped me like it a lot more than I do, I think. However, I must admit that this story does grow on me with every re-watch. It does have plenty of good moments, it’s just some scenes get very stilted and protracted I feel along the way. But it is still nonetheless a very competent and well made story, and the production just looks beautiful. Peladon truly convinces as a planet, and some of the acting is of a very high calibre as I have mentioned already. But as for me and mine I do think the sequel story, though even being two parts longer, does hold itself together better and has better action than this tale. But The Curse of Peladon is still nowhere near in any way shape or form of being a failure. Just for me not one of the best Jon Pertwee stories.

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