The Monster of Peladon: Part Six

Fifty years have passed since the Doctor was last on the planet of Peladon and now, by sheer chance, he finds himself here again. This time though he is taken for being an alien saboteur as he finds himself in the planet's mines, which are being extracted by the Federation for a vital element which should tip the course of the galactic war. The Doctor is glad to find that, while all faces have changed, it transpires that the career of Alpha Centauri has clearly stagnated, since he is still there and is able to vouch for the Doctor. This gives him the chance to investigate the odd going-ons which sees the miners (a cross between a glam rock band and a set of badgers) being attacked by a vision of Aggedor (the royal beast). Believing it to be little more than technical trickery, the Doctor and Sarah Jane investigate but soon find themselves in the middle of the miners taking industrial action, the ruling classes seeking to enforce their power, the Federation representatives seeking to push forward for the sake of the war, and the ongoing Aggedor attacks.

Following the so-so Death to the Daleks, this serial doesn't really pick up the pace much. The narrative seems stretched out to fill 6 episodes, and contains a lot of political allegory or commentary regarding women's lib, the miners' strikes, the class system etc; perhaps some of this would have been the height of daring topicality when it was first screened, but now it seemed dated and not particularly interesting or well done. This leaves us with the main narrative which, to be fair, is essentially the usual fare of the Doctor being in harms' way while trying to resolve a faction-based dispute. In this regard the serial is okay, but the 6 episode stretch does take its toll, and it is never as engaging as it really needed to be. The cast are pretty mixed. Pertwee is decent enough, but Sladen seems dumped with a mix of "rise up sister" material alongside the traditional "legging it" material. She is not "bad", but she doesn't seem totally at home, and there is not a great connection between her and Pertwee. The miners and the royalty are fairly functional in their characters and performances, so it is appreciated when the main villains finally show up later – at least they add a bit to edge for a while.

Overall though, it is a fairly ho-hum serial, which has lots going on, but not enough of it really being particularly interesting. The slower pace and feeling of padding doesn't help, and it is hard to shake the feeling that this could have been a much stronger 4- parter, with a bit less politicking along the way.

The Curse of Peladon was a fine story full of atmosphere and wonderful direction, the Monster of Peladon is a dull, lifeless, uninteresting political story that doesn't get going until it's final episode.

Why did this story have to be six episodes long? If this was only four episodes it would feel long-winded because the plot never advances properly. The miners believe the spirit of the god Aggedor is killing them because of new alien equipment they are being forced to use to mine a mineral called trisilicate, which the people of Peladon use the fight the war against Galaxy 5. That's the plot, from start to end, it never advances or develops, it never goes anywhere, it just feels like six episodes of characters running around not really accomplishing anything. The only real change in the plot is the introduction of the Ice Warriors in Episode 3, and even then very little changes.

The characters are not only dull, but also quite irritating at points. Queen Thalira is a queen in title only as she let's herself get walked all over by basically everyone, to the point where you're screaming "for god sake stand up for yourself" at the screen every time she appears. The chancellor Ortron seems to be constantly trying to kill the Doctor for absolutely no good reason, and all of the miners are really pathetic and weak characters who never accomplish anything, and seem to be good only at getting killed.

The only good characters are Commander Azaxyr, the Ice Warrior leader who is the only character who actually makes sense and has a clear motive, and Eckersley the Engineer who goes round double-crossing everyone and makes for the hidden bad guy of the episode.

The acting is quite weak, with the exception of Donald Gee. Nina Thomas, Frank Gatliff and Rex Robinson all give very wooden performances that are hardly fun to watch. Most of them seem rather bored, even Pertwee looks tired towards the end, and Elisabeth Sladen's performance after the Doctor's death in episode 6 is not a sad one, but more one of "is this not over yet?", which is probably what the viewer is thinking too.

The Curse of Peladon was brilliant story, so I can see why Brian Hayles would want to revisit this world, but the sequel is not only lacking the excitement of the previous Peladon tale, it's lacking any kind of narrative or imagination that that story held.

I can easily class the Monster of Peladon as a Failure!

Review of all 6 episodes:

This is a sequel to The Curse of Peladon and it suffers from being far too similar, but slightly inferior, to its predecessor. The quality of acting and dialogue are at a high enough level (as is expected as a minimum requirement in Doctor Who), it is a decent entertainment and the plot with its political aspect reflecting the UK miners strike of the 1970s is perfectly OK but it is the first couple of episodes are very much filler story level, just plodding along until it kicks into life a bit in the 3rd part then has a much stronger second half to the serial with its 4th, 5th and 6th episodes all strong, interesting and fun.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane visit Peladon about 50 years after The Doctor's previous visit. There is political strife and mysterious attacks, apparently from the creature Aggedor, that are disrupting mining operations.

It is an acceptable story but nothing of particular quality or interest compared to the usual standard of the series in the first couple of episodes until the mid serial improvement which then gets really good with the arrival of the Ice Warriors. It is in the final few episodes of the story when the action and script become much more interesting. The leader of this group of Ice Warriors is an interesting and good quality villain. Pertwee is funny and entertaining and Sarah continues to show she is the best companion of all time, even though she has a few more vulnerable scenes where she almost screams which is very unlike her usual strong, brave, calm character. There are still plenty of scenes where Sarah shows her usual gutsy persona.

Overall this is a very solid but unexceptional story in my opinion.

My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 7/10, Part 3 - 8/10. Parts 4, 5 & 6 - 8.5/10. Overall - 7.92/10.

The Peoples of Peladon must set aside their differences, and unite if they are to take.on and defeat their common enemy.

It has felt endless getting through The Monster of Peladon. As a six part story, it really did suffer from a lack of originality, a lack of pace, and all in all just a lack of substance. Four would have been better.

I could list the plot holes, bit I'd run out of space, the plot and story were both sacrificed for a political message.

The Political messaging was very heavy handed here, you can see what The Ice warriors represent, and subsequently very easily see what The Peladonians represent. We even get the term.... Only a miner.

I felt here that the story had genuinely run out of steam, it felt as if they were flogging a dead horse. The highlight had to be the scene between The Doctor and Sarah at the end.

I'm only grateful The Doctor decided against any more trips to Peladon.

Very boring, 5/10.

"Klokleda partha mennin klatch. Haroon, haroon, haroon. Klokleda sheena tirri natch. Haroon, haroon, haroon."

Simply put, this story is lifeless. It's television filler at it's most mundane. It's not bad enough to be unintentionally and comedically entertaining, and not good enough to be emotionally engaging and life altering. It's not even a fun romp like Invasion of the Dinosaurs. On the other side of things, the villainous plot didn't make any sense, and they never clearly explained it, making the twists and turns that came with it meaningless and somewhat tone deaf. Also, the Doctor just straight up murdered about half a dozen Ice Warriors. This entire story manipulates you into caring for these characters that eventually lead to nothing. Due to the strange way I began watching the classic series, I haven't seen this story's acclaimed predecessor yet, but I can't wait. These characters (ex. Alpha Centauri) are too good to waste.

Part One/Two/Three/Four/Five/Six - June 27th