Doctor Who:
The Curse of Peladon
By Brian Hayles
“Haroon, haroon, haroon.
Haroon, haroon, haroon. Haroon, haroon, haroon. Haroon, haroon, haroon. Well, I
must say, you seem quite partial to old Venusian lullabies, don't you, Aggedor,
old chap, hmm? Right, let's see how friendly you really are.”
The Doctor thinking he has
fixed the TARDIS takes it on a test run with Jo. To their dismay the TARDIS lands on a cliff
edge and as the both leave the TARDIS it falls into the abyss below. The Doctor and Jo make their way to the
castle where they are mistaken for the delegates from Earth. Peladon wants to join the Galactic Federation
and the delegates are there to see if Peladon is worthy. King Peladon very much wants his planet to be
a part of the Galactic Federation and it seems someone is keen on them to not
join as things are happening to make Peladon look like a bad candidate. To make matters worse the delegates from Mars
are old acquaintances of The Doctor. Someone The Doctor has met before and The
Ice Warriors are suspect number one on The Doctor’s list.
I like this story far
better than its sequel The Monster of Peladon.
Unlike Monster of Peladon Curse
of Peladon is quite enjoyable, the right length and not boring. I loved the fact you are meant to think The
Ice Warriors are the bad guys. What a
good swerve taking an enemy and making them the good guys and using their past
bad guy appearances to throw you off. A
pretty good idea if you ask me and one I enjoyed when I watched The Curse of
Peladon for the first time.
This story also features
David Troughton as King Peladon. It is
his second time on Doctor Who as he had a small part in his father’s last story
The War Games as a civil war soldier Private Moore and would also be in the
David Tennant story Midnight as Professor Hobbes. He also has starred in a lot of Big Finish
audios and was the proposed next Doctor for Virgin Books Doctor Who range when
they were planning on regenerating the 7th Doctor before that idea
was nixed by the BBC.
The Monster of Peladon is
a pretty good cat and mouse story that keeps you guessing which side everyone is
on. There is a pretty good fight scene
with The Doctor and the Kings Champion Grun.
It is pretty funny and makes you wonder if Ultimate Fighting got its
start from The Curse of Peladon. But
seriously The Curse of Peladon does have some really good scenes with King
Peladon and Jo Grant and you get more of a hint of what she is really
like.
For those new fans that
want to see what the Ice Warriors are really like this isn’t the story to watch
as they are a peace loving group in this story and not the war monger race we
have seen in The Ice Warriors and The Seeds of Death but you can at least see
them in color though. The Curse of
Peladon is a pretty good story anyway and should be watched as Jon Pertwee is
amazing in this one and has a really good scene with Aggedor that is pretty
touching if that’s possible between man and beast.
Grade B+
No comments:
Post a Comment