Aggedor is the legendary royal beast of the planet Peladon, thought to be long-extinct, although its wondrousness lives on in stories. "Mighty is Aggedor, fiercest of all the beasts of Peladon!" proclaims one. In its heyday, young men would hunt Aggedor to prove their courage. The beast's fur lines royal garments, and its head is the royal emblem of Peladon.
But the stories also predict that "there will be a day when the spirit of Aggedor will rise again, to warn and defend his royal master, King Peladon. For that day, a stranger will appear in the land, bringing peril to Peladon and great tribulation to his king." Some consider this curse to be childish mumbo-jumbo...but when the Doctor arrives on Peladon at about the same time as Aggedor's spirit appears to rise again, it seems that the curse of Peladon will be fulfilled.
It turns out, however, that there is no spirit of Aggedor - only Aggedor itself, clearly not as extinct as the people of Peladon had thought! It is a short, furry brown animal, which prefers to walk on its hind legs than to move on all four. It has a piglike snout over a fanged mouth, and a rhinocerous-like horn jutting from between its eyes. Aggedor's snout also imparts him with an excellent sense of smell. Aggedor has a very loud roar, but the beast can be calmed by Venusian lullabies and telepathic empathy, when combined with light hypnosis, which brings out his sweet nature.
After the Doctor departs Peladon, Aggedor is eventually put into a pit beneath the Temple of Aggedor in the castle. Those who have violated the sacred laws of Peladon are cast into the pit, to be dealt with by Aggedor.
But Aggedor's appearances do not stop here - about fifty years later, his spirit again seems to appear to people in a red glow. This image has red, glowing eyes, and it breathes red smoke at its victims, who then disappear. The Doctor discovers that this image is actually an image of a statue of Aggedor, sent via a matter projector which is linked to a directional heat ray that vaporizes its victims. The Doctor uses the real Aggedor to sniff out the perpetrator, but unfortunately, Aggedor is killed by a gunshot in the struggle. There is no indication that another Aggedor survives on the planet, so this may truly have been the end of Peladon's royal beast.
