The Monster of Peladon
review

Holistic Review: Lots of sociopolitical commentary, mostly involving heated debates at court, subterfuge, and lots of people getting captured, threatened with execution, and escaping repeatedly. The word "tedium" comes to mind.

As far as the Pertwee era goes, The Monster of Peladon ought to be one of those stories that I enjoy. It features neither the Master nor UNIT, those two ubiquitous constants, it's got the ever-lovable Sarah Jane as the featured companion, and we get to pay a return visit to Peladon, the planet that gave us a very enjoyable murder-mystery romp two seasons ago. Even sweet old Alpha Centauri's still hanging around. So... how does this story go wrong?

I think the biggest problem is that in The Curse of Peladon, the court intrigue was kept to a minimum, and used mostly as background color. Here, Peladon's internal problems become the focus of the story. While that's perfectly natural - this is our second visit to the planet and we ought to know a bit more about it - the miners' woes are dreadfully dull, and Ortron feels like a less-cuddly clone of Hepesh. (I even accidentally called him "Hepesh" once in my notes, without even realizing it.) Worse, the plot seems to move at a snail's pace. Sometimes it seems as if whole episodes are taken up with the miners trying to attack one thing or another, being attacked in return by the apparition of Aggedor, and Ortron trying to take advantage of the situation to accuse the Doctor and sentence him to death. By episode 2, the miners have attacked or been engaged in fights 5 times, and Ortron has ordered the Doctor dead 4 times! It starts from the very beginning, when the mere mention of aliens on Peladon rouses Ortron to order them killed, despite the fact that he's just been hanging around Alpha Centauri and Vega Nexos. Even after the Doctor passes Ortron's little test, and Aggedor apparently declares him innocent, Ortron just gets angry like a spoiled child - what, he doesn't trust his god? As he later states, "You may have deceived the queen, but you have not deceived me." And what about Aggedor, was he deceived too? Apparently Ortron feels that Aggedor is fallible, because he continues scheming over the Doctor and manages to get him imprisoned (yawn). Meanwhile, the miners attack yet again, to seize the sonic lance. It's just all a bit much. Or, rather, not enough.

It would be nice to say that things look up with the arrival of the Ice Warriors, but that's not really the case. It causes a power shift, yes, but ultimately this just means that instead of the miners fighting the guards, now they're all fighting the Ice Warriors; cue more battle scenes. I guess this is part of the reason why I find The Monster of Peladon to be dull. It never feels as if anybody sets out to do anything; instead, they're all dragged along by the course of events, always one step behind the attacks, and just happen to stumble upon a bit of information or the next course of action. The only real exception to this that I can think of is when the Doctor remembers Sarah's comment about the refinery and decides to go check it out; fortunately, by this point, Ortron isn't concerned with stopping him and throwing him down pits, so he actually gets there and finds out something useful.

Pertwee is good here, although the nature of the script means that he doesn't get to put in as charming a performance as he did in Curse; here he's mostly relegated to being pursued, captured and escaping. When he goes off to find Gebek after he's released from the pit, he misses clear signs that he's being followed and ends up being, well, captured again. He does get one really nice moment, though, demonstrating his coin magic trick to the prison guard. (How does he do that?!) And I'm very impressed by his nimble dive through the opening in the rockface, to get away from Aggedor's heat ray!

One of the important things about Elisabeth Sladen: her line delivery is beyond reproach, but she's particularly worth watching for all the little things that she does, like Sarah's little groan after the Doctor admits that they're lost, and her reaction when the Doctor suddenly isn't dead after all. Although Sarah doesn't get any particularly noteworthy plotlines in this story, she does get lots of nice character moments. Her Pertwee-era aggressive side continues to assert itself, as she immediately speaks up to defend herself in court, tries to demand an apology from the queen, and holds a gun on Eckersley. She defends herself eloquently against Ortron, saying all the things that you wish characters would remember to say in those situations. Sarah is also the one who figures out that the saboteur could be based in the refinery, and she comes up with a scheme to fool the Federation troops into leaving. But poor Sarah - in this story, she believes the Doctor to be dead not once, but twice (in almost as many episodes)! They really put Sarah through the wringer. I should start counting the number of times this happens.

Now, as guest characters go, Queen Thalira is a definite improvement on Peladon. Nina Thomas has an appealingly earnest, innocent look about her, yet you can see that there's a steely resolve buried waaaaay down deep within her. Like Peladon, she was thrust onto the throne before she was ready, but unlike Peladon, she has to deal with the double-whammy of being perceived as a child and as a woman, who is therefore of no consequence and basically a figurehead. At one point, referring to Sarah, Ortron even declares "Since she is only a female, her activities are of little importance" right to the queen's face. Poor Thalira is such a slave to her own culture that she doesn't even seem to think she can fight the system and assert her authority, at least until feminist Sarah Jane arrives on the scene to give her a good dose of women's lib. This little plotline is fairly minor in the course of the story, but it's one of the more enjoyable bits, and it gives Sarah a chance to stretch those oft-emphasized feminist muscles without seeming overbearing (although don't those women's lib references sound amusingly outdated these days?). And it's quite nice to see Thalira grow as a character, and start to put her foot down when Ortron goes too far, even if by the end she is reduced to the role of "helpless female victim" when Eckersley kidnaps her.

As I've basically already said, Frank Gatliff's Ortron just feels like a one-note character to me. He has all of Hepesh's bluster, but none of Hepesh's warmth or depth. That's no fault of Gatliff's - he does a perfectly good job with what he's given - but it's a definite fault of the script, I think. (Oh, Brian Hayles, why have you fallen so low!) For goodness' sake, he gets the Hepesh-clone (B-movie) line "Do not blaspheme, alien!" The only time we get a glimpse of anything other than a fanatical xenophobic zealot is when he gets one line comforting Sarah after she believes the Doctor to be dead (and why does Ortron care? That's what he's wanted the whole time - and he doesn't like Sarah either!). As the other villain of the piece, Donald Gee as Eckersley seems quite likeable at the start, if not particularly memorable. I can't say that I look at Eckersley and think "wow, what a great performance". I just think "traitor".

Rex Robinson as Gebek is a likeable character, and a nice ally for the Doctor. He's the voice of reason among the miners, and the only one who really seems willing to work for a peaceful solution. But, oh my, his codpiece! His counterpart is the thoroughly dislikeable Ettis, played by Ralph Watson, who seizes every opportunity to attack or steal something in an attempt to liberate the miners in the most bloody way possible. I was not at all sorry to see him get blowed up real good, as my father would (jokingly) say. (Although my father does like blowing things up.) And, is it just me, or does Graeme Eaton (Preba) look remarkably like Roy Evans, who played Bert in The Green Death? I need to see side-by-side pictures.

It's lovely to see Alpha Centauri again, and I wonder if perhaps his fan popularity comes mostly from this episode? He's a little less high-strung here (perhaps mellowness comes with age) and a bit more humorous. I love watching him delicately grasp tiny little microphones in his big claws. His tendency to crumble under pressure comes into play again here, as he spills every last bean there is to spill when asked about the Doctor's location. We also get a nice return by Aggedor, who feels like a character even though he has no lines. It's nice to see him reappear (they must certainly be long-lived!) The poor thing hardly gets anything to do, though - just one scene attacking the Doctor and Sarah, and one final scene at the end. Fortunately he does get to serve a useful purpose - tracking down and killing the Queen's kidnapper, although sadly dying in the process. (Again, I'm glad he wasn't the last of his kind, because that's certainly the impression I always had watching this story in the past.) I'd like to have seen more of Gerald Taylor as Vega Nexos. A race of aliens who specialize in mining is an interesting concept, but his death before the end of part 1 means that we never really get to learn more about him or his species. And unfortunately, his face-mask looks very strange. I expect he was included in an attempt to replicate the multitudinous-alien success of Curse, but he doesn't really last long enough to make that happen. (Note to producers: replacing cool wacky aliens with lots and lots of unhappy and aggressive miners does not a good change make.)

For our monsters this time, we get the Ice Warriors back. Thanks to Curse, and their assertion that they're official troops from the Federation, this time we're expecting them to be the good guys, but yet again our expectations are reversed. Which is kind of sad, because I rather liked them being goodies. But at least this is a breakaway group, so presumably most Ice Warriors are still on the side of right. That should be interesting, if they ever reappear in the new series. It's a nice twist (one of the few!) that Azaxyr and Sskel have been on Peladon the whole time. Plus it makes sense - their claim to be Federation troops had seemed a bit surprising, given that Alpha Centauri couldn't have summoned them more than a few minutes previously. Alan Bennion does a great job as Ice Lord Azaxyr (and what a great name!), who seems a bit more animated than previous Ice Warriors and not quite as prone to hissing, although he still does so when he breathes. Yet again, though, they seem to have stumbled onto the wrong planet to invade - even Peladon's underground mines have a heating system, and they apparently never thought that the heat ray they used on the natives might be turned against them!

Effects-wise, there's a pretty nice fade-in to the TARDIS' arrival (I didn't notice any bizarre flickering of the torches). The sonic lance, for some reason, seems to make the same effect as the Ice Warriors' ...ohh. Their guns are sonic too, aren't they? Okay, that makes sense, never mind. I was all set to wag my finger at them for trying to save money (understandable though that is) and only using one effect, but now I get it! I do like the effect of it working, particularly when the Doctor is trapped and we just see a hole suddenly appear in the wall from his side. The Aggedor projection is nice, but why does it only light up red some of the time? At least once, it just looks like grey stone. And why does it sometimes make a noise like a duck being strangled? I also like the effect of the Ice Warriors melting the refinery door.

Costuming is hit-and-miss. The royal costumes are still elegant and effective - I particularly love Thalira's patterned purple cape, and her lovely fur cloak, which is clearly not made from Aggedor fur - and Azaxyr's helmet looks great, but oh, those badger wigs! The ones on the miners are worse than ever, because the stripes are so bold (and there are so many of them), and the wigs themselves look terribly fake. The only place where the badger markings really work in this story is on Ortron's beard; the red stripes actually look fairly distinguished. I can't say that I really noticed Dudley Simpson's incidental music here, except for the odd moment when it abruptly cuts out after the miners take away the sonic lance (although I do find myself remembering the music that accompanies Eckersley and Thalira's flight through the tunnels, so that bit must have been a success).

Lennie Mayne returns to direct the sequel, and to my surprise, I was pretty unimpressed this time around. Maybe it's because the script is so blah, but he seems uninspired, and I can't really think of any shots that wowed me, although there were a few nice ones: the point-of-view shot of an Ice Warrior as it's attacked in the mines, the shot of the Doctor peeking through the ajar refinery door, and the shot of Sarah staring morosely through the hole in the door at the Doctor's prone body. Then again, my eyelids were heavy most of the way through. I did notice a surprising number of "oh well, they won't really care" moments - like the giant shadow on Ettis' face, as he argues with Eckersley about using alien equipment; or the moment when Eckersley and Sarah stand outside the refinery, and as Sarah states that she did see someone inside, Eckersley's arm completely blocks her face. There's also some very odd direction as the Doctor and Sarah are pushed into the pit... apparently they couldn't build any sort of real pit, or even a small ledge, because the camera just zooms into them in a desperate attempt to make it look as though they're falling past the lens. Then we get very strange brief glimpses of them "falling" against a black background, which doesn't look convincing at all. Maybe it was meant to signify that it was a very short fall, which is why neither of them has so much as a scratch upon landing.

Those torches are still a sticking point. To my great relief, Jon Pertwee seems to have learned to lower and raise them by this point, but nobody else - aside from Eckersley, in all his villainy - is doing it. Sarah just wanders casually by and leaves them down. (That's what else this reminds me of! People who litter! Or leave toilet seats up! Or otherwise don't leave things as they found them! Grrrrrr!) Sigh. At least later, she has to lift a lowered torch in order to shut the door. But of course then you end up with a door that's got one torch down and one torch up.

Minor points:

I confess to a feeling of relief when this story was over. I just don't think there's enough interesting plot to sustain four episodes, much less six. It starts off so well, evoking our feelings of nostalgia about our last visit to Peladon and keeping us intrigued to see what changes have taken place on the planet, but by the time it devolves into little more than a runaround, it's hard to maintain interest. As a sequel to The Curse of Peladon, it pretty much fails. If you really loved the former story, it's worth giving this story a look, but don't get your hopes up too high.

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