July 7: The Monster of Peladon Parts Five & Six

Oh look, they've decided to replay a decent amount of the last episode's cliffhanger, which means we get to see all of Terry Walsh in his glory again.

Alpha Centauri, Sarah, and Azaxyr view the sonic lance's destruction
on a monitor. (The Monster of Peladon Part Five) ©BBC

Things continue to pick up in part five as important plot points are finally divulged.  Although, wait, is Ortron on the good guys' side now?  He certainly seems eager to cooperate with Sarah's plan; maybe uniting against the Ice Warriors helped bring him aroun–oh, never mind, he's been killed by an Ice Warrior.  But yes, this is the episode where we learn what's really going on (thanks to, in retrospect, a rather lax level of secrecy on the part of Azaxyr and Eckersley): it seems that Azaxyr and his Warriors are not in fact part of the Federation but instead a part of a group helping Galaxy Five.  Eckersley organized the appearances of Aggedor to provoke a crisis so that Azaxyr could come in and take command of the planet and its supplies of trisilicate.  Not only do Sarah and Alpha Centauri watch the traitors discuss their plans over the monitoring system, but the Doctor (who survived the explosion) and Gebek overhear the same discussion from the other side of an open doorway.  Nice work, guys.

Then, while the Doctor and Gebek overpower an Ice Warrior guard (and look, it's one of the old-style oversized Ice Warrior helmets, as seen on the filmed portions of The Ice Warriors) and break into the refinery, Alpha Centauri reveals that they know that Azaxyr and Eckersley are traitors, so Azaxyr sends troops to take back the refinery.

But just as they make a big hole in the door (part five's cliffhanger), the Doctor figures out the controls to the Aggedor-appearing device and wipes out the Ice Warriors.  From there he starts sending Aggedor around the mines, brutally killing any Ice Warriors that stand in the way of the rebels (mind, it's not played like that, but it still makes the Doctor look awfully comfortable with killing).  Despite an attempt to scramble the Doctor's brain with a groovy-looking effect that appears to kill him off (but is in fact Pertwee healing coma #6), Azaxyr's plans are ruined, and a showdown in the throne room finishes him off -- though still with ten minutes of the episode left.  Yes, there's still time for Eckersley to kidnap Queen Thalira and use her as a hostage while he makes his getaway.  (A genuine question: why don't people being dragged around against their will go limp and force their captor to literally drag them, rather than just stumbling after?)  Fortunately, Aggedor can track the queen down, but the noble beast is killed in the struggle with Eckersley, which also finishes off the traitorous mining specialist.  Thus order is restored to Peladon.

It may start dreadfully, but once it decides to stop remaking its predecessor and start being a generic action-adventure story instead, The Monster of Peladon picks up.  There's probably a whole subtext I'm missing, being not terribly familiar with the 1973 miners' strike, but unless that adds a number of subtle layers to this then the end result is still one that feels well-worn rather than original or interesting.  It's entertaining enough by the end, but there's really nothing to distinguish it from anything else, and instead once again the overall feeling is one of "good enough".  You can really tell by this stage that the production team's heart isn't really in it anymore, and that they're content to simply keeping doing the same old things until their contracts are up.

So, we have one Pertwee story left.  Will the team rise to the occasion and send the third Doctor out on a high note?