When we last left Zoe, she was about to be gunned down by an Ice Warrior. Fortunately Fewsham, at the start of the episode, leaps to her defense, struggling with the Ice Warrior to stop its weapon from being brought to bear. And what does Zoe do during this struggle? Just stands there and watches it happen -- doesn't run for cover or try to help Fewsham. Just stands there. So when Fewsham is knocked aside and the Ice Warrior redirects its attention toward Zoe, I was half rooting for the Warrior to shoot her. And I
like Zoe. But man is she dumb in those first minutes of episode five. It's only the extreme heat knocking out the Ice Warrior that saves her.
And then we move into a new stage for this story. The Doctor returns to Earth to help solve the problem of the alien blight, while the Ice Warrior who T-Matted down last week is still at large. "The last sighting was by the Weather Control Bureau there," Professor Eldred states, while pointing at a position on the map different from the one clearly labeled "Weather Control". But the Doctor discovers that the seed pods are easily destroyed by water -- not quite on the level of the mind-bogglingly stupid alien invasion in the movie
Signs, but in the same ballpark. Still, this does explain why the Ice Warrior headed to Weather Control -- to stop the rain from falling. So Jamie and Zoe head to Weather Control to make it rain, and the Doctor follows after, venturing through an epic amount of foam (it's almost up to his neck in places) on his way to the door, which is naturally locked. And there's a seed pod swelling just by the door as well.
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The Doctor tells Slaar the Martian fleet is heading into the sun.
(The Seeds of Death Episode Six) ©BBC |
Episode six gives us the actual invasion part: once the Earth has been softened up by the seed pods, the Martian fleet will arrive and mop up any resistance. So Slaar, the leader of the Ice Warriors, makes contact with the Grand Marshal to confirm flight plans. Having the Grand Marshal not hissing his sibilants in his own atmosphere is a nice touch; giving him sequins and a star filter less so. But we're into the final episode of this story, so the Doctor works out a plan to trick the Martian fleet into heading toward the sun instead of the moon. Once the Ice Warriors are doomed and the fungus is being defeated on Earth, the Doctor informs Slaar of what's really been going on. Slaar angrily tells his fellow Ice Warrior to kill the Doctor, who looks ready to accept his fate -- it's only the timely intervention of Jamie that saves him. But what's more interesting is how readily the Doctor resorts to violence in this episode, from shooting down a couple Ice Warriors with his portable solar energy emitter to sending an entire fleet into the sun. Given how we've already seen that the Ice Warriors are intelligent beings that the Doctor seems perfectly happy to kill, it's a bit bloodthirsty. And to be fair, the script does seem aware of this: "You have destroyed our entire fleet!" Slaar cries.
"You tried to destroy an entire world," the Doctor replies coolly in what appears to be Brian Hayles' (or more likely Terrance Dicks') post hoc justification of his actions. But it's still rather odd.
The Seeds of Death is Troughton's final "monster" story, one that's part "base under siege" and part "alien invasion". What's interesting is how each episode seems to introduce a distinct phase of the story: episode one outlines the takeover of the moon base, episode two is about the rocket's journey... It's not like, say,
The Web of Fear, where each episode builds on the previous one but we get the same basic story for most of the six episodes; here instead we get a new emphasis with every installment. It's a nice change and it certainly keeps things engaging. Add in some striking direction from Michael Ferguson and we get a solid "monster" story that's sufficiently different from season 5's offerings to stand out on its own. It's not without its flaws, but the positives outweigh the drawbacks, leaving us an entertaining serial.