June 5: The Curse of Peladon Episodes Three & Four

It was while watching episode three that I worked it out: The Curse of Peladon isn't a mystery or a typical action-adventure story -- it's a political thriller.  It's just a political thriller that happens to be set on a medieval/Gothic planet with aliens involved.

Alpha Centauri, Izlyr, Jo, Ssorg, and Arcturus debate what to do
about the Doctor's situation. (The Curse of Peladon Episode
Three) ©BBC

That also explains the details: it's clear early on that Hepesh is involved in the plot to destroy the Galactic Federation delegates, but it's not clear why we're supposed to suspect the Ice Warriors.  Until, partway through episode three, it's made abundantly clear that someone is helping Hepesh with his goals for their own ends, we just don't know who.  Now we know why the Ice Warriors keep getting framed (with the trisilicate key and Arcturus's servo-junction unit) -- well, because of that and because they've been the villains in two earlier stories and so writer Brian Hayles wants to keep them under suspicion as long as possible.  This is rather undercut by Alan Bennion's performance as Izlyr though, as he gives Izlyr a noble and thoroughly honest bearing.

This thriller strand continues when the Doctor, who's awaiting his fight to the death against Grun, is visited by Hepesh, who offers him a free passage out of Peladon so long as he'll leave and never come back.  The Doctor appears to take him up on it, and so when we see Hepesh next ordering the guards to search for the Doctor and kill him if necessary, we see how duplicitous Hepesh really is.  But it turns out the Doctor is more interested in finding the real Aggedor in the tunnels under the citadel.  He's successful and manages to soothe it with his special spinning mirror of hypnosis and a Venusian lullabye (which bears an uncanny similarity melodically to "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" -- one guess as to why that might be the case), and it's only Jo's chasing it away with a flaming torch in order to "rescue" the Doctor that ends the whole affair.  Although as the Doctor is explaining it later, he accidentally hypnotizes Jo when he's demonstrating his spinning mirror (in a scene a bit reminiscent of the Doctor accidentally hypnotizing Jamie in The Abominable Snowmen): "Jo?  Oh good grief.  Jo, snap out of it!"

And so the Doctor returns to face judgment and has a rather good fight against Grun, in which he eventually emerges triumphant -- which leads Arcturus to reveal his true colors and prepare to open fire on the Doctor.  And Ssorg too fires his weapon...

King Peladon stands over the body of his former friend Hepesh.
(The Curse of Peladon Episode Four) ©BBC

But no.  The start of episode four reveals that Ssorg was in fact firing at Arcturus, thus saving the Doctor's life.  It seems Arcturus had misled Hepesh into believing that joining the Federation "would mean slavery", in order to set up a separate agreement with Peladon for its mineral wealth.  Now that plot has been foiled, and it seems like the start of episode four is already wrapping everything up.  But, in true political thriller style, it's not over yet; Hepesh is still free and has a number of guards on his side, and so he tries to take over the throne in order to save Peladon from the Federation.  With the future king being held at the point of a blade, Hepesh tells the delegates to leave and never return, or else the king will die.  It's only the arrival of the Doctor, with Aggedor in tow, that saves the day -- although Aggedor ends up turning on Hepesh and dealing him a mortal blow.  But with Hepesh gone, the crisis is over, and all is ready for the king's coronation.

And I've made it this far without even mentioning the attempted wooing of "Princess Josephine of TARDIS" by King Peladon.  David Troughton (Patrick Troughton's son) spends a fair amount of time as King Peladon trying to convince Jo to marry him -- his mother was an Earth woman, so it's not unheard of.  And it does seem like Jo's tempted by the end (even if earlier she was angry with him for trying to woo her right after sentencing the Doctor to die: "One minute you're condemning the Doctor to death, and the next minute you're proposing to me!") -- but she decides to go back home instead.  The Doctor is confident he can get her home, since he's pretty sure the TARDIS only made the trip to Peladon because that's where the Time Lords wanted him to go and now that matters are settled he'll be sent back to Earth.  And so they depart, right as the real delegate from Earth arrives...

There's a lot to like about The Curse of Peladon.  We get an interesting alien culture juxtaposed with several different alien races, which allows the production team to stretch themselves a bit.  It's also directed and acted well and filled with memorable characters, and at four episodes it doesn't outstay its welcome (which won't be the case when we return to Peladon in two seasons).  Really, what's not to love?