An Hour of Who a Day

June 11: The Mutants Episodes Five & Six

What to do in the event of a hull breach in space: 1) roll around on the ground in an effort to look like you're in danger of being sucked out; 2) wait for the pressure between Skybase and space to equalize (!) but make sure you do it before the air runs out (!!); 3) once that pressure has equalized, calmly walk out, congratulating each other on surviving. (Let's try and be charitable to the Bristol Boys and assume that Skybase Control has simply thrown a forcefield around the breach, and Cotton just doesn't understand what's going on. But even so...)

Sondergaard tries to reason with the mutated Solonians. (The
Mutants Episode Five) ©BBC

Back on Skybase for episode five (well, once the Doctor makes it back from the surface, dodging Professor Jaeger's rockets -- which are represented by really quite astonishingly poor explosions, without even a whistle to suggest they're coming from the sky), with the Marshal temporarily regaining the upper hand. Jaeger's effort has gone horribly wrong and is slowly turning the surface of Solos into an uninhabitable desert, but the Marshal forces the Doctor to help fix the mess that's been made, by threatening Jo's life. And... that's about it. The Doctor succeeds in repairing Jaeger's mistake, and Stubbs, Cotton, Jo, and Ky temporarily escape before being recaptured (though not before Stubbs is killed, apparently by a laser blast to the butt) and stuck in a room which Cotton suddenly realizes will be flooded with radiation when the approaching Earth shuttle Hyperion (with an Investigator on board) needs to be refueled: "We'll all be done for!" Cotton exclaims. (And look! We've made it almost six episodes without mentioning Rick James (not that one)'s mesmerizing performance. Not for necessarily the right reasons, mind, but nevertheless it's hard to look away any time he delivers a line.)

Fortunately, Jo, Ky, and Cotton escape before the room is flooded with deadly radiation by escaping into Hyperion's fuel probe (um, ok) and getting out via that. But the main bit of entertainment in episode six is the Investigator's inquiry into the Marshal's actions (as reported to him over radio by Jo during their escape last episode). When the Marshal appears to have the upper hand, everything bad is conveniently omitted from anyone's testimony (including the Doctor's, who believes the Marshal is still holding Jo captive) -- and, amazingly, the Investigator seems perfectly content with this story, not needing any corroboration one way or the other. Everything's fine, nothing to see here, even though a high-ranking Earth official was assassinated on Skybase a couple days ago. It's only when Jo and company burst into the Marshal's office that the Doctor changes his tune, accusing the Marshal and Jaeger of "the most brutal and callous series of crimes against a defenceless people it's ever been my misfortune to encounter." But there's no real evidence, not even when Sondergaard shows up, and when a Mutt also arrives on board it freaks the Investigator out enough to give the Marshal all his power back, which means that Jo and friends head back into the refueling chamber until the Doctor makes Solos's atmosphere breathable for humans -- at which point the Marshal is going to force the Investigator and the crew of the Hyperion to become the first settlers on Solos. Paul Whitsun-Jones, it should be noted, does a great job of portraying the Marshal as someone's who's become dangerously mad, and he makes it clear that this bizarre plan makes sense to the Marshal.

Ky evolves into the Solonians' ultimate form. (The Mutants
Episode Six) ©BBC

But fortunately for everyone, Sondergaard gives Ky that crystal they found in the cave, and that and the radiation trigger the mutation in him, only he moves rapidly from Mutt to an angelic form, who finds the Marshal and vaporizes him before moving on to help initiate the change in the rest of his people. Solos is saved.

The Mutants has a rather low reputation in fandom, but to be honest it's hard to see why. Sure, there are a few obvious targets (the opening shot, the sometimes severe yellow-fringing on almost all the CSO, anything involving Rick James), but there's also enough that's right going on (the design (and realization) of the Mutants, the basic storyline about an extra-long year, all the location footage standing in for Solos, Tristram Cary's score -- which sounds like The Sea Devils done properly) that it makes it easier to forgive some of these flaws. It's an improvement over Bob Baker & Dave Martin's last script (The Claws of Axos, if you've lost track) and it's streets ahead of something like Colony in Space, and indeed in terms of ideas and entertainment it holds its own against that Pertwee "classic", The Dæmons. It is a little loosely structured, and some might find the switching between Skybase and Solos a bit tedious (even if structurally it makes sense and keeps things more interesting than if they'd done, say, three episodes on Skybase followed by three episodes on Solos), but honestly, there's plenty to enjoy about The Mutants -- even if there's not necessarily much to love.⁶⁹

⁶⁹ And yes, this is the story mentioned in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses -- even if it's clear Rushdie (or, to be charitable, his character Saladin) didn't watch enough to actually understand the point of this story.

June 10: The Mutants Episodes Three & Four

Yeah, it wasn't even a weird ploy: Varan really does want to kill the Doctor -- although the Doctor's able to dissuade him remarkably quickly (and even gets Varan to take him to Ky). Which means we've moved on to the next phase of The Mutants: two episodes focused primarily on Solos. It's a nice change of pace, and it means we get to learn more about what's going on with the Solonians.

Jo wanders into a radioactive cave. (The Mutants Episode
Three) ©BBC

The best thing to note about episode three is the design of the fully mutated Solonians; we got a glimpse of one in episode two, but here we get to see a group of them in all their glory. Kudos to future Oscar winner James Acheson⁶⁸ for his Mutt costumes, a striking blend of humanoid and insectoid and easily one of the best things about this story. The scene where they're surrounding Ky in the cave, as he pleads with them to remember their time as humanoid when he was their leader, is really nicely done.
Meanwhile, Jo gets scared and wanders into a really wonderfully trippy-looking cave before passing out after being approached by a silver-suited figure. And the Doctor meets up with Ky (as played by almost-but-not-quite-Luke-Skywalker's-best-friend-Biggs actor Garrick Hagon, whose scenes were mostly cut from the Proper Version of Star Wars before being reinstated for the Special Edition) and delivers the Time Lord package to him -- which turns out to be four stone tablets, written in the old language of Solos that no one understands anymore.

And while all this is going on, the Marshal decides to get rid of three problems at once, by blowing up the entrances to the caves and thus trapping the Mutts, Ky, and the Doctor. And, it turns out, Stubbs and Cotton, who foolishly reveal their true colors over the radio when they meet up with the Doctor. Thus it becomes clear that the caves are sealed in and the gas grenades that the Marshal also threw into the caves are billowing towards our heroes...

Fortunately that silver-suited figure from earlier comes to rescue them at the top of episode four, taking them to a place of safety and revealing himself to be a Earth researcher called Sondergaard (as played by actually-in-all-the-versions-of-Empire-Strikes-Back Lobos actor John Hollis (he's the guy with the weird thing on his head in Cloud City)), who's been hiding in the caves (thanks to the Marshal) and performing research into the history and culture of the Solonians. This is also the scene where director Christopher Barry uses a piece of Mirrorlon (a reflective plastic) to shake whenever he needs the caves to start collapsing. Except, since it's being shot at a weird angle, the piece ends up distorting the scene (so it's really obvious as a result) and not every shot it's used on has falling debris, so it really just looks like an odd directorial decision at times.

But this is the episode where the Doctor and Sondergaard work out what's going on on Solos: it seems the tablets are a type of calendar, one for each season. Solos has a 2000-year-long orbit, and a highly elliptical one at that, so as the seasons slowly change, the Solonians adapt to the changes. This is normally a natural change, but Professor Jaeger's experiments with the atmosphere on Solos have triggered the changes early. There are also some symbols on the tablets that represent radiation, so the Doctor and Sondergaard go back into the cave Jo went into and find a strange crystal egg. But in order to analyze it, they need to head to Skybase.

Meanwhile the others head to Varan's village (thanks to an entrance to the caves the Marshal didn't know about), where Varan, clearly mutating, has decided to lead his remaining warriors in a desperate battle against the Overlords -- and he's going to use Jo, Ky, Stubbs, and Cotton as decoys. He manages to get everyone on board Skybase just as Professor Jaeger prepares to bombard the surface of Solos with atmosphere-altering rockets, which leads to a shootout between the Marshal and Varan which breaches the hull of Skybase, sending Varan floating into space (a nicely done effect) and threatening to send everyone else after him...

⁶⁸ Best Costume Design, The Last Emperor (1987); Best Costume Design, Dangerous Liaisons (1988); Best Costume Design, Restoration (1995).

June 9: The Mutants Episodes One & Two

"It's..."

Seriously, had no one on the production team seen the first series of Monty Python? Because The Mutants (aka the reason no one except Doctor Who Magazine calls the first Dalek story by its original title) opens in exactly the same way. But rather than gasp out the first word, he runs past the camera, being chased by uniformed guards in breathing masks. Welcome to Solos.

And since this is another future story and yet the Doctor is still exiled to Earth, we have another assignment for the Doctor from the Time Lords (although this one is more overt than The Curse of Peladon): to deliver a box of something to someone -- the Doctor won't know what it is or who it's for until he arrives wherever the TARDIS takes him. (This, incidentally, leads to what's probably Jon Pertwee's best-known goof on the show: "I'm not allowed to open it. I couldn't, even if I wanted to. No, I'm not meant to. I couldn't open it, even if I wanted to.") That somewhere is the 30th century, and a Skybase orbiting the planet Solos, which is about to be granted independence from Earth's Empire. "We can't afford an empire any more," the Administrator from Earth (as played by the always excellent Geoffrey Palmer) tells the Marshal in command of Solos. "Earth is exhausted, Marshal. Finished. Politically, economically, and biologically finished." So this is a story "about" the end of the British Empire then. Although we also see signs of discrimination between the native Solonians and the human Overlords, most notably in the separate transport cubicles. So that's segregation and/or apartheid thrown into the mix.

Well, except that the discrimination is rather down in the mix (other than general "Solonians are dirty" stuff), but that's more because of the mutations that the humans apparently triggered in the Solonians (the mutants of the title) rather than because of some natural disposition (at this point in the story, at least). No, the focus is on the end of Earth's hold on Solos. Only the Marshal isn't ready to leave, and so he has the Administrator assassinated right before he tells the Solonians that they're free (so that's two for two for Geoffrey Palmer deaths on Doctor Who). Err, yes... It's not clear what the Marshal's plan is, as if killing the messenger somehow eliminates the decision in the first place. Is he trying to prove that he can convert the planet into one habitable for humans, and he needs more time? Or does he think that proving the Solonians can't be trusted will make Earth reconsider their decision? And in the chaos, Ky, the leader of the "terrorist" Solonians, starts to trigger the opening of the Doctor's box before escaping down to the planet, taking an unprotected Jo with him.

The Doctor and Professor Jaeger attempt to see what's in the
Time Lord box. (The Mutants Episode Two) ©BBC

Episode two is concentrated mainly on the Skybase. There are some scenes with Ky and Jo on the surface of Solos, as they're tracked by a group of Skybase guards before escaping to a cave where Jo can breathe normally (the nitrogen isotope in the atmosphere that slowly kills humans is only a danger outside in the daylight, it seems), but the primary focus is up in orbit. The Doctor is introduced to Professor Jaeger and his efforts to make Solos's atmosphere breathable for humans, and the Marshal attempts to cover his tracks in the assassination by killing the native Solonian assassin (who was acting on the Marshal's orders) and then the assassin's father, Varan, who's also the leader of one of the Solonian factions. He misses Varan, though, which leads to a chase through the corridors of Skybase (and this is as good a time as any to note the distinctive triangle pattern on the walls courtesy of designer Jeremy Bear, which will go on to be used in dozens of subsequent BBC SF shows, including several Doctor Who stories), as the Marshal has declared that Varan is a "Mutt", or mutant. It's only when the Doctor finds Varan, who is distinctly non-mutated, that the Marshal's plan becomes clear, and Stubbs and Cotton (hitherto the "everyman" characters in this story) begin to play a more significant part in the proceedings.

So the stage is set: Stubbs and Cotton are now working against the Marshal, and the Doctor determines that he needs to get to the surface. So during an experiment to see inside the Time Lord package for Ky, the Doctor overloads the main power supply, giving him and Varan a chance to escape to the surface. Except Varan grabs the Doctor outside the transmat booth. "Die, Overlord, die!" he says to the person who saved his life and gave him this opportunity to escape. That's gratitude for you.

June 8: The Sea Devils Episodes Five & Six

The Doctor has been taken by the Sea Devils into their base, where he tries to convince them that he can negotiate a peace between the Sea Devils and the humans; there's no need for any violence. But the Master is down in their base too, and he has told them that man is weak and that they can easily reclaim the planet for themselves. The Doctor is on the verge of convincing them when their base is attacked by the Royal Navy. In the Doctor's absence a Parliamentary Private Secretary named Walker has arrived at the base and is dead-set on attacking the Sea Devils' base. It's worth noting how director Michael Briant directs the scenes with Walker, often in extreme closeups while eating. Walker appears to be obsessed with food, which not only accentuates his callousness -- as he appears to be more concerned with his stomach than with the consequences of his actions -- but also, when combined with the direction, makes him appear more monstrous than the Sea Devils.

In any event, once the attack occurs the Sea Devils won't be dissuaded from attacking humanity, so the Doctor rescues the submarine crew and helps free the sub, allowing it to return to base. After tearing into Walker ("I think you've got it all wrong, old man," Walker says, trying to defend his actions. "Seek and destroy. That's what you chaps say, isn't it?" "But the point, Mister Parliamentary Private Secretary," the Doctor replies heatedly, "is that you have not destroyed. You have just made them angry. Very, very angry!"), the Doctor announces his intentions to go back down and try and broker peace again. But before he can do so, the Sea Devils attack the naval base.

The Doctor fends off a Sea Devil. (The Sea Devils Episode Six) ©BBC

Episode six has a rather entertaining battle between the Sea Devils and the navy (I particularly enjoy the part where three Sea Devils round a corner one at a time, each stopping to fire its gun at the camera before moving on to let the next one have a moment), and the business with the Master and the Doctor is nice (the reason the Sea Devils are on the surface is to get parts to repair their reactivation switch), with the Doctor criticizing the Master's circuit design before making corrections -- except the Doctor is actually adding in some additional features that the Master is apparently unable to recognize. This suggests that the Master isn't as much of an electronic genius as he sometimes claims. There's also the rather amazing sequence where the Doctor switches a couple wires around, creating a shrill whine that incapacitates the Sea Devils. This is allowed to go for so long that Jo is able to rescue Captain Hart, charge down to the beach, get a hovercraft going, and head out to sea for reinforcements before the Master switches it off -- despite the fact that there's a Sea Devil in the room with the Doctor and the Master, clearly writhing in pain the whole time.

Captain Hart arrives with more naval personnel to retake the base (so this is where the aforementioned battle occurs), while the Master takes off on a jetboat with the reactivation device with the Doctor in hot pursuit -- although this looks more like a chance for Pertwee to drive a jetboat (which he is clearly loving) than for any reasons of story, since the chase ends on the beach, only with Sea Devils ready to take the Doctor and the Master down to their base.

Walker is all ready for a nuclear strike, but he's beaten by the Doctor; once the Doctor learns that there's no chance of peace with the Sea Devils, he sets the reactivation device to overload by "revers[ing] the polarity of the neutron flow"⁶⁷, which will cause their power supply to surge and explode, taking everything with it. The Doctor and the Master manage to escape the colossal explosion, but in the subsequent confusion the Master manages to escape (by driving a hoverboat into naval-infested waters, but never mind).

There's nothing particularly wrong with The Sea Devils; it's sufficiently entertaining, and there are some moments in the serial that are quite marvelous indeed. But the main issue here is that we've already had this story once before, only an episode longer and set in Derbyshire, and this new version doesn't have anything different to say. The main impetus seems to have been to get the Royal Navy to help them make the show (which would have been a major coup for producer Barry Letts, who served in the Royal Navy during World War II), and to see what happens when the Master is inserted into the same basic set-up as Doctor Who and the Silurians. But the fact is that, as good as Roger Delgado is, his character ends up distorting the story so that The Sea Devils is more about him than the eponymous creatures. But as this iteration has nothing new to say on the subject of human-reptile relations, this isn't as great a loss as it might have otherwise been.

The bottom line is that, despite the best efforts of Michael Briant and Malcolm Clarke to do something different, The Sea Devils is content to simply carry on doing what's been working for the show for the last couple years, and, entertaining though it may be, it doesn't have any real ambition beyond that. Still, this is the first story aired out of production order (they made it before The Curse of Peladon on account of the weather but showed it after to break up the two "space" stories this season), so at least it's pioneering in that respect.

⁶⁷ It's a requirement at this point to note that this is the only time this phrase occurs during the Pertwee era proper (though it'll show up again in The Five Doctors), but we've probably reached the point where anyone who's aware of this line as a catchphrase for the third Doctor's era is also already aware of this fact.

June 7: The Sea Devils Episodes Three & Four

Well, the Master missed. And Trenchard arrives to save the Doctor from death -- although as he's just going to lock him up (in what feels monstrously unfair, even given that this is Doctor Who and these sorts of things happen all the time -- a tribute therefore to Clive Morton's performance as Trenchard, who's nervously matter-of-fact about the flagrant violation of the Doctor's rights), it doesn't really help him out that much. But it also means that we spend an episode with the Doctor locked up and Jo trying to rescue him, which does feel a bit like stalling for time. But we also have the reasonably entertaining subplot where Captain Hart sends a submarine to find out more about the Sea Devils' base, only for said submarine to be invaded by the creatures they were there to investigate.

The Doctor is eventually freed, of course, which leads to an escape across the fields surrounding the prison, leading to the beach. But the Master has been working on a device to contact the Sea Devils, and while the Doctor and Jo are trapped on the beach between Trenchard's guards and a minefield, the Master summons a Sea Devil, which emerges from the waves...

Episode four has a bit more action, and it starts with the Master sending the Sea Devil toward the Doctor and Jo, who are therefore forced into the minefield. But when the Sea Devil follows, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver (now in the form we'll come to know and love (more or less) for the rest of the 20th-century version of the series⁶⁶) to explode the mines near the Sea Devil, causing it to turn and flee. Thus our heroes are able to make their escape and return to the naval base.

The Sea Devils arrive to collect the Master. (The Sea
Devils Episode Four) ©BBC

But while the Doctor is trying to convince Captain Hart of the Master's position of power in the prison (during which he scolds Jo for wanting to eat and then scarfs down the sandwiches prepared for her himself), the Master is putting his plans into motion. Having contacted the Sea Devils, he then waits as a large group of them raid the castle, killing basically everyone inside, including Trenchard, who's shot down right outside the Master's quarters, defending his prisoner and doing his duty to the end. It's a rather dignified end for this occasional parody of a man, even if it ultimately means his death. And in any event it's no use; the Sea Devils have freed the Master (and presumably taken him with them).

During this the submarine is still being invaded, culminating with the Sea Devils breaking into the main control section of the sub (with a fabulous moment as the door melts away and then a Sea Devil bursts through what's left). The commander of the sub, Ridgeway, allows the Sea Devils to use the submarine for their own ends so that he can find out where their base is. And when the submarine is tracked on the naval base's sonar, the crew up there can tell it's heading for the semi-abandoned fort from the first episode -- which leads the Doctor to ask to take a dive down to the foundations to look for himself. This means that they get a genuine diving vessel from the Royal Navy to film on, complete with its diving bell being lowered into the water and back out again. It's very impressive, and it gives the story that extra frisson of reality. And in story terms, when the Doctor is lowered down in the diving bell and then reports seeing something outside in the water before contact is lost, it's a suitably exciting moment -- one heightened by the fact that when the diving bell is retrieved from the water, the Doctor is gone...

⁶⁶ Actually it made an appearance in Colony in Space first, when the Doctor detects the alarm beam in the Master's TARDIS, but as it wasn't signposted as the sonic screwdriver, its use may have passed you by.

June 6: The Sea Devils Episodes One & Two

It starts with a nice moment of tension, as something is attacking SS Pevensey Castle. And then we get the first taste of a reptile hand and...

Well, we should probably talk about the music now.

It's certainly the most distinctive part of The Sea Devils (at least as far as these first two episodes are concerned) and that's because, as this is the first Doctor Who score entirely written and created by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, composer Malcolm Clarke has decided to make a purely electronic score, using an EMS VCS3 synthesizer. It's monophonic, which means you only get one sound at a time, but you also get a "purer" electronic sound. What this effectively means is that, as this score is a pioneering one in many ways, you get moments where it sounds like 80s synth scores only in 1972, and then moments where it sounds like someone's making random tuneless noises on a computer, and there's no real way to tell which type of moment you're going to get next. It can be a rather challenging score, and it doesn't help that it's occasionally difficult to distinguish the music from the actual sound effects -- which (to digress for a moment) makes Mark Ayers' edited suite from The Sea Devils on Silva Screen's The 50th Anniversary Collection soundtrack all the more impressive.

Everything else we get though feels like typical Pertwee-era Who. After the reptile attack, we pick up a strand last explored in The Dæmons: yes, it's been a little bit, but the Master is back. He appears to be the only inmate of an isolated high-security prison (remember, UNIT caught him at the end of his last story), and the Doctor and Jo go to visit to make sure they're looking after him. Everything seems to be in order, but it turns out that, true to form, the Master has all the staff at the prison under his thumb -- which leads to a moment where the Master requests a television set for the bedroom -- "Colour, of course" -- and then is later happily watching a children's television show called Clangers.⁶⁵ But the Doctor is more interested in the sinking of ships that Trenchard, governor of the prison, mentions. So when the Royal Navy refuse to help him (and it's a bit striking that it's the Navy and not UNIT in this story), he and Jo go off to investigate on their own, to a fort in the middle of all the reports of sinking ships. While there they encounter a dead mechanic and something coming towards them...

Episode two reveals the something to be the dead mechanic's partner (as played by almost-but-not-quite-Jabba-the-Hutt actor Declan Mulholland, whose scene was cut from the Proper Version of Star Wars before being reinstated with a (not very good) CGI Jabba for the Special Edition), who keeps rambling about "sea devils". It doesn't take long for the Doctor to actually spot one, which looks like a bipedal turtle in, wonderfully, a blue string vest, but it's not willing to talk. After driving it off, the Doctor declares it to be related to the Silurians (and here's where the equally implausible "Eocene" name comes in) and thinks humanity should try and make contact with them. He's in the middle of this argument with Captain Hart at the nearby naval base HMS Seaspite, in fact, when Jo spots the Master, who's there to get some electronic parts. And when the Doctor heads back to the prison to check on the Master, he ends up engaged in a (rather fun) sword fight with him (why there are swords on the wall right outside the Master's room is another matter), which he ends up winning -- but then he doesn't see the Master pull a knife on him...

They're not bad, these two episodes, but they are rather standard for this time in the show's history, and so far there's nothing to make them really stand out (other than the score). Not that that's a bad thing, though, as they're still entertaining enough. The question is more whether the subsequent episodes will maintain interest.

⁶⁵ And now you know why the John Simm Master is watching Teletubbies in "The Sound of Drums" -- it's an homage to this scene.

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...

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?