The Curse Of Peladon (1972) Review

I want a Venusian lullaby CD. This is a really lovely song.

The Curse Of Peladon is an atmospheric and inspired thriller and is the best use of the Ice Warriors yet.

PLOT

The Time Lords dispatch the Doctor and Jo to facilitate Peladon's union with the United Federation of Planets(hang on, whatever happened to that Bountiful Human Empire?) which is threatened by the overprotective High Priest Hepesh.

While Hepesh did threaten to turn into a cartoon villain in the final episode, I was mostly really impressed. I liked the characters, the aliens looked magnificient and the Ice Warriors turning over a new leaf is an excellent piece of character development. 

CHARACTERS

The Third Doctor is right at home in this story in the role of the detective who has to uncover the mystery of who is attempting to prevent the union and also the politician who can argue, argue, argue. He's positively dashing here.

Jo also manages to be somewhat likable and less ditzy than usual. I really liked her interactions with the King and her ability to stand against the Ice Lord.

I loved the aliens. I mean, Alpha Centauri is probably the campest character ever to be on Doctor Who, but I don't really count that as a bad thing. It added humor to a dramatic story. Arcturus was a skull in a jar. Lolz. And the Ice Warriors were of course, magnificient(and fortunately not redesigned like most recurring aliens).

David Troughton as King Peladon was a bit of a momma's boy(it's as close a description as I can get), but his dilemma was interesting and he was written very well.  

NOTES

*Why do the Time Lords care about Peladon joining the Federation? And why do they send the Doctor of all people?

*I bet Patrick Troughton tuned in for this story. I wonder what he thought of it.

*The castle looked absolutely gorgeous. The opening was great.

*The TARDIS's fall off the cliff was very reminiscent of The Romans, wouldn't you agree?

*I can just imagine the King going crazy because of all the torches that keep being moved and not put back to their original position.

*How exactly does Alpha Centauri talk? At least with Arcturus, I can imagine that the voice is coming out of his giant Arcturusmobile.

*What is Arcturus anyway?

CONCLUSION

A lovely little story. Nothing more, nothing less.