The Monster Of Peladon (1974) Review

"Don't blink, Sarah! Blink and you're dead..."

The Monster Of Peladon is simply too long. The first half of the story is a pointless retread of the original(except less atmospheric and with no Ice Warriors), whilst the second half is actually quite pact and a nice, if unnecessary way for the Ice Warriors to return to their roots.

PLOT

The TARDIS makes a return trip to Peladon, but 50 years too late. The Doctor and Sarah find the planet in near civil war as the miners of this week's ultra-valuable-mineral-only-available-on-this-planet, trisilicate refuse to work because of their fear of Aggedor(whom, last I checked was confirmed not to be a God).
 
Besides the setup, everything is the same. The Queen is in over her head, her High Priest is a stubborn old goat, everyone suspects the Doctor(although considering that he never explained who he was, I'm not surprised) and even Doctor Who's very own Jar Jar Binks is back. A round of applause to Alpha Centauri!

To be fair, once the Peladonians united in their fight against the thuggish Ice Warriors in league with Galaxy 5(???), I really got into it. There was an optimism to the union that I liked, plus the story went a lot faster.

CHARACTERS

Jon Pertwee gets to be a selfish git one last time, ignoring Sarah after she realized he wasn't actually dead and frequently blows her off throughout the story.
Sarah rocks. She solves mysteries, genuinely helps out and is pretty fierce overall. I must say it again: she is a fantastic companion. Certainly the best we've had since Ian and maybe Jamie.

I also loved Eckersley, since he's so calm and collected and not at all villainous. It's a real surprise when he turns out to be a baddie(which I unfortunately spoiled for myself by reading the reviews ahead).

I'm not sure turning the Ice Warriors back into bad guys is such a great idea. Yes, it's hard to give them a reason to continue showing up once they stop being nasty, but why have them show up anyway? They're my favourite monsters, but they are completely unnecessary for this story. It could've very easily been the Ogrons or someone else.

The Queen was an improvement over David Troughton. She had less acting range, but at least the feminine nature of the character was natural(and I have nothing against normal gayness, but King Peladon was just ridiculously gay). The only thing that really didn't make sense to me is the King's name being Peladon and hers not.

I liked Ortron more than Hepesh, because he was nicer and ultimately redeemed himself(and yet somehow got far less mourning).

NOTES

*I forgot to talk about the new title sequence earlier so I'll do it here. It's awesome. The 2001-esque opening and Pertwee's serene pose and the Time Vortex... the only issue I have with it is that it's too blue. The eye gets no rest.
 
*One of the Ice Warriors is hilariously misshapen and looks like a wobblehead toy, with a giant head and small body.
 
*Brian Hayles apparently forgot the origin of the Ice Warriors' names halfway through this story, since Alpha Centauri says early on that "the Ice Warriors, as the Doctor calls them" (and mind you, Alpha Centauri has dealt with them for more than 50 years), but later, Azaxyr refers to his people as Ice Warriors.
 
*I would kill for Azaxyr's cape. Also the Doctor's outfit. But then again, he always looks fashionable. Well, almost always(sorry Sylvester!).
 
*The new Ice Warrior guns look abysmal. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
 
*Nice of them to reuse the old splash effect from The Seeds Of Death, though.
 
*I'm kind of annoyed they pulled the "is the Doctor dead or not?" card twice in one episode.
 
*I'm honestly surprised by the amount of foreshadowing to the Doctor's regeneration in this story. They're really making a big fuss out of it. I bet it'll be awesome.

BEST QUOTE

"While there's life, there's..."

CONCLUSION

A passable story, but would definitely be better remembered if it were a four-parter.