The Seeds Of Doom (1976) Review

"My name is Doctor. The Doctor."

The Seeds Of Doom is both remarkably low-key(we had a brain in a jar in a stormy castle last time!!) and all-out epic(the plants are taking over the Earth this time!!). I love these stories.

PLOT

A pair of Krynoid pods land in Antarctica and begin infecting people in a plot to conquer the Earth with sentient plant life. UNIT calls in the Doctor and Sarah to check out the pods, leading them to plant lover and millionaire Harrison Chase who will do anything to see the Krynoids rule the world...

ANALYSIS

I think the key word here is "sturdy". Everything is right here: the casting, the story(again horror), the effects, the script, the sets, the designs... it doesn't have the sparkle that the last few stories had, but it's still amazing in its own right.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker's greatest strengths are seen here: being absolutely furious to the point of losing his head and not giving a crap about anything. In the hands of a lesser actor, the character's flippancy could get annoying, but Baker does it in a way that makes it look like he's really just using it as a cover whilst he analyses his surroundings and so forth. The dialogue helps. A lot.

Elisabeth Sladen's rapport with the lead actor I won't even bother to discuss, we all know how great they are together. Instead, I just want to point out how real and multifaceted her performance is, her revulsion mixed with sympathy for Keeler and her grudge against Scorby all came across 
perfectly. It's lovely to see she hasn't tired of the role at all, at least on-screen.

Harrison Chase is extremely creepy. He's kind of like Nyder, except even more devoted, to the point of insanity(they didn't even need to make him possessed, in fact it would've been better if it had been all him). I like the little touches of eccentricity about him, like those awful pieces of music he composed and how he never takes his gloves off. It's a pretty well done performance all around.

Scorby is a great henchman. His macho act kind of bugged me at the start, but the actor and the script gave him depth and an almost-sympathy comparable to the likes of the Master. He's evil, that's just how he lives.

The butler was a bit of an odd character. He acts like Alfred Pennyworth, but never questions Chase's decisions, even when they're obviously against any sort of morality. Is that really how the British roll? Killing people is "naughty", but fine if you're home in time for tea?

I was also a bit confused about Keeler, who seemed sympathetic in his behavior, but never really redeemed himself for his crimes. He was "sort of" evil to the end. We've never had that before.

NOTES

*Hey, it's Ransom from The War Games(playing one of the Antarctic base scientists)! He has an awful beard now, though.

*The ending was completely lost on me. You can explain away that the Doctor either changed his mind about using the TARDIS to come to Antarctica or did so and used a helicopter later on, but the way they presented it made it seem like the Doctor made it only via helicopter before the storm got too big. 

*Say farewell to the TARDIS exterior prop that has serviced the show since 1963. It collapsed shortly after filming the scene in Antarctica (perhaps explaining why the scene of them arriving with the TARDIS was never filmed).

*Also, the explanation for their arrival to Antarctica made no sense. The Doctor forgot to cancel the co-ordinate programmer? Doesn't he need to insert new co-ordinates to arrive... well, anywhere else? Or is the TARDIS truly on a randomiser?

*The killer plant effects were quite reminiscent of The Keys Of Marinus. Perhaps the Screaming Jungle was in fact a Krynoid invasion in process?

*I love, love, LOVE the idea of the Doctor using a gun as a bluff. People need to do that more in movies. Usually they go "oh, I never would" instead of just PRETENDING. TO SAVE YOUR SORRY LITTLE... let's just say it's a pet peeve of mine.

*I also love the way the Doctor completely loses his patience with Scorby and Chase and in one particular scene, just shouts every answer to Scorby's questions so he'd get it into his thick head. Pertwee would've just kept repeating the same things in a serious monotone over and over again. He 
couldn't dream of taking on Scorby in an argument.

*The effect of the castle under siege towards the end is absolutely brilliant. It felt like a blockbuster for a minute there.

BEST QUOTE

"It will mean the end of everything! Even your PENSION!!"

CONCLUSION

The season ends as it began... taking an old thing in a new direction.


And that's Season 13. It was fantastic, one of the best ever. Terror Of The Zygons was a Pertwee leftover(far too soon to be a homage), but even that gave hints of things to come. Planet Of Evil was them trying to figure out how to do it. The rest was gold. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are
certainly one of the best classic Who pair-ups ever(I forgot to mention the Doctor casually mentions she's his best friend in this story) and the way these two just bounce off of one another is brilliant. However, I know this will shock you, but I still like the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane a bit better.

It sounds a bit weird, but I don't see the Doctor as an equal with any of his companions, he's more like the Yoda to their Luke. They can banter and be best friends, but ultimately, the Doctor outranks the companion in terms of knowledge and experience and that should never be forgotten(that's why I
hate the tendency for the new series companions to push the Doctor around or take the piss out of him, as the British say). The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane were equals in the sense that they treated each other with the appropriate respect which is natural, but in the end, it was always going to be "the Doctor and Sarah Jane", not "Sarah Jane and the Doctor".

Season 13 also marks the end of one of the show's longest running arcs... the UNIT era. I can't really say it's an appropriate end. It's not like they were actually ending it, they were just trying to brush it under the carpet and move on. And I don't blame them, in my opinion Dicks and Letts kept the UNIT cast around at least two more years than they were needed, but it could and should've been done with a more respectful finality, considering how important UNIT has been to Doctor Who. 

If I had been in charge at the time, I probably would've had the Brigadier and Benton show up for The Seeds Of Doom so they could finally have that meeting in London(or a cocktail party or whatever) where they chill out, talk about old times and then the Brigadier announces his retirement and that 
Benton is taking over UNIT. Benton then goes "well, with the Doctor around, I think I can manage" and the Doctor's like "oh, I'm still young" (harkening back to his conversation with Sarah in Pyramids Of Mars) and announces his own departure from UNIT as well. And then they all leave and Sarah Jane consoles poor Benton.