Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Curse of Peladon



50dw50 ‏@50dw50 I remember when this was repeated on BBC2 as part of Dr Who and the Monsters season, loved it. It started the trend for using the Ice Warriors as substitute Klingons in later Who novels/audios.


It's a stormy night at castle Grayskull...

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H We call this style of architecture "Early Maniac" you know...

Purple robed badger men! Pat's boy! Torches! Ignorance and superstition! Woooo! 

Great start. Hooked already.

The Pels await the arrival of the delegate from Earth...

Hepesh and Torbis have been King Peladon's most trusted advisers since he was a boy. Which picked his outfit?

Blinkin' 'eck! Torbis has been killed by the roaring monstrous spirit of Aggedor!

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H aka the Daily Mail fashion critic.


King's champion Grun fingers the beast.
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H That's a Grun for the money, two for the show...

Don't step on his purple badger-skin shoes...?


 How bloody long is the TARDIS taking to materialise this week! 

The TARDIS is looking decidely smaller on the inside. 
Jo was all dolled up for a night on the town with Mike Yates. Lucky escape for her!

A tiny fault in the interstitial beam locator. Of course - what else would it be!

Worst. Parking job. Ever. (Apart from the one in The Romans, obviously).

There goes the TARDIS. 

Will the rest of the series all take place on this planet from now on?

Alpha Centauri is ridiculously hilarious.

Alpha Centauri says Earth is "A remote & unattractive planet at best." One up from "Mostly harmless", I guess.

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H I guess that AC visited once and, ahem, didn't fit in...

Out on the mountainside, Jo finds a convenient crack.

Arcturus is like a shit Dalek. Green squidgy mutant in a metal box with a gun and a wibbly electronic voice.
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H Or what a Dalek might have looked like if Ray Cusick had had a day off.
atruedrwhofan ‏@atruedrwhofan its the "What If" Ridley Scott version of a Dalek.

Now that's an interesting thought! Don't think I've ever seen anything he designed - wonder what his 'style' was like... :-)
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H Now, Princess, would you like to drape yourself over Arcturus here...? 

Hepesh reminds King Peladon of his dad. Yeah, mate, he was the Doctor just three years ago, we remember!

Peladon is half-human. On his mother's side.

The Doctor's lost in some tunnels. Fancy that.

They find their way into the palace via a secret passage...

...and soon spot a familiar face - Ice Warriors!

A proper hissing one, and an Ice-Lord, no less!

The Doctor is mistaken for the chairman delegate from Earth, and cheekily doesn't bother to correct anyone.

In fact he abuses his new position to get the TARDIS rescued. Just appointed and already in it for the perks; Typical politician.

Everyone noticed Grun slink off then, right?

The chairman delegate from Earth introduces Her Royal Highness the princess Josephine of TARDIS.


That's the Doctor and Jo to you and me. Stop drooling, Peladon.


Learning of the purportedly supernatural death, the Doctor sticks his oar in when the delegates contemplate leaving.


Peladon's quite chuffed to hear Jo's staying, anyway.

The scenery shifters are up to no good. Wait, that's Grun!

Watch out for that falling - SPLAT! End of part 1!


50dw50 ‏@50dw50 its a Weeping Aggador!

Brilliant! This is now CANON.

The Doctor shoves them all out of the way saving their lives.

Jo feels all wobbly at the knees. But enough about the gold Dalek.

"I am King, not Hepesh! And not Aggedor!" Actually, maybe Aggedor should be king.


50dw50 ‏@50dw50 as opposed to a king in suspicious looking tights
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H King Aggedor the First... it does have a kind of ring to it...

Jo sneaks away to investigate where the statue fell, and finds some suspicious looking tech.

Peladon: "Everyone out! I got private King things to do! You stay, Jo."

Peladon cracks onto Jo, but she thinks he's just after her for political power. Yeah, that'll be it.

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H practicing his chat up lines... (and SOMEHOW he got to be Thalira's dad...)

The foremost of the King's enemies is the Doctor! Fancy that.

The Doctor automatically suspects the Ice Warriors. Racist. 


Jo is confused about Alpha's gender, while the Doctor teases her about playing the Princess.

Arcturus' alarm clock is bloody noisy.

The Doctor works frantically to rewire Arcturus, whose life-support mechanism has been nicked.

Hepesh blames poor old Aggedor for absolutely everything. Torbis killed - Aggedor did it. Arcturus attacked - Aggedor did it. Oh, look, it's raining - Aggedor did it.


Jo goes mooching in Ssorg's sock drawer...

50dw50 ‏@50dw50 ice warrior underwear is a terrifying thought.
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H "Oh, my! What's this? Lizard Girl Illustrated..."

Ssorg exposes Jo. No gold Dalek necessary.

Grun takes the Doctor on a detour...

Arcturus is a useless witness, but Izlyr is on the case and the delegates start to suspect wedding bells...

Jo's gone outside. She might be some time.


Don't look down!

Jo's made it back in...

...but Grun's led the Doctor into a trap. 

Aggedor's out for his evening mooch about.

The Ice Warriors don't believe Aggedor is real. 

The Doctor's getting up close and personal with him!

The Ice Warriors reject violins. Except in self-defence.

Hepesh has set the Doctor up. Caught him defiling the holy of holies. The dirty beggar.

Oh noes! The Doctor's been sentenced to death! Again. He must find it hard to give a monkey's by now.
50dw50 ‏@50dw50 when does The Master turn up?



Regular followers will now by now that I'd love a new series return to Peladon. Mark Gatiss is a big Pertwee fan, surely he'd like to pen a Brexit-style follow up for Capaldi? Sam Troughton as the new king, throw in a bunch of alien delegates from The End of the World and The Rings of Akhaten?

The Ice Warriors are sticking up for the Doctor. There's a turn up!

The King commutes the sentence to Trial by Combat. Careful; he's quite spry for his age, y'know.

Besides, we all know Terry Walsh is going in to bat for him, anyway.


Peladon's still cracking on to Jo. 


MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H but only for the hair and makeup tips...


Hepesh unexpectedly offer his help to the Doctor... 

Alpha Centauri doesn't understand. Big surprise.

Hepesh tries to persuade the Doctor to do a runner. He's even gone to the trouble of having the TARDIS rescued.

Unexpected stuff: Hepesh admits he's afraid of what entry into the Federation will mean.
50dw50 ‏@50dw50 maybe they should have a referendum or something... #topical
John Mark Frankland ‏@JMFrankland Funny how you never see Hepesh and N*g*l F*r*ge together at the same time...

Jo denies Wedding bells.

The Doctor's amuses himself with a spinny mirror thing, then sets out for the tunnels. 

The Ice Warriors tell Jo they want to save the Doctor. 

Then we see Arcturus listening in, in a scene that reveals he's a villain. Oh.

The Doctor goes for a spin in the tunnels and bumps into a furry friend.



"Our ally has plotted well, Grun!" It's Arcturus; we just saw.

"Klokleda Partha Menin Klatch, Haroon-naroon-narah!" Venusian my eye, he's forgotten the words and is making it up!

The Doctor has just about got Aggedor subdued when Jo blunders in, causing him to scarper. There goes his evidence!

That rates six Bakewell tarts on the ham-fisted bun-vendor scale.


The Doctor confounds Hepesh by turning himself in, but is unable to convince the King that Aggedor likes a tickle.

Time for Terry Walsh to get his best grey wig on and scrap to defend Pertwee's honour (and bad back)!


Grun and the Doctor descend into the pit of film to fight...


The first rule of Peladonian fight club is that you do not talk about what Alpha Centauri looks like.

The 2nd rule of Peladonian Fight Club is that you leave the roly-polys to Terry Walsh. Especially the jam ones. Looking at you, Bun Vendor.

Fancy Doctor Who to get Grun on the ropes in the next 5 seconds? I'll give ya 2/1... 'Ave a bang on that!

Obviously the Doctor spares Grun; he is a good man, after all.

Surprise villain Arcturus readies his blaster, but what's this? Is the Ice Warrior Ssorg firing on the Doctor? No.


Ssorg shoots Arcturus. So that's the story over. Except there's another 20 minutes to go.
50dw50 ‏@50dw50 it will perk up again when The Master turns up.

He's busy marathon-ing the Clangers boxset at this point, I reckon.


50dw50 ‏@50dw50 Still 20 minutes to go? Game of mouse trap anyone?


Bring me knitting!

The Doctor's figured out Arcturus wanted to stitch up the Ice Warriors and prevent Peladon going into the EU or summat.


Seems Grun has had something of an epiphany and has determined to help the Doctor defeat Hepesh. With a rock.

The Doctor wants Jo to work on Centauri. Peladon will be gutted. 

When Grun tries to bring Hepesh, he's beaten down.


Hepesh has lost it now; going for the full-on coup.
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H "Viva El Presidente...!"

When Centauri wants to weasel out and leg it, the delegates put it to a vote and the Ice Warriors side with Jo.

Some arse has smashed Ssorg's crystal set. Can't blame Aggedor this time.

The Doctor and Grun are in those tunnels Hepesh keeps saying don't exist.

Jo says she and Peladon are "just good friends", she "doesn't like him like that" and "he's like a brother". The Friend Zone of Peladon.

Hepesh implores Peladon to return to the ancient ways of doing lines.

Aggedor's quite agreeable once you get a Venusian lullaby down him. 


Except Aggedor does bite the hand that feeds him and takes Hepesh out.

"Perhaps I was wrong..."says Hepesh, as he dies. Bit late. 

Better than a F*r*ge Un-resignation, I suppose!

Hepesh dies under the purple cloth. 

Could have been worse.
 

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H Under the pink frock...?

"The memory of this unhappy day shall be wiped from our history" Peladon's fiddling history books like a real politician!
50dw50 ‏@50dw50 if its good enough for Stalin it's good enough for him!

As Hepesh had the TARDIS brought up earlier, the Doctor and Jo are free to leave now their work here is done.

The Doctor sheepishly admits his suspicion that they were steered here by the Time-Lords.

Oh, Aggedor, you pesky man-in-a-fur-suit, you.

Peladon has one last go at persuading Jo to be his queen, but she turns him down again. Take the hint. Sheesh.
MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H "I've got Mike Yates waiting for me back at... Hey, you know what? Why not?"

Whoops! Some sparkly woman with a bad line in "Doctor Who?" jokes has turned up; time to scarper!

MAW Holmes ‏@MAW_H I'm saying this line for a young lad called Steven who won the Blue Peter "Write a line for Doctor Who" competition...



TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... The Monster of Peladon

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