The Seeds of Death - Episode 2

At the beginning of the episode, they are still trying to convince Eldred to use his rocket. After a while I felt like this was just getting tiresome. There’s something good about someone standing up for their principles but there comes a time when you have to put it to one side and just help others. It took an awfully long time for this to happen. Once Eldred agrees to this it isn’t very long before the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie are on the rocket about to go to the moon.

The sight of Eldrad, Miss Kelly and Radnor sitting at a desk does look like some talent show judging panel. It’s rather amusing. They are the three best supporting characters in this piece with Louise Pajo in the lead in terms of performances though Ronald Leigh-Hunt is also very good as Commander Radnor.

As far as the regulars they all do well thought the spend half the episode stuck in the rocket set. It’s fun seeing Jamie reacting to travelling by rocket. Despite travelling in the TARDIS, he hasn’t experienced anything like rocket. Jamie does seem like a bit of spare part as his knowledge about what it takes to get a rocket set up isn’t quite up to par with that of Zoe or the Doctor. Even when Jamie offers to come with them to the moon, the Doctor isn’t quite sure he wants him coming. Considering how I thought the relationship was during this period, it’s a surprise to me at this moment just how out of favours Frazer Hines’ character seems.

There is some more interesting directing from Michael Ferguson such as the bit where there is the round screen and Eldrad’s face appears. This is followed by the countdown appearing on Miss Kelly’s face. The model effects of the rocket are all very impressive and show how far the standard has risen since the show started and its helps create the impression that the story is set on the earth and on the moon.

The Ice Warriors aren’t going about all guns blazing but are being quite manipulative. They are achieving this by getting the T-Mat working only way this getting more people of the Moon but they are stuck there. There aren’t many of them (more for budgetary reasons than anything else) but what they lack in numbers, they more than make up in their coldness (no pun intended).

I don’t think that this episode has quite the fizz that the first one had. I think that the supporting characters has fallen a bit and we are now left with the three main supporting players and some minor ones who I couldn’t be fussed about. I still like the story and feel that the point of the Ice Warriors will become evident soon. My issues of six parters are starting to show up again (sorry for repeating myself again) as there seemed like a fair amount of padding but I’m willing to forgive it knowing that the good stuff is about to come.