The Seeds of Death - Episode 4

So with Patrick Troughton on holiday, it means that Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury get a bit more of the action. Though they do come up with a clever way of getting rid of the person playing him by placing him in the T-Mat and sending into space. I like how there is a nice bit of tension with Fewsham not wanting to do it. Terry Scully must be getting a bit bored of just doing scenes with Ice Warriors and longs for acting against people not in costumes.

As Troughton is on holiday it means that Hines and Padbury have to get themselves involved in the story and Wendy Padbury does this very well as she has to work her way through the maze of tunnels to reach the control room to try and turn up the temperature. This was achieved by having the access hatch so small that only Zoe could get through. I do like how in trying to point out why she should do it and not Jamie she takes a pot shot at the fact that Jamie isn’t the quietest person in the world. Jamie is then forced to stay in that room where they have hooked up the weapon that doesn’t have a positive effect on Ice Warriors, though on the plus side he is stuck with Miss Kelly so there are worse situations to be in.

I forgot to mention about when the pod started to get bigger when it was in front of Radnor, Eldred and Brent. When it started to get bigger, why didn’t they close the door. If something like that was happening to me then I would have closed the door and got the hell out of there. But I suppose you lose a bit of common sense when your on TV. Another thing I haven’t mentioned (for some reason) is how sniffly and pathetic Fewsham started off and continues to be. He’s all about self sacrifice and nothing else. I don’t think that he cares about others which is why I think he’s an effective character. Eldred is the one that figures out why the Ice Warriors have sent their pods to cold parts of the world. I like it how despite being the oldest, he is still able to contribute and be useful to the story. He also seems to be the one with the wisest head on his/her shoulders.

The moment where the Ice Warriors surprises Eldred and Radnor was another good moment as it was the first time that they had been seen on Earth and in different surroundings to the moon. Even though it was just one it seemed more than capable of seeing off the guards.

We get to go outside for the first time since ‘The Invasion’ and though it doesn’t feature the regular any of the important supporting characters its still good to get outside. It has a different look to them. Ok there’s filmed at Hyde Park and so not going to have the cold bleakness of what we saw in ‘The Invasion’ and I don’t know whether its just the quality of the print but there is something that looks a bit odd. That said the effect of the foam spreading and the T-Mat guard being killed by an Ice Warrior is well realised.

The cliffhanger is a good one as Zoe is the one that is in danger as she is spotted by the Ice Warrior infront of that giant bank of lights. This has definelty been Wendy Padbury’s episode and it does show how the dynamic of the set-up has changed and despite the level playing field in the first couple of episode, its reverted back to what we have now. It’s a shame really but I think that the restrictions of Jamie’s character (even though this was his 94^th episode) is on show here. As an episode it’s the best so far and it feels like the story is starting to get cooking and also it feels like there is some menace to want the good guys to try and stop. Good stuff.

7.65/10