The Monster of Peladon - Episode 1

I just realised something this morning. I am just two stories away from the end of the Pertwee era. I am just 12 episodes away from welcoming the Tom Baker. But that’s in the future and what we have is a blast from the past because the Doctor returns to Peladon for a sequel that I don’t think we really needed. It even starts off with the same model shot that was used in the first one. As you may know if you are a regular visitor to this blog, I am fond of the occasional stat. It has now been 143 episodes since the Cybermen last appeared in a story (not including that brief appearance in Carnival of Monsters). It’s been 27 episodes since the Master last appeared and it was 59 episodes since The Ice Warriors last appeared in ‘The Curse of Peladon’. Curse dealt with the issue of Peladon joining the Galactic Federation and this one still seems to be about the Galactic Federation. The story takes place 50 years after the events of Curse.

Instead of David Troughton, we have Nina Thomas who plays Queen Thalira. Thalira is the daughter of Troughton’s King Peladon and its clear that Thalira has inherited her fathers diplomatic style. According the information text, Tahlira was suppose to be King Peladon’s fiancé.  I think that Nina Thomas gives a more stronger performance than David Troughton did. Like in Curse, there is a Chancellor who seems at odds with the Queen. In the case of Curse there was Chancellor Torbis played by Henry Gilbert and in this story there is Chancellor Orton played by Frank Gatliff. I cant really pick between the two as to which one is the best because its essentially the same role and its performed in equally the same way. I had forgotten that Rex Robinson was in this story as Gebek. It’s always good to have Robinson in an whilst I don’t think that its as good a role as Dr Tyler. I still think that he’s good in this episode.

I haven’t really commented about the performances from Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen too much recently. I think that its clear that Jon Pertwee is in the process of divorcing himself from the show as there doesn’t seem the intensity that there was in the previous seasons. If you look back at the previous Peladon story then you would notice a massive difference. I am not saying that he is putting in a below par performance but its clear that there isn’t quite the swagger that there use to be. Elisabeth Sladen has settled into the role and whilst there seems to be some of the traits from her first story, its clear that the 100% feisty feminist part of her character has been reduced to about 40%.

The person from Vega clearly has something covering his eyes with holes drilled in to allow the actor (Gerald Taylor) to see. I really don’t know what they were thinking when they put the headpiece on the Peladon mine workers. It’s something that is very much of its time. That said there aren’t as many things wrong with this episode than I was expecting. I’m still not entirely won over with this story but the opening episode is promising and the cliffhanger is much better than the ones we got in the previous story and so I am a lot more confident about the remaining episodes of this story and also of this season.