The Seeds of Death - Episode 1

So as we approach the latter stages of the Troughton era we are back with a familiar monster. I remember the first time that I saw this story and was instantly amazed by it, its was the first time that I saw the Ice Warriors. The story is set at the end of the twenty-first century where there is a process called T-Mat which is the way that things are transported and travel by rocket has become obsolete. This story as written by Brian Hayles who created the Ice Warriors.The Ice Warriors were last seen in their debut story two years before. 

 

The way that the screen episode credits are shown is another thing that’s well done. This story has a relatively local setting as we go back to the moon for the first time since 'The Moonbase'. Its not just used as a base under siege but more like part of the list of sets that the story will use. 

The effect that the people being transported via T-Mat is well done even though it is rather primitive by todays standard. 

 

We know the Ice Warriors are back pretty quickly just by the way that one of the team members were killed and also by the way that the Ice Warrior talks to Osgood. They don’t do very much in this episode apart from scare the s**t out of the people working on the moon. I do like the gradual unveiling of them as it wasn’t left until the last moment. The shot of one of them at the end was creepy and  show that despite doing very little they are back. 

 

It's 8 minutes before the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie have returned and its unusual that it takes this long but due to the fact that so much was going on with the supporting characters, I didn’t mind that we were well into the episode before they appeared. In the previous episode, Zoe seemed to be the Doctor's number one companion as opposed to Jamie but this time they were on equal footing. Equal footing to the point where the Doctor had gone geeky about the rocket ship, Jamie and Zoe seemed to be equally baffled by this.  

The supporting characters are all really good much like in the Krotons (but better). I instantly liked Miss Kelly as she was a no-nonsense individual who was very work obsessed and didn’t suffer fools gladly. It's clear that she is there 'for the dads' but that’s perhaps being unfair on Louise Pojo who does quite well with the role. There is a great shot where Commandor Radnor is standing at one side of the room about to shout at Miss Kelly and its just a lovely and simple shot. 

 

It's a good establishing opening episode. It sets up nicely where people are in the grand scheme of things but I do think straight away that six episodes is too long. The Ice Warriors were used well and the supporting characters were given time to develop and make us care about them and they were dressed much better than some supporting characters that I could think of.