The Seeds of Death - Episode 3

As we approach the halfway stage of the story this is where the Ice Warriors plan starts to become clear. This is the first time that the Doctor meets the Warriors since their last story. The first 10-12 minutes are really about the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie landing on the moon. The focus of the episode has moved from earth to the moon and this helps create a sense that the story is a sort of base under siege feel cause there isn’t any real way that help can arrive as the T-Mat doesn’t work for a large part of the episode.

Miss Kelly becomes the star of the episode as really stands up for herself. When face to face with the Ice Warriors, she doesn’t show fear but rather warns them that they won’t find it so easy to invade the Earth. I thought that Phipps was a close second as he was the first to meet the Doctor and then Jamie and Zoe. He showed his intelligence in the previous episode when he killed an Ice Warrior and got to show it again in this episode. I liked how he was quite respectful to Zoe by calling her Miss Zoe which meant that we should like him and I do.

I think that the incidental music is quite fun though I’ve never noticed it before. I don’t think that I’ve commented too much about the incidental music on these episodes but I’m going to put that right today as Dudley Simpson has done a great job in this story. It’s very much of its period but that’s what I like about it because its distinctive and futuristic.

Patrick Troughton goes on holiday for the next episode so his absence is explained when he holds one of the Ice Warriors’ pods and it explodes causing him to faint. The Doctor doesn’t waste much time getting separated from Jamie and Zoe and gets to meet the Ice Warriors as a result. Troughton gets to deliver a great line when he announces that’s he a genius to prevent the Warriors from killing him. Jamie feels like he’s getting more of the action in this episode than he did previously. He’s been used better and is also being treated equally to Zoe. It’s good that the companions are working together instead of being separated like in previous episodes.

The cliffhanger was quite good as it didn’t feature the regulars which was a rareity. One of the pods arrives on earth via T-Mat and is about to blow up just like the one that knocked the Doctor out. It’s great to end the episode this way as we don’t know whether the supporting cast will survive or who will come and save the day so it must have been torture waiting a week to find out what happened. Thankfully I only have to wait until tomorrow. The story has picked up since the last episode and that’s more to do with the fact that the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie have finally got to get out of the rocket and interacting with other people. Long may it continue.