The Seeds of Death

This story (written by Brian Hayles and an uncredited Terrance Dicks) has aspects which are very strong but aspects which are a slight letdown. It is decent, solid entertainment without reaching the brilliance of the Doctor's best adventures.

Episode 1 is an excellent set up episode, a very promising start with a good script and some intelligent and well characterised parts such as the ageing and rather wise Earth scientist Eldred and officers Radnor and Kelly which are very well acted and thoughtfully written throughout the story. The good characters and strong dialogue are given centre stage in the opening episode.

The plot revolves around the T-Mat transport system controlled from the Moon and used by a future Earth as an instant way of transmitting people and goods between places. When it breaks down it is proved they put all their eggs in one basket (as the Doctor points out) and instantly food shortages and huge issues arise. The Ice Warriors attack the T-Mat control base and use it to launch an attack on Earth. The Doctor steps in to battle them of course.

The whole story features Troughton delivering his usual high quality. The villain Slaar, leader of the Ice Warrior attack on the Moon is excellent and up to the sort of standard of the Ice Warriors in their brilliant debut story. Hines and Padbury as the companions are good throughout the story and acting of the other major guest characters is good. Some of the direction and effects are very impressive for its day while other aspects are a slight letdown.

The rocket journey in episode 2 which is not well done is the first letdown and would have been better not to include at all. That causes episode 2 to drop a bit, the rest of the episode before the rocket trip is pretty solid. Episode 3 is very good. It moves along well developing the story strongly and the villain Slaar with his hissing voice is particularly good in this episode.

Episode 4 is solid but not excellent, the absence of Troughton in that episode hurts it a tiny bit. Episode 5 is a bit weak due to having more scenes involving the seeds and the fungus. The idea of the seeds themselves is not brilliant as it is clearly an inflating balloon but it is to some extent a forgivable limitation of the age and budget. The fungus is another unimpressive idea involving some fun but slightly silly scenes in episode 5 flailing about in soap suds. These scenes mean that Episode 5 is the low-point of the story.

The villain Slaar is great but his fellow Ice Warriors, particularly in episode 5, are far less well realised with their cumbersome movement and lack of character. They are a rather pale shadow of those featured in the Ice Warriors debut story.

Episode 6 is a very enjoyable and solid conclusion but if the strength of Episodes 1 (especially), 3 and 6 had been matched by cutting the rocket journey out of part 2 and less reliance on unimpressive effects, particularly in episode 5, it could have been a really strong Doctor Who story instead of just a solid Doctor Who story which is what it is.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 9.5/10, Episode 2 - 7.5/10, Episode 3 - 9/10, Episode 4 - 8/10, Episode 5 - 7/10, Episode 6 - 8.5/10

Overall: 8.25/10

The story sees the return of the Ice Warriors. This time, they're planning an invasion of an Earth that's become entirely depended on a system known as T-mat to transport people and things around and abandoned the idea of using actual rockets.

The Ice Warriors are a good villain even though they're slow moving and a bit blind. The idea for the set up is believable: If you had something like T-Mat, it would make all others of long distance transportation obsolete and believably so. Yet, the story's a cautionary tale about the dangers of becoming dependent on one technology and failing to maintain appropriate back ups.

This story also features some of the more solid moments of women in science in the classic series with both Ms. Kelly and Zoe. The Doctor has some great moments and really does show his cleverness. The story's weakness is that it's a bit padded and it can overplay the comedy bits, particularly in the Part 5 cliffhanger. Still, this is a solid and enjoyable outing.

The plot has some good devices such as the T-Mat linking the Moon to the the Earth and providing the mechanism for a diabolical invasion plan. There are plenty of adversarial encounters between the Ice Warriors and the humans that make for tension and scares.

But what really makes this episode stand out is the directing and the acting. The camera work and the photography are excellent. The actors have no trouble bringing their characters to life, with special credit due to Commander Slaar (the Ice Lord) who is a nasty piece of work, indeed.

The weaker aspects of The Seeds of Death are a chase scene where the director chose to have the Doctor ham it up for comedy effect and the general blindness of the Ice Warriors - they repeatedly fail to see humans hiding in plain view. There is also the odd bit of padding too such as the endless argument over the use of the rocket.

But all in all, it's a good one.