48The Curse Of Peladon
The Third Doctor
29th January - 19th February 1972
What you may find when watching a lot of Doctor Who stories, is that the writers often used them as a way of placing their own views into a story that is very obviously based on topical issues from the time. It's evident all through the series, even now, but seemed to happen a lot more frequently during the run of Jon Pertwee. This story is no exception. Sometimes it is more subtle, other times it is glaringly obvious. It's probably safe to say that this is one of those stories which still holds some relevence to situations today.
Peladon is visited twice by the Third Doctor (as a little spoiler, I will only be listing one of those visits) and here we have the original, and in my opinion best of those two, with it's popularity probably paving the way for the idea for the less well recieved sequel, The Monster of Peladon.
The story is a good one. A group of dignataries from various planets come together to try to convince the soon to be King of Peladon to join the Galactic Federation. Seems simple enough, but what we get is 4 episodes of prejudice, intrigue and sabotage, with the Doctor not always coming out as the good guy in situations. The atmosphere of the episode is spot on, with a great mix of characters thrown in for good measure. Of particular highlight is the work of Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning who, whilst always good, put on some of their best performances within this story and the Ice Warriors, who actually turn out to be good guys in this, despite the automatic assumption by everyone, myself included, that they won't be.
In an era set mostly on earth in factories and quarries, it's a nice change to get an alien world where the invasion of Earth isn't on the agenda for a couple of weeks. Letts and D
icks really bring Peladon to life, and while it suffers from the same setbacks as most planets in the show in that everything takes place within one small environment, this is one of those cases where what we get is all that we need and it never feels constrained.
The Curse of Peladon is one of those stories that balances everything really well and there is little to complain about (unless you just plain don't like the story, of course). It is grown up enough for the adults to recieve the message that it is trying to convey loud and clear, subtle enough that if that message goes over your head you aren't missing out, and has enough scares, funny bits and action sequences to keep the younger viewers entertained throughout. At four episodes long the pace is steady and the time is filled well, never outstaying it's welcome and dragging on, and the performances of everyone are top notch. It's easily the best story of Season 9.