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| The Ice Warriors prepare to conquer the Earth. |
6 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 145 minutes. Written by: Brian Hayles, Terrance Dicks (uncredited). Directed by: Michael Ferguson. Produced by: Peter Bryant.
THE PLOT:
In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A. D.), the Earth is completely dependent on the Travelmat Relay, or "T-Mat." This technology uses a station on the moon to relay people and shipments from one part of the world to another. T-Mat has resolved world hunger and is considered by the governments of the Earth to be entirely reliable.
Which also makes the T-Mat system a perfect vulnerability. With their own planet dying, the Ice Warriors have decided to invade Earth. They don't intend a strict military invasion, however. Instead, a small force under the command of Slaar (Alan Bennion) takes control of the moonbase, planning to use T-Mat to devastate the Earth before their invasion force arrives.
The first stage of the aliens' plan works perfectly. They have control of the moon and, with it, control of T-Mat. Unless the Doctor can find a way to stop them, there is little standing in the way of their conquest...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: For much of the story, his role is surprisingly peripheral. It's a full third of Episode One before he and his companions are even introduced, and they spend the first two episodes just getting to the moonbase! With Patrick Troughton also sitting out Episode Four, this leaves much of The Seeds of Death feeling almost like a New Series "Doctor-lite" story. Episode Three offers a semi-comedic chase scene that allows Troughton to showcase his facility at physical comedy before befuddling the Ice Warriors by telling them, "Your leader will be angry if you kill me - I'm a genius!". His best moment comes in the final episode, however, when he is unarmed and at Slaar's mercy, and yet still emerges as the dominant figure.
Jamie: "Either the Doctor's all right, in which case we've no need to worry, or he's in danger and he needs my help!" Another story showcasing Jamie's protectiveness. At first, it's an active impediment, when he tries to stop Zoe from going through a vent to turn up the base's heating. Both Zoe and Miss Kelly shut him down by pointing out that they have no alternative, leaving him to look (and likely feel) foolish. Later, however, that same instinct leads to him distracting an Ice Warrior long enough for Zoe to help the Doctor, and finally sees him rescuing the Doctor from almost certain death.
Zoe: Thanks to her photographic memory, she's able to navigate the base perfectly. Well, almost - She does get herself and Jamie lost at one point, but she finds the way "eventually," as she points out with a line reading from Wendy Padbury that's wonderful in its mixture of defiance and injured pride. Padbury continues to be a delight in a character that, in other hands, might easily have been insufferable.
Gia Kelly: Miss Kelly (Louise Pajo) is the T-Mat manager who is a lot like Zoe... if you took away Zoe's charm and replaced it with ambition. Kelly is a legitimate T-Mat expert, to such an extent that her supervisor considers her irreplaceable. In the story's opening scenes, before the crisis has started, it's commented that nothing ever goes wrong on her watch, to which she forcefully replies: "I don't let it." Refreshingly, while Kelly is stubborn and not particularly likable, she is also portrayed positively, showing courage and resourcefulness throughout the story.
Fewsham: Terry Scully's Fewsham is essentially Miss Kelly's opposite. The quick sketch we get from early scenes indicates that he's been promoted beyond his ability, and he is resentful and defensive when Miss Kelly complains about the delays his errors have caused. When the Ice Warriors arrive, he surrenders instantly, declaring: "I want to live!" At the same time, Fewsham is not the one-dimensional coward he initially seems to be, with Scully doing an excellent job at showing his mounting horror as he realizes what the Ice Warriors intend for the world.
Phipps: Twenty years before Bruce Willis's John McClane stealthily took on terrorists in Die Hard, Christopher Coll's Phipps did much the same with Ice Warriors on the moon. With the Doctor and company sidelined for the first part of the story, the action is initially carried by Phipps. A tech who managed to escape from the Ice Warriors, he takes refuge in the solar power room, where he constructs a booby-trap that fells a couple of the Martian meanies. He's pushed to the periphery after the regulars arrive, but he still gets a nice bit with Zoe when he briefly gives into the shock of the day's events - reminding us that for all his bravery, this is essentially a computer expert and not a trained commando.
Ice Warriors: The Ice Warriors' second appearance improves upon their first. In The Ice Warriors, they were physically imposing but lacked any real personality. They also spoke too slowly to develop much menace in dialogue, and their lines were not always easy to understand. This story introduces Alan Bennion's Slaar as a member of a separate leadership caste. Slaar's costume is notably less bulky, with the lower half of his face left uncovered. This allows Bennion to speak much more clearly, and to put both menace and personality into his line readings.
THOUGHTS:
Brian Hayles began writing The Seeds of Death under the impression that Jamie was being written out in the preceding story. When Frazer Hines decided to stay until the season's end, major rewrites were required. Still more rewrites were needed to accommodate a week's break for Patrick Troughton. Eventually, it fell to script writer Terrance Dicks to take care of all the last-minute changes while making sure the story still flowed.
Somehow, The Seeds of Death emerges from this chaos to become one of Season Six's most purely enjoyable entries. Sure, there's plenty of padding; pretty much everything involving the Doctor's rocket trip could have been eliminated just by having him materialize on the moon in the first place. But even most of the padding is enjoyable, thanks to a strong guest cast, engaging dialogue, and unusually well-written characters.
There are so many good roles, I left several good ones out of my "Characters" breakdown. Among these, I would note: Commander Radnor (Ronald Leigh-Hunt), Miss Kelly's beleaguered supervisor; Professor Eldred (Philip Ray), a crusty rocket scientist resentful of T-Mat in general and Radnor in particular; and Osgood (Harry Towb), the experienced and competent controller who has grown to regret recommending Fewsham for promotion. All of the above emerge as three-dimensional individuals, even though one of them only gets a few minutes of screen time.
Like most six parters, there are places where the pacing stumbles. Slaar threatens to kill Fewsham at least one time too many, and characters spend entirely too much time running back and forth across the moonbase sets. But just as it threatens to go stale, the script cannily changes focus and setting in a way that brings in new complications, making the story fresh again.
The result may not be the best story of Season Six, but it's probably the most accessible. The Mind Robber is an oddball tale; The Invasion is a touch long; but this is one that would be fairly easy to show to newcomers as an example of a particularly well-done standard Who story. This was my third time viewing this story, and I still found it to be a whole lot of fun to watch.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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