1)Next up we have a sequel to "The Curse of Peladon", one of those rare occasions where we see the Doctor deliberately re-visiting a planet. Maybe they still had the sets and wanted to amortize them?
2)As it turns out, Hepesh was pretty much right about the Federation being bad for Peladon.
3)With his helmet and cape and labored breathing, Azaxyr is almost a sort of proto-Darth Vader.
4)Thalira, like her father, is good-looking but ineffectual. I wonder if that's Hayles' comment on royalty.
5)Eckersley makes for a good heel - a business-like psychopath.
6)Most of the other characters are re-hashes of characters form the first story. Good to see Rex Robinson again, this time as Gebek.
7)One does start to think that the reason the Pels are so edgy all the time is that there appear to be only two women on the entire planet - the queen and the director's wife and her serving maid.
8)Ya gotta love the hair on those miners - apparently, the lower you are on the social scale on Peladon, the goofier your hair is.
9)When the Doctor fights Ettis at the end of Part Four, you can bbriefly but clearly see Terry Walsh's face - I'm surprised they let that by.
10)Some fun quotes:
- "I am prepared to vouch for the Doctor." That's interesting if you think about it, because it must have come out after the events of "Curse" that the Doctor wasn't the Earth delegate, yet Centauri is still willing to speak up fro him.
- "There's nothing 'only' about being a girl, Your Majesty."
- "If you can't stand the heat, keep out of the mine."
- "My dear Sarah, there's nothing I like more than a quiet life."
- "Thank you, Eckersley, but you're still a traitor."
- "Tears? Anyone would think you thought I was dead." Presaging his upcoming "death"...
- "Look what you've done!" Thalira's best moment right there.
11)Cliffhangers:
- Part One: The Ghost of Aggedor kills Blor!
- PartTwo: The real Aggedor attacks!
- Part Three: There's an Ice Warrior in the refinery!
- Part Four: The sonic lance blows up!
- Part Five: The Ice Warriors are breaking in!
- Part Six: The Doctor and Sarah leave Peladon...
Overall:
OK for what is essentially a re-make of the first story. As with most six-parters, it could've been edited down to four easily enough without losing much.
[Part of list of Doctor Who episodes here.]
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Was listening to the commentary track fo rthis last night. Amusingly enough, the late Barry Letts told the story of how he got a fan latter from a young boy called Peter Capaldi!
Centauri was my favorite character though, her moment with Sara managed to go past the rather primitive costume (even by those standards) that the character had to wear. That took a lot of good acting.
I thought there was good coordination between Stuart Fell (the stuntman in the costume) and Ysanne Churchman (the woman doing the voice).