Saturday 16 July 2011

235 The Seeds of Death: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Seeds of Death: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 236
STORY NUMBER: 048
TRANSMITTED: 22 February 1969
WRITER: Brian Hayles (and Terrance Dicks)
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations Box Set - Volume 2 (Seeds of Death, Carnival of Monsters & Resurrection of the Daleks)

Fewsham attacks the Ice Warrior distracting it long enough for the increased heat to start to have an effect. The warrior attacking Jamie and Miss Kelly is also overcome as the Doctor came round. The Ice Warrior in London reaches the weather control station and destroys the control mechanism. Fewsham returns the others to Earth, saying he'll follow courtesy of a timer mechanism. Slaar reduces the Moonbase temperature and tells Fewsham more Ice Warriors are coming. The Doctor collects a sample of the foam. Miss Kelly finds away to route essential T-Mat functions via satellite. The Doctor discovers the foam absorbs oxygen. Absorb enough Oxygen and Earth's atmosphere would become similar to Mars. He finds the fungus foam can be destroyed by water. Jamie & Zoe go to the weather bureau to pass the Doctor's instructions for rain on to them. They find bodies, the wrecked controls and the Ice Warrior. The Grand Marshall reports the Martian fleet is nearing the moon. Fewsham broadcasts the lunar control room to Earth but is killed by the Warriors who sever the link. The Doctor comes up with a plan to deceive the Martians with a false homing signal. Finding out that Jamie and Zoe have gone to the Weather Control where the Warrior was sighted the Doctor races there, but finds the door locked as he is overcome by foam ..........

Hmmmm. Zoe says that Phipps was killed in the last episode - I missed that. Another decent pacey adventuring episode. A few things caught my eye in this episode. Has the Ice Warrior entering weather control got proper mouth make up on? I've looked at the Ice Warrior mouth make up ever since while watching Monster of Peladon years one caught my eye as apparently having a green piece of cardboard across it's mouth. Radnor's boss shows up in this episode so we've got three older characters running around in these silly plastic outfits. That reminded me of the how the actors playing the Sensorites looked and I'm forced to wonder if they're recycled from there.

We looked at the human members of the cast yesterday so today we'll look at the Martians. Alan Bennion makes his Who debut this story as the "Ice Lord" Slaar. He'll be back every time the show needs an Ice Lord appearing as Izlyr in The Curse of Peladon and Azaxyr in The Monster of Peladon. Two of the Ice Warriors, Tony Harwood & Sonny Caldinez, were in the previous eponymous Ice Warriors story. Caldinez, Turoc in the Ice Warriors, had previously been Kemel in Evil of the Daleks will return as Ssorg in Curse of Peladon and Sskel in Monster of Peladon. Harwood, Rintan in the Ice Warriors, was a Cyberman in Tomb of the Cybermen and a Yeti in the Abominable Snowman. He'll be back as the cameoing Ice Warrior in the War Games and Flynn in The Ambassadors of Death (Director: Michael Fergusson). The third Ice Warrior actor, Steven Peters, billed as Alien in the first episode to disguise which monsters were in the story. He's the Ice Warrior seen in the location sequences and will return as a Pirate Guard in The Space Pirates, and as both astronaut Lefee and his alien substitute in The Ambassadors of Death (see above). Meanwhile the Grand Marshall is Graham Leamam who has already been the Controller in The Macra Terror & Price in Fury from the Deep and will return as Time Lords, possibly the same Time Lord in Colony in Space & The Three Doctors.

This episode exists as a high quality 35mm film print that was in the BBC Film & Video library when Ian Levine arrived to buy episodes in 1978.

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