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Smile UK Store - Doctor Who The Monster of Peladon [1974]
![Doctor Who The Monster of Peladon [1974]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AYYXQ2ZPL._SL160_.jpg)
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List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £19.99
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen
Directed By: Lennie Mayne
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165675182
Format: Box set
Label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: 2 Entertain Video
Release Date: 1995-12-27
Running Time: 146
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1975-09-29
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Tardis returns to Peladon some fifty years after the Doctor's last visit. The planet is now ruled by Queen Thalira - daughter of the last King Peladon - with advice from Chancellor Ortron. The Doctor and Sarah are arrested by Ortron for trespassing on sacred ground but their names are cleared by Alpha Centauri, now Galactic Federation ambassador to Peladon. A ghost-like image of Aggedor has been responsible for some deaths in the planet's trisilicate mines, heightening unrest amoungst the miners. The Doctor discovers that the apparitions are really the result of the use of a matter projector and a directional heat ray by a human engineer, Eckersley. Eckersley is in league with a group of renegade Martian warriors, led by Commander Azaxyr, in a plot to seize the trisilicate deposits for Galaxy 5, a power bloc at war with the Federation. Azaxyr mounts an attack on the throne room and kills Ortron. The Doctor however turns the heat ray on some of the Martians, while others are dispatched by the miners. Eckersley flees, taking the Queen hostage, but the Doctor uses the real Aggedor to track him down, Eckersley is killed, but Aggedor also dies in the skirmish. Its plans thwarted, Galaxy 5 surrenders to the Federation. The Doctor is invited by Thalira to take over as Chancellor but he declines, suggesting the miners' leader Gebek would make a better candidate.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Ice Warriors at their best, but not much else.
Comment: The Doctor returns to Peladon where the miners are rebelling. Don't expect any kind of Heath-era political parable, however. The first three episodes consist of mindless running around, the Doctor crooning to the last of the Aggadors, and 'miners' with laughable badger haircuts. Yes, it's the far superior Curse of Peladon padded out to six episodes. There are even similar characters - the wimp monarch (this time female) and scheming advisor. There's also some character in black who seems completely detached from the whole thing for most of the six episodes, as though he's one of the technical team who wandered onto the set by mistake. The Doctor returning to a planet to find the effects his earlier visit has caused is a good one, but this is a re-make rather than a sequal. Things improve when the Ice Warriors finally arrive at the end of Part Three. Alan Bennion superbly dominates his every scene as the new Ice Lord on the block, and it's nice to see the Ice Warriors back to their old villainous ways. I just feel it's a shame their last story couldn't have been one which did these inspired creations justice.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Curse of Received Wisdom.
Comment: All I knew about this story was the result of received wisdom - it's a tired re-hash of "The Curse of Peladon", it's an unsubtle commentary on the miners' strike, all six-episode stories are too long etc.
Despite not being the best Pertwee, the six episodes fairly fly along. Perhaps this was due to the unfamiliarity of many of the elements - the rare-ish pairing of the third Doctor with Sarah, a Pertwee story with no connection to Earth, UNIT etc or seeing the Ice Warriors being evil in colour, for the only time (OK that last one might be clutching at straws).
Actually, the Ice Warriors really make this story, especially the "troops" - it's nice to see an alien race who don't all look identical.
More enjoyable than it's reputation suggests. AND you get to see Pertwee's stunt double for ages in the fight in episode 4.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An allegory of its own time and space
Comment: Although a long way from a highpoint of the series, this six-parter is interesting for the surprisingly political (and often overtly Socialist) slant the script takes. Whereas social revolutions have been a staple of science fiction even before H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine, it's rare for a film or television entry in the genre to focus on labour relations and class warfare so explicitly. Just as Frank Herbert's Dune saga was an allegory for the Middle East's political tensions during the oil boom, The Monster of Peladon is an allegory of its own time and place. 70s Britain is now almost ancient history, so many of the references will be lost on a new generation of viewers, but for those who lived through it, watching this show again brings it all back. For Peladon, standing on the brink of great wealth or even greater disaster, read Britain, for its coveted rare minerals, read North Sea Oil. Joining the Federation (read the Common Market) has not improved the lot of the workers, only the rich; the miners striking for improved wages and conditions (read any of the militant trade unions of the early 70s) are dismissed as bolshie rebels by rulers who would rather confront them than negotiate; while outside enemies manipulate their divisions not so much for conquest as for profit (read the growing trade deficit that saw Britain hover on the verge of bankruptcy). Add a subplot where the Doctor's assistant urges the figurehead Queen of Peladon to seize power by explaining something they have on earth called Women's Lib, and you've got a perfect reflection for the concerns and paranoias facing 70s Britain - that dark, depressing time of strikes, power cuts, IRA bombing campaigns, the three-day week and inept government. As drama, it works well enough, but as social history, it's positively fascinating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Treading old ground pointlessly
Comment: Well , not bad at all , but this is basically just a remake of the much better Peladon story from 1972. Very little is added that is new to this particular story , and it just ends up being an average tale of interplanetary corruption regarding mining.It is just too long at six episodes . I own this , but you would be better watching this on uk gold rather than shelling out for what is basically an inflated version of the curse of peladon .
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great!
Comment: The Monster Of Peladon is a much more exciting remake of the earlier Curse of Peladon. It features the Ice Warriors,Aggador and a whole host of other monsters and people. I highly recommend this video as it is a 6 parter and is on 2 videos. It also features 2 of the best characters in Dr Who-The 3rd Doctor(Jon Pertwee)and Sarah Jane Smith(Liz Sladen) The cliffhanger to part 1 is one of the finest in the show's history! Recommended!
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