The Seeds of Death Episode Six

The one where the Doctor confronts Ice Lord Slaar...

The ubiquitous use of the BBC foam machine in the Troughton era really reached its zenith in this episode, having been used to perhaps its advisable limit in Fury from the Deep. Here, the foam loses all sense of threat as a deadly alien fungus and simply becomes a giant playground for Patrick Troughton to play in. It's all very silly and drawn out (parts of the reprise are still being shown three minutes in!), and forms part of a greater atmosphere of slapstick  in this episode's opening minutes.

The acres of foam aside, Troughton resorts to gurning, oohing and aahing, and generally fooling around in a misplaced attempt to sell the jeopardy, while inside the weather control bureau, Frazer Hines is embroiled in a Benny Hill-style runaround playing peekaboo with an Ice Warrior, and Wendy Padbury is sliding around the corridors in an endless sprint for the front door. By the time Zoe opens the door and the foam floods into the bureau, the Doctor with it, Padbury has already succumbed to the silliness of it all and is clearly seen laughing her head off!

The Seeds of Death Episode Five

The one where Fewsham finally does something selfless...

Terry Scully really doesn't get enough recognition for his performance as Fewsham. Scully's face has a natural look of exhaustion, resignation and defeat - which means he is well cast for this part - but he also manages to say so much about his character's state of mind without speaking a word. Fewsham is finally spurred into action here, leaping rather ineffectually on the Ice Warrior in order to save Zoe, and he's thrown to the floor for his efforts. After four episodes of cowardice and complicity in order to preserve his own skin, he finally thinks and acts for somebody else.

It's hardly the actions of a hero though, and Fewsham remains one of the most complex characters in 1960s Who simply because he is a coward, and he does terrible things against the good of his own planet and people simply to survive. I mentioned my theory about Fewsham in episode 1 - that there's something going on in his head before the story even begins - and I'm even more convinced of that now. Fewsham is seen as a weak link by his colleagues (Gia Kelly thinks very little of him), and I really don't think he believes very much in himself either. He is a tragic figure from the start.

The Seeds of Death Episode Four

The one where Slaar's deadly plan starts to take shape...

Patrick Troughton was on holiday during the recording of this episode, and so supporting player Tommy Laird doubles up for the unconscious Doctor throughout. There's a moment where Fewsham rolls the prone Doctor over to transport him to a T-Mat booth and we get a brief but clear view of Laird's very unTroughton-like face, but then nobody ever doubled for Troughton very satisfactorily, whether it was Chris Jeffries (The Dominators), Gerry Grant (Sky Ray ice lolly advert) or Reece Shearsmith (An Adventure in Space and Time)!

To be honest, the Doctor isn't really missed, particularly as he has had zero impact on the plot thus far anyway. While he lies unconscious, Slaar's invasion plan takes effect as the Ice Warriors T-Mat their deadly seed pods to every major city in the northern hemisphere, which in turn explode and deprive the humans around them of oxygen. It's a shame we don't see any humans succumbing to the exploding pods on location, as that would ramp up the danger tenfold. Instead, all we get is a rapidly expanding sea of white foam on Hampstead Heath, harming no one.

The Seeds of Death Episode Three

The one where the Ice Warriors' invasion plan begins...

We're on episode 3 already and I'm still wondering why this story is called The Seeds of Death. What seeds? Thankfully, that question is addressed by the end of the episode, in that the Ice Warriors intend to use the repaired T-Mat to distribute their, well... seeds of death across the Earth, beaming the expanding balloons into every major city on the planet (as well as Izmir, it seems!). As invasion plans go, it's a pretty nifty one, allowing the aliens to weaken the human enemy globally before making planetfall. That'll teach mankind to become so reliant on T-Mat!

Back at the start of the episode, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are still trapped aboard a directionless rocket, with the ever pragmatic Zoe boosting spirits by citing their survival odds, like some fleshy C-3PO. If the trio don't die by being smashed to smithereens on the mountainous landscape of the lunar surface, she insists that they will be drawn into the Sun in five months and 10 days (ironically, five months and 10 days from the original transmission of this episode is July 18th, 1969 - two days after Apollo 11 took off from Florida on its way to the first ever manned lunar landing on the 20th). She's a bag of laughs, that Heriot girl.

The Seeds of Death Episode Two

The one where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe fly to the moon in a rocket, but don't need to...

I'm watching The Seeds of Death just days after the death of Alan Bennion has been reported, so it's timely that I should mention what a fantastic vocal performance he puts in here. Cleverly, director Michael Ferguson continues to hold back on showing Slaar too much, and we're treated to sparing glimpses of his pock-marked, fanged face, adding to the mystery. Bennion's hoarse, whispering voice depicts Slaar as an intelligent but dangerous creature, and he oozes gravitas despite limited screen time.

On the other hand, Ferguson is more than happy to show the Ice Warriors fully, which in some ways works against them, because they're terribly slow and cumbersome. These 20th century Ice Warriors always walked so gingerly, due to the unwieldy nature of the costumes, and the strident ferocity of the 21st century versions excels in that sense. The scene where the Ice Warrior searches for Phipps in the store room - so beautifully framed in a slow zoom out by Ferguson - is slightly undermined by the fact the Warrior struggles to heft his bulky frame through the door. Moonbase door frames aren't made for Martian physiques, I suppose!

The Seeds of Death Episode One

The one where the Martians invade the moon...

Right from the very outset, this serial screams AMBITION! It starts off with different episode title credits, which although not a unique difference, demonstrate an attempt to add scale to the piece. The model planets, and the way the camera passes them to reveal other celestial bodies beyond, is pretty snazzy for the time, and along with Dudley Simpson's melodramatic score, tells the viewer instantly that this is a futuristic space epic.

Director Michael Ferguson returns for his second Doctor Who story, having made a huge impact with his debut, The War Machines, three years earlier. The ambition and flair in Ferguson's work is breath-taking, especially after some of the more pedestrian efforts of recent stories, and although it can sometimes become distracting and self-conscious, the injection of enthusiasm for what Ferguson's shooting stands the test of the decades.