The Curse of Peladon Episode Four

The one where Hepesh leads a revolt against the royal house of Peladon...

The first few scenes of episode four feel like one huge info-dump on the part of writer Brian Hayles, who tries to have his characters (principally the Doctor) explain everything that's happened in one long summary and Q&A. Arcturus has been exposed, and destroyed by Ssorg, reduced to nothing more than a gooey green blob with a disgorged eyeball (it's not as if he consisted of very much to start with!).

The Doctor explains that Arcturus and Hepesh were in cahoots, and that Hepesh's ultimate aim was to unseat King Peladon and seize control of the planet for himself, thereby preserving its ancient customs and ridding his beloved people of the Galactic Federation altogether. This doesn't quite ring true with me because at no stage did Hepesh come across as your typical power-mad conspirator. All he really wants is for progress to go away. He is not a man who embraces change; he prefers tradition and custom. He's the sort of man who catches the same bus to work every day for 40 years and always sits on the same seat, reading the same newspaper, and doing the same crossword.

Apparently Hepesh and Arcturus formed an alliance so that when the High Priest ruled Peladon, Arcturus could import some of the mineral deposits that his homeworld was short of. But wouldn't Hepesh see this as another form of the exploitation he so feared of the Federation? This sudden revelation of Hepesh's true personality and motivation just does not ring true for me, and there's very little reflection of it in Geoffrey Toone's performance, or Hayles' writing beyond these couple of scenes. It feels like the remnant of an earlier draft (it's also quite jarring how Hepesh's scenes are cut into the longer delegate scenes early in the episode; it feels choppy and clumsy).

Everything feels like it's been wrapped up by two minutes in, but of course it's not, because vengeful Hepesh is still on the loose, and he's gathering his forces underground ready for an attack on the castle and an attempted coup. He later tells Peladon that he'd be happy for him to continue to rule as King as long as he sticks to the traditions of Peladon and sends away the delegates (another example that Hepesh is not power-hungry). Surprisingly, it's also stated that Hepesh is quite willing to have Peladon killed, and the royal line cut short, if needs be.

After berating Jo for not fully understanding how "dangerous and complex" the political situation on Peladon is, the Doctor promptly leaves her in charge of the negotiations so that he can go find Aggedor. Jo discovers that both Alpha Centauri's and Izlyr's communications apparatus have been destroyed by Hepesh, rendering the entire planet cut off from the rest of the universe, it seems. Are we really to believe that Peladon has no means of off-world communication at all? How did the initial approach to the Galactic Federation come about in the first place then? By carrier pigeons in spacesuits?

As Alpha Centauri gets more and more highly strung, it's proposed that Jo marries Peladon after all in order to forge a strong bond with Earth and the Federation, but this is all very vague and dropped quite quickly. It's not long before Hepesh's scantily-clad guards attack the throne room and a well-choreographed sword fight ensues, along with lots of manly grunting.

Hepesh grasps control. It's a shame that Geoffrey Toone decides to push his performance toward the oratorical end of his profession, as if on stage or in a Children's Film Foundation movie, because he's such a fascinating and complex character. At times Toone's delivery makes him sound like Edward Tattsyrup from The League of Gentlemen!

The Doctor brings the hypnotised and tamed Aggedor creature into the throne room to prove that Hepesh's spirit deity is nothing more than fur and sinew, but when the High Priest goads the creature with a flaming torch, it rears up and cuts him to the ground, where he lies fatally wounded. Hepesh's death scene is charged with poignancy. The High Priest who caused so much political upheaval just to preserve the traditions of his people and promote isolationism, dies with regret on his lips: "Perhaps I was wrong... I hope so." It's an odd last-minute u-turn to make, but proves that Hepesh had his planet's best interests at heart, to the very end. The irony is that he was killed by the physical manifestation of his own false god.

The look of particular sadness on the Doctor's face when he learns of Hepesh's death shows that perhaps - perhaps - he feels some measure of responsibility, having brought a wild beast into the throne room's midst just to prove a point. I'd say the Doctor did have some role to play in Hepesh's demise.

The final scenes are emotionally charged, showing what sterling work Pertwee, Manning and Troughton put into their scenes, and how sympathetic director Lennie Mayne was to Hayles' script. We witness the Doctor's disappointment that it was the Time Lords who probably guided them to Peladon in the TARDIS, not his own ingenuity. And we see the real connection Peladon and Jo have made in their time together, as he asks her once more to marry him, despite the fact she's not a princess. And she's tempted, oh boy is she tempted, but ultimately elects to return to her time and place with the Doctor. "You do want to come back?" queries the Doctor softly. "I think I'd better, don't you?" Jo replies. "I wouldn't want to lose you..." adds the Doctor. All of this beautifully foreshadows Jo's eventual departure in The Green Death, when she meets a man who takes her eye completely.

The Doctor and Jo flee in the TARDIS when Amazonia, the real Earth delegate, finally turns up, but what I don't understand is why Peladon is having a big fancy coronation when he's already supposed to be king?

The Curse of Peladon is an intelligent, well written, acted and designed story which treats the younger audience as perfectly capable of grasping the knottier political dimensions of this highly allegorical tale. There might not be quite enough excitement as preferred by the littler ones, but there's plenty of weird and wonderful monsters and aliens, and there's so much to enjoy for older viewers, even 40+ years later. And the themes explored in the story are, in 2019, arguably the most relevant they have been since 1972...

First broadcast: February 19th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor checking whether Jo wants to come with him or not is a moving, and prescient, moment.
The Bad: There's an uneven attempt to rewrite Hepesh's motivation which doesn't quite pull off.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 8 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 15
Neck-rub tally: 6 - the Doctor rubs his neck when he talks about trying to break the Time Lords' hold on his freedom.

NEXT TIME: The Sea Devils...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-curse-of-peladon.html

The Curse of Peladon is available on BBC DVD as part of the Peladon Tales box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Peladon-Tales-Monster/dp/B002SZQC70