The Curse of Peladon Episode Three

The one where the Doctor fights the King's Champion...

It's not a very appealing pair of options, is it? Death, or trial by combat. Especially when the fella you're fighting is the King's Champion, Grun, who towers over you with arms and legs the size of railway sleepers. It's the best that King Peladon can do for the Doctor, who is accused of sacrilege and seems doomed to perish in some way at the behest of High Priest Hepesh's barbaric beliefs.

There's lots of knowing and accusing looks from Jon Pertwee toward Geoffrey Toone, as it seems the Doctor's sussed out that Hepesh is the fly in the ointment here, the one who's trying to scupper the galactic alliance and keep Peladon in the dark ages. Pertwee's great at these subtle glances and accusatory looks ("You're a wily old bird, Hepesh"), with a tiny smile in the corners of his mouth to express his knowing bemusement (however, I doubt he'll ever better the scene with Fulton Mackay in episode 3 of Doctor Who and the Silurians).

If this episode is anybody's, it's Katy Manning's, who really gets her teeth into some splendidly written scenes between her and David Troughton. It's written, acted and directed like the very best of the BBC's Shakespearean plays, and Manning gets to prove that she has acting chops as well as beauty and kook. It's not often the companion gets to properly showcase their thespian talent in classic Doctor Who, so this is a delight to savour.

The exchange between Manning and Troughton is so good, with Jo trying to make this man recognise mercy and compassion over and above tradition and ritual. The moment where Jo fails to make Peladon see the connection between having mercy for the Doctor and the progressiveness of joining the Galactic Federation is lovely, as her face drops and all hope seems lost to her. His offer of marriage to try and smooth galactic relations over is devastatingly simplistic and naive, so Jo's quest to save her Doctor's life continues apace without him.

In the Doctor's quarters, apart from the fact he's wearing the most beautiful waistcoat seen on Doctor Who to date, there are plain words exchanged between the Time Lord and the High Priest. Again, it's a lovely scene, not quite as beautifully played as that between Manning and Troughton due to Toone's very slight tendency to overplay it, but the sentiment is palpable. Hepesh opens up to the Doctor about his fears for Peladon if the Federation interferes with the sacred traditions he holds dear. Hepesh fears the Federation will bring corruption, enslavement and exploitation, and for the first time we can feel some sympathy for the High Priest as his point of view becomes clear ("Everything I know and value will have gone"). He's not doing all this because he's evil or mad. He's doing it for his planet, his heritage and his people. It's what he believes is right.

Of course, we later learn that while these sentiments may well be true, he's not the man of honour he'd have us believe, as he first coaxes the Doctor into the subterranean tunnels on the promise of freedom, then sends the royal guard after him to kill him. He may have the future of his people at heart, but he's going about it in a pretty fanatical way...

The other Federation delegates believe that if the Doctor was to be killed on Peladon, it would amount to a declaration of war, and the Federation would easily destroy Peladon in the reprisal. I know that nobody else knows this, but surely no such thing would happen when it became clear that the man killed was not Earth's delegate at all, but an interloper. The Earth government, and Galactic Federation Council, would know that the man with the frizzy white hair and mighty nose was not the real delegate, and so it'd be more a case of official inquiry than war. And it begs the question again, of where the heck is the real Earth delegate all this time?

In the tunnels the Doctor encounters the creature Aggedor once again, and confirms that it is a real, living animal rather than a manifestation of ancient folklore. He tries to hypnotise it into submission with a spinning mirror and a rendition of the Venusian lullaby Klokleda Partha Menin Klatch (last heard in The Daemons, but this time sung to the tune of the Christmas carol God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen!). He succeeds, but it's a delightful touch that he earlier almost hypnotised himself with the device, and later Jo Grant. It's the sort of silliness that should always happen, and you kind of expect it to!

By the way, isn't the lighting in this story stunning? Too often Doctor Who lighting technicians overlit the story (reputedly because some set designers complained they wanted their sets to be seen on screen properly!), but here Howard King takes the studio lights right down low, accurately reflecting the torch-lit world of Peladon and casting some gorgeous shapes into silhouette, such as Izlyr's marvellous helmet. Sadly, this sympathetic lighting also leads to a sometimes murky picture quality (the 2" NTSC tape of episode three was in a "very poor condition" when it came up for DVD restoration, and had to be "baked" for essential preservation).

The climax sees the Doctor facing Grun in the pit (foreshadowing Luke battling the Rancor in Return of the Jedi), but it's a little odd to see all of the delegates gathering round to watch what they have already admitted is pretty barbaric behaviour (it's hard to believe Alpha Centauri would feel comfortable observing this type of armed combat). The fight sequence is choreographed really well, and there isn't a single duff camera angle revealing that sometimes it's not Jon Pertwee tumbling around, it's Terry Walsh in a wig. The fight feels real and dangerous, involving hand-to-hand combat as well as spears and axe heads. You really feel the Doctor is in physical danger.

The cliffhanger is a bit of a blink-and-you're-confused muddle, with Arcturus aiming his blaster, and Ssorg firing his gun as Alpha Centauri screams and the titles crash in. Quite who is doing what and why will have to wait...

First broadcast: February 12th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The scenes between Katy Manning and David Troughton are gorgeous.
The Bad: I can't help thinking that if the Doctor simply revealed he wasn't really the Earth delegate, things would pan out very differently (perhaps not any better for him, but certainly better for Peladon).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 15
Neck-rub tally: 5

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

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

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