The Monster of Peladon Part Three

The one where Sarah introduces Women's Lib to Peladon...

The part two cliffhanger involving the ferocious flesh-and-blood Aggedor is neatly wrapped up by an encore of Kokleda Partha Menin Klatch from the Doctor, who "lightly hypnotises" the creature with his TARDIS key. Aggedor is then not seen again for the rest of the episode, so that was all a waste of time wasn't it?

The Doctor and Sarah then go to have a chat with Queen Thalira (who, at her shrillest, sounds remarkably like Alpha Centauri), quaffing from cups made of horns and eating some mysterious green lumps. And is that the price tag I can see on the bottom of Sarah's cup? Astutely, the Doctor leaves Sarah in Thalira's company, presumably because he knows she might teach the Queen a thing or two about emancipation.

It's actually really nice that Sarah gradually becomes a trusted confidante of the Queen's, and one of her sagest advisors, on a planet where sexual equality is a pipe dream. Sarah gives Thalira a thoroughly good talking to, telling her that there's no reason for women to be subordinate to men, especially when she's sitting on the throne. Sarah utters the immortal line: "There's nothing 'only' about being a girl", and succeeds in empowering Thalira.

The very next scene features Ettis telling Gebek to "force the Queen to agree to all our demands", which is a timely demonstration of the discrimination that exists among the Pel males. Peladon's traditional chauvinism was addressed in The Curse of Peladon too, but feminist Sarah Jane suits this situation far better than Jo did, so it's good that that's been recognised and pulled out by Brian Hayles.

The dynamic between Gebek and Ettis is a little baffling, because Ettis seems to have the ear of all of the miners, despite not being leader. Ettis is a forthright, bloodthirsty revolutionary who believes in action, not words, and is frustrated by Gebek's wish to wait and talk. It reminds me of the similar relationship between leader Ashe and the headstrong Winton in Colony in Space, but then Winton wasn't written as a narrow-minded thug like Ettis is. Take the scene where the miners take the sonic lance from Eckersley: Ettis wants to kill the engineer, while Gebek sees no gain in murdering him. "You should have killed him," says Ettis, gnashing his teeth, and a nameless miner next to him grunts: "Yeah, yeah."

There's some more good characterisation for Sarah when she tells the Doctor her latest theory - that whoever is manifesting the fake Aggedor must have access to impressive technology and considerable power, and that she saw a shadow inside the refinery, which is the perfect place to harness all that. Sarah is a journalist and would look at the facts in such a way as to piece them together into a workable "story", so it's great that she enlightens the Doctor in this way. Again, Hayles is using Sarah's character to make the story move forward. It's a pity Sarah's journalistic roots were mostly overlooked in the Tom Baker era.

Sarah's empowerment of Queen Thalira begins to have an effect when she is confronted by Ortron, who wields the real power on Peladon simply because he's got a penis (well, I presume male Pels have penises!). I apologise right now for making you think about Frank Gatliff's penis, however briefly. Thalira insists that Sarah is allowed her liberty in the citadel, much to Ortron's annoyance, but the lines given to the chancellor serve only to emphasise the character as a representative of the misogyny at work in the court. "It is the duty of Her Majesty's servants to protect her from her errors," he smirks. "Since [Sarah] is only a female, her activities are of little importance."

Git.

Federation security is on its way to Peladon, at the behest of Alpha Centauri, to sort out the sorry mess, but they will only make relations with the miners worse, so everybody agrees to work together to make it look as if everything's normal and happy, so they'll go away again. But the voice we hear rasping over the intercom from the security scout ship is worryingly familiar, and when the Doctor manages to force open the refinery door, our suspicions are proven right when an Ice Warrior lumbers into view! About time too, we need something interesting to happen.

First broadcast: April 6th, 1974

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Sarah is written very well in this episode, and written to her strengths. There's also some lovely music by Dudley Simpson which puts me in mind of his later, and more noted, work on Pyramids of Mars.
The Bad: There's still too much running up and down corridors getting captured and locked up.
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 33
Neck-rub tally: 16 - the Doctor very briefly rubs his neck as he turns to go and find Gebek, but is stopped by Ortron and his guard.

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six

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/2014/06/the-monster-of-peladon.html

The Monster 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