The Seeds of Doom Part Two

The one where the entire Antarctic research base is blown up...

This really is peak Doctor Who, isn't it? It opens with an innocent man bumping into a crazed alien creature in a darkly lit corridor. The man is instantly murdered by the monster, which continues to stalk the shadowy corridors, before escaping into the icy night to wreak more havoc. I mean, what more could you possibly want? And all of this is accompanied by Geoffrey Burgon's beautiful score, which is a step above and beyond what Dudley Simpson was regurgitating around this time (don't get me wrong, Simpson was wonderful, but also frustratingly repetitive).

I think the combination of director Douglas Camfield and musician Geoffrey Burgon was a dream team for this era, and when you consider you've also got Robert Holmes, Philip Hinchcliffe, Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in the mix too (as well as the excellent Robert Banks Stewart), The Seeds of Doom is possibly one of the finest moments in the series' history. It all just comes together perfectly. It's so sad that this was Camfield's final contribution to Doctor Who, because he really got it. Just look at the way he shoots these corridor scenes: knowing the Krynoid suit might look less threatening and more like a man in a suit if over-lit, he works with lighting chap John Dixon to keep it in the shadows, only offering brief glimpses of the creature fully.

A lot of time in this episode is spent on Scorby and Keeler, showing the delicate relationship that exists between them. Scorby is basically a thug, a vandal, a man with little thought for others, while Keeler is far more sensitive, a man of science rather than violence. Keeler is appalled by the true nature of their mission, and Mark Jones plays him as the sympathetic everyman who's well out of his depth and comfort zone. Talk of guns and murder are anathema to him, but Scorby - who has yet to show any really human side - revels in violence and the prospect of murder (although he doesn't actually kill anyone).

Mind you, what he does to Sarah Jane at the end is pretty heartless, tying her up in the generator station with a ticking time bomb. This total lack of humanity could be seen as disappointing characterisation, and it would be nice to see a few attempts at humanising him from John Challis, but as things stand, he makes for a marvellous villain who you genuinely believe might do the things he says. If nothing else, Challis is convincing as what Keeler calls "a cheap gangster"!

The star of this episode by far is Tom Baker though. His performance throughout drips with foreboding and barely concealed anger. The Doctor is obviously annoyed at the stupidity of the humans around him when he knows that all of humanity is faced with some very dangerous odds if the Krynoid gets a hold. The speech he gives, with the camera closing in on his face, about the Krynoid Winlett is marvellously doom-laden: "I told you he was changing form. Already his mind's been taken over. Very soon his entire body will alter. There'll be a transition period, a grotesque parody of the human form. By now Winlett himself no longer exists and we must destroy what he's become." When delivered by Tom Baker, you really do begin to fear...

The Doctor gets particularly annoyed when people continue to refer to Winlett as Winlett, even biting Sarah's head off at one point, all of which echoes his cold attitude toward the Scarman brothers in Pyramids of Mars. The way Baker snarls and snaps at Elisabeth Sladen and Hubert Rees (Stevenson) is almost visceral in its rawness, but he's still able to turn on a sixpence and make the Doctor playful and facetious when up against the gun-toting Scorby.

I really do think this episode is one of Tom's best performances as the Doctor. Just look at the way he cleverly draws Scorby's gun away from Sarah by sliding nonchalantly away from his companion in the lab, and then holding Sarah back with a guiding arm, always making sure his best friend is out of the firing line. This implicit concern for Sarah comes right to the surface when Scorby takes Sarah off to the generator plant, and the Doctor angrily bellows after her captor: "Scorby! SCORBY! SCORBY!!!" When the Fourth Doctor loses his temper, he's a frightening thing to be around.

It's easy to overlook the lovely scene between Dunbar and Chase back in England, with writer Robert Banks Stewart filling in Dunbar's motivation for his duplicity by showing that he is basically jealous that other people have been promoted above his head (Tony Beckley's delivery of "It must be most galling" is divine).

The Krynoid man, dressed in an Axon suit sprayed green, spends much of the episode wandering around in the icy wastes, some of which is achieved convincingly - such as the close-ups on its lumbering feet - but others not so well (the daytime back projection is a particular failure). It breaks back into the camp and murders Stevenson (making actor Hubert Rees distinctly unlucky when it comes to Doctor Who and weed creatures (see also Fury from the Deep)), then returns to the generator plant to have another go at the Doctor and Sarah. These last scenes are very tense, as Scorby and Keeler come to blows, the time bomb ticks down, and the Doctor and Sarah are attacked by the Krynoid man, before the entire base blows up in what is a very definitive big bang (all credit to the model effects guys here).

How will the Doctor and Sarah escape the frozen wastes of Antarctica (where it can get as cold as -49°C) without shelter or transport? It might end in a big crowd-pleasing explosion, but the implications of what comes next are what really occupy my thoughts...

First broadcast: February 7th, 1976

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Tom Baker is brilliant in this episode.
The Bad: The CSO Antarctic is a little hit and miss.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Three; 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/2014/07/the-seeds-of-doom.html

The Seeds of Doom is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Seeds-Doom-DVD/dp/B003Y3BEZA