Doctor Who Rewind - The Seeds Of Death
Doctor Who Rewind
The Seeds Of Death
This one's been on small Treadwell's horizion for quite a while, in fact for several months since my friend lent me the DVD at the start of our Troughton run. Nearly every story since then I get asked, "Is this the seeds of death Dad?"
Well, yes Max. This is the Seeds Of Death, can it measure up to such anticipated hype and pre-discussion between Max and my friends son, Robin?
We are at the end of the twenty first century and a new form of instantaneous teleportation travel has been invented called T-Mat. This makes the need for all other forms of travel on earth obsolete. Even space travel is no longer necessary due to the ease of life on earth that T-mat has brought about.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, put down inside an Earth based space travel museum. The Doctor drools over several models of rockets which have allowed humans to travel into space. We meet the curator of the museum, a man called professor Eldred, who has been building a old rocket as a side line, in the hopes that one day he may see it in action.
Rather conveniently, that day has arrived, due to a mysterious error with the T-mat relay station on the moon. Commander Radnor and his assistant appear to ask for the profs help. They want to utilise his rocket to get to the moon and find out what in earth is going on. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe volunteer to man the rocket without even slightest idea of the dangers.
Meanwhile, on the moon, things are looking pretty grim at the relay station. Ice warriors have taken over, and are forcing the remaining crew (several have been killed by the Warriors energy weapon which literally makes whoever is in its sights go all wibbly wobbly) to assist the Warriors in their plan, which is to T-mat strange seed pods filled with a substance which sucks oxygen from the air, to the four corners of the world, wiping every living thing off the face of the planet.
After a rather bumpy journey to the moon in the rocket, in which incidentally, the TARDIS crew do not even don space suits or receive any training what-so-ever, and in which the brace for landing position is just sitting back in normal chairs without the aid of even straps; they arrive at the relay station, sneak in and find the Ice Warriors moving, rather slowly about the place carrying our their evil plan.
The Doctor must find a way to render the seed pods harmless, which, after initially inflating just like a balloon (for that is what they are!) they expel huge amounts of guess what, yes, that Doctor Who staple, foam!! Where would we be without it, with several stories utilising it during this season alone. This foam allows, rather conveniently, the spread of the oxygen sucking fungus.
The Doctors antidote to this fungus is a simple solution, water! Though the Ice Warriors have dispatched a team down to an earth weather control station, to ensure good growing conditions for the pods, i.e without any rainfall.
All the Doctor needs to do then is re-take the weather station and programme a light shower. Plus there's the little problem of the fleet of Ice Warrior ships that's advancing on the earth as well.
This then, is at least a better story than the awful Krotons, but the problem I have with it is that it doesn't really make the Warriors the menacing cold blooded race of killers that they are portrayed to be. Chase scenes through corridors become ludicrously Laurel and Hardy like slap stick pastiches, with Ice Warriors lumbering and plodding along, waving their pincer like arms hopelessly, with Jamie or Zoe or whoever, running circles around them. And in other scenes to, in which they enter the action, it's almost as if the whole story goes into slow motion so they can meander into shot to strike a suitably terrorising pose before things can resume.
I didn't have this problem with them in their debut story as it just wasn't as noticeable, with less scenes involving the need for action.
It's a shame, as I do like the warriors as monsters and I'm sure they will get a chance to show how utterly ruthless they can be in later stories. In fact we know that they certainly do in the Matt Smith episode, Cold War.
Next time in Doctor Who Rewind, it's time to breath a sigh of relief as i complete the last Doctor Who Recon, in the partly missing Space Pirates.
The Seeds Of Death
This one's been on small Treadwell's horizion for quite a while, in fact for several months since my friend lent me the DVD at the start of our Troughton run. Nearly every story since then I get asked, "Is this the seeds of death Dad?"
Well, yes Max. This is the Seeds Of Death, can it measure up to such anticipated hype and pre-discussion between Max and my friends son, Robin?
We are at the end of the twenty first century and a new form of instantaneous teleportation travel has been invented called T-Mat. This makes the need for all other forms of travel on earth obsolete. Even space travel is no longer necessary due to the ease of life on earth that T-mat has brought about.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, put down inside an Earth based space travel museum. The Doctor drools over several models of rockets which have allowed humans to travel into space. We meet the curator of the museum, a man called professor Eldred, who has been building a old rocket as a side line, in the hopes that one day he may see it in action.
Rather conveniently, that day has arrived, due to a mysterious error with the T-mat relay station on the moon. Commander Radnor and his assistant appear to ask for the profs help. They want to utilise his rocket to get to the moon and find out what in earth is going on. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe volunteer to man the rocket without even slightest idea of the dangers.
Meanwhile, on the moon, things are looking pretty grim at the relay station. Ice warriors have taken over, and are forcing the remaining crew (several have been killed by the Warriors energy weapon which literally makes whoever is in its sights go all wibbly wobbly) to assist the Warriors in their plan, which is to T-mat strange seed pods filled with a substance which sucks oxygen from the air, to the four corners of the world, wiping every living thing off the face of the planet.
After a rather bumpy journey to the moon in the rocket, in which incidentally, the TARDIS crew do not even don space suits or receive any training what-so-ever, and in which the brace for landing position is just sitting back in normal chairs without the aid of even straps; they arrive at the relay station, sneak in and find the Ice Warriors moving, rather slowly about the place carrying our their evil plan.
The Doctor must find a way to render the seed pods harmless, which, after initially inflating just like a balloon (for that is what they are!) they expel huge amounts of guess what, yes, that Doctor Who staple, foam!! Where would we be without it, with several stories utilising it during this season alone. This foam allows, rather conveniently, the spread of the oxygen sucking fungus.
The Doctors antidote to this fungus is a simple solution, water! Though the Ice Warriors have dispatched a team down to an earth weather control station, to ensure good growing conditions for the pods, i.e without any rainfall.
All the Doctor needs to do then is re-take the weather station and programme a light shower. Plus there's the little problem of the fleet of Ice Warrior ships that's advancing on the earth as well.
This then, is at least a better story than the awful Krotons, but the problem I have with it is that it doesn't really make the Warriors the menacing cold blooded race of killers that they are portrayed to be. Chase scenes through corridors become ludicrously Laurel and Hardy like slap stick pastiches, with Ice Warriors lumbering and plodding along, waving their pincer like arms hopelessly, with Jamie or Zoe or whoever, running circles around them. And in other scenes to, in which they enter the action, it's almost as if the whole story goes into slow motion so they can meander into shot to strike a suitably terrorising pose before things can resume.
I didn't have this problem with them in their debut story as it just wasn't as noticeable, with less scenes involving the need for action.
It's a shame, as I do like the warriors as monsters and I'm sure they will get a chance to show how utterly ruthless they can be in later stories. In fact we know that they certainly do in the Matt Smith episode, Cold War.
Next time in Doctor Who Rewind, it's time to breath a sigh of relief as i complete the last Doctor Who Recon, in the partly missing Space Pirates.
posted by Nic Treadwell at 4:39 pm
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