The Curse of Peladon (TV story)

The Curse of Peladon was the second story of the ninth season of Doctor Who. It introduced the planet of Peladon and the Galactic Federation, both of which would feature in additional stories on television and in other media, as would Alpha Centauri, one of its delegates.

From a production standpoint, Curse switched broadcast order with the previously-produced Sea Devils. This made it the first Doctor Who story broadcast in a different order from which it was made. Though a common enough occurrence in the years that would follow, it had been impossible to broadcast out of production order in the 1960s, due the narrow gap of time between production and broadcast.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Jo make a test flight in the TARDIS and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for a human dignitary summoned to act as Chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.

Episode one
During a stormy night on the planet Peladon, the King witnesses an argument between his two advisers, Chancellor Torbis and High Priest Hepesh, over an application for his planet's membership of the Galactic Federation. As the pro-federation Torbis leaves the throne room, he is attacked and killed by a large, savage creature.

The TARDIS materialises on the same mountain as the Royal Citadel. The Doctor has taken a dolled-up Jo on a short trip to run the TARDIS in before she goes on a date with Mike Yates - he's finally got it working. As they exit, the TARDIS topples off the ledge and plummets down the cliff, leaving them with little choice but to climb to the Citadel for help. They find a small tunnel that leads past a Shrine and enter the Citadel.

Meanwhile, King Peladon tries to reassure the Federation delegates, assembled for a summit on the planet's application for admission to the Federation, that Torbis' death is nothing to worry about. Delegates include Arcturus, Alpha Centauri, and the Ice Warriors Lord Izlyr and his henchman Ssorg. When the Doctor sees Ice Warriors among the delegates, he is immediately suspicious of their motives. When he and Jo are discovered, he manages to convince the King that he is the Earth delegate and Jo is a princess sent to observe the summit (only females of royal blood are allowed in the throne room).

Peladon explains to the delegates, the Doctor and Jo that Hepesh believes Torbis was killed by the spirit of Aggedor, a mythical beast said to protect the royal family. As the delegates withdraw to consider how to proceed, the King's mute champion, Grun, slips away and tries to kill the delegates by dropping a statue of Aggedor on them as they pass...

Episode two
The Doctor spots the statue just in time and gives the delegates time to jump out of the way. Hepesh again blames the spirit of Aggedor, while the delegates insist the conference be cancelled. King Peladon pleads with the delegates, giving Jo the opportunity to investigate the tunnel behind his throne. She finds large footprints and a small piece of technology next to the statue's plinth. These suggest the Ice Warriors were responsible. As the delegates retire to consider Peladon's request, he asks Jo to stay and talk. He explains his half-human heritage and the loneliness of his position. He hopes Jo will intercede with the other delegates. Jo is annoyed that all he wants is an ally, not a friend.

In the Shrine, Hepesh orders Grun to kill the Doctor in Aggedor's name. Jo wants to leave Peladon, but the Doctor insists on staying to keep an eye on the Ice Warriors. An alarm rings out and the Doctor finds Arcturus in distress because someone has sabotaged his life support apparatus. After repairing the damage, the Doctor dismisses Hepesh's supernatural explanation and blames Izlyr. Izlyr retaliates by stating that the Doctor may have done it to foster Earth's own interests. Jo searches the delegates' rooms for evidence, finding Arcturus' life support circuitry in the Ice Warrior's chamber. Ssorg denies any guilt and locks in Jo until he can discover the truth.

The Doctor is led away by Grun, into the tunnels. He flees when he hears a roar. Jo climbs out of Ssorg's window and into a corridor, where she encounters the very real Aggedor. She runs into the Ice Warriors, but they do not believe her story. Izlyr explains that Arcturus was never in danger because his life support has a redundancy, nor was he responsible, since the Ice Warriors foreswore their violent ways long ago. The Doctor escapes the tunnels into the Shrine, where Hepesh arrests him for trespassing on sacred ground. The King has no choice. He sentences the Doctor to death...

Episode three
The Doctor tries to explain that he was trying to escape the tunnels and stumbled into the temple, but Peladon is unaware of the tunnel's existence. Jo urges the King to be flexible, given the Doctor's "diplomatic" status, and he agrees to a compromise - trial by combat against Grun in the ceremonial pit. Jo argues with Peladon over his clinging to ridiculous superstitions, but is surprised when he proposes to her and asks her to help him change his planet for the better.

Hepesh offers to help the Doctor escape before the combat, drawing him a map. He explains he is afraid of the progress Federation membership may bring, then admits he has a powerful ally assisting him. For their part, the delegates must obey Federation law and not interfere with local customs. However, Izlyr tells Jo that, since the Doctor saved him from the statue, he must do everything in his power to repay the debt. Arcturus listens to this conversation with a bug.

The Doctor escapes into the tunnels. He finds Aggedor and uses a spinning mirror and a Venusian lullaby to hypnotise him. Just as it seems to be working, Jo arrives and frightens the beast away. The Doctor goes back and tries to explain to everyone that Aggedor is an animal trained to attack anything living beneath the citadel, but Hepesh insists that he be taken to the combat pit. There, he faces Grun with halberds, swords and in hand-to-hand combat. After a long struggle, the Doctor is victorious but refuses to kill Grun. Watching from the edge of the pit, Arcturus and Ssorg draw their weapons and fire...

Episode four
Ssorg is quicker on the trigger and kills Arcturus, who was trying to shoot the Doctor. Hepesh flees, and the others deduce he was in league with Arcturus and sabotaged the life support with his directions. The planet Arcturus is poor in mineral wealth, and he had hoped to arrange a separate mining treaty. Peladon asks the delegates to help him avert a civil war with Hepesh. While they discuss the situation, Grun slips into the tunnels and attacks Hepesh to atone for having been manipulated. Hepesh's guards manage to overpower Grun and leave him for the Doctor to find, whereupon the two put aside their differences and pursue Hepesh.

Jo and the Ice Warriors finally convince Alpha Centauri to bend the rules and support King Peladon, but find that all their transmitters have been sabotaged and they are cut off from their orbiting spacecraft. Hepesh leads his followers in a revolt, quickly defeating the royal guards and capturing the King. The Doctor and Grun find Aggedor and hypnotise him again. As Hepesh gives the delegates a chance to leave the planet peacefully, the Doctor leads Aggedor into the throne room. He explains that, although they were thought extinct, Hepesh found one Aggedor and trained it to do his bidding. Aggedor attacks and kills Hepesh in a rage after being controlled for so long. Peladon now has no problem ordering the rebels to lay down their arms. Although the TARDIS has been dragged up from the valley below, the Doctor and Jo decide to stay for Peladon's coronation.

The Doctor reminisces about other coronations he has witnessed and speculates that their journey to Peladon was no accident, but a contrivance by the Time Lords to have the Doctor deal with this crisis - he didn't get the TARDIS working after all. Aggedor then wanders in to see the Doctor; he has become rather fond of the Time Lord. The Doctor leads Aggedor off to his enclosure as Peladon comes in to ask Jo for an answer to his proposal. She tells him that she can't marry him and she is not really a princess. Peladon says that he never cared about her rank, but accepts her decision.

As the Doctor and Jo head to the throne room, they encounter an embarrassing visitor - Amazonia, the real Earth delegate, delayed and indignant. They decide to slip away and watch some other coronation instead. As Amazonia, Ssorg and Izlyr come into the room where the TARDIS is stored, they see it dematerialize; Amazonia is left gaping and speechless.

Cast

 * Dr. Who - Jon Pertwee
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Peladon - David Troughton
 * Hepesh - Geoffrey Toone
 * Torbis - Henry Gilbert
 * Izlyr - Alan Bennion
 * Ssorg - Sonny Caldinez
 * Alpha Centauri - Stuart Fell
 * Voice of Alpha Centauri - Ysanne Churchman
 * Arcturus - Murphy Grumbar
 * Voice of Arcturus - Terry Bale
 * Grun - Gordon St. Clair
 * Aggedor - Nick Hobbs
 * Guard Captain - George Giles
 * Amazonia - Wendy Danvers

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Ros Anderson
 * Costumes - Barbara Lane
 * Designer - Gloria Clayton
 * Fight Arranger - Terry Walsh, PROFILE
 * Film Cameraman - Fred Hamilton, Peter Sargent
 * Film Editor - Michael Sha-Dyan
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Sylvia James
 * Producer - Barry Letts
 * Production Assistant - Chris D'Oyly-John
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Howard King
 * Studio Sound - Tony Millier
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Bernard Wilkie, Ian Scoones

Minerals

 * Trisilicate is a rare mineral. In fact The Doctor believes it is only found on Mars, which leads him to suspect the Ice Warriors could be involved in the attempt to kill the delegates.
 * Peladon has rich mineral resources, whereas the planet Arcturus has poor mineral resources.

Music

 * The Doctor hypnotises Aggedor with a Venusian lullaby (which goes something along the lines of "Kokleda partha mennin klatch, aroon aroon aroon, Ablarka sheena teerinatch, aroon araan aroon.") The first four words are also the "incantation" the Doctor uses to frighten away Bok the gargoyle in The Dæmons. He says this roughly translates to "Close your eyes, my darling - well, three of them at least."

Organisations

 * Peladon is about to be admitted into the Galactic Federation.

Species

 * The Ice Warriors are from Mars.
 * There is only one bed in the Ice Warriors' quarters.
 * The delegates from Alpha Centauri and Arcturus are not called by name or by what they call their own planets but by the Earth designations for their star systems.
 * It is heavily implied that the Time Lords were responsible for the Doctor and Jo appearing on Peladon at such a crucial point in the planet's history.

Story notes

 * Working titles for this story included The Curse (unconfirmed) and Curse of the Peladons.
 * Ysanne Churchman (Voice of Alpha Centauri) is credited as 'Voice' in Radio Times for Episodes One, Three and Four.
 * Murphy Grumbar (Arcturus) and Terry Bale (Voice of Arcturus) were credited in error in Radio Times for Episode Four (Arcturus is killed in the opening seconds of Episode Four).
 * Jon Pertwee sings the Venusian Lullaby to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".
 * This story was an allegory of the UK's accession to the Common Market - a highly topical issue at the time of its original transmission.

Ratings

 * Episode one - 10.3 million viewers
 * Episode Two - 11 million viewers
 * Episode Three - 7.8 million viewers
 * Episode Four - 8.4 million viewers
 * According to Barry Letts and Katy Manning, the precipitous drop in ratings between episodes 2 and 3 had to do with national power cuts resulting from a coal miners' strike. The BBC tried to compensate for the loss in viewers by ordering a special recap of episode three broadcast before the debut of part four. (BBC DVD: The Curse of Peladon)

Myths

 * The natives of the planet Peladon are called Pels. (They are not called by this name here.)
 * Izlyr is an Ice Lord. (Although he is referred to as a Lord, the term 'Ice Lord' is never used.)
 * Peladon is rich in trisilicate. (Although this is key element of the plot in the sequel TV: The Monster of Peladon, this story only goes so far as to establish that Peladon is rich in mineral resources without specifying any particular minerals.)

Filming locations

 * BBC Television Centre (Puppet Theatre and Studio 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

 * Jo's hair straightens when she climbs back into the citadel.
 * The corpse of High Priest Hepesh is visibly breathing.
 * When the TARDIS falls, aside from the obvious fact of there being a model, there is no sign of the Doctor or Jo.
 * When Jo is escaping the Ice Warriors room and climbing by the side of the mountain, her shoes change slightly. The shot looking down the mountain has her wearing pink shoes with straps on yet everywhere else Jo is wearing pink shoes without straps on.

Continuity

 * There are four sequels: TV: The Monster of Peladon (which is a sequel to this story), AUDIO: The Prisoner of Peladon (which is a sequel to both of those stories), AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon (which follows chronologically) and PROSE: Legacy (which follows on from all chronologically).
 * The Ice Warriors had previously appeared in TV: The Ice Warriors and TV: The Seeds of Death (in both cases as the antagonists), would reappear in The Monster of Peladon, and in 2013 in Cold War.
 * The Doctor earlier sang his Venusian Lullaby in TV: The Dæmons. In the 1990s, a novel, Venusian Lullaby would be named after this song; the melody of the song is that of the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", which would later be featured in the 2008 special TV: The Next Doctor.
 * PROSE: The Face of the Enemy occurs contemporaneously with the events of this story, relatively speaking.
 * This is only the second serial to feature a TARDIS flight since the Doctor's regeneration.
 * The Doctor says the last coronation he attended was Elizabeth I's ("Or was it Queen Victoria's?" he muses). Later he firmly states that it was Victoria. It was probably Victoria's, as he says in The Shakespeare Code that he hasn't met Elizabeth I yet.
 * The Doctor was already aware that the TARDIS would fall off a cliff on Peladon at some point in his personal future, as the renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme told him as much. On that occasion, he informed Iris that this event had not happened yet in his personal timeline. (PROSE: Verdigris)
 * Jo wears a long pink dress, possibly the same outfit from this story, in PROSE: The Sommerton Fetch.

DVD releases

 * This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 4 January 2010 as part of the Peladon Tales Boxset. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
 * Commentary by Katy Manning (Jo), Barry Letts (Producer), Terrance Dicks (Script Editor), Chris D’Oyly-John (Production Assistant) and Toby Hadoke (Moderator).
 * The Peladon Saga Part One - BBC documentary looking at the making of The Curse of Peladon
 * Warriors of Mars - BBC documentary on the history of the Ice Warriors.
 * Jon and Katy - BBC feature on the pairing of the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.
 * Storyboard Comparison
 * Coming Soon Trailer
 * Radio Times Billings
 * Production Subtitles
 * Photo Gallery


 * Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

VHS releases
This story was released as Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon.

Released:


 * UK August 1993
 * Australia November 1993
 * US September 1995

CD release
In 2007 the soundtrack was released.