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 several subsequent stories on television and in other media.

From a production standpoint, Curse was notable for switching broadcast order with the previously-produced Sea Devils. This made it the first Doctor Who story broadcast in a different order to that in 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 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 palace, with the Doctor explaining to Jo that they have been on a short trip to run the TARDIS in. As they exit, the TARDIS topples off the ledge and plummets down the cliff, leaving them with little choice but to climb to the palace for help. They find a small tunnel that leads past a shrine and enter the palace. Meanwhile, King Peladon tries to reassure the federation delegates, assembled for a summit on the planet's induction, that Torbis' death is nothing to worry about. When the Doctor sees that Ice Warriors are among the delegates, he is immediately suspicious of their motives. When he is discovered, he convinces the King that he is the Earth delegate and Jo is a princess sent to observe the summit.

Peladon explains to the delegates - the Doctor, Jo, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri, Lord Izlyr and his henchman Ssorg - that Hepesh believes that 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 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 once more 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, both of which 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, hoping that 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 upon 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 instead blames Izlyr. Jo searches the delegates' rooms for evidence and finds Arcturus' life support circuitry in the Ice Warrior's chamber. Ssorg denies any guilt and locks Jo in until he can discover the truth.

The Doctor is led away by Grun, who leads him into the tunnels and then 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 of death because his life support has a redundancy and that he was not 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 option but to sentence 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 then 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 and explaining that he is afraid of the progress that federation membership may bring, then admitting that 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 in on this conversation with a bug.

The Doctor escapes into the tunnels, discovering 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 and living beneath the palace, but Hepesh insists that he be taken to the combat pit. There, he faces off against 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, both Arcturus and Ssorg draw their weapons and fire.

Episode four
Ssorg is quicker on the trigger, killing Arcturus who was trying to shoot the Doctor. Hepesh flees, with the others deducing that 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 in an attempt to atone for having been manipulated. Hepesh's guards 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 discover that all their transmitters have been sabotaged and that 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, hypnotising him once more. 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 to be extinct, Hepesh found one Aggedor and trained it to do his bidding. Aggedor then attacks and kills Hepesh in a rage after being controlled for so long. Peladon then 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 rather a contrivance by the Time Lords to allow the Doctor to deal with this crisis. Peladon asks Jo for an answer to his proposal, but she tells him that she can't marry him and that 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.

Cast

 * The Doctor - 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

 * Peladon is rich in Trisilicate.

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.
 * 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.
 * David Troughton, son of the previous Doctor Patrick Troughton, shared a flat at this time with future Doctor Colin Baker. He had appeared as Private Moor in DW: The War Games. Three decades later, Troughton would again guest star in DW: Midnight.

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 that a special recap of episode three was 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.)

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.

Continuity

 * There are four sequels: DW: The Monster of Peladon (which is a sequel to this story), CC: The Prisoner of Peladon (which is a sequel to both of those stories), BFA: The Bride of Peladon (which follows chronologically) and NA: Legacy (which follows on from all chronologically).
 * The Ice Warriors previously appeared in DW: The Ice Warriors and DW: The Seeds of Death (in both cases the antagonists).
 * The Doctor previously uttered his Venusian Lullaby in DW: 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 DW: The Next Doctor.
 * PDA: 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 states that 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. (PDA: Verdigris)

Timeline

 * This story occurs after DW: Day of the Daleks.
 * PDA: The Face of the Enemy occurs during this story (relatively speaking).
 * This story occurs before ST: 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
 * Warriors of Mars
 * Jon and Katy
 * Storyboard Comparison
 * Coming Soon Trailer
 * Radio Times Billings
 * Production Subtitles
 * Photo Gallery


 * Editing for DVD release completed by 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.