Meggin Watches Doctor Who: The Monster of Peladon

I have filled up my Netflix DVD queue this summer with an endless chronological stream of the Doctor’s adventures with his companion, Sarah Jane Smith. So for the rest of summer, my brain will constantly be absorbing all things Doctor Who.

Let’s hop into the TARDIS and go back to the year 1974. Why, do you ask? Because in that year, the British television show Doctor Who released a story arc about the Doctor and Sarah Jane’s adventure on the planet Peladon.

It is the Doctor’s second visit to Peladon (pronounced Peh-lah-dohn, for future reference), but Sarah Jane’s first. It has been fifty years since the Doctor’s first visit (with his previous companion, Jo Grant), and upon returning, he discovers a new face on the Peladonian throne, a patchy alliance with the Federation, and a peculiar string of murders amongst the miners of the planet.

During the Doctor’s first visit, as chronicled in the arc The Curse of Peladon, the Doctor encourages the Pels to join forces with the Galactic Federation because of their ability to supply some sort of war effort, mainly mining trisilicate, to the Federation, who is in conflict in the Galaxy Five confederation. However, in The Monster of Peladon, the miners are striking, demanding for better working conditions. Naturally, this raises speculation for the planet’s current ruler, Queen Thalira. Little does she know that the miners are being murdered one by one by what appears to be the spirit of Peladon’s sacred beast, Aggedor. The Doctor and Sarah Jane interfere with the planet’s affairs until the situation becomes out of hand and Alpha Centauri, the planet’s ambassador, calls for Federation forces to clear things up. However, things only get worse when the Ice Warriors, Galaxy Five agents and rivals of the Federation, appear and take the Federation’s place, demanding for the planet’s supply of trisilicate. It is up to the Doctor and Sarah Jane to find out how the Warriors arrived, who else is working with them, and what they’re really demanding for...

The Monster of Peladon has some quintessential factors that make up a classic Doctor Who arc: the abrupt cliff-hangers, the running-down-corridors frenzy, the female companion who gets captured and held hostage multiple times, the incidental music, the special effects, the antagonistic alien force and their assistants, and of course, the occasional alien who tries to the best of their ability to be on the Doctor’s side. Might I say that of the past several arcs with Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen, this has been Sladen’s best performance of the third Doctor/Sarah Jane adventures. Also, Sarah Jane’s outfit is so brilliant and looks like something I might find in my own wardrobe (mind you, I have an open-minded, somewhat artistic taste of clothes, and I find that Sarah Jane’s outfits tend to inspire me at times).

Sarah Jane and the Doctor discuss their situation
 with a resemblance of Aggedor looming behind them.

Worn underneath Sarah Jane's leather jacket
is a jumper from the 70's.

There is also something else about The Monster of Peladon that we as humans can relate to. Why do the miners strike? Why does the Queen seem like she’s not actually the ruler, and can be found seeking advice from another male authority? Sound a bit familiar? Sometimes we ask ourselves these questions about our own society. Should I quit my job? Should I complain about this? Is the President really giving the orders? It’s amazing how well a Doctor Who story arc can reflect the issues we face, with some extra aliens in the balance. This relation also helps in the story, when Sarah Jane, being a woman from Earth who doesn’t let men push her around, encourages Queen Thalira to stand up for herself in a planet where men are considered superior. After all, she is the Queen.

         However, one thing that constantly irritated me throughout the arc is that the Doctor fights back when engaged in a physical fight. Because I’m a new Whovian and I started watching Doctor Who with the 2005 rendition, I always thought of the Doctor as man who resorts to talking things out instead of referring to physical blows. I noticed this in the past several arcs that I’ve seen with the third Doctor and Sarah Jane, and I thought, “That can’t be the Doctor that I know of now.” I never thought that the Doctor could be a violent person when absolutely necessary. Perhaps he’s changed over the course of several regenerations?

            The Monster of Peladon is overall a fairly decent arc to sit through. It’s very political, both for labour issues and feminism, and those similarities between Peladon and Earth make it tolerable. Also, the return of a planet and its people as well as the return of an alien race turned bad make the audience remember the good old days.

            Also, one final question that hardly gets resolved: who really is the monster of Peladon? Is it the supposed spirit of Aggedor? Is it Ortron, the single-minded male advisor to the Queen? Or is it perhaps the Ice Warriors and their undercover assistant? This question keeps Whovians wondering even after the end credits.