The Monster of Peladon

The Doctor brings Sarah to Peladon, eager to find out how things have been on the planet since his last visit. Unfortunately, the TARDIS overshoots the mark, arriving some fifty years after the Doctor intended. Peladon is once again in turmoil. A civil war threatens to break out and the deadly specter of Aggedor looms over everyone. If The Monster of Peladon is remembered for anything, it has to be for its terrible wigs. The previous Peladon serial, The Curse of Peladon, established that the people of Peladon have weird two-tone hair. The costume department really leaned into that choice in Monster of Peladon and they gave the miners bizarre badger-like afros. They are rather ridiculous. Also, the Doctor seemingly dies several times during this serial. Possibly to soften the blow for what's about to come around the corner. 

Rating: I've always been very keen on survival%

The Curse of Peladon

For much of the Third Doctor's run, I've been praising the show for being original and innovative. The Curse of Peladon is proof that there's still some benefit to doing things the old fashioned way. Much like Colony in Space, The Curse of Peladon breaks free of the UNIT formula by allowing Jo and the Doctor to take a much needed break from their regular routine. The serial starts with the Doctor thinking he's repaired the TARDIS enough to take it on a test flight, only to find out that he and Jo have been deposited on the side of a mountain. After a dangerous climb, our heroes find themselves mixed up in some courtly intrigue. The Doctor quickly falls into his old habit of impersonating someone important and sets about protecting some intergalactic ambassadors, including his former enemies the Ice Warriors. Pertwee's Doctor fits into the story quite easily and this throwback adventure ends up being quite enjoyable.

Rating: Which way indeed%

The Mind of Evil

The Doctor and his UNIT friends have a lot going on in The Mind of Evil. First off, there's a big World Peace conference going on and the Brigadier is overseeing the security. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jo are visiting a prison to observe some new machine that reportedly removes all of a criminal's negative impulses. On top of that, UNIT is also in the process of moving a super deadly missile. And while all of those may seem like distinct plot threads that would never have any crossover, this is a TV show we're talking about. A TV show that had only recently debuted a new mega adversary for our heroes, in the form of the Master. And through a series of complicated alliances and accomplices, the Master has hatched a plot to steal the super deadly missile so that he might blow up the World Peace conference and plunge the planet into a devastating nuclear war. While it may have been a mistake to have the Master be the main antagonist in every story of season 8 (spoiler alert?), this early into his run we're still getting to see new sides of the character. At one point the Master is driven up to the prison in a fancy car and we see him playing his own ominous entrance music in the backseat on a handheld radio. And it's a little weird that the Master and the Doctor are always so formal and considerate to each other whenever they're face to face.

Rating: It doesn't%

The War Games

Doctor Who almost didn't make it out of the '60s. After Patrick Troughton and his TARDIS companions announced their departures at the end of the show's sixth season, there were some serious discussions about cancelling the show altogether. Ratings were down and production issues were escalating. A number of scripts were cancelled at the last minute, necessitating a couple of longer serials to fill out the gaps. The eight part serial The Invasion was both a means of filling out the space left behind by a cancelled script and an attempt to figure out a way to do the show for even less money. The success of that serial gave the producers a way to continue making the show, but there was still the business of sending the Second Doctor off on his merry way.

At ten parts, The War Games should be a slog and yet it's probably one of the most entertaining stories from the Second Doctor era. It moves with an incredible speed and it's filled to the brim with great character actors and interesting locations. It has the basic structure of a historical serial from the First Doctor era but it also has a lot of great sci-fi elements as well. Our characters never get bogged down in one place for too long. And we're constantly being introduced to new characters, which is great because this serial has a significant death toll. The War Games ends with the Doctor confronting his fellow Time Lords and facing the heat for stealing the TARDIS and starting out on his adventures. Also, the big bad, The War Lord, kinda looks like Steve Jobs. I just thought you should know that.

Rating: I was bored%

The Seeds of Death

The Seeds of Death isn't a particularly original serial but it still manages to be entertaining. It's another "base under siege" plot that seemingly borrows elements from a dozen other stories. The Doctor's adversary isn't even new, it's the return of the Ice Warriors. A lot should be said for the production design on this serial though. Despite their notoriously limited budgets, this serial features half a dozen highly detailed and creative sets. The script keeps up a great running pace, sending the Doctor and his companions from the Earth to the Moon and back again a number of times. The Ice Warriors make for a great return villain as well, introducing a new subset of Ice Warriors with streamlined costumes and slightly clearer speaking voices. I can't imagine this would be anyone's favorite Doctor Who serial but it's certainly an enjoyable entry in the Second Doctor's adventures.

Rating: Your leader will be angry if you kill me. I'm a genius%

The Ice Warriors

The Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who gets a little flack for being formulaic. A lot of serials from this period were focused on "base under siege" plot lines and wave after wave of new monsters. And while you could definitely level some of those criticisms at The Ice Warriors, it's still a serial with a lot of charm. For the first time in a long time we get to see the TARDIS make an awkward landing, which makes for some funny business when the Doctor and his companions have to climb out the front doors. We get to see Jamie perv out a little bit over the body-hugging uniforms worn by the scientists at the ionizer base. And we get introduced to the Ice Warriors, a group of Martians who are revived after they're discovered in a glacier. (Side note: British people don't say glacier like those of us in North America would, they say "glassier." Kinda like if you were to cover a glass object with even more glass, you would have found a way to make it glassier.) The Ice Warriors are fairly well designed and they feature one of the key ingredients for enduring popularity as a Doctor Who baddie, they have voices that are very easy to imitate. And even though they only pop up a handful of times on the show, they're still highly regarded among the Doctor's rogues gallery.

Rating: We can't all be perfect%

(Image from pop-critica.com)