The Seeds of Death
Will Earth ever learn that the moon is not a secure place to operate from? Nope. First it was putting world weather control on the moon and leaving it wide open to the evil plans of the Cybermen back in The Moonbase, but now the moon is the central relay point for the world's newest form of travel - the T-Mat. When operating properly, T-Mat can function as a matter transmitter and "beam" anything across the planet instantaneously, thereby getting food to areas that need it, and transporting people as well. Which is the perfect way for the Ice Warriors to invade after taking over the moonbase. Landing on Earth just after T-Mat breaks down, the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie become involved in the efforts to save the planet from destruction, even crewing a rocket to make a journey to the moon to investigate the system breakdown. But the goals of the Ice Warriors do not end with occupying the moon, they intend to use T-Mat to send seed pods to Earth that will release spores into the atmosphere and create a fungus that will render Earth's atmosphere more like that of Mars, and make it perfect for invasion.
For a 6 part story, The Seeds of Death is very simple and thus the pace feels a bit slower at times than it does on shorter stories. There are a lot of hysterical sequences with the Doctor literally running about either being chased by the Ice Warriors or trying to evade the encroaching foam fungus, which are in effect just visual filler, but somehow can be forgiven when one sees Patrick Troughton's performance. The outer space effects that mark the opening of each episode with dramatic music and pans across the lunar surface are good as well for the time, continuing the theme of good model work that was seen in The Dominators and The Invasion. The added bonus with this story is the extra work that was put in by the restoration team to clean it up for its DVD release. The first time I saw it, the story was split up into two smaller "movies" on Channel 17 many years ago, and I noticed how the picture would change in degrees of fuzziness from episode to episode, but that is no longer an issue with the amount of work that was done to it.
Ah the Ice Warriors. Good to have them back, even if they're not exactly of the same calibre of Varga and his marooned crew from their debut story. The Ice Warrior commander, Slaar, is a different design from the rest, his body being more flexible and not as armoured as his warriors. He still has the characteristic hissing speech of the Martians, and roughly the same helmet design too. The rest of the Martians are of the same design as Varga and Zondal from The Ice Warriors, without any of the oversized bobble-head helmets used this time around (thankfully). Where Slaar is different as a leader than Varga is his detachment from his fellow Martians, being even colder (no pun) and ordering them to do his bidding while he bullies and terrorizes the staff of the moonbase. Varga, on the other hand, was a warrior class himself and probably felt more of a responsibility to his crew to get them back to Mars, and thus addressed them as equals, or as comrades, not just as grunts. Slaar's only equal would be the Grand Marshal, leader of the doomed invasion fleet, who looks almost the same aside from some disco glitter on his helmet. Overall I wouldn't say these are inferior Ice Warriors, just different; the nobility that was hinted at in their previous encounter is left on the side this time, seeing as they are not fighting for survival this time, but out for conquest. We see instead an alien hoarde lacking feelings, stoically going about their plans to take the planet for themselves. The disappointing thing there is they didn't necessarily need to be Ice Warriors for that; any group of galactic thugs would have worked.
With only two more stories left for the season, time for another short break from the televised adventures to look at some more stories in print, starting with the return of another alien hoarde last seen terrorizing a space station full of mystery fans...
NEXT EPISODE : THE FINAL SANCTION
For a 6 part story, The Seeds of Death is very simple and thus the pace feels a bit slower at times than it does on shorter stories. There are a lot of hysterical sequences with the Doctor literally running about either being chased by the Ice Warriors or trying to evade the encroaching foam fungus, which are in effect just visual filler, but somehow can be forgiven when one sees Patrick Troughton's performance. The outer space effects that mark the opening of each episode with dramatic music and pans across the lunar surface are good as well for the time, continuing the theme of good model work that was seen in The Dominators and The Invasion. The added bonus with this story is the extra work that was put in by the restoration team to clean it up for its DVD release. The first time I saw it, the story was split up into two smaller "movies" on Channel 17 many years ago, and I noticed how the picture would change in degrees of fuzziness from episode to episode, but that is no longer an issue with the amount of work that was done to it.
Ah the Ice Warriors. Good to have them back, even if they're not exactly of the same calibre of Varga and his marooned crew from their debut story. The Ice Warrior commander, Slaar, is a different design from the rest, his body being more flexible and not as armoured as his warriors. He still has the characteristic hissing speech of the Martians, and roughly the same helmet design too. The rest of the Martians are of the same design as Varga and Zondal from The Ice Warriors, without any of the oversized bobble-head helmets used this time around (thankfully). Where Slaar is different as a leader than Varga is his detachment from his fellow Martians, being even colder (no pun) and ordering them to do his bidding while he bullies and terrorizes the staff of the moonbase. Varga, on the other hand, was a warrior class himself and probably felt more of a responsibility to his crew to get them back to Mars, and thus addressed them as equals, or as comrades, not just as grunts. Slaar's only equal would be the Grand Marshal, leader of the doomed invasion fleet, who looks almost the same aside from some disco glitter on his helmet. Overall I wouldn't say these are inferior Ice Warriors, just different; the nobility that was hinted at in their previous encounter is left on the side this time, seeing as they are not fighting for survival this time, but out for conquest. We see instead an alien hoarde lacking feelings, stoically going about their plans to take the planet for themselves. The disappointing thing there is they didn't necessarily need to be Ice Warriors for that; any group of galactic thugs would have worked.
With only two more stories left for the season, time for another short break from the televised adventures to look at some more stories in print, starting with the return of another alien hoarde last seen terrorizing a space station full of mystery fans...
NEXT EPISODE : THE FINAL SANCTION
Labels: Ice Warriors, Jamie McCrimmon, The 2nd Doctor, Zoe Herriot
posted by Sean Hoover @ 8:31 AM
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