The Curse of Peladon / The Face of the Enemy
The troubled planet of Peladon stands on a pivotal moment in its history; the King has applied for his planet's admission to the Galactic Federation to better his people's lives, but supersition and terror are standing in his way. While delegates from the Federation arrive to negotiate, an apparation of the planet's royal beast, Aggedor, stalks the passageways of the palace. The Doctor and Jo arrive on a test flight with the TARDIS, and after the ship is sent crashing down the side of a mountain are mistaken for the Federation delegates from Earth. Amongst the committe is the many tentacled Alpha Centauri, the truncated Arcturus, and a pair of Ice Warriors, who the Doctor immediately suspects of treachery. But in the future, the Ice Warriors are no longer an agressive race bent on conquest, and Mars is a founding member of the Federation. It becomes apparant that the trouble is an internal matter, with a faction of the royal court fearing Peladon's admission to the Federation as a threat to their soverign ways, and the Doctor must uncover the traitors on both sides while Jo dodges the earnest romantic overtures of Peladon himself.
This story should have started the season, not that farce of a Dalek tale. We are presented not only with a complex and rich culture on Peladon, but with a cluster of aliens; two new creatures and an old enemy changed their ways. For a monster, Centauri is not at all agressive or intimidating but a gentle, nervous creature that wants only peace, even if it is a little hung up on details. The Ice Warriors are incredible as always, noble and proper, but this time without vicious intent, making then perfect allies for the Doctor. This would be the only time the Ice Warriors appear in the show as good guys, but later adventures with them in print would pick up this thread again - even seeing them as guests at companion Bernice Summerfield's wedding. I like the Ice Warriors as benevolant aliens rather than marauding monsters; in science fiction television it is too easy to take something inhuman and make it evil and bent, rather than develop it as something good, and not misunderstood.
With all these aliens comes a challenge to the wardrobe and costume department, one they rose to with great flair. The attire of the people of Peladon is primarily a royal purple, robes on the noble, battle kilts on the soldiers. David Troughton (son of Patrick) gets a bit shortchanged as the King, though; he's either wearing shorts or a short kilt but with high boots that look like... umm... stockings. Wierd. But hey he's all man, chasing Jo about and wanting to marry her. Maybe it's his cross-dressing ways that really put her off, not her budding romance with Mike Yates that is mentioned in episode 1 and then never again. Well, she has effectively stood him up on a date by going off with the Doctor, so no wonder the whole relationship is going tits-up.
Curse of Peladon has a fun Canadian connection to it. For a while the BBC archive didn't have a copy of the adventure at all, but all four colour episodes were at TV Ontario and were returned in one lot. It's on VHS right now but would make a good additioon to the DVD line in 2006, I think.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Mike is fuming over Jo having stood him up, and the Brigaider finds himself in need of scientific advice in the Doctor's absence. Drafting from the scientific community worked before with Liz Shaw so UNIT calls on a noted scientist and his wife: Ian and Barbara Chesterton. Events around UNIT are taking a nasty turn with criminal warfare on the rise, and a threat apparantly outside of Earth itself growing, the Brigaider is forced to also turn to the imprisoned Master for assistance as well.
Adventures without the Doctor were commonplace by the time The Face of the Enemy was published in 1998. The Brigadier and UNIT had already been used in a more contemporary setting in the ReelTime pictures VHS movie Downtime, but having a UNIT adventure running parallel to the Doctor's absence is brilliant. Involving Ian and Barbara is nothing short of genius, bringing back two of the original companions to show that their lives did indeed have a happy ending, and that they have a son and were able to get back to normal after their years in time and space with the Doctor. Their son was already mentioned in the prologue of the novel Byzantium and this is set some time after that vingette. With the Doctor on Peladon, his former companions never do get to meet him and have to go through the whole regeneration explaination, which would just detract from the story itself. The Master works well without the Doctor as a foil, matching wits with the Brigadier and the Chestertons but never overcoming them; their association with the Doctor has changed them all, and they are able to keep his old enemy in check while trying to work with him.
The other continuity note I will make is something of a spoiler, but as this book is listed as out of print now it's unlikely anyone is reading this right now and looking forward to getting their hands on a copy. Mind you, if you ARE reading The Face of the Enemy or plan to some day, stop right now. Close your browser. Thank you. Right. I was not a fan of author David A McIntee's work when he first penned the seventh Doctor new adventures novel White Darkness, but as he produced more work I found myself going from non fan to big fan, and it's because of novels like this that I like his work. McIntee pays such strict attention to continuity it's like he is on some mission to interwaeve his own contributions to Doctor Who so tightly with others that we accept his as official and discount lesser works. McIntee's forte was the historical adventure until he hit the sci fi payload with Lords of the Storm, and with Face of the Enemy he ties together elements from his second Doctor missing adventures novel The Dark Path (which I did not mention because I dopn't have a copy to go back and check anymore) and the apocalyptic television serial Inferno to create this story's central plot device: a benign alternate universe Master captured by the people of Inferno's Earth, and his TARDIS being used to allow the desperate people from that reality into ours to escape and plunder. Amazing. And brilliantly presented on page. And there's even a quick nod given to Miss Hawthorne and the people of Devil's End.
It's not often I am impressed to this length with a BBC novel; I find the bulk of them to try to achieve too much, and their authors not disciplined enough to know when to stop. But this one... wow. Perfect. PER-FECT.
Now back to television.
NEXT EPISODE : THE SEA DEVILS
This story should have started the season, not that farce of a Dalek tale. We are presented not only with a complex and rich culture on Peladon, but with a cluster of aliens; two new creatures and an old enemy changed their ways. For a monster, Centauri is not at all agressive or intimidating but a gentle, nervous creature that wants only peace, even if it is a little hung up on details. The Ice Warriors are incredible as always, noble and proper, but this time without vicious intent, making then perfect allies for the Doctor. This would be the only time the Ice Warriors appear in the show as good guys, but later adventures with them in print would pick up this thread again - even seeing them as guests at companion Bernice Summerfield's wedding. I like the Ice Warriors as benevolant aliens rather than marauding monsters; in science fiction television it is too easy to take something inhuman and make it evil and bent, rather than develop it as something good, and not misunderstood.
With all these aliens comes a challenge to the wardrobe and costume department, one they rose to with great flair. The attire of the people of Peladon is primarily a royal purple, robes on the noble, battle kilts on the soldiers. David Troughton (son of Patrick) gets a bit shortchanged as the King, though; he's either wearing shorts or a short kilt but with high boots that look like... umm... stockings. Wierd. But hey he's all man, chasing Jo about and wanting to marry her. Maybe it's his cross-dressing ways that really put her off, not her budding romance with Mike Yates that is mentioned in episode 1 and then never again. Well, she has effectively stood him up on a date by going off with the Doctor, so no wonder the whole relationship is going tits-up.
Curse of Peladon has a fun Canadian connection to it. For a while the BBC archive didn't have a copy of the adventure at all, but all four colour episodes were at TV Ontario and were returned in one lot. It's on VHS right now but would make a good additioon to the DVD line in 2006, I think.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Mike is fuming over Jo having stood him up, and the Brigaider finds himself in need of scientific advice in the Doctor's absence. Drafting from the scientific community worked before with Liz Shaw so UNIT calls on a noted scientist and his wife: Ian and Barbara Chesterton. Events around UNIT are taking a nasty turn with criminal warfare on the rise, and a threat apparantly outside of Earth itself growing, the Brigaider is forced to also turn to the imprisoned Master for assistance as well.
Adventures without the Doctor were commonplace by the time The Face of the Enemy was published in 1998. The Brigadier and UNIT had already been used in a more contemporary setting in the ReelTime pictures VHS movie Downtime, but having a UNIT adventure running parallel to the Doctor's absence is brilliant. Involving Ian and Barbara is nothing short of genius, bringing back two of the original companions to show that their lives did indeed have a happy ending, and that they have a son and were able to get back to normal after their years in time and space with the Doctor. Their son was already mentioned in the prologue of the novel Byzantium and this is set some time after that vingette. With the Doctor on Peladon, his former companions never do get to meet him and have to go through the whole regeneration explaination, which would just detract from the story itself. The Master works well without the Doctor as a foil, matching wits with the Brigadier and the Chestertons but never overcoming them; their association with the Doctor has changed them all, and they are able to keep his old enemy in check while trying to work with him.
The other continuity note I will make is something of a spoiler, but as this book is listed as out of print now it's unlikely anyone is reading this right now and looking forward to getting their hands on a copy. Mind you, if you ARE reading The Face of the Enemy or plan to some day, stop right now. Close your browser. Thank you. Right. I was not a fan of author David A McIntee's work when he first penned the seventh Doctor new adventures novel White Darkness, but as he produced more work I found myself going from non fan to big fan, and it's because of novels like this that I like his work. McIntee pays such strict attention to continuity it's like he is on some mission to interwaeve his own contributions to Doctor Who so tightly with others that we accept his as official and discount lesser works. McIntee's forte was the historical adventure until he hit the sci fi payload with Lords of the Storm, and with Face of the Enemy he ties together elements from his second Doctor missing adventures novel The Dark Path (which I did not mention because I dopn't have a copy to go back and check anymore) and the apocalyptic television serial Inferno to create this story's central plot device: a benign alternate universe Master captured by the people of Inferno's Earth, and his TARDIS being used to allow the desperate people from that reality into ours to escape and plunder. Amazing. And brilliantly presented on page. And there's even a quick nod given to Miss Hawthorne and the people of Devil's End.
It's not often I am impressed to this length with a BBC novel; I find the bulk of them to try to achieve too much, and their authors not disciplined enough to know when to stop. But this one... wow. Perfect. PER-FECT.
Now back to television.
NEXT EPISODE : THE SEA DEVILS
Labels: Barbara Wright, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Ian Chesterton, Ice Warriors, Jo Grant, Peladon, The 3rd Doctor, The Master
posted by Sean Hoover @ 10:21 AM
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