As a sequel to The Curse Of Peladon, this story I feel isn't as good. I think it works as a story in itself but the very fact it is 6-parts really works against it. I feel it could have been a 4-parter and been a lot better but still not as good perhaps as the original.

There's lots to like in it. The return of The Ice Warriors as baddies was a superb double-bluff. I liked all the feminist stuff between Sarah and Queen Thalira, plus I also like the cliffhanger at the end of part 3 with Aggedor. As with the previous story, it requires the viewer to work out how he would get out of it plus remember what had happened in the previous story in the same situation. Plus there's a nice little future nod to the 3rd Doctor's final scene in the following story when Sarah thinks The Doctor is dead in Episode 6.



On the downside, Ettis is very irritating, the cave scenes are a tad tedious. The fight with Ettis is clearly Terry Walsh and not Jon Pertwee. Plus the story as I said, is overlong and contains the usual padding in places.

It's a shame this would be The Ice Warriors last appearance in the Show, though like the Autons, they should have been in the original Season 23(Michael Grade has SOOO much to answer for). A reappearance is well overdue.

I find this story to be a fairly miserable affair and quite arduous to watch. A few of the scenes I get mixed up with Curse of Peladon, and so I feel like most of it has been done before with extra bits added on that feel rather unnecessary.

What a raggedy bunch the Ice Warriors look aswell. Various shapes and sizes.
Although I just love the pronunciation of Commander Azaxyr said in their whispery voice.

Also, in the fight scene near the Sonic Lance, before we cut to it Commander Azaxyr states whoever is in the area when the Lance is activated will die. The Doctor is lying on the ground right next to it when it goes up! Not a scratch!
At one point in this it is just a whole load of running around the mines, with about four or five things or people going off somewhere for something, it's just dull and a bit pointless. This isn't storytelling at it's best.
The use of Aggedor is quite effective, and like the way the Doctor uses it against the Ice Warriors.
I do like the whole return to Peladon thing though. Quite enjoyable to see the slight changes, although the Queen is still as soppy as King Peladon from the Curse of Peladon.
Eckersley's story is of most interest. you get a hint he's not straight first time you watch it, when you get a close up of him pulling a dodgy look.
Yes, as stated yet another very good set of Aliens/Monsters not used again in Classic Who - Yeti, Ice Warriors, Autons. At least we saw the Sea Devils and Silurians again, albeit in WOTD not the greatest story produced.
Sarah Jane doesn't seem to get much to do at times in this, unusual for her. Yes she's in it, but keeps getting left here and there. Apart from lecturing the Queen on Women's lib, and getting a bit teary in a couple of parts. She is just reduced to dashing around mine corridors, then again a lot of characters including the Doctor do a lot of this also.
All in all an average story, but even at 6 parts it is decent enough, at least you get a bit of a giggle at the Alpha Centauri Ambassador. Amusing even if it is just the costume.

This was pretty poor. Those miners and their stupid badger hair.

I always thought it a shame they didn't get David Troughton back as the King. It would have been more fitting to see how he'd have coped after 50 years on the throne and how he'd have reacted to Sarah Jane as well.

It also shows the difference between the Classic and New series. In Series 3, Martha moaned quite a bit when The Doctor took her back to a place he'd been with Rose. Not sure if Sarah knew The Doctor had been to Peladon with Jo judging by comments in Death Of The Doctor in the SJA but still don't think she would have fussed too much had she known!

well Queen Peladon is quite cute .. and despite the awful wigs I actually quite like this story yes the plot in places is almost identical to that of Curse and again it's two episodes to long but over all I think it's my second favorite of season 11.

Oh yeah, forgot about the badgerheads!

And true, Thalira was rather easy to look at.

Reflecting on the impact of reports of the Death of the Doctor on Sarah Jane and Jo Grant, it is a pity that, within the recent series, the death of the Brigadier was only notified by a telephone call when the Doctor called the Nursing Home..... but not a whimper at the death of Elizabeth Sladen and her character Sarah Jane, despite Nicholas Courtney dying a few weeks after Elizabeth Sladen.

Although S06E01 "The Impossible Astronaut" was preceded by a dedication to Elizabeth Sladen, wouldn't it have been apt for Sarah Janes death to be been referred to within the series?

And, in respect to SJA, isn't it deplorable that the BBC decided to cancel the series, rather than commission a new series with a different actress in the lead role ? I seem to recall that Sophie Aldred was considered for an appearance within the show.

She was a bit wet, though, no?

I liked how the skinny engineer character-Eckersley, wasn't it-started off seemingly mild and inoffensive, then became this big ruthless villainous character by the end.

Also true.

this is a joke right? i can't think of anything worse than desecrating her memory by having someone else play SJS.

i assume fitting her real death into the show would take some thinking out, it would have to be something fitting.

nicholas courtney died 2 months before lis sladen. they managed to squeeze in a dedication at the start of TIA but i assume the rest of the series had been written if not filmed when she died. there probably wasn't time to hastily rewrite episodes to include her death. rather wait and do it properly.

plus do we want her death to be mentioned??

Before I comment further on the story, I will quickly point out that I don't intend to flood the forum with numerous threads everyday but have a free week and I've been watching Pertwee for ages so want to get it finished off, hopefully today! Will probably ease of a bit once I get onto Tom Baker.

Anyway, back to this story and as I said above, there's lot to like in it. It is actually an enjoyable watch marred by several things as mentioned above like Terry Walsh clearly in view in some fights, the badger hair of the miners and The Doctor doing a 'Rory' in one story by seemingly dying every other episode!

What I wanted to expand on from above though was the cliffhangers. The end of part 2 and Part 5 were what I called 'thinking cliffhangers.' where the answer is obvious it just requires the viewer to think on it a bit. The first episode cliffhanger of Death To The Daleks was one of these as well. With Part 2, it challenges the viewer to remember how The Doctor controlled Aggedor in the previous story whilst Part 5's, the answer was more or less right in front of you.

I sort of feel sorry for Aggedor really in both stories. The poor old thing had his name abused, he was hypnotised twice and was forced into action twice, before meeting his doom at the end of this story. At least it was noble I suppose!

Off course, since I posted this thread originally, The Ice Warriors(or should that be Warrior?) have been back in the series. It was okay, but I preferred the Classic Version myself but glad they were brought back anyway.

And would anyone want Alpha Centauri back or even another story set on Peladon? Dread to think what an upgraded AC would look like now......

Don't say that in front of Granny.

Don't know where Granny is these days. Must be looking after her Quark.

Imagine the buzz on here if AC was brought back. Be worth it just for that.
Agree with the comments about preferring the classic Ice Warriors over the Cold War Ice Warrior, doubt we will see it now but I wanted the Ice Warriors brought back not just one.

Agree with most of the above. Monster Of Peladon is one of those stories that must've seemed like a terrific idea on paper.

But Brian Hayles rapidly lost interest in the story which meant that Terrance Dicks had to perform major surgery to get the story even vaguely workable. The budget clearly ran out too.

The useable Ice Warrior costumes were also in a terrible condition. They all look different, with that stupid big headed one wobbling around and the others shuffling about in a decidedly non-threatening manner. Azaxyr is decent enough, but there's some terrible direction which thrusts the decrepit Warrior costumes into the limelight when they should have been hidden in the shadows.

Incidentally, does anyone know why one of the Warriors had such an oversized head on what seems like a smaller body shell? It'd been around since the 1960s but it really looks rubbish - comical rather than scary.

And apart from a few performances - the reliable Rex Robinson especially, in spite of the badger wig - everyone seems oddly bored with the whole thing. Donald Gee decides to make Eckersley louche and laid back, which is sort of ok to start with, but not when he later has to be the big villain in all this. Oddly, at times he reminds me of Tom Baker.
Elizabeth Sladen is good though, as always, and she's the only one who is trying to inject a sense of urgency into what it otherwise a very relaxed and unbothered production.

And, as has been noted before, it's way too long. Oh well.

Watching the Pertwee era is for the most part for me all exciting as most stories are new adventures so I was really looking forward to this story as Curse of Peladon is one of my favourite Pertwee stories.
(Strictly speaking I should be watching Carnival of Monsters as I'm doing the stories in order but forgot to update my rental list ! )

For the most part I liked the story. I didn't mind the militant miners with their 'badger' hair and quite enjoyed the reveal of Eckersley and the Ice Warriors as the villains. Queen Thalira has the same good intentions as her father and you can in the writing the writer loves his characters. There is a guileless innocence that the actress brings ( Nina Thomas is exceptionally beautiful too. I couldn't take my eyes off her) which mirrors Michael Troughton's character. I missed King Peladon and was really happy to see Alpha Centauri ( with his wavy tentacles!) back.

The downsides are as others have mentioned the length of the story and the amount of just running in tunnels which drags the story quite a bit. Contrary to some of the comments already made Sarah being there feels a bit of an oddity. She seems to moan a lot about wanting to go back to the Tardis in the beginning which I didn't really notice about Sarah before and the talk about woman's lib to Queen Thalira feels a bit sledgehammered in although I do understand that maybe it the Queen needs to be a bit more powerful as Queen as it is a patriarchal society on Peladon.

Overall I liked the story and Jon Pertwee 'puts in an assured ' old chap' performance. He doesn't really disappoint in his stories.

This is an unforgettable story for me. I was 5 years old when it first appeared here in New Zealand in 1977 and it was my introduction to this wonderful, different, spooky show from England -Doctor Who.

I'll never forget the first time I saw that intro (the best visuals of the original series) and the music, Aggedor scared me senseless when you first see him (hey it was the 70's & I was five). I think what made it even worse was my older brother & his friends use to take me for adventures in the bush behind our house where apparently there were wild boar about if you aren't careful (that's what they told me anyway).

Great (scary) memories

What a great story

As a mature 54 year-old - I vaguely remember this story. Never seen it since!
I remember the one with Jo and the Tardis fell off that cliff! But this one with Sarah is a mystery to me - all I remember is that one-eyed dildo that spoke like Pinky & Perky!
And that 'aggressive' monster called Aggedor! (very cute!).
I suppose it was scarier for the young 'uns! and my brother! (I was about 15 at the time!)

I must admit I'd never noticed the performance of his 'old chap' - perhaps I was looking the wrong way...