Just recently, I've been watching "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon." Both decent stories, with the former easily the strongest in my opinion, but throughout the story, I was quite amazed at how utterly vile Peladon was.

It's an absolute cesspit- not only is the weather shown, on both occasions, to be constantly wet and stormy, but the population of the planet is shown, on both occasions to be barbaric, elitist and violent.

It amazes me how the "Galactic Federation" ever thought it would be suitable as a member planet...it would be like travelling back in time and offering Tudor England a place in the EU...

I also feel deeply sorry for Alpha Centauri, who spends over fifty years on Peladon as the Ambassador for the Galactic Federation. How could he/she tolerate living in such a cesspit for that long?

I think that it's among the very worst places the Doctor has ever visited.

But the Pels have some of the maddest hair in the galaxy! And how cool that the whole planet seems to be traversed only by secret tunnels!
I'd like to see a return to Peladon, actually. Perhaps other parts, further from the Citadel, might more attractive...

Alpha Centauri spent 50 years there?

Suppose it was to keep an eye on them.

Alpha Centauri has a deep sense of duty. As well as being the cutest alien in the Universe.

I always found Peladon to be a very interesting alien society, possibly because the strong political stories do give it a sense of something to think about and relate to.

In some ways, the Peladon stories were almost like a predecessor of The End of the World and The Rings of Akhaten, episodes it definitely wouldn't hurt to see more of.


+1

I'd never thought about this til now!

Given that there's all sorts of mining technology on show in the second Peladon story, and that they're familiar with people from other planets (and presumably know all about spaceships and stuff), you'd have thought they'd have invented carpets and electric lighting.

Their involvement in the Federation is going to be somewhat limited and one-sided if they haven't got spaceships of their own. Galactic trade agreements are pretty irrelevant if your trading partners need to come and visit you to collect/deliver stuff.

I see what you did there...

Carpets are not an inevitable part of technological progress: the Daleks, a technologically advanced race, never use them. I don't think we know enough about the torches on Peladon to be sure that electric light would be an improvement: they evidently burn for a long time, and it may thus be cheaper to continue to use them than to install electric light everywhere. They may also have other advantages over electric light (such as, for example, purifying the air as they burn).

The lack of their own spaceships may not be a drawback. As Emerson so nearly said, build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. If you have something to sell that others want, they will come to you. Trisilicate deposits had not been discovered when Peladon was negotiating entry into the Federation, so what could the planet have to offer that made this a viable proposition?

The answer, I think, is chairs. There is a distinctive type of chair, with a low seat, tall narrow back widening slightly at the top and bearing some sort of trefoil device, which is common in Peladon before entry into the Federation is agreed, and must therefore be regarded as originating on the planet. These distinctive chairs can be found on other planets (Tara and Karn, for instance), attesting to an interplanetary export trade. Without large-scale manufacturing, they would be prestige items like, say, genuine Shaker furniture. However, it is unlikely that a purely chair-based economy would last for long, so it's just as well that the trisilicate deposits were found.

Now that Britain is leaving the EU, it might be a good time for Doctor Who to revisit Peladon and complete the trilogy.

Doctor Who and the Pelexit Stratagem?

King David of Peledon lets the people of Peladon decide if they want to remain in the Galactic Federation, High Priest Boris causes trouble while a new Monster (the Farage) lurks in the depths of the Mines.