Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Seeds of Doom

Inferno was a story I'd always wanted to see. Seeds of Doom is one I've always wanted to see again, as my first memories of watching Doctor Who are from this story, which I first saw just over 30 years ago.

The horror attributes of the Krynoid stand up well to the test of time. The transformation is made much more effective by the way that Keeler stays lucid more than long enough to appreciate what's happening to him, and the Krynoid's ability to control other plants still creates a credible threat. Yes, I know it's done with strings and people shaking branches, but it's done well.

Scorby is an excellent villain. I don't have a problem with the Boycie thing - there was always a suggestion of real menace behind Boycie's banter, and here we see it unmasked. I could easily believe that he meant to shoot Sarah and the Doctor out of hand in the Antarctic, and it's good to see the Doctor having to deal with someone who's prepared to do that right now without so much as a pre-death megalomaniac rant. Kudos to Robert Banks Stewart for keeping him round till late in the story, rather than moralistically killing him off early.

Harrison Chase... fan talk had prepared me for a slight degree of campness here, but I wasn't expecting to instantly recognise Camp Freddie from The Italian Job. He's credible both as plant fanatic and Krynoid possessee, and manages to deliver a line like 'I could play all day in my green cathedral', but I was expecting a bit more menace and a bit less petulance.

Sarah is fantastic in this. I particularly liked her horrified reaction to Harrison Chase's death in the mincing machine ((c) TCA). Because you would be shocked if you saw that happen to someone. And there's a great toss of the head/narrowing of eyes when she's hit Scorby with the 'gun in your hand' speech and its tiny-penis subtext. Don't be fooled by the girly exterior. She's still got the passion she displayed in her first season with Pert.

This passion isn't the only reminder of earlier days. Seeds of Doom is said to be atypical for its era, and it does seem like a reserve Pert/UNIT story hastily dusted off for emergency use. Why are the Doctor and Sarah hanging about on Earth at the start, as if it's still season 11? The Doctor is unusually ready with guns and fists throughout, and his dash to London by car is a pure Pert plot element.

Generally the Doctor doesn't seem his usual self in this story. When he tells Beresford to call in the air strike, that just seems like the last item on his 'how to deal with a Krynoid' checklist. All the action is simply aimed at stopping Chase from obstructing the weeding process. There's nowhere else for the story to go, no real scope for a 'there should have been another way'. I think this derives from the nature of the Krynoid, which can't be persuaded to return into space or do anything other than carry out its germination cycle.

The return of UNIT in this story is a disappointment. As with The Android Invasion, UNIT without the Brigadier isn't UNIT.

The other fan truism about Seeds is that it is bloated. I don't agree that the Antarctic episodes are unnecessary. They serve to establish both how the Krynoid transformation works, and Scorby and Chase's ruthlessness. The later episodes however would benefit from one less escape-and-recapture by the Doctor and Sarah, and the omission of Amelia Ducat. Some eccentric old DW women work (Amelia Rumford) and some do not (Mrs Remington). Ducat falls into the latter category, though it's interesting to see that she has an early prototype of the Hyacinth Bucket joke.

The final scene is simply bizarre. Yes, it doesn't make sense in plot terms because we have no reason to believe that they used the TARDIS to go to the Antarctic in the first place. But the actors clearly aren't taking it seriously. It reminded me very strongly of that eighties Christmas BBC trailer which included a scene of the Davo era TARDIS crew waving from the police box doors and shouting 'Merry Christmas!'

Suspension of disbelief rating: MEDIUM. The Antarctic exterior scenes are frankly poor, and the country house model is obviously just that. (It's a good model though.) And was the Doctor serious in suggesting that they amputate Winlett's arm? Also, Stevenson is a dead ringer for Bob Fleming from the Fast Show: during the lab scenes I wanted him to keep coughing while Moberley barked 'Arse! Arse! Arse!'.

Overall rating: 4 / 5. It's no mean feat for a story I first saw aged 6 to still impress me. Particularly when it turns out to be so atypical of the DW genre.

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