Doctor Who: The Monster of Peladon

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The Monster of Peladon is the penultimate serial of Doctor Who Season 11, originally broadcast in six episodes from 23 March to 27 April 1974. It was written by Brian Hayles and directed by Lennie Mayne. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Nina Thomas as Queen Thalira, and Alan Bennion as Lord Azaxyr.

The Doctor and Sarah return to Peladon many years after the earlier visit and find the young queen struggling with strikes in the trisilicate mines, talk of a sacred beast called Aggedor, and pressure from the Galactic Federation. Strange attacks and sabotage push the miners and the palace toward violence, while the sudden arrival of Ice Warriors raises old fears.

Episode 1

The TARDIS arrives on Peladon decades after the Doctor’s last visit. The torches and tapestries are the same, but the mood isn’t: miners are striking over deadly accidents in the trisilicate seams, and whispers say the sacred beast Aggedor has returned to punish off-world meddling. Young Queen Thalira sits uncertain on the throne, tugged between tradition by High Priest Ortron and interstellar demands from nervy Federation envoy Alpha Centauri.

In the refinery below the citadel, a cool Earth engineer named Eckersley insists the quotas must hold: there’s a galactic war on and trisilicate is survival. The Doctor and Sarah stumble into a cavern where a blazing, spectral Aggedor roars from the dark and a miner falls dead. Ortron calls for sacrifice; the Doctor calls it trickery: a projection, a weapon, something modern wrapped in myth.

Sarah befriends Thalira and urges her to hear the workers’ leader, the thoughtful Gebek, instead of hot-headed Ettis, who’s ready to burn the palace. “Aggedor” appears again, searing walls and courage alike, and the tunnels empty in panic. Eckersley proposes more guards and harsher penalties. The Doctor pockets a shard of scorched ore, hears a faint hum beneath the stone, and decides the monster lives where power is being stolen.

Episode 2

Sarah coaches Thalira to meet the miners in person; Ortron fumes, invoking old laws that keep commoners out of royal sight. In the depths, the Doctor traces a regular pulse through rock to the refinery, then finds a hidden grille where heat has scorched a perfect “claw.” The “spirit” is a beam, focused and guided.

Ettis seizes a guard detail’s weapons and vows to smash Federation machines; Gebek pleads for restraint. Eckersley quietly suggests letting the factions tear each other apart while he “keeps the plant running.” A fresh panic erupts when Aggedor’s image blazes in a newly cut gallery; the Doctor stands his ground, speaking the old Venusian lullaby he once used on the real beast. The apparition wavers: then flares harder, knocking him flat. Sarah leads Thalira down to the mustering hall to calm the crowd; she speaks plainly of safety and justice, winning a hush that Ortron takes as treason.

Guards seize the Doctor for blasphemy. An explosion shakes the citadel. Ettis’s men have attacked a power relay, and lights stutter across the refinery. In the confusion, the “spirit” strikes again, perfectly timed to hurl blame on off-worlders and deepen the rift. Alpha Centauri squeaks into a communicator for help. Reinforcements answer: Ice Warriors.

Episode 3

Armoured Ice Warriors stomp into the throne room, commander Azaxyr cold as the snow on Peladon’s peaks. He brandishes Federation authority, declares martial law, and orders production doubled. Ortron is insulted, Alpha Centauri is relieved, and Eckersley is very calm. The Doctor warns Sarah that once, long ago, the Ice Warriors turned from conquest to treaty: but old instincts die hard.

In the tunnels, Azaxyr’s patrols beat the miners back to work while the Aggedor “hauntings” continue with uncanny precision. The Doctor and Sarah slip into the refinery after dark and find a sealed chamber humming with tuned coils: a sonic projector that can paint fear into any cavern the operator chooses. Someone inside the Federation team is running it. Gebek begs the Queen to curb the soldiers; Ortron refuses him entry. Ettis raids the armoury and drags men toward the transducer hall, talking about blowing Peladon “free.”

Azaxyr arrests Gebek as ringleader and threatens mass execution if output falls. Sarah urges Thalira to act as queen, not ward, and win Ortron to compromise. Down a grate, the Doctor hears a different sound: a deep, living growl. He follows it to a natural chamber and freezes. Aggedor, real and scarred, is here, cowering from the sonic pain.

Episode 4

The Doctor sings the old lullaby, mirror in hand, and the great beast softens, snuffing his coat with a rough tongue. He notices a scar where the sonic ray has branded skin and anger sets his jaw. Above, Ettis’s bungled raid detonates stores; the blast shakes the citadel and kills his own men. Azaxyr uses the chaos to tighten his grip, posting Ice Warriors at the throne and lining prisoners for execution at shift change.

Sarah smuggles word to Alpha Centauri, who quails but agrees to send a covert appeal for a real Federation inquiry. Ortron catches the Doctor returning from the caves and, for once, listens: a living Aggedor below, a fake one above, and Peladon being played for war. He offers passage to the Queen’s private stair so Thalira can see the miners herself.

In the refinery, the Doctor sabotages the projector for minutes at a time and follows its control leads into Eckersley’s “security” office. A panel swings; a second set of controls gleams; a cipher list matches sonic strikes to worker movements. Eckersley smiles from the doorway like a man finishing a puzzle. Ice Warriors step from the shadows. The Doctor understands in a flash: the “reinforcements” and the engineer are partners.

Episode 5

Eckersley drops the pretence. The Ice Warriors have cut their own deal for Peladon’s trisilicate; a Federation at war is distracted, and a frightened planet is easy to seize. Azaxyr parades “traitors” for execution; Ortron pushes Thalira aside to shield her and dies with a prayer to Aggedor on his lips.

Sarah clenches her fists and keeps the Queen standing. The Doctor is locked in the projector room under guard, forced to watch the sonic “monster” drive miners back into line. He rewires the beam, rigs delays, and slips away through the service crawl to the cave where the real Aggedor waits. “Help me save your cubs,” he whispers, and the beast follows, padding soft as smoke. At the throne, Azaxyr announces Peladon’s “lawful” annexation to trembling Alpha Centauri.

Gebek breaks his bonds, wrests a blaster, and sparks a brawl that spills into the stair. Sarah hustles Thalira into a side passage as Ice Warriors herd them toward Eckersley’s office. He seals the door and uses the Queen as a shield, eyes on the mountain path beyond. Out in the refinery, alarms blare. Aggedor, roaring and magnificent, strides from steam beside the Doctor and scatters armoured soldiers like toys. For the first time, Peladon fights with its own heart.

Episode 6

Azaxyr rallies, orders the sonic projector retuned to full, and advances: only to be caught by his own trap. The Doctor flips the beam and the Ice Warriors crumple, armour drumming the floor. Alpha Centauri, trembling but brave, gets a signal out: Federation ships inbound, annexation unlawful. Eckersley hears it, snarls, and drags Thalira up a goat path toward a waiting flyer.

Sarah and Gebek give chase through sleet and scree. The Doctor, riding Aggedor’s trust, takes a shorter tunnel and bars Eckersley’s escape with nothing but words and a low, soothing song. Eckersley fires. Aggedor surges, knocks him down, and takes the shot meant for the Queen. The engineer dies under the beast’s paw; Aggedor collapses in the Doctor’s lap, breath slowing as if a drumbeat finally ends. In the throne room, Azaxyr makes one last charge and falls to Gebek’s blade.

Federation reinforcements arrive; Alpha Centauri straightens their robe and oversees the handover with surprising steel. Thalira names Gebek her new Chancellor and promises laws to protect miners as partners, not serfs. Sarah squeezes her hand and calls that ruling. The Doctor leaves a carved charm where Aggedor fell and tells Thalira her world is stronger than its myths. In the tunnels, the hum has gone. The miners light new lamps and go back to work on their own terms.

Themes

As a return visit, The Monster of Peladon swaps the whodunit sparkle of The Curse of Peladon for broader, louder politics: miners’ unrest, Federation brinkmanship, and Ice Warrior intimidation. It isn’t as tight as Day of the Daleks or as haunting as The Dæmons, and it lacks the emotional punch of The Green Death, but its lived-in world, Queen Thalira’s growth, and the Doctor–Sarah partnership keep it engaging.

Measured against its Season 11 neighbours (Death to the Daleks before and Planet of the Spiders after) it lands mid-to-upper tier: a slightly baggy sequel that still delivers scale, atmosphere, and a few indelible images.

Link-wise, it threads Peladon’s past to the series’ future. It revisits allies and symbols from The Curse of Peladon (Alpha Centauri, Aggedor) while complicating the Ice Warriors’ reputation born in The Ice Warriors and softened in The Seeds of Death.

Federation diplomacy here rhymes with the wider politics of Frontier in Space, and Sarah Jane’s principled activism points ahead to the choices awaiting her in Planet of the Spiders and beyond. Far later, Peladon’s legacy and Alpha Centauri echo into Empress of Mars, while the Ice Warriors’ menace is reappraised in Cold War. By closing the castle gates a second time, the story turns the Third Doctor toward his final reckoning.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Third Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Third Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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