Episode #48 : The Seeds of Death

"You can't kill me... I'm a genius!"

 

 

Episode 48:   The Seeds of Death.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 25th January to 1st March 1969.

 

The TARDIS lands in a space museum on Earth in the late 21st century, where the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe learn that contact has been lost between Earth and the Moon. In this era, instant travel -- T-Mat -- has revolutionised the Earth. Its people have lost interest in space travel. The Doctor and his companions travel to the Moon in an old-style rocket and reach the Moonbase, control centre for T-Mat, only to find a squad of Ice Warriors have commandeered the base and plan to use the T-Mat network to their advantage.

The Seeds of Death is a fantastic story. Certainly one of the best from this era of the show. Everything about it works, from the story itself, to the look of the sets and the ice warriors, and down to the acting. All in all, it makes watching it a real treat.

The story itself deals with an invasion of the moon, and soon to be the Earth, by a fleet of Ice Warriors. But first they must capture the moon and use the T-Mat (called transmat when reused in later stories) to transport strange fungus plants to Earth in order to make the planet more suitable for the invaders. This reminds in part of the red weeds from The War of the Worlds by HG Wells. The fungus only fails when you realise that it's just vast amounts of bubble bath and a few popping balloons.

One thing I love is just how much more characterised the second Doctor is in this story than ever before. This story really does bring forth my appreciation for the second Doctor than I usually feel in these old black and white episodes. Well worth watching.

There is one thing that I find odd however in this story. The Ice Warriors are a technologically advanced race; they can construct and fly starships through space, have powerful heat ray guns...etc, but are yet easily fooled into flying too close to the sun. Surely they would have realised something was wrong and changed course? They must know where Earth is in the solar system? That is the only problem I find with this story.