Peladon

Peladon

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Peladon
Also called:	Paladin
Type:	Planet
Natives:	Peladonians, Aggedor, Equinna
First appearance:	The Curse of Peladon
Appearances:	see list

You may be looking for Peladon, the king of Peladon who befriended Jo Grant and the Third Doctor.

Peladon was the stormy planet located in the Mutter's Spiral galaxy and was the homeworld of the Peladonians. The Doctor regarded it as one of his favourite planets.

Astronomical data

Peladon was similar to Earth in temperature, gravity and atmosphere. It had three moons, which made navigation difficult. It was known for being especially stormy. Dangers from the wind and rain were constant. These constant storms meant that plants were difficult to grow, since there generally was not enough sunlight (PROSE: Legacy) even though Peladon had more than one parent star. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon) One of the major locations was Mount Megeshra. (TV: The Monster of Peladon) The planet was rich in trisilicate (TV: The Monster of Peladon) and granite, but had no chalk. (PROSE: Legacy)

Native species included the Peladões, the Aggedor (TV: The Curse of Peladon) and the Equinna. (PROSE: Legacy)

History

Early history

Around 6100 BC, the Osiran Sekhmet was banished from Phaester Osiris in a trisilicate spacecraft. She landed on Peladon, where she lay for ten thousand years. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

Early in Peladon's history, King Erak tried to conquer the whole planet, but was overthrown by Gart and his son Sherak. Gart allowed Sherak to take the credit and become king. (PROSE: Legacy)

Peladon was listed on a data-grid of previous destinations a spaceship had visited. (GAME: "Past Journeys" ^[+]Part of Twisted Conundrums 1, Loading...{"page":"17","namedpart":"Past Journeys","1":"Twisted Conundrums (DWA15 1 game)"})

At some point between the 26th and 29th century, humans occupied and even became dignitaries on the planet. One such was Lady Rosilie of Peladon. (PROSE: The Graves of Mordane)

In 3864, Princess Ellua of Earth crashed on Peladon. After King Kellian helped her contact the Galactic Federation, he fell in love and married her. Though Peladon applied to join the Galactic Federation, they decided that Peladon needed more time to develop and planned to return in 3885. (PROSE: Legacy)

King Peladon's reign

In 3865, Ellua had a son named Peladon. In 3877 Kellian died in a hunting accident and Peladon accended to the throne after this. (PROSE: Legacy)

As King, Peladon of Peladon sought to get Peladon accepted into the Galactic Federation, a move opposed by more conservative Peladonians, such as High Priest Hepesh. (TV: The Curse of Peladon) The Time Lords sent the Third Doctor and Jo Grant to Peladon, (PROSE: Legacy) arriving just as delegates from Alpha Centauri, Mars and Arcturus were assessing the planet for membership. They exposed a conspiracy by the Arcturan delegate to disrupt the negotiations and stopped Hepesh from overthrowing the King to halt proceedings, with Hepesh dying of wounds sustained during his failed coup. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)

In the later years of King Peladon's reign, he opened Peladon to refugee Ice Warriors from the New Martian Republic during a civil war, (AUDIO: The Prisoner of Peladon) and personally investigated a supposed prophet of the old gods, Skarn, who had gained influence after an accidental visit by the Tenth Doctor made it appear he'd performed a miracle. Peladon discovered Skarn had been poisoned by waters of a contaminated lake and relocated a village away from it. (AUDIO: The Ordeal of Peladon)

King Peladon died when his daughter and heir Thalira was still very young, (TV: The Monster of Peladon) with her staying by his side at his death bed. (AUDIO: The Poison of Peladon)

Tharila and Tarrol's reigns

Early in Tharila' reign, during the Federation's war with Galaxy 5, Peladon was found to contain trisilicate, which was vital for the war effort. The lower classes were forced into mining the trisilicate, which caused further unrest between the classes. A mining engineer from Earth, Eckersley, was sent to Peladon but was secretly working with Galaxy 5. Ice Warriors declared martial law on Peladon after their troops were summoned in response to the miners revolting. They were part of a rogue faction and were in truth conspiring with Eckersley to take the trisilicate supplies for Galaxy 5. With the help of the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, the Ice Warriors and Eckersley were defeated. (TV: The Monster of Peladon)

Later in her reign, Thalira's daughter died, left the Queen bereft. Fearing a rise in republican sentiment, Chancellor Gobran began putting drugs in the water supply to keep the population in check, however this level of the drug caused a sickness which affected the Queen's granddaughter Solana. At this time Peladon was targeted by the Karg Mafia who infiltrated a Federation delegation sent to investigate the planet, with tensions high after a fake galacric alert was triggered by the Mafia warning of plague and potential uprising. The Arcturah ambassador Ribble attempted to exploit the situation for trade deals for Arcturus' benefit, having already secretly sold Gobran enslaved Subsumers for Peladon's new water purification. River Song came to Peladon at this time, under guise of a High Priestess, and helped Thalira discover the plots, with Alpha Centauri aiding in the liberation of the Subsumers so they could deal with the Karg Mafia agent. Thalira subsequently revealed the actions of her Chancellor, who had been killed by Aggedor creatures released in the Citadel by the Mafia, to the public, accepting that they would be angry but believing transparency was the way forward. (AUDIO: The Poison of Peladon)

Thalira was killed in a shuttle crash and succeeded by her son Tarrol. In 3985, King Tarrol invited Federation delegates to Peladon for his coronation. During this event, many of the sacred artefacts were stolen. The Seventh Doctor was accused of the murder of Lianna and "executed", all aliens were banished from Peladon, the Ice Warrior delegate Savaar was blamed and "executed" for attacking the High Priestess Atissa and the Diadem, an ancient artefact of evil, was brought to Peladon. In the end, the problems were solved, but the Advisor Geban was killed by the criminal Nic Reece and the High Priestess Atissa left for the dark side of Mount Megeshra.

Seeing the destruction that had been done, King Tarrol decided that Peladon needed to see if it could survive on its own. He severed all ties with the Galactic Federation. Though King Tarrol intended the Federation to return in 4035 to see if more help was needed, the Dalek invasion in the 4010s meant the collapse of the Federation. (PROSE: Legacy) Other accounts showed the Federation and Peladon's ties to were still in place during later monarchs' reigns. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon, The Death of Peladon)

Elspera and Pelleas' reigns

At some point, Elspera became Queen of Peladon. During her reign, Sekhmet was awoken by miners mining her trisilicate tomb. She nearly escaped her blood lock by consuming the blood of four female royals, including Elspera, but the fourth, Erimem, had poisoned her blood with mandrake root. The Ice Warrior ambassador, Zixlyr, sealed the tomb by blowing up Sekhmet and the tomb with a Xanthoid volataliser. After she was given a "very crude" transfusion of the Fifth Doctor's Time Lord blood and recovered from her poisoning, Erimem left behind travelling in the TARDIS and agreed to be married to the newly-crowned King Pelleas. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

The era of Queen Erimem was later remembered as a golden age. (AUDIO: The Death of Peladon)

Minaris' reign

Queen Minaris became Queen, with her daughter Isabelda as Princess. During her reign, Peladon's mineral wealth declined and the royal treasury became empty, leaving Minaris feeling impotent in the face of Peladon's increasing problems.

After seeing how her father "withered" and died on the throne, Isabelda devised a scheme to convince her mother to abandon Peladon with her, using an explosive to trigger a mining disaster which the Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush were caught in. The disaster and the Queen's lack of action drove Helais, a descendant of Hepesh, to rally her village in an insurrection against the monarch, armed with alien weaponry secretly supplied by the Arcturans who were working with Isabelda. The Doctor's attempts to defuse the escalating situation failed until he convinced Helais to halt in the throne room. He deduced the Princess' scheme, causing her to hurriedly flee the Citadel and fall to her seeming death. In the aftermath, the Doctor organised a compromise for Helais to become the new Chancellor. (AUDIO: The Death of Peladon)

Age of the Chancellors

After Minaris died, Helais seized power with the monarch remaining only as a figurehead. Though Helais' intentions had been good, her successor Barok would establish a crueller regime to keep control of Peladon as the lack of minerals and food and quality of living grew worse. Barok made a secret deal with the Arcturans to supply trisilicate.

The Eighth Doctor came to Peladon at this time and worked with the Martian Ambassador Ssilas to forment a revolution, embroiling the last royal seamstress Arla Decanto. At the coronation of a new King the Doctor unleashed the few surviving Aggedor creatures, withered from surviving off contaminated water, and rallied the people against Barok. To his disappointment Arla killed Barok during the ensuing revolution, which the Doctor believed would end of the age of the Chancellors. (AUDIO: The Truth of Peladon)

Undated events

Sarah Jane Smith recalled meeting the Daleks on Peladon. (AUDIO: Glorious Goodwood)

The Fourth Doctor possessed a Peladon Express charge card. (COMIC: Victims)

During the Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and Daleks, Peladon was "consumed". The War Doctor declared it as the moment the Barber-Surgeon showed him how dark the War could become. (AUDIO: The Mission)

Kings and queens of Peladon

Erak was the first King of Peladon. (PROSE: Legacy)

Sherak was the second King of Peladon; his reign lasted five years. (PROSE: Legacy)

King Kellian died in 3877. (PROSE: Legacy)

Peladon of Peladon succeeded Kellian as King. (PROSE: Legacy, TV: The Curse of Peladon)

Queen Thalira was the daughter of Peladon; she died c. 3948. (TV: The Monster of Peladon, PROSE: Legacy)

King Tarrol was the son of Thalira who reigned in 3948. (PROSE: Legacy)

King Paladin the Great reigned with his wife Queen Belldonia. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

Elspera was the daughter-in-law of Belldonia and Queen before her death. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

King Pelleas was the grandson of Paladin and Belldonia. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon) He was married to Queen Erimem. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

Queen Minaris ruled generations after Erimem's time. (AUDIO: The Death of Peladon)

Notes

• When researching for Peladon Robert Valentine created a history of the planet, drawing not only from the two television stories but also all the available information from previous audios and novels. This then gave the writers a framework which helped them understand where their stories were placed in that timeline. (BFX: The Ordeal of Peladon)