The Curse of Peladon (TV story)

Klokleda partha mennin klatch, haroon haroon haroon...The Doctor

The Curse of Peladon was the second story of the ninth season of the 1963 version of Doctor Who. It introduced the planet of Peladon and the Galactic Federation, both of which would feature in several subsequent stories on television and in other media.

From a production standpoint, Curse was notable for switching broadcast order with the previously-produced Sea Devils. This made it the first Doctor Who story broadcast in a different order to that in which it was made. Though a common enough occurrence in the years that would follow, it had been impossible to broadcast out of production order in the 1960s, due the narrow gap of time between production and broadcast.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo make a test flight in the TARDIS and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for a human dignitary summoned to act as Chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.

Plot

to be added

Cast

The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Jo Grant - Katy Manning
Peladon - David Troughton
Hepesh - Geoffrey Toone
Torbis - Henry Gilbert
Izlyr - Alan Bennion
Ssorg - Sonny Caldinez
Alpha Centauri - Stuart Fell
Voice of Alpha Centauri - Ysanne Churchman
Arcturus - Murphy Grumbar
Voice of Arcturus - Terry Bale
Grun - Gordon St. Clair
Aggedor - Nick Hobbs
Guard Captain - George Giles
Amazonia - Wendy Danvers

Crew

References

Peladon is rich in Trisilicate.
Peladon is about to be admitted into the Galactic Federation.
The Doctor hypnotises Aggedor with a Venusian lullaby. (Which goes something along the lines of "Kokleda partha mennin klatch, aroon aroon aroon, Ablarka sheena teerinatch, aroon araan aroon." Which translates as "Close your pretty eyes, my darling - well, three of them at least.")
The Ice Warriors are from Mars.

Story Notes

Working titles for this story included: The Curse and then Curse of the Peladons.
Ysanne Churchman (Voice of Alpha Centauri) is credited as Voice in Radio Times for Episodes One, Three and Four.
Murphy Grumbar (Arcturus) and Terry Bale (Voice of Arcturus) were credited in error in Radio Times for Episode Four.
Jon Pertwee sings the Venusian Lullaby to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".
This story was an allegory of the UK's accession to the Common Market - a highly topical issue at the time of its original transmission.
David Troughton, playing King Peladon, shared a flat with future Doctor Colin Baker at this time. Three decades later, Troughton would again guest star in DW: Midnight.

Ratings

Episode One - 10.3 million viewers
Episode Two - 11 million viewers
Episode Three - 7.8 million viewers
Episode Four - 8.4 million viewers

According to Barry Letts and Katy Manning, the precipitous drop in ratings betwen episodes 2 and 3 had to do with national power cuts resulting from a coal miners' strike. The BBC tried to compensate for the loss in viewers by ordering that a special recap of episode three was broadcast before the debut of part four. {BBC DVD: The Curse of Peladon)

Myths

The natives of the planet Peladon are called Pels. (They are not called by this name here.)
Izlyr is an Ice Lord. (Although he is referred to as a Lord, the term 'Ice Lord' is never used.)
The Time Lords "allowed" the Doctor to make this journey to Peladon. (There's no reference in the episode, either as televised or novelized, to Time Lords. The implication is that the Doctor has fully restored the TARDIS himself. Indeed, the fact that Peladon wasn't his destination suggests that he's overcome the limitation placed on him at the end of The Claws of Axos).

Filming Locations

BBC Television Centre (Puppet Theatre and Studio 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

How and when exactly did the Doctor find out that Hepesh had obtained his live Aggedor specimen from a 'high mountain', as he explains to the surviving delegates at the start of Episode Four? It was a logical assumption. After all, the animal had to have come from somewhere and then been trained.

The Doctor is nearly hit by the swinging secret passage door in Episode One. If it's a secret door, he probably couldn't predict how it would open.

Jo's hair straightens when she climbs back into the citadel.

Why don't the delegates use Arcturus' radio? Perhaps Arcturus' radio was built into his traction unit, and it was destroyed along with him in the blast from Ssorg's sonic gun.

There's only one bed in the Ice Warriors' quarters. Perhaps only the senior warrior, Izlyr, is allowed to sleep while Ssorg must stay awake all night to guard him. Then again, Ssorg may simply be accommodated elsewhere in the citadel.

If Alpha Centauri's a hexapod, how does it walk? It might have a slimy 'foot' like a snail. The bottom of Centauri is covered by cloth.
The delegates from Alpha Centauri and Arcturus are not called by name or by what they call their own planets but by the Earth designations for their star systems. But the Doctor is not called "Earth" and Izlyr is not called "Mars". The King is the only one who is actually named after his planet.

The corpse of High Priest Hepesh is visibly breathing.

Continuity

There are three sequels; DW: The Monster of Peladon (which is a sequel to this story), BFA: The Bride of Peladon (which follows chronologically) and NA: Legacy (which follows on from all chronologically).
The Ice Warriors previously appeared in DW: The Ice Warriors and DW: The Seeds of Death (in both cases the antagonists).
The Doctor previously uttered his Venusian Lullaby in DW: The Dæmons. In the 1990s, a novel, Venusian Lullaby would be named after this song; the melody of the song is that of the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", which would later be featured in the 2008 special DW: The Next Doctor.
PDA: The Face of the Enemy occurs co-current with the events of this story.
This is only the second serial to feature a TARDIS flight since the Doctor's regeneration.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon

Released:

DVD Release

This was released in Region 2 in January 2010 as part of a boxset called Peladon Tales, along with The Monster of Peladon.

Novelisation

Main article: Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon in 1975 by Brian Hayles.

External Links

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