Doctor Who (TV Series) The Seeds of Death: Episode Two (1969) User Reviews

Attack of the rather silly Ice Warrirors

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 4 October 2015]

On the Moonbase, the Ice Warriors coerce the terrified engineers into fixing the T-Mat. On earth work is underway on preparing Eldred's rocket, in the hope of sending help.

I think it's quite a good episode, admittedly it's not one of the best stories, but is started off well enough, and it continues nicely here, pacing is maybe a little bit of an issue.

The Ice Warriors are a little dim it must be said, their dialogue is so clunky, they're not the most observant race either, but that can be forgiven. The sequence of the rocket checks looks like it was made with the breakfast budget, it really didn't look good. There is enough story to make up for the poor effects. 6/10.

The Seeds of Success, needed a little more watering for a perfect result but still a fruitful attempt.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 30 April 2014]

This story (written by Brian Hayles and an uncredited Terrance Dicks) has aspects which are very strong but aspects which are a slight letdown. It is decent, solid entertainment without reaching the brilliance of the Doctor's best adventures.

Episode 1 is an excellent set up episode, a very promising start with a good script and some intelligent and well characterised parts such as the ageing and rather wise Earth scientist Eldred and officers Radnor and Kelly which are very well acted and thoughtfully written throughout the story. The good characters and strong dialogue are given centre stage in the opening episode.

The plot revolves around the T-Mat transport system controlled from the Moon and used by a future Earth as an instant way of transmitting people and goods between places. When it breaks down it is proved they put all their eggs in one basket (as the Doctor points out) and instantly food shortages and huge issues arise. The Ice Warriors attack the T-Mat control base and use it to launch an attack on Earth. The Doctor steps in to battle them of course.

The whole story features Troughton delivering his usual high quality and the villain Slaar, leader of the Ice Warrior attack on the Moon who is excellent and up to the sort of standard of the Ice Warriors in their brilliant debut story. Hines and Padbury as the companions are good throughout the story and acting of the other major guest characters is good. Some of the direction and effects are very impressive for its day while other aspects are a slight letdown.

The rocket journey in episode 2 which is not well done is the first letdown and would have been better not to include at all. That causes episode 2 to drop a bit, the rest of the episode before the rocket trip is pretty solid. Episode 3 is very good. It moves along well developing the story strongly and the villain Slaar with his hissing voice is particularly good in this episode.

Episode 4 is solid but not excellent, the absence of Troughton in that episode hurts it a tiny bit. Episode 5 is a bit weak due to having more scenes involving the seeds and the fungus. The idea of the seeds themselves is not brilliant as it is clearly an inflating balloon but it is to some extent a forgivable limitation of the age and budget. The fungus is another unimpressive idea involving some fun but slightly silly scenes in episode 5 flailing about in soap suds. These scenes mean that Episode 5 is the low-point of the story.

The villain Slaar is great but his fellow Ice Warriors, particularly in episode 5, are far less well realised with their cumbersome movement and lack of character. They are a rather pale shadow of those featured in the Ice Warriors debut story.

Episode 6 is a very enjoyable and solid conclusion but if the strength of Episodes 1 (especially), 3 and 6 had been matched by cutting the rocket journey out of part 2 and less reliance on unimpressive effects, particularly in episode 5, it could have been a really strong Doctor Who story instead of just a solid Doctor Who story which is what it is.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 9.5/10, Episode 2 - 7.5/10, Episode 3 - 9/10, Episode 4 - 8/10, Episode 5 - 7/10, Episode 6 - 8.5/10

Too many annoying & all too obvious plot holes for my liking.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 6 March 2008]

Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death: Episode Two starts in the Moonbase as Grand Marshal Slaar (Alan Bennion) orders an Ice Warrior to kill Locke (Martin Cort), Slaar them forces Fewsham (Terry Scully) to repair the T-Mat. Back on Earth & Commander Randor (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) & T-Mat inventor Gia Kelly (Lousie Pajo) manage to convince rocket scientist Professor Daniel Eldred (Phillip Ray) to prepare one of his rockets he has been secretly working on for immediate take-off so they can repair the T-Mat controls on the Moon, listening closely to what is being said the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Zoe (Wendy Padbury) & Jamie (Frazer Hines) volunteer to pilot the rocket-ship since they have experience of manual space travel. Back on the Moon & Fewsham has fixed the T-Mat link with Earth ready for Slaar to put his plans into action...

Episode 24 from season 6 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1969, directed by Michael Ferguson I can't help but notice all the plot holes which are quite literally sticking out like a sore thumb. The script by Brian Hayles was originally called The Lords of the Red Planet apparently before it was extensively rewritten under the title The Seeds of Death & even then script editor Terrance Dicks more or less totally rewrote episodes three through to six after the production team were less than happy with Hayles original work. Like almost all of Patrick Troughton's reign The Seeds of Death was in it's simplest terms a base under siege by monsters style story, in principal there's nothing wrong with that as that concept brought about some of the true classics of the series but here everything seems drawn out. The heroic attempt by Osgood to sabotage the T-Mat in Episode One for instance does nothing except merely delay the use of it by the Ice Warriors & stretch the opening episode out a bit, the apparent inability of the TARDIS to travel short distances seems only to put the Doctor, Zoe & Jamie on a space-rocket & stretch their journey to the Moon out over three episodes & there are other instances too. The plot holes don't help, even after a few hours of the T-Mat not working there seems to be huge medical & food supply shortages all over the world. Are there no stockpiles anywhere? It would seem odd not to make previsions for such an event. How fast would these countries have to use these medical & food supplies to be running out of them within literally a few hours? Did the entire combined Earth authorities not actually consider that such an event might occur which puts the T-Mat out of action? Then there's the amazing revelation that the only person on Earth who understands the T-Mat system, how it works & how to fix it is Miss Kelly. I mean what if something happened to her? What if she died in a sudden accident? The entire Earth would be screwed then wouldn't it? Would every country on Earth rely on the T-Mat system with no back up plan or system in place & with only one single solitary person on Earth who knows how it works? Tell me if I'm wrong but that really does sound just ridiculous & destroys any sort of credibility the story might have had.

Not too many special effects so far but the shot of the model space-rocket taking-off from Earth looks really poor although the outer space scenes look a lot better. The Ice Warriors are pretty impressive monsters although I don't like their weapons which are just torches stuck to their wrists which flash on & off. Slaar in particular looks good with quite gross looking peeling flaky skin under his large helmet. Apparently one of the main reasons why the Ice Warriors were brought back was because that the monster suits were expensive & a second story featuring them would help justify the cost. Zoe has (disappointingly) climbed out of the PVC outfit she wore in the previous story The Krotons (1968) & has slipped into a one piece tight fitting leather spacesuit.

The Seeds of Death: Episode Two is alright & provides some good sci-fi fun if you don't think about it too much but if you do you can't help be be annoyed by the plot holes & just downright stupidity of some of it.