The Seeds of Death

There is a tendency to look at the Patrick "Pat" Troughton era and think "dangnabbit - look at what we've lost". The classics missing from the archive read like a (Doctor) Who's Who of tingling monster tales and exciting adventures in time and/or space. Thus we rather snootily look at the small pile of Troughtons left in the vaults and say "Well, yes, I suppose "Tomb" is quite good and "Mind" is quite groundbreaking but let's face it, we've got the chaff and they burned the wheat". Or words to that effect. Piffle, say I. We have some great stuff to watch and this is one of the best - "The Seeds of Death" or, as it is known in some circles, "The One That Stopped The Seeds of Doom From Having a Better Title".

  1. My earliest exposure to the story was the two and a half hour VHS compilation which looked a hundred years old, made everyone’s heads the wrong shape and was interminably boring without exciting cliff-hangers to break things up.

  2. I watched the video for the first time while eating pancakes so I always associate the Seeds of Death with the twin delights of sugar and lemon juice.

  3. These days of course it is the DVD which sates my Seeds of Appetite. It is quite possibly my favourite Doctor Who DVD because of such things as the great moment when Fraser makes a joke in the commentary only for his 40-years-earlier self to make the exact same joke a few seconds later.

  4. But great as Fraser is, Terrance Dicks is the star of the commentary. Firstly, we have him lapsing into dangerously erotic rhetoric

  1. Then he appears to say a rude word at the end of a perfectly innocent anecdote about wellies.

  1. And finally he gets awfully confused when recounting an anecdote about Douglas Camfield

  1. It is of course very much a technology driven story. You really need to know your stuff as Doctor Who’s companions prove when Zoë and Jamie need to find Radnor. “We could ask the computer” says Zoe. “Do you know how?” asks Jamie.  “I think so” replies Zoe, walking over to the machine. “Computer – where is Commander Radnor?”

  2. Is it really a good idea to have computers which speak your messages to all and sundry? Imagine John Witty’s harsh electronic tones blurting out “Commander Radnor – urgent message received from Online Pharmacy. Message reads ‘Do you feel embarrassed by your lack of length and staying power?’ Message ends. Message received from Sluts on Camera. Message reads ‘Do you want to cum and watch me and my girlfriend getting nasty in our Jacuzzi?’ Message ends.”

  3. Apropos of nothing, I love the incidental music. It’s plinky and plonky but in a good way.

  4. Professor Eldred aye – he’s a card. He’s also an old man – must be in his seventies – but it is implied he was at the forefront of rockets when T-Mat was introduced. Since Miss Kelly is the only person who understands T-Mat, it suggests either that he was Britain’s top astronaut well into his sixties or Miss Kelly invented T-Mat before she entered puberty.

  5. Why would a man who hates T-Mat because it destroyed his beloved rocket programme have a promotional video extolling the benefits of T-Mat on permanent standby in his private museum? Do you think Freddie Laker has a BA promotional film playing on a loop in his dining room?

  6. Why does Eldred give his rocket such a complicated name? “ZA685” seems a lot of bother when he could just call it “Eldred 1” (if he is vain) or “My Rocket” (if he takes a leaf out of Microsoft’s book of nauseatingly patronising naming conventions).

  7. Radnor makes it clear that they stopped spying on Eldred years ago. Eldred is surprised then that the authorities know about his rocket programme. Because obviously you’d need the characters from Spooks to spot a rocket being built in someone’s back garden.

  8. For years I wondered why Radnor describes it as “an iron rocket”. It seemed silly as iron is hardly the best material with which to build a space ship. I concede now that he might actually say “an ion rocket”. You said iron, I say ion. Let’s call the whole thing off.

  9. Needless to say, how can there only be one person in the entire world who understands the system which runs the entire world?  Is Bill Gates the only man who could fix the internet if it broke? Is Brian Tesco the only one who could sell you groceries if all the tills in the world went wrong? Is Elvis Presley the only man alive who could save rock and roll if it died under a tide of boy bands and crap?

  10. Speaking of Miss Kelly, why is the world’s number one genius not afforded a better title than “Miss”? It is bad enough a year later when the polymath scientist Liz Shaw is only a Miss but Gia Kelly has literally invented a whole new science. You’d think, at the very least, that some man would marry her and make her a Mrs.

  11. There are many things about Miss Kelly that don’t quite make sense. Such as her decision to do that peculiar countdown as the rocket prepares to take off. Thirty… twenty six… twenty two… eighteen… fourteen…? That just ain’t right.

  12. Equally, why has she chosen to employ someone to click their fingers as she moves from one screen shot to another? Either that or some beatnik has snuck into T-Mat control and digs her groovy supervision.

  13. Apropos of nothing (part two) a woman has just walked past me who looks just like Wendy Padbury.

  14. A new companion was supposed to be introduced during this adventure. One imagines Jamie wouldn’t have gone with them in the rocket because he is a backwards savage and had only just learned about g-force and would never have been seen again. The Doctor and Zoë would’ve met “Nick” on the moon and Jamie would’ve gone out of their lives with all the drama of a wet Dodo.

  15. When discussing the fault, one of the technicians says “We’ve even checked the computer”. I love how he makes this point to show how thorough their investigation has been. Major piece of technology broken – you’d obviously have to go into it in some considerable depth to reach the computer.

  16. The conversation must’ve gone “We can only afford one Ice Lord helmet but we need two Ice Lord characters. What should we do?” / “Have you considered sticking glitter on it?” / “Wouldn’t that undermine the authority of the Grand Marshall?” / “I don’t think so.”

  17. It is noted that they gave up training astronauts “years ago”. Presumably they also gave up making clothes suitable for space flight as they don’t seem bothered by Zoë wearing leather, the Doctor in baggy trousers and a bow tie, and Jamie in a KILT~!

  18. Speaking of which, he says “I know all about this g-force”. Hopefully he was also told about zero gravity and borrowed a pair of stout undergarments. McTackle floating around for several days scarcely bears thinking about. Unless you want to think about it. I can wait.