Seeds of Doom

“Waiting for Podot”, “Scorby Doo”

“The One with the Axon Monster Again” (USA), “Les Pods de Mort” (France)

Doctor Who stops a big plant from taking over the world. Twice.

*** - It could happen. Any day now it could happen. And thanks to Doctor Who we know what to do.

“I could masturbate all day in my green cathedral… sorry… play, I could play all day in my masturbatory cathedral” (rehearsals are a problem)

"In pants where the Krynoid gets established, the vegetation eats the animal."

John “Boycie” Challis would go on to play “Boycie” in the popular sit com ‘Only Fools, Horses and Boycies’

Carnivores often use this story as a way to discredit vegetarianism. “Them plants is dangerous” said meat lover Carlton Bunch on the eatthembeforetheyeatus.com website.

The Krynoid was taken by surprise when he was caught by the This is Your Life team during location filming, “This is all so unexpected” he gushed as Eamon Andrews proffered the famous red book. Tom Baker can be seen seething in the background.

This story came bottom in a Doctor Who Monthly poll of the best stories ever. The editor later committed suicide when it came out that he’d printed the poll upside down.

The Dover Soul said this story was ‘fantastic… even the lumps are smooth’ and went on to nominate Robert Banks Stewart for a knighthood saying ‘we love him, we really do’

This story ran significantly over budget and, as a result, Tony Beckley volunteered to take out a second mortgage on his home. He finished paying it off last year and sent a tart note to Philip Hinchcliffe which simply said ‘thank you for nothing, cloth eyes’

Harrison Chase was named after Tom ‘Harass and Chase’ Baker who earned the nickname by being both randy and mobile. Often at the same time.

...is that you should always practice thwarting an alien invasion before the invasion-proper.

Si Hunt

“Literally the only thing that the “actor” Tom Baker and I have in common (aside from species-wide characteristics such as arms, legs and unmentionables), is that we have both been physically attacked by John Challis. In Baker’s case it was while he was “acting” in Story 4L while in mine it was at a private meet-and-greet autographing session which was open to the public at an unnamed science fiction book store in Barking, London. I had packed my satchel with items for Mr Challis to sign, confident that he would increase each item’s potential value (not that I in any way have any interest in making a small but significant profit on any of the items either in my collection or available at auctionmania.com – seller ID Bendaton Dennis). I handed Mr Challis the first book which came to hand – a rare novelisation of Story 4L which was mistakenly printed with two page 47s and thus has increased in worth at nearly twice the rate of compound interest over the years. He took the book, smiled at me in a rather pleasant way and wrote “To Dennis Brent, Kind regards, John Challis ('Boycie')”.

“What on earth do you think you are doing?” I screamed. “What is that? Hmm? WHAT IS THAT?”

“It’s an autograph” he said weakly.

“Don’t be pathetically stupid. You can’t write that word in a Doctor Who book. You are suggesting that Doctor Who and Only Fools and Horses exist in a co-related universe which goes against the highly respected monograph “Doctor Who in the Context of Situation Comedies of the 1980s which were Broadcast on BBC Television” by Dennis Brent. I demand that you apologise, in writing, beneath that abomination of a signature and sign my remaining items in a sensible and canonically correct manner.”

“I don’t like your attitude” said Challis.

“I wish that was all I disliked about you” I said wittily. I could’ve prevented his first blow from striking me in the face but I felt it placed me upon the moral high ground to let him pound me freely. My only regrets are that my best spectacles became embedded in my flesh and it took a full day of pepper-generated sneezing to dislodge both lenses and that, by the time it had passed through my digestive system, the book was in no condition to be sold. Oh well, I still have the moral high ground. You can’t sell it but it is some comfort.”

Ian McIan, writing in "Nimon Have Feelings Too", related a painful childhood anecdote. "The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith defeating the Krynoid at the end of episode two convinced me that the story was over. My parents, who never liked the show, told me that the following week's Radio Times listing was a mistake caused by letting an Irish man work the press that day and that the season had ended. It was ten years before I discovered the truth. I entered therapy shortly afterwards and learned a great many lies I was told by my parents. I was in tears when I found out that ITV had commercial breaks and didn't really make fifteen minute programmes that didn't quite make sense.