The computer game Manic Miner has 20 levels, each more different than the last - with one exception. Yes the Kong Beast appears twice, but his Return level is only superficially similar to his first appearance. The real callback level is the 18th, Amoebatrons' Revenge, which is almost (but not quite, and the differences subtle enough to make the Revenge significantly harder than the earlier encounter) a mirror-image of the 9th level, Wacky Amoebatrons.
But that's as maybe. On an unrelated matter, the penultimate story of Jon Pertwee's era of Doctor Who is The Monster of Peladon, also starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. It was first broadcast in 1974, as the plot about striking miners will make abundantly clear, and it is the 10th of the 11 Pertwee Six-Parters.
We are back on Peladon from the very first establishing shot. Some miners hear a noise that they get scared of, claiming "it is the spirit of Aggedor," and then one of them gets pewed.
In the throne room, we are quickly introduced to several characters: Eckersley and Vega Nexos, who are not from Peladon but have come here to do mining; Ortron, who is both the high priest and chancellor to make it harder for us to tell if he will turn out to be a baddy or not; and Queen Thalira, who is this week's inexperienced young hereditary ruler of Peladon. Alpha Centauri is the only returning character from The Curse of Peladon... so far.
Eckersley and Vega Nexos don't believe in a "supernatural" explanation for the manny getting pewed, and think there must be "saboteurs" on the planet. The queen wants to help them prove this to the miners. Ortron mannysplains to the queen some things she already knows, which is a quick (if patronising) way of getting some exposition to us viewers:
"Right from the day Chancellor Hepesh died, I served your father loyally. I worked for the things he believed in: progress; civilisation; the Federation. Now there is war with Galaxy Five and our people have to make sacrifices."
Vega Nexos uses his "sonic lance" (any relation to the sonic screwdriver?) to make a special effect that creates a hole in a wall, but then the unseen enemy retaliates with SFX of their own and pews him so that Vega Nexos goes
The TARDIS materialises and the Doctor tells Sarah that he has "been meaning to pay a return visit to Peladon for ages," although he would probably have claimed that even if he hadn't intended anything of the sort. They are spotted by some guards trying to find their way into the citadel and chased. Luckily the Doctor remembers that Peladon is full of secret doors and passages so they escape into the temple of Aggedor... hmm, that didn't go so well for the Doctor last time, did it?
They see the statue of Aggedor.
Doctor: "Ah, look at old Aggedor. There he is, bless him."Sarah: "He doesn't look very lovable to me."Doctor: "Ah, that's just a statue. You wait till you've seen the real animal."
The Doctor is just launching into telling Sarah the story of his first visit to Peladon when the guards come in and capture them. They are taken to see Queen Thalira* and Ortron, where the Doctor learns that King Peladon is ded.
Because the Doctor's first adventure is famous on Peladon, they don't believe he is really the Doctor until Alpha Centauri comes in and recognises him.
The superstitious miners are represented by Gebek (Rex "Dr Tyler" Robinson) and Ettis. Gebek wants to persuade the queen to send the Federation mannys away so that the spirit of Aggedor will leave them in peace, while Ettis wants to go straight to armed revolution to force the queen to do what they want. Even as Gebek goes to try to talk to the queen, Ettis secretly leads his mannys in, getting ready to attack. The attack mainly consists of them all piling on a guard when he isn't looking.
We learn that the Federation is at war with "the forces of Galaxy Five." In the previous story the MacGuffin mineral was Parrinium, now here it is Trisilicate. As Eckersley ecksplains:
"Our whole technology is based on it: electronic circuitry; heat shields; inert microcell fibres; radionic crystals. And whoever controls the supply of Trisilicate will win this war."
I presume the chief weapon of Galaxy Five is indigestion, mew.
Ettis's miners try to break into the Federation's "armoury" but they can't get in. One of them, Preba, tries to capture Eckersley to make him open the door, but the Doctor captures him instead. When they take him to see the queen, Ortron demands Preba's immediate execution, along with Gebek who happened to be nearby at the time. The Doctor, realising that Ortron is one of those high priests, helps Gebek and Preba escape and then ends up captured instead.
The Doctor looks really pissed off with Ortron, and understandably so. Queen Thalira overrules Ortron when the Doctor offers to help prove that "the appearances of Aggedor are caused by trickery" and sends him off with her champion to start the investigation.
Going straight to where Vega Nexos was killed, they are just in time to get blowed up by Ettis, who has planted a bomb there. Gebek asks
Gebek: "What are you doing?"Ettis: "I'm restoring the holy mountain, to appease the spirit of Aggedor!"
We must be nearly at the end of the episode, so you could be forgiven for expecting that the Doctor getting blowed up would be the cliffhanger, but it isn't. He picks himself up, helps up the champion, and then they both see a red, glowing Aggedor appear.
This isn't the super-cute Aggedor we all know and love, it is more like his scary statue from the temple. It pews the champion, and that is the cliffhanger.
A lot happens in this first episode - it's certainly a lot more packed with plot than the equivalent part one of Death to the Daleks was. If it keeps up this pace, this could turn out to be one of the most exciting stories in all of Jon Pertwee's era.
* With a name like that Thalira really ought to be queen of the Thals.
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