Review of The Seeds of Doom (#85)

DVD Release Date: 08 Mar 11
Original Air Date: 31 Jan – 06 Mar 1976
Doctor/Companion:   Four, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars:  Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story:  The Brain of Morbius (Four, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story:  The Masque of Mandragora (Four, Sarah Jane)

As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes Tom Baker’s performances as Four leave me a bit cold.  Not this time.  I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but The Seeds of Doom really worked for me.  From the opening moment in the Antarctic (is that Hoth?) to the closing moments where the Doctor and Sarah Jane have a timey-wimey moment, this is a classic, full-on romp.

Obviously, there’s personal danger and a threat to the entire planet, but the baddie is amusing (you know he’s bad, because he wears his black leather gloves inside, and all the time) and the alien menace is suitably absurd.  Most of the effects used to realize said menace are also pretty good, as Who goes, though the spanner one character uses to bludgeon another was very obviously rubber (spanners aren’t generally so wobbly), and I have to admit that the camera-flash-on-a-stick “laser guns” literally made me laugh out loud.

One thing I really enjoyed about this story was the “flash-forward” meta-references, only noticeable from this future perspective.  Several times I was put in mind of other Who episodes (like Midnight, while the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and some of the baddies are holed up, hiding from the Krynoid), and one can’t help but draw the parallel with Fargo when the composter is introduced.

But the best bits for me were all about the Doctor.  It’s actually a bit of an odd tale, in that the TARDIS is nowhere to be seen (I kept expecting them to vworp into the Antarctic research station at the beginning, and was really puzzled that the scientists there had to wait for the Doctor and Sarah Jane to arrive by chopper), so there’s no Time Lord technology to save the day here.  Only UNIT, who put the Doctor on the case in the first place, is there at the end to back him up with the aforementioned laser guns.  But while the soldiers run around like a bunch of herbicidal maniacs, the Doctor is reprising his role as Action Hero (very reminiscent of Three).

It’s almost out of character, the way he gamely jumps through a skylight to land on a baddie and hold him at gunpoint with his own confiscated weapon.  In fact, at various points in the story, the Doctor punches someone out, stabs the Krynoid with a sword, and grapples with another pursuer – going so far as to twist his neck in a move that in Hollywood would have broken said pursuer’s neck, killing him (he was only momentarily incapacitated here, though).  One wonders when Hand-to-hand Combat Doctor action figures were meant to go on sale.

DVD Extras (highlights)

Podshock

Every DVD these days needs a good “making of” documentary, and this one is as informative and entertaining as any. The one big downer is an irritating fake snow effect – not just in the background but actually in front of the interviewees – which is OK for the first ten seconds or so, but rapidly becomes incredibly distracting. Thank [insert higher power of your choice here] it stopped after the first segment or two.

Now & Then

This extra is a brief exploration of how various parts of the story coincided with the actual locations used for shooting, particularly the Athelhampton estate.

Stripped for Action

Similar to the piece on the DVD for The Movie, this featurette covers Four’s adventures in comic format, from their start in “TV Comic” to the influential shift to true Marvel style (courtesy of Marvel artists) with the birth of “Doctor Who Weekly” magazine in 1979.

The Angry Doctor crops up rather frequently in Seeds (like when the bad guys oh-so-predictably find his Achilles’ Heel, and threaten his Companion), and it seems perhaps he’s taking the attitude that anger is better than fear.  But the Cheeky Doctor is also in evidence, making us smile understandingly when someone covertly queries, “That chap you called in from UNIT – is he quite sane?”  Frankly, it’s delightful.  Aside from City of Death, this is probably my favorite of Four’s stories so far (keep in mind, I haven’t seen them all, and many of them only once).  Having had such a feel-good gut reaction, I can enthusiastically give Seeds of Doom “two leaves up.”