Review of The Monster of Peladon (#73)
DVD Release Date: 04 May 10
Original Air Date: 23 Mar – 27 Apr 1974
Doctors/Companions: Three, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story: Death to the Daleks (Three, Sarah Jane)
Succeeding Story: Planet of the Spiders (Three, Sarah Jane, the Brigadier)

For the last couple of years, as long-time readers may recall, I’ve been introducing my daughters to both modern and Classic Who. During one such spate of enthusiasm, they agreed to watch The Monster of Peladon with me.

I can’t remember now how exactly we landed on that selection. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with the girls wanting to see more Sarah Jane, and being enamored of the idea of hearing her “There’s nothing ‘only’ about being a girl, Your Majesty” speech. And to their credit, they actually enjoyed the adventure—and I didn’t hate it.

But I was not ready to come back to it so soon (relatively speaking). It’s not that it’s actively awful, despite its bottom 5% ranking in io9’s Best-to-Worst list (coming in at #243 of 254); it’s just kind of… boring. Although I should’ve known better, given that it’s a Pertwee-era story, I had forgotten it was six episodes long rather than four. There was some serious resigned sighing when I realized what lay in front of me for my re-watch.

At its core, Monster is about a labor dispute. Though the workers get the brunt of the trouble, the ruling class also falls prey to foreign interests, not all of which are on the up-and-up. There’s conspiracy, intrigue, misunderstanding, and a coming-of-age all wrapped up in a plethora of caves, tunnels, and Sarah Jane being taken captive by various parties.

So in one sense, it’s par for the course for Doctor Who. What it lacks, though, is a particular spark to make us look past the dodgy creature costumes (Alpha Centauri (bless), the Ice Warriors, and Aggedor all look pretty shit) and unconvincing tunnel sets and keep us engaged. The intrigue isn’t particularly exciting, I don’t particularly care about any of the Pels (the queen and Gebek come closest to garnering interest), and the antagonists are never particularly threatening. That all makes for a pretty tedious two-and-a-half hours.

Sarah Jane is, as ever, the one saving grace. I care about the Doctor, sure, but Three is such a self-important, chauvinistic “chap” that his condescension toward Sarah Jane and Queen Thalira don’t read well forty-five years later (even Sarah Jane’s aforementioned speech has some issues, despite that one memorable line). But because I love Sarah Jane so much, I can put up with the tedium. Just don’t ask me to do it again any time soon.