Who Review #49 - the Seeds of Death

The scene is the T-Mat control centre in London. Fewsham has made mistakes. As Osgood takes over for Fewsham at the T-Mat base on the Moon an alarm sounds and an unseen creature invades. Osgood sabotages the communications control and is killed. The TARDIS lands in a space museum; the crew suddenly turn and find a gun pointed at them. Fewsham talks with the unseen invader. Fewsham cooperates in repairing the sabotage because the creature has threatened to kill all the moonbase personnel. In the London station, Kelly and Radnor discuss the problem with the T-Mat. The only way to get to the moon now will be by rocket. Radnor and Kelly go to Professor Eldred's space museum, where they meet the Doctor and co. (Rockets have been superceeded by T-Mat.) They want to use Eldred's rocket. One of the moonbase men has fixed the video link; he gets half way through raising the alert when he is stopped and killed by an Ice Warrior.

Phipps escapes whilst Fewsham remains and continues working on the T-Mat. Eldred's rocket is not fully finished. The Doctor and co. volunteer to fly the rocket. The T-Mat is repaired. Phipps prepares a solar ray gun. Kelly and a couple of others go to the moon. Phipps tries to contact Earth. The rocket prepares to home in, but the signal is lost when Phipps fires his gun at an Ice Warrior. Without the signal the Doctor and co. cannot land.

The Doctor picks up Phipps. He explains what has been happening on the moonbase. Meanwhile, the T-Mat has been switched off, two men killed and Kelly taken prisoner by the Ice Warriors. The Doctor uses Phipps's signal as a homing beacon to land the rocket. The Doctor looks for Phipps and meets him in the solar power room. The Doctor plans to destroy T-Mat but the rocket is now useless - Zoe and Jamie rush to prevent him. Phipps and the Doctor come across Kelly and an Ice Warrior. The Doctor dashes followed by Ice Warriors. They go to kill him but he rhetorts. "Your leader will be angry if you kill me; I'm a genius!" (A Who moment!) He is taken to the Ice Warrior leade, who carry on their invasion plan. They lay containers that are to be sent to Earth. Kelly, Phipps, Zoe and Jamie meet up and prepare to turn up the heat to knock out the Warriors. The Doctor examines a container; a seed pod explodes in his face. Jamie and co. destroy another Warrior with the solar gun. Seed pods begin to be T-Matted to Earth.

The seed pod explodes in London; one of the people is killed and the spores expelled from the room. Spores begin to spread and a foam is formed. The Doctor is unconscious. Slaar, the warrior leader, intends to T-Mat the Doctor into space. Phipps and Jamie unscrew some panels and pull out the Doctor. A Warrior is transmitted to London. The foam is increasing and more seeds form and spread spores. Eldred realises that the pods have all been sent to cold areas. Social order is breaking down without T-Mat. Phipps and Zoe head off for the moonbase control room where the heat system is; Fewsham sees them and distracts the guard Warrior so Zoe can sneak in. Phipps is shot and the Ice Warrior turns its sonic gun on her.

The heat works and the guard collapses. Zoe goes after the others. The Doctor recovers. The Ice Warrior on Earth heads for the Weather Control Bureau. Fewsham operates the T-Mat but remains on the moonbase. Slaar returns and Fewsham explains the Doctor and co. have T-Matted back to Earth. The Doctor goes out to collect a foam sample, whilst Kelly works on an Earth-based T-Mat control. The Doctor realises that the seed pods will change the atmosphere to that of the martian atmosphere. A pod develops but is destroyed when the Doctor pours water on it. Jamie and Zoe go to the Weather Bureau; the warrior has destroyed the controls, preventing rain. Fewsham switches on a monitor, so that the Ice Warrior plan can be overheard, at the cost of his life - they are landing their fleet using a signal from the moon. The Doctor plans to replicate the homing signal to draw the warrior fleet off course and spiralling into the Sun. He rushes off to the Weather Bureau after Jamie and Zoe. He cannot get in and a pod begins to grow right in front of him.

The Doctor is let in and the crew hide in a solar power room. The Ice Warrior starts to blast its way through the door. The Doctor rigs a device similar to Phipps's and kills the warrior. The false signal is sent for launch and the Doctor repairs the weather control system. He then T-Mats to the Moon in order to destroy Slaar's signal device. The warriors capture him and destroy the solar gun. The Doctor's tampering mean that the Ice Warrior fleet only hear the false signal and sends them off course. Jamie T-Mats to the Moon and in an ensuing struggle Slaar is shot bt a fellow Ice Warrior, which is also destroyed. Torrential rain deals with the seed pods and foam. The bedraggled travellers head for the TARDIS to avoid explanations, questions and such.

The Ice Warriors are still impressive but this story doesn't come anywhere near their debut story. The idea of a moonbase under attack, using a piece of vital machinery, is a tadge stale given the Moonbase cyberman story. It is also a bit daft to think total chaos would result after a few hours without T-Mat.

Not a great story, but not too bad.
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