Who Review: The Seeds of Doom

In his capacity as U.N.I.T. chief scientific advisor, the Doctor has been called by the World Ecology Bureau to look into a strange pod discovered by a team of scientists at an Antarctic base. The photographs suggest something alien, so the Doctor and Sarah go to Antarctica to see the pod for themselves, warning no-one to touch it. When they arrive, the pod has already hatched and attacked one of the scientists, Winlett. He is beginning to take on the appearance of some kind of plant. The Doctor finds a second pod, which seems to confirm for him what they are dealing with: Krynoids. Before long, Winlett is no longer recognizable as a human, his whole body having been transformed by the infection. He is now a powerful and dangerous Krynoid.

Meanwhile, millionaire botanist Harrison Chase has heard about the pod discovery, and sends two mercenaries to Antarctica to recover it for his plant collection. His instructions are for them to bring back the pod, no matter what cost. The two thugs, Scorby and Keeler, are too late to get the first pod, but manage to make off with the second, leaving the Doctor and Sarah to deal with the hungry Winlett-Krynoid. But that’s the least of their concerns. Once that second pod reaches London, warms, and then hatches, not only will it infect the nearest humans, but it will turn all plant life on Earth against the planet’s fleshy occupants.

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

The first thing I need to get off my chest with regard to “The Seeds of Doom” is the title. I hate it. First, I keep calling it “The Seeds of Death,” which is a Second Doctor Ice Warrior story. And second, in fiction I associate the word “doom” with melodrama, and a somewhat comical overtone–“Arrrgh! We’re all doomed!” This story is far from comical. Indeed, to me the word “doom” doesn’t do justice to this dark, and somewhat disturbing, story. At least it’s disturbing in concept, given a few plot holes and a couple of effects that don’t quite work. How about “The Pods of Death” or “The Curse of the Krynoids”? Even just “The Krynoids” would have been better than “The Seeds of Doom”!

Broadcast over February and March of 1976, “The Seeds of Death Doom” was the last story of season 13, and hence the dialog at the end where the Doctor and Sarah talk about taking a holiday. It was written by Robert Banks Stewart, who wrote the season opener, “Terror of the Zygons.” The original plan was for “Terror” to be the season 12 closing story, so Stewart would have written the last story for both seasons. However, “Terror” was pushed to the next season, so he ended up top-and-tailing season 13.

U.N.I.T. involvement in Who has been petering out over the past few seasons. This story marks the last time we see any U.N.I.T. soldiers until 1989, and the Seventh Doctor story, “Battlefield.” And even here, U.N.I.T. are not really central to the story, and none of the U.N.I.T. regulars make an appearance. Their inclusion seems to be primarily to give the Doctor an excuse to be there, and to provide some support later on.

While the production team don’t say so explicitly, it’s hard to imagine “DeathDoom” wasn’t at least partly inspired by the classic BBC TV series, “The Quatermass Experiment.” In that series, a space crew returns to Earth bringing with them an alien life that has taken over one of the astronauts, and is turning him into a plant-like creature that then threatens the planet. Somewhat similar. 🙂

All joking aside, “The Seeds of DeeeDoooo…Deaoooom” is a good story. Most of the visual effects work, and the acting is good, at least from the main cast. The Doctor and Sarah are, as always, a delight to watch, but a special shout-out needs to go to Tony Beckley, who played Harrison Chase. Wonderfully sinister, plant-obsessed, and dispassionate about anything else, including humans. Probably the worst effect was the final Krynoid form for which it seems they re-purposed the Axon costume from the 1971 story, “The Claws of Axos.” Back then, it worked fine in the context of that story. But here, it just looks a little silly, especially after the good transformation make-up we’d seen previously. And having the Krynoid talk, giving our heroes an ultimatum to give up the Doctor or die, was a bit of a stretch. I understand why they did it–they needed to give a reason why the Krynoid doesn’t attack and destroy them all immediately. But to suddenly have this silent menace announce its plans in booming clear English didn’t sit well with me.

The violence in this story is quite surprising for 1970s Doctor Who. There’s nothing graphic, but you have the Doctor hitting people, knocking them unconscious. Then there are the plant creatures strangling people to death. And, perhaps the most implicitly gruesome, is the “grinder”–the machine Chase uses to mince up all kinds of refuse to make plant food. He puts the Doctor in it at one point, but, of course, the Doctor escapes. Chase also tries to have Sarah ground, but the Doctor rescues her. One of the soldiers was not so fortunate, and neither was Chase himself in the end. We hear screams. We see the wheels turning. The Doctor looks away and shield’s Sarah’s face. But that’s enough to let our imaginations do the rest. The BBC received complaints, but in a way that was a compliment to how effective it was.

One quite major plot hole that bothered me concerned the fact that the Krynoid would cause all plants in the area to attack the non-plant life. Would that not include the grass, of which there are copious amounts, and over which people are constantly running? Could the Krynoid not have easily thwarted the plans of those attacking it by having the grass, the trees, the flowers, and all the other foliage rise up against them? Granted, that wouldn’t have helped in the end, since it was a bombing attack from the air that dealt the death-blow to the Krynoid. And given that was how the first Krynoid was killed, when the Antarctic base was blown up, you might have thought they’d have come up with that solution sooner.

The last issue I have is the ending. After all the death and destruction, it seems in bad taste to be joking about going on vacation, and acting as if innocent lives hadn’t just been brutally lost. But that’s not unusual for Classic Who. Children’s programming back then didn’t like to dwell on such things. The bad guys lost, and while brave souls gave their lives in the process, the good guys won, and so we celebrate and make merry.

All in all, “The Seeds of DoodeadoodeDoom” is a good serial, and worthy of your time. Not must-see, like some of the others this season, but definitely worth watching.

One last thing. In an inspired piece of casting, Hargreaves is played by Seymour Green. 🙂