The Ice Warriors make their second appearance as they attempt to use the futuristic transportation system known as T-Mat to take over the Earth.
Directed by Michael Ferguson
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Main Guest Cast-
Commander Radnor - Ronald Leigh-Hunt
Professor Eldred - Philip Ray
Miss Kelly - Louise Pajo
Fewsham - Terry Scully
Harry Towb - Osgood
Phipps - Christopher Coll
Synopsis-
The Doctor and his companions arrive late in the twenty-first century at what appears to be a space exploration museum. The museum is run by Professor Eldred. While The Doctor and Professor Eldred discuss rocket technology, a fault has occurred in the T-Mat system. T-Mat is a instantaneous travel system that has replaced pretty much all other methods of transportation, including rockets.
It turns out the fault has been caused by the Ice Warriors, who have taken over the Moonbase, which it vital for the operation of the T-Mat system. The Ice Warriors kill most of the Moonbase staff, including their leader Osgood. One man, Phipps, escapes from the Ice Warriors while another, Fewsham, agrees to help the Ice Warriors to save his life.
The man in charge of T-Mat, Commander Radnor and his assistant Miss Kelly visit Professor Eldred. They try to convince the Professor to use the rocket that he's built to fly to the Moon, so that the fault with T-Mat can be fixed. Professor Eldred is less than cooperative, but eventually relents once The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe agree to pilot the rocket to the Moon.
Meanwhile, Fewsham partially repairs T-Mat under orders from the Ice Warriors. Once repaired, it allows Miss Kelly to travel to the Moon to repair T-Mat fully.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe also arrive at the Moonbase, where they meet up with Phipps and discover the presence of the Ice Warriors. The Doctor is taken prisoner by the Ice Warriors, but Miss Kelly is able to escape and join with Jamie, Zoe and Phipps. The party hatches a plan to turn up the heat at the Moonbase, since Ice Warriors cannot survive in high temperatures. The plans succeeds, but Phipps is killed.
However, the Ice Warrior have already completed their objective by this time, which was to send several space seeds, which will cause a fungus to grow on the Earth that will suck all the oxygen out of the atmosphere. The Doctor, Miss Kelly, Jamie and Zoe return to Earth via T-Mat. Fewsham, who has also survived, remains on the Moon seemingly in fear whatever justice he might face for helping the Ice Warriors.
Back on Earth, The Doctor is able to discover the fungus' weakness, which turns out to nothing more than simple water. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe make their way to a weather station, where they defeat an Ice Warrior sent to sabotage the station. After defeating the Ice Warrior, they fix the weather stations' controls, which eventually causes it to rain, which kills off the fungus.
Meanwhile, Fewsham has switched on the video feed which allows Radnor and Eldred to discover that the Ice Warriors are going to use a homing beacon to land their invasion fleet. Fewsham pays for this with his life, as he's killed by the Ice Warriors.
Radnor and Eldred create a fake homing beacon and place it onto a rocket which is sent into orbit. The Doctor returns to the Moonbase, where he is able to turn off the true homing beacon. The Ice Warrior fleet follows the fake homing beacon, where it will be eventually be destroyed by falling into the Sun.
T-Mat is repaired, and The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe make their way back to the Tardis to resume their travels.
Review-
The idea behind T-Mat was probably lifted from Star Trek, as T-Mat somewhat resembles Star Trek's transporters. What makes it more interesting is that the human race has become dependent on T-Mat and when a problem occurs there seems to be no backup. Even Star Trek had backups to the transporters as they had a shuttle craft as well that could be used to ferry the crew to and from a planet.
Fewsham and Phipps are quite interesting as characters, as both react differently to the dilemma of facing imminent death. Fewsham, it seems, will do anything to survive whereas Phipps is prepared to resist the Ice Warriors, even if it means that he'll be killed. It's interesting to watch the two men, and it makes one wonder if you were faced with that situation whether you'd resist like Phipps or collaborate like Fewsham.
In the end, The Seeds of Death is a decent story that I might have enjoyed more if I hadn't seen the same plot several times before in the Second Doctor era. It's certainly worth a look, especially if one wants to get a feel for what the fifth series/season was like without having to resort to audio soundtracks and/or reconstructions. But the entire I was watching the Seeds of Death, I simply couldn't get the feeling of deja vu out of my head.
