| Production Code: 5G
First Transmitted
Cast The Doctor - Tom Baker
Plot Outline from Wikipedia The use of a MK3 Emergency transceiver on the TARDIS identifies a distress signal and brings the craft to the lush jungle world of Chloris, where metal in all forms is a rare and prized commodity. The Doctor, Romana and K-9 venture out to discover the remains of an enormous egg in the jungle, and when they meet the inhabitants they find a matriarchy ruled through fear by the icy and callous Lady Adrasta. Without metal to make the tools needed to keep the jungle under control, lush plant life dominates. The Lady Adrasta controls the planet's very last metal mine, holding on to power through the Huntsmen and the Wolfweeds. Her throne room contains an array of metal including a shield patterned in the same way as the remnants of the shell. She mentions the Creature which dwells in a deep pit on Chloris. Romana has meanwhile been captured by a party of scavengers, ever keen to find and horde more metal, and they are particularly impressed by the possibilities of K9. The robot enables her escape and she is briefly reunited with the Doctor before he leaps into the Pit himself, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and the Pit. Within the Pit he encounters Organon, an astrologer thrown there by Adrasta some time earlier, and then comes face to face with the Creature: indeed, the vast shapeless blob rolls over him. The Doctor calculates it is not, however, dangerous, and is fascinated to note the Creature produces metal from within itself. It also forms a tentacle and draws a picture which the Doctor recognises as the shield from Adrasta’s throne room. Lady Adrasta, her lady-in-waiting Karela, the Huntsman, his wolfweeds, and some guards, enter the Pit from a secondary entrance and make their way to the Doctor, Organon and the Creature. The scavengers have meanwhile raided the throne room for booty, including the alien shield. It exerts influence over two of them, who take it down into the Pit and place it on the Creature. It turns out that the shield is a communication device. Erato, as the Creature is named, is the Tythonian ambassador to Chloris and came to negotiate a treaty exchanging metal for chlorophyll fifteen years earlier. Its craft was the vast egg found in the jungle. However, Adrasta realised her power was dependent on the control of the planet’s metal supply and so imprisoned Erato to maintain her status. It exacts its revenge by crushing her to death. The Doctor makes arrangements to have Erato lifted from the Pit. Meanwhile, Adrasta’s sidekick, Karela, attempts to capitalise on the situation and seize power herself - but with the help of K9 the Doctor brings it to nought. The Doctor has rescued the Tythonian just in time – it seems Tythonus has declared war on Chloris over the missing ambassador, and has despatched a neutron star to collide with Chloris’ star and destroy the system. It is due to collide within the next twenty-four hours. Working against the odds, Erato, from his reconstituted spacecraft, weaves a metal covering around the star, enabling the Doctor, using the TARDIS gravity beam, to draw the star off course and neutralise the danger . The last act on Chloris is to push the Huntsman, now one of the de facto rulers, toward a mutually beneficial trade agreement with Erato and the Tythonians.
Analysis by Cuisle After City of Death with its wide open location filming, this story felt very claustrophobic. The studio based jungle, Lady Adrasta’s ‘palace’, the pit itself, and the winding tunnels from it, were all very closed in and many of the scenes were dark. This was the nature of it, of course, much as Power of Kroll contrasted with the colourful Androids of Tara. That aside, it wasn’t a bad episode. The premise of a world where metal was so scarce people would kidnap and kill for it was a plausible one. The revelation that the ‘creature’ is actually NOT a killing monster but an intelligent being, an ambassador from a neighbouring planet, was an interesting twist. The HUMANS were the monsters not the ‘monster’. That is a message we often learn in Doctor Who. As early as The Sensorites in Series ONE, that kind of plot was explored. It is one well worth exploring in different ways. And this was a very good way of doing it. Lady Adrasta was a villainous villainess, and not just because she wanted to have K9 melted down for scrap. To keep the people of the planet in subjugation, controlling the scarce metals of the planet, when a deal with Tythonus could have benefited everyone is the very definition of tyranny, even without her treatment of the ambassador. The creature, was a very well realised concept and the special effect worked well. So did the effect of enclosing the neutron star in metal to prevent it being used as a weapon. This was an era when even Industrial Light and Magic with million dollar budgets could produce especially realistic space scenes. This one was good enough for the budget it had. One of the most masterful supporting roles in this
episode was Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon. As with Professor Kerensky
in City of Death, who bore more than a passing resemblance to the
actor’s most famous character, Bayldon’s Organon had the
wide-eyed frenzied look of Catweazle, the character he made his own.
Doctor Who was still able to attract accomplished actors from all
genres to play small, one off parts in it.
|
 |
 |
 |