Classic Capitology makes (one last?) stab at getting a story into the Tour before the Capaldi era begins with the (almost pure) addition of caps for Jon Pertwee’s penultimate story The Monster of Peladon. The distinguishing characteristic of the Pertwee era is also at times its biggest weakness, that being the level of consistency and tone the whole era had down to UNIT and it’s Earth-based stories.
While the Peladon stories aren’t Earth-based, they may as well have been right down to the feudal society depicted beginning in The Curse of Peladon and carried further (much further considering it’s a six-part story) in The Monster of Peladon. The twist in Curse of having the Ice Warriors being the good guys is lost in Monster. Even the change of companion to Sarah Jane to give a slight feminist kick to the proceeding does little to liven the plot. Aside from (modern day) Earth there were few occasions where settings recurred in the classic era. Even when Gridlock followed on from New Earth (which itself was a bit of a follow-on from The End of the World) RTD had the good sense to make the stories completely different in almost every aspect. You can’t really say that about Monster.
There’s a sense in The Monster of Peladon that we’ve entered Pertwee’s victory lap with the program, one which would be continued in Planet of the Spiders. There’s even a preview of the regeneration scene which would take place a few weeks later. A bit of a shame really as it makes Pertwee’s final season more than a bit of a muddle.
What’s not a muddle though are the new caps, which are both gorgeous and plentiful.
Prepare thyself for something the Tour hasn’t tried to do for almost a year … next time.
