Court drama isn’t limited to tennis, one look no further than this week’s cap addition The Curse of Peladon for proof of this.
The story has all the trappings of English Court drama moved off-world with aliens simply for the variety. A young, unsure King (David Troughton), Ministers plotting against him, intrigue amongst the visiting tribes, it all feels fairly rote and ultimately plays that way.
The saving grace for the story is Jo who provides an unusual focal point between the alien surroundings (only her second actual trip in the Tardis), the attentions of the King, and the general plotting of the story.
It’s nice, especially with a more modern view of companions as story drivers, to see it happening here, and we get a glimpse of events to come (again in retrospect) in The Green Death when Jo must make a similar decision.
As for the caps themselves, those presented here are a pure add for the Tour, though we wish the source of the caps was a little better, but they do close a hole in the portfolio of the Pertwee section.
Classic Capitology continues it’s meanderings, and perhaps sooner than you think.