Production Code: 4L
First Transmitted
1 - 31/01/1976 18:00
2 - 07/02/1976 17:30
3 - 14/02/1976 17:55
4 - 21/02/1976 17:45
5 - 28/02/1976 17:45
6 - 06/03/1976 17:45
Plot
Two alien seed pods are found buried in the Antarctic permafrost and the Doctor realises that they are from a Krynoid, a form of plant life that infects and transforms all animal life on planets upon which it becomes established.
One of the pods infects a scientist at an Antarctic base but the developing Krynoid is destroyed by a bomb set by two men, Scorby and Keeler, who have made off with the other pod for their boss, eccentric plant collector Harrison Chase.
At his mansion in England Chase arranges for the pod to be opened under controlled conditions while a human host - Sarah - is held nearby. The Doctor rescues Sarah, but Keeler is infected. Keeler's transformation into a Krynoid is accelerated by Chase, who has him fed with raw meat.
The creature escapes and goes on the rampage, rapidly growing to giant proportions. Chase decides to turn the Doctor into compost by feeding him into a pulverising machine. The Time Lord escapes, but Chase falls into the machine and is killed. UNIT have meanwhile been called in, and they arrange for the Krynoid to be bombed before it can spread its pods across the Earth.
Episode Endings
In the Antarctic base the scientist Winlett is rapidly changing into a plant. The Doctor suggests amputating his arm, as that is the source of the Krynoid infection. Of the others at the base only Moberley is qualified to perform the operation. He gets the necessary equipment together, but then encounters the sick man in a corridor. Winlett, unrecognisable, attacks Moberley.
The Doctor rescues Sarah from the power plant of the Antractic base with only moments to spare before the bomb planted there by Scorby and Keeler is set to explode. The Krynoid enters behind them but they manage to escape, locking it in. The bomb explodes.
Chase decides to use Sarah as a part of his experiment. He holds her bare arm to a table beside the Krynoid pod, which starts to open.
Richard Dunbar of the World Ecology Bureau, having failed to make Chase see sense, flees through the grounds of the mansion chased by Scorby. He suddenly comes across the Krynoid, now about ten feet tall and totally inhuman. He is killed, but his scream alerts the Doctor and Sarah, who run to help. Sarah screams as the creature surges towards them.
The Doctor and Sergeant Henderson from UNIT arrive with defoliant sprays and rescue Sarah and Scorby from the Krynoid-controlled plants in Chase's mansion. The Doctor decides to move all the plants outside and they start to do so. Chase, however, locks the door behind them and they find themselves trapped outside as the giant Krynoid approaches. Chase smiles faintly.
The danger over, the Doctor and Sarah leave for a holiday on Cassiopeia - but are taken back to the Antarctic by the ever-unpredictable TARDIS.
Roots
The Thing from Another World (an isolated Antarctic base).
The Quatermass Experiment (alien parasites infecting scientists).
The Trollenberg Terror (ditto).
Day of the Triffids (murderous plants).
The Avengers episode Man Eater of Surrey Green (the above, plus a dotty old lady and a villainous chauffeur).
The Mutations.
The Doctor quotes from the nursery rhyme 'The House that Jack Built'.
Scorby says 'When it comes to money, Mr Chase and I are of the same religion' to which the Doctor replies 'Franklin Adams, American humorist!'
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : "I suppose you could call it a galactic weed, though it's deadlier than any weed you know. On most planets the animals eat the vegetation. On planets where the Krynoid gets established, the vegetation eats the animals."
The Doctor : [To the World Ecology Bureau's Sir Colin Thackeray.] "If we don't find that pod before it germinates, it'll be the end of everything. Everything, you understand? Even your pension!"
Harrison Chase : "What do you do for an encore, Doctor?"
The Doctor : "I win."
Harrison Chase : "The plants must win. It will be a new world. Silent and beautiful."
Amelia Ducat : [Discusses her painting (a homage to The Importance of Being Ernest)] "Where did you say you found it?"
Sarah : "We found it in a car boot."
Amelia Ducat : "A car boot?"
The Doctor : "Yes, a Daimler car boot."
Amelia Ducat : "The car is immaterial!"
Dialogue Disasters
Chase : [On minions] "Why am I surrounded by idiots?!"
RAF pilot : [On his plans for the Krynoid] "Okay chaps... let's turn it into chop suey!"
Double Entendre
Amelia Ducat : "I camped out in the Chilterns night after night to catch it at sunrise."
Chase : "You know, Doctor, I could play all day in my green cathedral."
Continuity
The Krynoid, a 'galactic weed', has been buried for at least 20,000 years [the late Pleistocene era]. The Doctor speculates that volcanic turbulence on its home planet sends surface matter shooting into space. He is called in as an expert by Sir Colin Thackery of the World Ecology Bureau. The Doctor states that he is President of the Galactic Flora Society.
The Brigadier is in Geneva, UNIT's forces being commanded in his absence by Major Beresford (whom the Doctor knows). At the end, the Doctor tries to take Sarah to the holiday planet of Cassiopeia.
Location
South Pole; the World Ecology Bureau.
Amelia Ducat's home.
Harrison Chase's mansion.
A quarry.
England, [Autumn 1973] (Two pence is the minimum amount to operate the pay phone.)
Trivia
The costume for the humanoid stage of the Krynoid was created by taking one of the surviving Axon costumes from The Claws of Axos and spraying it green.
Myth
This story was originally written as a four-parter and the opening two episodes were added by script editor Robert Holmes and/or director Douglas Camfield. (It was commissioned and written as a six-parter by Robert Banks Stewart from the outset.)
The location scenes for this story were shot at a house owned by rock star Mick Jagger. (Jagger's house, Stargroves near Newbury in Hampshire, was used as a location for Pyramids of Mars; the house seen in The Seeds of Doom is Athelhampton House in Athelhampton, Dorset.)
Goofs
Why doesn't Scorby just shoot the Doctor and the others in Antartica rather than go to all the trouble of tying up Sarah in the generator and setting it to blow up?
The TARDIS returns to Antarctica at the end of the story, the Doctor having not re-set the coordinates - but the TARDIS never went there in the first place (he and Sarah travelled by helicopter).
In episode six, during the 'steam!' scene, the Doctor grabs Sarah's chest.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Tom Baker
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
Amelia Ducat - Sylvia Coleridge
Arnold Keeler - Mark Jones
Charles Winlett - John Gleeson
Chauffeur - Alan Chuntz
Derek Moberley - Michael McStay
Doctor Chester - Ian Fairbairn
Guard - Harry Fielder
Guard Leader - David Masterman
Hargreaves - Seymour Green
Harrison Chase - Tony Beckley
John Stevenson - Hubert Rees
Major Beresford - John Acheson
Richard Dunbar - Kenneth Gilbert
Scorby - John Challis
Sergeant Henderson - Ray Barron
Sir Colin Thackeray - Michael Barrington
The Krynoid's voice - Mark Jones
Crew
Director - Douglas Camfield
The Seeds of Doom