Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death (Doctor Who Library)

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This the adaptation of another Doctor Who serial for which I have fond memories of watching on TV. I also enjoyed it as a book, and even Terrance Dicks seems to have been inspired to put a little more effort in than is common for him at this time in his writing of Doctor Who novels.

Arriving on Earth in the Twenty-first Century, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are soon caught up in a crisis involving the Earth's only method of distance travel - Travelmat (or T-mat) is having problems at its relay point on the Moon, and the Earth authorities are obliged to send a rocket to the Moon to investigate. Given the lack of suitable people with requisite experience, the TARDIS crew volunteer.

But the lunar base has been taken over by an old foe, the Ice Warriors...

Depicting an Earth which has become unduly reliant on a single form of technology, this story depicts those who can think outside the normal boundaries as the only truly successful people. It is in this climate of mental stagnation that the Doctor is shown at his best.

As well as this societal commentary, the story features a number of claustrophobic settings which add to the tension of the story, and the lumbering menace of the Ice Warriors is again palpable.

This story survives in its original from and has been released on video. The novel succeeds over the original in that the TV serial tends to be quite slow moving at times, but the video wins out in the portrayal of the Ice Warriors. Enjoy either or both for their strengths!

The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie and Zoe face the Ice Warriors in this one.