"The Seeds of Death - Episode Three"

Doctor Who
Airdate: February 8, 1969
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury
Written by Brian Hayles
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Michael Ferguson

Without the homing beam, the rocket cannot land safely on the moon. After having taken care of the Ice Warrior, Phipps tries to send an emergency radio transmission to Earth. It is received by the Doctor in the rocket, and he is able to use it to land, following a bit of difficulty. The Doctor goes to find Phipps while Jamie and Zoe stay behind to refuel the rocket. The Doctor and Phipps set out to disable T-Mat, but when Zoe realizes the rocket engines were damaged upon landing, they set off to stop him. The Doctor and Phipps rescue Miss Kelly from the Ice Warriors, but following a chase, the Doctor is captured in her place. Jamie, Zoe, Phipps and Kelly work out a plan to reach the base heating controls. While being held in the control room, the Doctor moves to examine whatever it is that the Ice Warriors plan to send to Earth. He finds some sort of seed pod which immediately explodes in his face, causing him to collapse. One of the seeds is sent to London, where it explodes as soon as Brent goes to examine it, killing him instantly...

Ok, I have to mention this because it cracks me up every damn time. The rocket needs Phipps's radio signal to remain strong in order to land. There's a shot of Phipps transmitting, and we know that the transmitter is functioning because there's a light. The light goes out, Phipps rummages around for spares, and screws in a new piece. Honestly, it looks for all the world like he changes the bulb. If it weren't for the dialogue, I'd swear that it was only the indicator light that failed, not the transmitter.

Anyway, this story represents Brian Hayles's fourth contribution to the series, his second in the Patrick Troughton era, and his second to feature the Ice Warriors. He'll go on to write two more stories for Jon Pertwee, both featuring the Ice Warriors, and that will be the last we'll see of him, or them¹. In fact, their return was inevitable, not just because they were popular in their debut, but also (and more importantly) because their costumes were really expensive.

This story was another victim of the seemingly constant stream of script crises that plagued this season. One issue was that Jamie was actually supposed to have been written out by now. Another problem was Patrick Troughton's vacation schedule, which required that the Doctor be completely written out of Episode Four. The upshot is that, though Hayles was credited (and paid) for all six episodes, episodes three through six were written almost entirely by Script Editor Terrance Dicks. He didn't do a bad job, but you can see that what started out strongly with well-developed characters and an interesting future setting, descends quite quickly into a simple alien runaround.

¹ Although, they are frequently rumored to be returning in the new series, and it's probably only a matter of time. I'd say they're roughly neck and neck with the Sontarans in terms of popularity and general audience awareness, so they should probably be the next in line. They were actually all set to return in Season Twenty-Three during the Colin Baker era, but that season was canceled when the show was put on 18-month hiatus, and replaced with a new Season Twenty-Three which didn't include them. They have, of course, appeared in any number of books and audios and comics over the years.