The Seeds of Doom is the sixth and final serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 31 January to 6 March 1976.
In the serial, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) agrees to go on one final mission in his role as UNIT's scientific advisor to investigate a mysterious pod found in the Antarctic. However, the crazed millionaire and plant collector Harrison Chase (Tony Beckley) is also interested, and has sent his violent henchman Scorby (John Challis) and the botanist Arnold Keeler (Mark Jones) to acquire the malignant alien plant for his personal collection.
Plot
In Antarctica, an expedition consisting of John Stevenson, Derek Moberley, and Charles Winlett discover an unknown seed pod in the permafrost, buried at a layer that predates any known form of plant life. While Winlett is examining the pod, it suddenly splits open and releases a tendril that attaches itself to Winlett's arm, causing his body to be rapidly overtaken with plant growths. The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive to help, and the Doctor identifies the pod that infected Winlett as being a Krynoid, an extremely dangerous alien plant species with the potential to destroy all animal life on Earth; furthermore, a second pod is found near where the first one was discovered. Lacking any better ideas, the Doctor suggests amputating Winlett's arm in the hope that it might slow the infection down, but before they have the chance to do so Winlett fully transforms into a Krynoid and kills Moberley, and later Stevenson.
Meanwhile, reclusive plant-obsessed millionaire Harrison Chase has got word of the mysterious seed pod, and sends his henchmen Scorby and Keeler to obtain it. While they're too late to obtain the first pod, they manage to steal the second one. Over Keeler's objections, Scorby sets a bomb to destroy the entire base. The Krynoid that was once Winlett is killed in the resulting blast, but the Doctor and Sarah barely survive.
Returning to England, the Doctor and Sarah infiltrate Chase's estate with the help of eccentric artist Amelia Ducat, but they are both captured by Scorby. Chase decides to use Sarah as a guinea pig for the second Krynoid pod, but the Doctor escapes and rescues Sarah. In the resulting confusion, the pod opens and infects Keeler. The warmer British climate causes Keeler to start transforming much more rapidly than Winlett did, and Chase further accelerates the process by feeding him raw meat. By the following morning the new Krynoid has grown to the size of a house and is able to take over plants and have them strangle people to death, as well as causing Chase to fall under its influence, forcing a reluctant Scorby to join forces with the Doctor and Sarah.
The Doctor is able to call in UNIT for help, and after their initial efforts fail, the Doctor determines that the Krynoid, which is now bigger than Chase's mansion, will soon release a huge quantity of the type of pods that infected Winlett and Keeler, dooming all animal life on Earth. Running out of time, the Doctor tells UNIT to completely destroy the Krynoid and the mansion with an aerial barrage, regardless of any danger to anyone inside. Scorby panics and tries to flee, resulting in his being dragged into a lake and drowned by Krynoid-controlled plants, while Chase tries to feed Sarah into an industrial mulching machine, only to fall victim to the machine himself when the Doctor arrives and rescues Sarah. The Doctor and Sarah just barely escape from the mansion before it and the Krynoid are completely destroyed. Needing a break after their latest near-death experience, the Doctor and Sarah try to travel to a tropical planet in the TARDIS, only to instead find themselves back in Antarctica.
Production
thumb|Location filming took place at [[Athelhampton House in Dorset]]
thumb|[[BBC Television Centre in London was used as the World Ecology Bureau]]
Writing
The serial was written by established television writer Robert Banks Stewart, who was influenced in the writing of this ecological tale of rampant flora by his home abutting Kew Gardens as well as his familial connection to botanist Joseph Banks. The Doctor's dialogue with Amelia Ducat about the car boot and model is a homage to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Scorby quotes Voltaire's line "when it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion", but the Doctor attributes it to Franklin Pierce Adams.
Filming
Location shooting took place at Athelhampton Hall in Dorset for the scenes at Harrison Chase's estate, while the Antarctica scenes were recorded in a quarry in Buckland, Surrey. BBC Television Centre in White City, London served as the location for the World Ecology Centre.
This is the third of four serials of the programme to have all of its exterior location scenes shot on Outside Broadcast (OB) videotape rather than film before the official switchover in 1986; the previous two were Robot (1974) and The Sontaran Experiment (1975), and later The Stones of Blood (1978).
After his long association with Doctor Who, this was the last story to be directed by Douglas Camfield.
Broadcast and reception
Sources
External links
- BBC Assistant Floor Manager Susan Shearman talks about working on The Seeds of Doom (archive from 5 November 2010, accessed 12 March 2017)