Doctor Who 0085 The Seeds Of Doom Six part story that aired January 31 to March 6 1976. It's written by Robert Banks Stewart and directed by Douglas Canfield.
A fairly decent story with a dangerous seed pod from space that's weakened by the insane villain. The pod was found in the Antarctic ice, one of the scientists thaws out the pod and it hatches infecting a man who was too near when it happened. He changes and becomes a danger. The plants are carnivorous and man is meat. Luckily UNIT has been called and the Doctor and Sarah are sent to have a look see. The Doctor knows what a danger the plant is. Bad if it fell into the wrong hands.
The wrong hands of course are the hands of Mr Chase, a rich businessman with a penchant for greed and botany. He has a collection of rare plants that is highly praised. He wants that pod and he'll let his villainous henchmen kill for it. A second pod was found, the henchmen steal that and blow up the base with a nice bit of model work.
The Tardis gang chase Chase to his home where one of the henchmen has been infected by the pod. He's changing into a plant and one that grows when feed. It goes on for a while and the story ends with a big battle with the huge growing plant.
Like a lot of the 6 part stories it seems padded, there's plenty of the usual running about, getting caught and escaping. It's very ambitious though it had one of the worst props. When the show got to the Chase house I remembered that this was the show with the deadly composter. It's lame as the first time I saw it. Oh well. At least it was easy to escape from.
Doctor Who 0086 The Masque Of Mandragora Four part story that aired September 4 to 25 1976. Written by Louis Marks and directed by Rodney Bennett.
A nice brisk story that puts the Doctor and Sarah in 15th century Italy. A bit of sentient crystal called the Helix gets into the Tardis and eventually takes them to Italy. They get involved with some court intrigue and a plan to take over the world. The production filmed in the Portmeirion woods and it seems to work well enough as Italy. There's a good villain and some good good guys. Enjoyed it to the end.
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