The Ordeal of Peladon

"The old ways are reasserting themselves."

Writers: Jonathan Barnes & Robert Valentine 

Format: Audio

Released: January 2022

Series: Peladon 1.01

Featuring: King Peladon

Synopsis

When King Peladon hears of a holy man with seemingly magical powers and the gift of foresight, he resolves to discover the truth of it for himself. But his quest to understand the shifting loyalties of his people is one from which he cannot return unchanged.

Verdict

The Ordeal of Peladon was an excellent start to the Peladon boxset! I'm a huge fan of the idea behind this collection of stories on the enigmatic world of Peladon, and I thought things started well with King Peladon's narration giving a brief but welcomed account of Peladon for those, admittedly like myself, who haven't encountered the planet in quite a while. Peladon was a world of science and new technology that was proud to be part of the community of the Galactic Federation. It was a good little start, as was the introduction to Skarn who was just a fisherman until he suddenly became all knowing and wise. He seemed to have healing abilities and was apparently sent from the voices inside his head, voices he claimed were the Old Gods of Peladon. It was all very mysterious and certainly captured my attention to kick things off. Skarn was offering help to Harfair and he somehow knew of her daughter that couldn't walk. It appeared he'd garnered quite the reputation on Peladon, so much so that the King wanted to know more about him and why his subjects flocked to him. The King was concerned that Skarn was filling the void left by his seclusion. It was audible that the King was a lot older than when we encountered him during the Third Doctor era, and that worked well in showing us that Peladon had moved on from events of The Curse and The Monster of Peladon. I should also mention I'm a big fan of this boxset continuing the 'of Peladon' titles. For whatever reason, I wasn't expecting to hear an Ice Warrior in this episode so to have Ixmari awaken was a delight alongside Skanlar assisting him. Their journey to Peladon had nearly ended and that meant their investigation could begin. Harfair having become a disciple of Skarn was great and she was sent to the King's Court to warn of a shadow falling and that Peladon had gone off its path. She wanted the King to meet Skarn, and that would prove troublesome for Ixmari's mission. I loved the cameo from Alpha Centauri and do hope she features more in the boxset, and she was keen to reiterate the Warrior's mission. I liked that the King liberated Harfair from ail because of his desire to learn more about Skarn, and their journey to Antonar was not an easy one! Ixmari's scanning for the King and finding him not present was amusing, especially with Raarlan trying to cover it up as best an advisor could. Ixmari offering to help find him was good but he set a hard deadline of one cycle or the inspection of Peladon was failed. The raiders in the wilderness provided some good action and I liked the dynamic of Raarlan wanting Harfair dead despite the King's fascination with her. Ixmari sure enough located the monarch and we soon ensued to an audience with Skarn which was really nicely done. I enjoyed the deity theme for Harfair and how she was given a task through Skarn from them, and the name of the Great Lake of Undoing where Skarn found the gods was fantastic. It was a place of great mystery and only Skarn could touch the waters, coloured like blood. But this was something Ixmari had seen before and he knew that the lake was contaminated by a mineral toxin and that didn't sit well with Harfair at all! She proclaimed the Ice Warrior as an agent of darkness and brutally attacked him which led the King to appeal to Skarn to save him, in return for his following. That surprised me a bit, but Skarn was unable to save Ixmari who passed away and this allowed Skarn to see he truly had no power. It turned out he had fallen in the poisonous lake and had been hallucinating greatly, with his supposed healing often being chance with there surely being other failures not publicised. It all came crashing down for Skarn, but his comment about the Doctor and how he descended from the heavens in a blue box really intrigued me What we got from there and the day that changed everything took me by surprise in a wonderful way as the Tenth Doctor emerged! Hearing David Tennant was absolutely delightful and it was lovely to get a genuine surprise. His comments about Peladon being in his top ten planets was marvellous and the Doctor knew of Skarn as the one who started it all. He kicked Peladon into the opposite of a New Age of Enlightenment and he could already see those forces driving him inside. Skarn knew the Doctor without being told a name, but the Doctor was helpless to interfere as he was already caught up in events in previous bodies, probably alluding to future episodes in this very boxset, and he couldn't interfere as this was a fixed point whilst the web of time was fragile. I thought that was outstanding and really set us up nicely for where this series is going. Skarn had suffered from mineral poisoning and that was that for him, whilst Peladon's mining operations were ongoing but the death of Ixmari needed to be explained to the Galactic Federation which wouldn't go down well! Raarlan supposedly winning as the King accepted he should do as he was advised was a good touch to their relationship, but bringing things full circle with Harfair once again in jail but the King refusing to free her this time was excellent. She still heard Skarn and she warned of chaos ahead, and I expect that's where we'll pick things up in the next episode! Overall, a strong start indeed.

Rating: 9/10