Day 424: The Seeds of Doom Part 3

Doctor Who has an ability to change and adapt to different genres. In the past series we have had a typical UNIT story, a space horror story, a mummy movie, a science fiction adventure and a gothic horror story, and now we have something based more around action in The Seeds of Doom. 

The setting of the story has changed from the Antarctic base to an English country house, and so too the mood. Where once it was closed and tense, here it is open and sprawling. There's more action with guns being fired, punches being thrown and so on. It's enjoyable enough, with the characters all being well written and performed and it all being well directed, but there's a lingering question of whether this is right.

There's a scene, for instance, where the Doctor and Sarah Jane are attacked by a chauffeur. They respond by running into a quarry and ambushing him, with the Doctor giving him a knock-out blow to the face at the climax. We're not used to seeing the Doctor engage in violence like that, even Pertwee's Doctor was more refined when using violence and tended to use such techniques only in self defence. There are moments that make The Seeds of Doom feel more like a Doctor Who story, and we shall delve into those over the latter half of the story, but for the moment this comes across as one of the more atypical Doctor Who adventures.