The Monster of Peladon [TV/1974.3.23 ~ 4.27]

★★★☆☆

  Feminist Sarah Jane Smith at the forefront? Unionisation and revolt of the working class leading to genuine discourse with the monarchy? Has Dr. Who gone too politically correct -- woke, even -- for the kiddies? Of course not, Who has always been a left-leaning show with political commentary as subtle as a brick, and you're lying to yourselves if you claim to think otherwise. Plus, I hate the word "woke" because it was unfortunately claimed by hate-mongering conservatives and bigots as their champion dogwhistle word. 

  The Monster of Peladon pretends to be The Curse of Peladon for two episodes before revealing itself as a much more labour-coded affair, and that's really fun to realise. We get to see the workers of Peladon this time around, and the ruler is even more wet behind the ears (and performed rather appallingly from time to time, I must say). What I appreciate about this serial is that it at least tries to evoke different feelings, tries its very best to avoid repetition of familiar beats -- at least, it does after its first two episodes. One third of this adventure relies a bit too much on the tropes of Curse for my liking, but I guess it can easily be excused as a way to ease viewers back into this alien world before the real fun starts. Barry Letts really couldn't help himself with all the parallels to the real world, could he? Exploitation and monopolisation, hostile takeovers for an indigenous land's mineral wealth, plus an exploration of the relationship between monarchy and the working class... yep, the Letts era is going out as angry as it always was. For the whimsy and fantastical wonder, I would recommend Curse... but Monster has its own charm as well, with the Ice Warriors back in full force as the villains (albeit as a splinter group) and a third party abusing tradition and religion to their own ends.