A Matter of Time: The Seeds of Death

(08/02/1969)

DESCRIPTION: ‘The Seeds of Death’ was the fifth story of Season 6 of Doctor Who, and starred Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.

FACT: Patrick Troughton’s sideburns appear and disappear depending on whether he is seen in a pre-filmed sequence or a studio scene.

Doctor Who – The Seeds of Death DVD Confirmed for Revisitations 2

The DVD Company 2|Entertain have revealed that the Patrick Troughton story ‘The Seeds of Death’ will be re-released as part of the Revisitations 2 DVD boxset in 2011, along with two other stories.

The story was originally released with very few extras in 2003, but will now join the Jon Pertwee story ‘Carnival of Monsters’ and the Peter Davison story ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ in this re-release, which will include a higher quality of restoration and more extras.

The DVD commissioning editor Dan Hall also announced that the re-release of ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ will contain a documentary presented by the Tenth Doctor David Tennant, and will be released in both the four episode and two episode edition.

A Matter of Time: The Seeds of Death

ORIGINAL BROADCAST: 01/03/1969

Forty-one years ago today, the Ice Warriors appeared in their second television adventure, starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. When the Ice Warriors in this episode speak, their voices are strained hisses as they are breathing a different atmosphere as they are from Mars.

This story introduces the concept of the class system within Martian society. There are two distinct classes of Martians, which are the Ice Warriors and the Ice Lords. It becomes clear at the end of Episode One of The Seeds of Death that all of the warriors are inferior to the Ice Lord Slaar. Furthermore, the story indicates that there is an even higher ruler within the Ice Lord class, as it introduces the Grand Marshal in Episode Six, whose head is covered in shining jewels.

The working title of this story was The Lords of the Red Planet. Although only Brian Hayles is credited as the story's author, script editor Terrance Dicks rewrote Episode Three to Episode Six of the story, as Jamie McCrimmon was to have originally been replaced by a new companion called Nick. Patrick Troughton does not appear in Episode Four as he was on holiday when it was being recorded. A double stands in for him in some shots where the Doctor is seen lying unconscious on the floor.

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