The Fifth Doctor returns to Peladon, along with Peri and Erimem.
Talks of ghosts surround Peladon, as an upcoming coronation is supposed to be the subject at hand.The Doctor and friends have a dynamic entry to the festivities, saving an ambassador of the Ice Warriors from an assassination attempt.Things seem suspicious as several people want to make a grab for power, and an arranged marriage is the only way to keep a fragile peace... But sometimes there's a ghost in the machine...
This audio adventure is something of a sequel to "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon," which featured the Third Doctor.
Tropes:
- Batman Gambit: Sekhmet gets undone twice by fake blood, once in her backstory, once in the climax of the story.
- Blood Magic: Sekhmet's tomb is locked fourfold by Blood Magic, requiring sacrifice of four royal people.
- The Bus Came Back: Alpha Centauri is the same Alpha Centauri from Curse and the Monster of Peladon.
- Call-Back: Queen mother Belldonia mentions that the Doctor looks far younger than the stories report.
- Sekhmet mentions Sutehk being an agent of hers.
- The Doctor also mentions the TARDIS controls are Isomorphic, when this gets exposed as Blatant Lies he mutters that they used to work.
- Call-Forward:
- The Doctor mentions that "everybody leaves" (Though this is an unintentional one, the Eleventh Doctor mentions something similar in "The Power of Three".
- Peri mentions that the Doctor will always have her, because she's not going to marry some alien king.
- The Doctor, wounded and drained of blood, says to Peri: "Sorry, Peri, I don't think I can make it.", luckily the first time around Peri is still conscious so she barks right back at him: "Well, I'm not through with you yet!" as she drags him out of the tombs of castle Peladon.
- Clarke's Third Law: The "Blood lock" is a locking mechanism that can only open with a specific type of blood, in this case royal, how exactly royal blood is different from normal blood is never stipulated.
- Crash Course Landing: The ship the Doctor and friends try to save Zixlyr the Ice Warrior from ends up dropping out the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor to steer it into a valley.
- Distress Call: The Doctor, Erimem and Peri pick up one and try to save the passengers of a crashing ship.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire action of the story takes place within a 24 hour period, from midnight to midnight.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: There's Elkin and Arkos, the Doctor and Erimem (who tags along with some of the royal family at a few points), Zixlyr and Peri, and Pandora and Pelleas.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Erimem and Pelleas. They are engaged after knowing each other for less than a day. Erimem freely admits that they can't possibly love each other (yet), and is marrying Pelleas mostly because Peladon needs looking after.
- Healing Factor: The Doctor explains that the Time-Lords genetic temporal template patches wounds quickly, or in need be can do a full body process.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gog attacks Sekhmet when she's about to reach full power, and dies shortly after. Zixlyr joins quickly after that, and Erimem poisons her blood to undo Sekhmet's locks. Zixlyr turns out to be an Almost Dead Guy and pulls a Redemption Equals Death by using the bomb he brought to kill Pelleas and his family with to blow Sekhmet and himself up.
- I Choose to Stay: Erimem decides to leave the TARDIS to marry Pelleas and become Queen of Peladon. To the writer's credit, this is given significantly more build-up and justification than similar companion departures, like Leela's.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: The Doctor hums a few words of a Venusian Lullaby (along the melody of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") to calm down the Aggedor.
- Non-Answer: Belldonia doesn't quite answer the question how she knew how her daughter in law died..
- Our Vampires Are Different: It's played up as a ghostly apparition that needs people's blood, but Sekhmet is A God Am I Sufficiently Advanced Alien who's locked away with Blood Magic.
- The Plan: Zixlyr stages an assassination attempt so that he can bypass the standard securities, and blow up the royal family.
- Roar Before Beating: The Aggedor, a bear like being, with the head of a boar.
- Secret Underground Passage: In the royal castle one opens up before Pandora.
- Sequel Episode: To The Curse of Peladon, Monster of Peladon and Pyramids of Mars
- Shout-Out:
- Peri motivates herself by going investigating by calling herself "Nancy Drew".
- The Doctor quotes The Listeners
by Walter De La Mare, when asked if he had a reference for everything he follows up with a "One more unto the breach, my friends." - Peri mentions that Erimem's kids will end up looking like Beetlejuice.
