Tonight, I am going to tell you the story of the Prisoner of Peladon, and of the time when a friend and protector returned to our planet. A man called… the Doctor."

The planet Peladon has joined the Galactic Federation, and has undergone a painful period of change. Still eager to embrace alien culture, King Peladon has welcomed refugee Ice Warriors to his world - innocent creatures that are fleeing the New Martian Republic.

But, as an old friend returns to the capitol, there is murder in the refugee camps. Could the truth lie in an ancient legend?

Written By: Cavan Scott & Mark Wright
Directed By: Nicola Bryant

Cast
David Troughton (King Peladon), Nicholas Briggs (Ice Warriors)
Peladon! Home, usually, to King Peladon of Peladon, the King of Peladon. This story is narrated by KPofP in the form of the wonderful David Troughton, a man who can not only play a King, but can also fill a court-room with a wide variety of characters. From Alpha Centauri to the third Doctor, he impersonates a range of voices quite brilliantly. It's almost a shame that Nick Briggs had to step in for the Ice Warriors; Nick is generally good at the monster voices but the Ice Warriors in this story sound wrong.

As for the story - well, it's always a delight to return to Peladon, as the many fans of Monster of Peladon will attest. A rich and varied palette presents itself, a feudal society consisting entirely of one castle and a mine. You can really feel for the Peladon locals, or maybe that should be local, because there's no evidence of any of them anywhere. The sodding Ice Warriors (as surely the Peladon local must refer to them) are far more trouble than they're worth.

The story is set around a clutch of mysterious mysteries. There are Ice Warrior refugees or something and a senior Ice Warrior is killed - but by whom? And there's a tower with a light flashing on and off where a Prisoner of Peladon resides in secret. Also mining rights, trisilicate, galactic federation, Aggedor, Hepesh, Grun blah blah blah.

To be honest I had very little clue of what was actually going on throughout the story. First there was a spaceship crash that caused little damage, then there were children disappearing, then the Ice Warriors blamed the humans and vice versa, then Alpha Centauri is involved in #SomeSort of investigation and conspiracy. The problem is that there's so many mysteries that there's no time for any of them to develop. Then, rather than the mystery getting richer, we get simple and irritating delaying tactics before the big reveal. Towards the end of the story, KPofP gets frustrated and starts shouting 'JUST TELL ME WHO THE (F***ING) PRISONER IS!!!' and it's very hard not to sympathise with him.

What's even more annoying is that there's a sub-plot about the third Doctor getting grouchy because he's travelling alone. "Surely I've seen this before somewhere?" I thought. And I had! KPofP gets a speech at one point which is word-for-word ripped from Donna's speech to the Tenth Doctor at the end of The Runaway Bride. Someone covered this up by saying it has 'New series sensibilities' but I think the words they were thrashing about blindly to find were 'Rip Off'.

And guess who KPofP was relating all this to as a bedtime tale? Any ideas? Go on. Guess. Think of a character from the Peladon stories. Well done. It's not Eckersley.

I think the litmus test for me is that KPofP has a music box that plays 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' or in Peladonian terms 'Klokeeda Partha Menin Klatch'. Some people would think this cute, but I thought it was totally naff. That's the kind of unforgiving, judgemental nature I have.