There’s a moment in this episode when some vines and branches seem to shake around and then grab some people. It’s not a very expensive special effect. Heck, it’s probably just some guys shaking the things. But somehow, the effect seems to work for me.
I just thought I would point that out.
Well, things are looking bleak for the Doctor. After escaping the Krynoid, the creature traps him, Sarah Jane, hired goon Scorby, and two other guys inside a cottage. The Krynoid can talk, too. It has one demand: let the Doctor out and the others can go free.
Scorby might go for that, but the Doctor knows it’s a trick and manages to convince the guy of that. Good for him. He also gets Scorby to mix up a fire bomb. See, the Krynoid says it’ll give the humans until day break to decide if they want to keep the Doctor or not. The Doctor figures the thing will be at least eight feet tall by then and can just smash through the cottage.
Meanwhile, with a killer plant from outer space looking to destroy all animal life on Earth, Harrison Chase decides he wants to take some photos of the thing. Probably for his horticultural society. Assuming anyone would form a society of any kind with that dick.
So, a couple things happen. Scorby finishes the bomb, and the resulting fire allows the Doctor to escape in a car to get UNIT help while the others run back to the house. By then, the Krynoid encountered Chase, and rather than do something the audience would appreciate like eat him, it makes him a willing accomplice.
Oh, it also takes over all the plant life in the area. As a result, when Chase goes to meditate in his greenhouse, things go bad when Sarah Jane and Scorby go in to get him. Scorby has already decided the Doctor isn’t coming back because he thinks little of other people. That’s when the plants attack Sarah Jane, Scorby, and Chase’s butler, but not Chase. Because Krynoids like dicks I suppose.
That last sentence could come out wrong.
Fortunately, by then, the Doctor returns with some UNIT personnel. There were some issues involving red tape and the Brigadier was in Geneva. So, apparently, were all the other UNIT people we’ve met before. But the guy the Doctor has with him brought some extra-strong defoliant. That’s enough to free Sarah Jane and Scorby, but the butler is dead.
In true Doctor Who fashion, the show is killing off the bad guys for this serial in order of evilness. Keeler was generally harmless. He went first. Then was that bribed government official who realized what he’d done. Then came the butler who basically did what Chase told him to. That just means we should see Scorby and then Chase die in that order.
It might be quicker than that. Realizing the Krynoid could see through all of Chase’s plants, the Doctor and the others start hustling them outside. That would be when Chase locks the door behind them and the Krynoid looms over the top of the manor house…
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