The Poison of Peladon

Peladon #2

Released: 28 January 2022

Listened: 2/5/22

This recap may get moved to River’s section, once I’ve figured out where in her timeline it goes. We’ve had King Peladon, so it only makes sense that we’d have a story with Queen Thalira, plus Alpha Centauri, an Arcturan, but no Ice Warriors. And River Song, who has shown up to help with a plague that’s threatening the population, and could end the royal line. There’s also some talk of republican revolution, although it’s not clear whether that would be good or not. Naturally, there’s a mystery, and skullduggery, but let’s be honest: we’re here to see River flirting with Centauri. Which they do, quite consensually, and quite frequently. River’s also very friendly with Thalira, as River has promised to “look in” on the planet as a favor to a friend. But she’s also quite jazzed that Thalira has taken to heart the lessons about women’s lib that she learned from Sarah Jane. It would be nice if we had the original actor back to play Thalira, but that’s not to be. Likewise, Ysanne Churchman was unavailable to play Centauri (although she had voiced them in the modern series), so Jane Goddard fills in, having played them several times for Big Finish before. It’s a bit unfortunate that Thalira doesn’t seem to have much agency in this story, but neither did her father, in the last one.