Seeds of Doom” is an interesting little six-part “Doctor Who” story in that while it has a lot of elements that make for a good “Doctor Who” story, there are parts of that feel distinctly not-”Doctor Who”-like.

The biggest of these is the Doctor himself, who morphs into an action hero whenever the script calls for it. I am specifically thinking of the opening to part four, where the Doctor crashed through a skylight to save Sarah by punching out the villains’ main henchman and threatening everyone with a gun. The script tries to cover the Doctor holding a gun on someone with a quick line later that they didn’t know he wouldn’t use it, but the moment still feels odd in the overall context of the character and the show.

And that doesn’t even begin to cover the sequences in which the Doctor is even more strangely aloof than usual. He constantly warns about the danger poses to Earth by the Krynoid, but yet is the first one out to find the second pod buried in the snow. This seems a bit odd since the pod is no threat and it’s not like anyone is going to know it’s there unless he sends them out looking for it. Of course, it’s easy to see that this is a necessity of the script, becuase if we don’t have the second Krynoid, the story is only two episodes long or we have to find a way to get the growing and maturing Krynoid back to England and chase.

Of course, you could say I’m over-analyzing and thinking too much about “Doctor Who” here and I should just simply sit back, turn the brain off and enjoy the story.

Because there really is a lot to enjoy to this story. It’s one of the creepier stories on an era that excelled at creepy stories. The Krynoid is nicely realized, even if it is just the Axon suit painted green. And the supporting cast is nicely realized—esp. Harrison Chase and Scorby. Here we have two villians who don’t see themselves as the bad guys. Chase simply loves plants and would love to become one (interesting that he doesn’t allow the Krynoid to convert him to a plant, instead saving that fate for Sarah Jane or Keeler). His love of plants is quickly taken over by the Krynoid and used to drive the later stages of the story as Chase slowly starts killing and grinding up any humans he can find to feed his precious plants.

As for Scorby, he could easily have been little more than a hired thug. When we first meet him, we don’t like him, but as the story evolves, you start to feel a bit more for him than just out and out hatred. By the time Scorby has jumped ship to the Doctor’s side and is whipping up Molotov cocktails to distrat the Krynoid, you can almost root for him. And when he dies in a futile attempt to escape the estate, it’s easy to feel a bit saddened and not like this is just a bad-guy getting his due. It’s a nicely done performance and some good character work by both the actor and the script.

That said, “Seeds of Doom” does have its flaws. Its the same story told twice over—the Krynoid infects someone and starts growing. The first two parts in Antartica are really a preview of what’s to come, though why the Krynoid flees into the snow and cold I’m not quite sure. Being a plant, I’d think it’d want to stay somewhere warm and humid, but I’m not an alien plant, so what do I know? Then the scene shifts to England with Chase running amok and releasing a second Krynoid. One that must be stopped before it conquers the planet and spreads its pods across all of the world. Again, it’s intersting that the Axon suit is used for the Krynoid since this is the same dilemma that drives much of the later stages of “Claws of Axos.”

And while I could point out that it’s obvious the production team isn’t anywhere near a cold climate when the Antarctic scenes are filmed, what would be the point? It’s old-school “Doctor Who” and honestly if you nitpick it too much, it loses some of the fun.

“Seeds of Doom” is better than the sum of its parts, quite frankly. It’s a good six-part story that has little or no padding (a rare thing for six-part stories) and it features some memorable performances by the regular and guest casts. It’s definitely meant to be watched one episode at a time because it helps over up some things. If you watch this one all at once, the holes will become that much more obvious. It’s not a classic Tom Baker story, but it could have been. It’s an entertaining, fun and atmospheric story that shows a production staff on the cusp of producing one of the best seasons in the show’s long run.