Tony Beckley's performance in the Tom Baker classic The Seeds of Doom is universally praised - and rightly so. Chase is a brilliantly deranged Bond villain like foil for the Fourth Doctor, pontificating in his Green Cathedral playing appalling music to his beloved plants before cheerfully unleashing the deadly Krynoid onto the Southern Counties. Chase certainly goes through a journey in this tale, being behind an attack on an Arctic base to becoming mentally linked to the alien carnivorous plant and hating all animals. What's more, his death is particularly unpleasant - the mad man falling foul of the fate he wished upon the Doctor and falling into the sharp blades of the ruthlessly efficient composter machine. What makes this death great is not just that it's the end of a classic Doctor/villain face off and that Beckley is such an iconic foe but that, rather like Dario in Bond film Licence to Kill, Chase has time to realise what is happening to him in a close up of his face transfixed in horror as the blades start on his feet. Baker and Lis Sladen's reactions help to sell the horror, too. Baker mystified that Chase would rather try to drag him in too than accept his helping hand. "I tried to save him," the Doctor mumbles. A classic death.
Writer of The Blog of Delights, a review site covering film, TV, cult TV, books and audio. Fan of Dr Who, Bond, X-Men and Marvel. Also the writer of e-book 'Fictional Legends: Doctor Who - the TV Adventures' for Collca.
