THE SEEDS OF DOOM

31st January – 6th March 1976

On most planets, the animals eat the vegetation. On planets where the Krynoid gets established, the vegetation eats the animals.

The Doctor to Sarah, episode 1

A team of scientists excavates two vegetable pods embedded deep within the Antarctic permafrost. When photographs of this find are beamed back to London, the Doctor is alarmed. He alone knows the real risk of human extinction posed by Krynoid pods should they be allowed germinate, and makes haste to Antarctica to secure these finds. However, following him to the South Pole are agents of a rival, Harrison Chase, a multi-millionaire businessman who likewise wants to possess these unearthly specimens. One of the pods is destroyed before it can achieve its horrific potential, but the other is stolen and brought back to Chase’s mansion in England. Soon the pod’s seeds infect a human host, who gradually begins a gruesome process of metamorphosis into a multi-tentacled, aggressive botanical lifeform, steadily increasing in size with each passing hour. The Doctor realises this Krynoid must be overcome before it propagates millions of seeds that will germinate into equally voracious offspring, ultimately engulfing the entire planet. Fortunately the Doctor is able to contain the Krynoid within the grounds of Chase’s mansion long enough for a squadron of fighter planes to pinpoint and incinerate the monster, just as it grows to gigantic proportions.

---