I've found listening to the audiobooks of the novelisations has helped me focus some of my thoughts about this story. I've always enjoyed it in the past and was of the general opinion it wasn't as bad as received wisdom suggested and that it had lots of good elements.

I was hoping my Peladon-centric rewatch would confirm this but sadly, I found myself a bit bored this time round and I've been pondering why whilst listening to the audiobook (which so far is a scene by scene retread of the TV version with nothing added, as far as I can tell, so far).

The Monster of Peladon is, sadly, a pale retread of Curse for the simple reason that it takes the setting, the characters and the atmosphere of Curse and dispenses with every single interesting aspect.

Curse has various alien delegates bickering and scheming. Monster kills the most interesting one off before the first episode has finished and just leaves us wih Centauri and Eckersley.

Curse has Centauri being a prissy, yet effective poltician. Monster has Centauri being a quivering nervous wreck, even more easily pressured into making bad decisions than it was in Curse. It also - bizarrely - has a worse 'costume' (the thickness of the curtain makes Centauri look clunky).

Curse has the glorious twist that the Ice Warriors are goodies. Now obviously that couldn't be repeated here but just making all the Warriors baddies is hugely lazy. Why not have a contingent of 'good' Martians turn up and discover a faction of bad Warriors and have the conflict between them - rather than stupidly-haired miners doing the same thing episode after episode - attack the armoury, run through the tunnels, get killed by the Aggedor ghost, run through the tunnels, get angry and cheer, run through the tunnels etc. Imagine the Warriors discovering a traitor in their midst in league with Eckersley. That could have been much more effective than what we got.

Curse has a brilliant role for Jo with her relationship with the King. Monster has Sarah bouncing between the control room and the tunnels with alarming repetition, being taken hostage by a succession of characters and believing the Doctor to be dead more than across the episodes. The glimmers of good stuff for her are in her throne room scenes - realising how they can get rid of the Federation troops and, significantly, giving Thalira a pep-talk about women's lib. Her role in the story - and Thalira's for that matter - could have been hugely improved by pairing them off and having them drive the plot in the palace while the Doctor was focussed on the efforts of the miners and the mystery of the Aggedor ghost. As it is, Sarah does very little in the story and isn't aided by being written as quite unpleasant in some parts (such as her reaction to Centauri).

Monster really does seem lazy and repetitive both of Curse and within its own episodes. There is good stuff and some great performances - Rex Robinson is good and Nina Thomas was better than I remember but it is definitely a step down from The Curse of Peladon.

The more I think about it, the more I think I need to drop my rating.