The Keys of Marinus (1964)

EPISODE 1 – THE SEA OF DEATH
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 11 April 1964

After spending seven episodes, it’s time to go and do something different. After a pure historical the show needed to go into space and it seems that they decided to go to Terry Nation to write this six part story due to his success of the Daleks story. The story opens up with a nice model shot of the island. The interaction between the regulars is very calming which is in contrast to the beginning of the series. There’s a nice line from Barbara about colour television which was funny as the story was filmed and broadcast in monochrome. This scene is also the start of several ‘Hartnellisms’ that became part of his time on the show.  When they leave the TARDIS they discover

Susan sees the sea and instantly want to go for a swim. Despite being told not to by the Doctor, she decides that she is going to go for a paddle in a small bit of water but she was stopped before she could put a toe in. Her reaction to the shoe dissolving in the acid water was a slight over reaction. After a good run of episodes where she was well written for and put in some good performances it seems like she taken a step back. However just when I started to despair, she redeems herself and her performances for the rest of the episode are better.

The mysterious figure shows an interest in the TARDIS which his hand gliding over the lock. The mystery is made easier somewhat when we actually get to see ‘him’.  It turns out that they are called the Voord and are intruders to the island. One of them has already perished by a tear in their suit and a leak of acid into the tube that they travel in. It’s not the greatest enemy in the history of television because they seem to be killed fairly easily.

We are introduced to the conscience of Marinus, it’s a powerful thing and has the potential to cause problems. The Voords are interested. There’s a nice bit of exposition from Arbitan. We then learn what the course of the next five episodes would be about. The conscience is controlled by 5 keys and Arbitan wants the regulars to go and find the keys for him but they decline. Instead of just letting them leave, Arbitan puts a force field around the TARDIS. There’s a nice bit of acting from the regulars which requires all the regulars being exact in how wide the force field is.

When they realise that they don’t have any other choice but to help Arbitan on his way, the regulars find that they don’t have to go in those tube. There’s a neat trick of getting the regulars from one set to another and that’s by a wrist watch and they all stand in front of a black cloth so that a bit of special effects can be done. It is quite good and must have seemed like cutting edge in 1964. After all disappearing Arbitan is killed by one of the Voords which is a bit of an odd thing because its okay if you watch this story in one go or as I am doing watching over six days because I will remember this but back in 1964 would people remember this six weeks after it had happened? I doubt it.

There are problems with this episode. There is a shot when Ian says look and we get to see the city is a little bit of dodgy editing because it doesn’t gel together very well.  Then some of the set designs aren’t as good as they could have been. In ‘The Daleks’ it was clear that some of the backgrounds were cloths but it was hidden quite well. Here it’s quite obvious that the actors couldn’t walk any futher on or they would walk through the cloth. There is also a moment where the Voord falls into the acid but it’s not very convincing as it looks like a cardboard cut-out.  Then there is the small matter of the cliffhanger scene. The Doctor, Susan and Ian arrive but they are standing in front of a bit of garden furniture. The cliffhanger is quite good because there is a wrist watch that belonged to Barbara but not Barbara and the comment from Ian that it has blood on it is meant to strike some concern and in 1964 it must have done but here in 2013 it doesn’t have the same effect.

The opening episode of this story is enjoyable. Yes there are problems with this story and some plot holes that you could drive a bus through but I still think there is a lot to like in this episode and it’s nice to know what the point of the story is so early on. So you can sit back and enjoy the rest of the story.

EPISODE 2 – THE VELVET WEB
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 18 April 1964

The reprise is slightly different with Ian’s reaction to the blood having being slightly less than it was at the cliffhanger and the Doctor’s reaction being non-existent. The background which looked like garden furniture was there purely to disguise what was behind it which was a posh looking lounge. When they do reunite with Barbara, she is living quite the lifestyle with servants and she gets to live like a queen. Everything seems to be going well but it’s the old adage of life in that if it’s too good to be true then it usually is and Ian is naturally mistrusting of all the hospitality. Everyone else is quite willing to ask for their biggest wish. Even when Susan wants an expensive dress it’s no problem and The Doctor wants a brand new laboratory and new instruments. Everything seems to be going well until they sleep when some strange rock is put on their foreheads. Except the one placed on Barbara’s head falls off and she is the only one that hears the incredible sound that follows.

When she does wake up there is the extraordinary moment when Barbara sees that the room they are in isn’t as nice as when we saw it but its all decaying with the nice gown made for Susan is just a rag. We are now in the situation where its Barbara versus the rest of the regulars and when she is hiding from Altos she breaks down and cries. There is a strange thing when Altos is looking around for Barbara but doesn’t see her when she couldn’t be more obvious if she were waving her arms in the air. That said it doesn’t really diminish her performance and it’s the first time in several episodes where I feel like she’s been given something solid to do.

Altos is the first most significant supporting cast member of the episode. There is something quite creepy about him from the very first moment that we meet him. Robin Phillips is quite good as Altos and when the alien influence has gone he is a character that is good to have around and his involvement the rest of the story is a good thing. We get to meet Sabetha who is Arbitan’s daughter. She is the one that puts the rocks on the regulars heads but were not meant to feel anything bad towards her as she is under the influence of the brain creatures. It’s a good performance from Katherine Schofield.

We get to see the alien menace that has cause the Doctor, Ian and Barbara to be brainwashed. They are small things and it’s quite hard to believe how they could ever accomplish whatever it was that they wanted to do. Jacqueline Hill has to hit the tubes with the aliens but only hits one yet the rest of the aliens die.

Ian having his hands round Barbara’s throat isn’t a sight I thought I would have seen. It does show just how much the power that these alien threats have over the regulars. William Russell gets to do a bit of emotionless acting as he lures Barbara to the weird creatures. It’s great to see William Russell and William Hartnell are pretending to see a wonderful laboratory but are in fact are seeing an empty room and the Doctor picks up a manky mug having to pretend that it’s a wonderful piece of scientific equipment.

The cliffhanger was a little bit weak because it didn’t have the same sort of drama to what we had at the end of the previous episode. Susan being scared is hardly a big incentive to tune into the next episode. As an episode it felt like a mini episode that was distracting us from the main story and trying to pass the time until we get to the central plot. It’s not that this episode is mediocre but all this episode seems to achieve is to introduce Sabetha and Altos and also explaining why we won’t be seeing much of the Doctor in the next episode.

EPISODE 3 – THE SCREAMING JUNGLE
Originally Broadcast on BBC – Saturday 25 April 1964

The Screaming Jungle is a very historic episode in Doctor Who. It’s the first time that William Hartnell doesn’t appear at all. He was on holiday so it means that it’s the three regulars with Altos and Sabetha who are moving the story forward.  When we get back to Susan, the ‘screaming’ has stopped yet Susan looks like she is having a nervous breakdown. It falls to Barbara to do her teacher role and calm Susan down. Ian is still wearing his outfit from Marco Polo, I know that this isn’t a fashion review but it would be nice if Ian could have got a change of clothes somehow.

Barbara shows signs of rebelling or at least her desire to rebel with the Dresden china line. I thought this was a nice moment as it’s the first time since The Expedition way back in The Daleks that Barbara entertains the thought of defying Ian. It’s a shame that it never goes beyond this. Susan is really annoying in this episode. It’s worst when part of the foliage just touches Susan’s leg and she cries like its about to kill her. A total over reaction in my opinion. Thankfully she’s not in the episode very much as she gets to jump ahead. It takes them less than six minutes to find the micro-key or what we think is the key. It seems like the idea to include the fake key was something to keep the story going until the end of the episode.

By the ten minute mark, Atos, Sabetha and Susan have all jumped on ahead whilst Ian tries to find the real key and Barbara. It doesn’t take long to find Barbara as she saves Ian from almost being decapitated. With it being just Ian and Barbara, it means that they get most of the action and there’s a nice bit where Barbara is about to be killed whilst Ian is trapped. Then we meet a figure who has set the traps and has hidden the real micro-key. He gives them a code which they must try and figure out what it means and how it will lead them to the micro-key. After searching for ages and with the forest starting to attack them they finally find it.

When Barbara is climbing to grab the key there are two human hands and it’s like a big arrow is drawing the viewers’ attention to the hands. Not sure whether it was intentional but it seems like a bit of an odd thing.

Performance wise, everyone does quite well. Susan seems to have gone backwards in recent episodes and it feels like an awfully long time ago since ‘Inside the Spaceship’. It’s a shame for Carole Ann Ford and its easy to understand why she became frustrated with the role and didn’t last long in the show. It seems like her character is somewhat poorly written for and yet Barbara and Ian are given the stronger things to do. I think the fact that William Hartnell isn’t in this episode means that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill get to take centre stage and thrive under it.

the cliffhanger was marginally better except that it replaced screaming with snow. It must be really cold as it doesn’t take Barbara or Ian to feel the effects of the snow.  It was an ok episode which picked up once it was just Ian and Barbara. The thing about this episode is that there isn’t a lot of moment geographically speaking. Credit to Terry Nation for managing to make 25 minutes fly with not a lot happening.

EPISODE 4 – THE SNOWS OF TERROR
Originally Broadcast on BBC 1 – Saturday 2 May 1964

With a lack of snow but just the sound effects, Barbara and Ian react brilliantly to the cold. They are rescued by a large bearded man who at first seems like a nice person. Vasor is a man who asks Barbara if she fears him and when she says no he then says that he killed a bear with his hands. The way that Vasor tells Barbara about the warming of their hands is an odd thing because you would expect Ian and Barbara to have known that. We discover that Atos has been there before him but when Ian finds him he discovers that Atos’ hands have been tied together. It’s at this moment that we all know Vasor’s true colours and how sneaky is really is.

Barbara is left with him and she does a good job of standing up to him though that only last for so long. Jacqueline Hill is good in this episode though once she fends off Vasor she doesn’t really do anything. William Russell gets to be the big hero and leads the group to find Sabetha and Susan and then to get back to the hut after finding the micro-key. It’s always fun when William Russell gets to do the sort of things he does here because he seems to thrive in it. This is the second episode where there is no Doctor. To be honest I think that due to the introduction of Sabetha and Atos, the gap that has been left by William Hartnell has been filled well by Katherine Schofield and Robin Phillips.

It’s 10 minutes before we are reunited with Sabetha and Susan. I must admit I was missing Susan despite how backward the character has been in recent weeks. There is a nice sense of a sisterly relationship between Sabetha and Susan. It’s a bit like Ping-Cho and Susan in ‘Marco Polo’. Quite amusingly, Susan is the first one that goes over the newly constructed ‘bridge’.  I thought that this was her strongest episode for a while and Carole Ann Ford is very good as a result.

The sets in the Ice Caves are quite good. I’ve been a bit disappointed with the sets in recent episdoes and this is the first time in a while that I have been impressed with what I have seen on screen. It seems like a vast area and not just a couple of sets knocked up together.

When they do find the key it turn out that it’s in a block of ice and it becomes a group task to try and melt the ice. It’s just a matter of waiting for the ice to melt and then they can try and get over. There is a ‘threat’ which are the four figures guarding the ice and they aren’t particularly noticed by the characters. The ‘guards’ that are standing by the block of ice try their best to stay absolutely still but don’t quite manage it. I cant quite believe that they are very dangerous even when they are breaking their way into Vasor’s hut I don’t think that there is anything to them. Vassor gets the cumupance that he deserves when he seems to die of fear.  It’s a good way to tie up the loose ends. He was well played by Francis De Wolff who plays it just right between sinister and slightly clichéd.

The cliffhanger is the best one of the story so far. They all jump but we only see Ian who after discovering a body on the floor gets knocked out before the micro-key is taken out of an alarmed cabinet. There is a certain mystery about who the person was on the floor and who is the person that has knocked Ian out and took the micro-key. It’s a good episode with plenty of interesting things going to and I didn’t find myself bored at any point during the episode, largely due to Vasor who I found to be an entertaining character (much in the same way as Tegana did in Marco Polo). I think that the cliffhanger shows that the final two episodes are going to be interesting and the return of the Doctor is imminent.

EPISODE 5 – SENTENCE OF DEATH
Originally Broadcast on BBC 1 – Saturday 9 May 1964

In this era of the show, it wasn’t clear to the viewer when a story started and when it finished. So for the 1964 viewer, this was effectively the first in a two part episode. At the end of the previous episode, Ian has been knocked out and is by a dead body. Tarron’s introduction into the story is quite odd as he is casually sitting in a chair waiting for Ian to wake up. He is the one that has to investigate the murder and quizzes Ian. I love the serious moment of music when Ian is told he will be charged with murder. It quickly comes and goes and just seems like a comedy moment. The legal system is that Ian is guilty until proven innocent. This means that there is a greater sense to prove that Ian didn’t murder anyone. There is still no sign of Susan, Barbara, Sabetha and Atos. When they do finally make an appearance there is no explanation as to why they weren’t with Ian when he discovered the body.

The Doctor makes his first appearance since The Velvet Web and it’s like a massive sense of relief. When he comes back, William Hartnell instantly throws himself into the story and instantly decides that he is going to defend Ian. We learn that before we saw him he had arranged with Eprim who was going to give him the micro-key and it was his body that we saw at the beginning of the episode. He was also a friend of Atos. Hartnell loves the opportunity of being the lawyer. His body language is very amusing. It’s good to have him back. Carole Ann Ford and Jacqueline Hill get to do their Cagney and Lacey impression (several years before the duo were on TV) when they start asking questions.  Being the accused means that William Russell doesn’t get to do very much but at least Ian is in the focus of the story and so he is always on screen. It’s good to have the regulars back together. I do love the scene where they are re-enacting the scene of the crime. It seems weird that they stop the story to basically go through what we already know

Eyesen is a dodgy character. He is the one that just has to continuing with the assumption that Ian is guilty. Even though he doesn’t do anything sneaky, its clear just by the way that Donald Pickering is performing that there is something about him which wont help the regulars. The fact that Ayden is the one involved is revealed relatively quickly. Ayden makes a bid for freedom and he is easily caught by Barbara and Susan and just as he is about to name who helped him he is killed but it’s not clear how.

Kala is instantly a character that oozes badness. She doesn’t show it in this episode but its clear that she will do something. We are thrown off the scent by her being there when Ayden is killed and she sobs.Susan is captured and to be honest I hadn’t noticed that she was gone. I was so involved with the court action I didn’t notice she had left. When her voice sounds its quite a surprise and it leads to the cliffhanger which is another good one because there is the mystery of who has got Susan and what will they do with her.

This is another good episode where despite the action taking place in the same area it moves along at a really good pace and there are characters that are well written and it sets up the final episode nicely because it’s a question of having to get Ian cleared of the charges and get the keys back to Arbitan. I think that having the regulars back together seems to have bought a bit of familiarity back to the story. An enjoyable 25 minutes.

EPISODE 6 – THE KEYS OF MARINUS
Originally Broadcast on BBC 1 – Saturday 16 May 1964

The final part of this story has to do two things and do it in only 25 minutes. At the end of the previous episode, Susan have been kidnapped by someone. With Susan out of the picture at the beginning and Ian in custody, it falls to Barbara, Sabetha and Altos play the Scooby gang with Barbara as the leader. Carla drops herself in it when she says about them being worried after speaking to Susan but its several moments before Barbara twigs. When she does manage to make it back to Carla’s apartment it’s just in time to stop Carla killing Susan. It’s a great moment when they all try and overpower her. Despite admitting being involved, Carla pretends that Ian was the one she was working with. This seemed like it was delaying moving the story onwards for just a couple of moments.

The key was in the mace and the Doctor knew all along. When I first saw this episode I didn’t see it coming and now I come to think of it, I wonder whether Terry Nation had that in mind when he wrote the episode because there is never any indication that it was so close. Half this story is taken up with tying up the loose ends of getting Ian off the execution.  With Ian about to be executed, the Doctor is very solemn when we first see him. It’s the first time that we have seen the Doctor like this and it shows how much they have all changed since that very first episode. Minutes later when he sees that there is a way out to help Ian, his mood changes greatly.

When the action returns to the Voords we find that Altos and Sabetha have been captured. One thing we learn is that the lead Voord is in fact called Yartek. Yartek is pretending to be Arbitan. The fact that he doesn’t show his face to Ian and Susan should have raised alarm bells but Ian doesn’t show that’s anything wrong but he gives Yartek the wrong micro-key and this will cause the area to blow up. The Voord haven’t been the greatest creation because apart from the first episode and this one they didn’t really serve the part as a threat. Had things been thought of differently then it would have been better to move the Voord’s into the other episodes.

The central performances have all been good in this episode. However it was William Hartnell that I was most impressed with largely due to his scene where he’s very sad about the thought of Ian’s impending death. Though I was also impressed with Jacqueline Hill who started off really well in this episode. Hopefully I will never see Ian in that outfit that has worn for at least 10 episodes. If he wears it any longer then we can class it as a companion. The goodbye scene is a sad one really. After six episodes with these supporting characters it was sad to say goodbye and that shows how good they have been because normally they would be annoying. There’s a nice moment when Barbara says she will miss them and Ian says ‘come on’ in a way that implies he is telling her to pull herself together.

Oddly there’s no cliffhanger. It just fades to black and tells us the name of the next episode. It’s odd after 25 cliffhangers that we suddenly don’t get one. As an episode it was two in one really. The change happened at just the right time and the second half happened at just the right time. The story ended in a good way though I would have been annoyed that after all that time spent looking for the micro-key and then for it just to be destroyed must seem like a waste of time.

As a six part story it’s been good overall. At times it’s felt a bit stagnant but overall its moved along at a good pace with some good characters and some good writing. The sets have been of a good standing and the directing has also been solid. I have always liked this episode but I have appreciated this six part adventure in a whole new way. Something about it worked quite well and it never dragged.