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| The TARDIS team are enlisted for a perilous quest. |
6 episodes: The Sea of Death, The Velvet Web, The Screaming Jungle, The Snows of Terror, Sentence of Death, The Keys of Marinus. Approx. 150 minutes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: John Gorrie. Produced by: Verity Lambert.
THE PLOT
The TARDIS materializes on an island of glass, surrounded by a sea of acid. As they explore, it isn't long before they discover that they are not alone. Arbitan (George Coulouris) is the keeper of the Conscience of Marinus, a machine with the ability to purge men's minds of evil. The machine is powered by five keys, which were scattered after an attack by Yartek and his vicious followers, the Voord.
Now Arbitan has modified the machine so that the Voord will be affected by it as well. There is only one problem: The keys remain scattered, and the followers Arbitan sent to retrieve them have vanished. Using his technology to seize control of the Doctor's TARDIS, he compels the time travellers to go on a perilous quest across Marinus to retrieve the missing keys. Soon the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan will be pitting their wits against living brains with hypnotic powers, sentient plants, and soldiers of ice - with the greatest threat still to come!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: It speaks to the ensemble nature of early '60's Who that I don't particularly miss William Hartnell during the middle two episodes. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill are more than strong enough to carry the action in his absence. Hartnell also clearly needed the vacation. His work in Part One is far from his best, with a lot more line fluffs than usual. He's much better when he returns for the final two episodes, presenting a truly dominant figure. Also, his absence from the middle of the story makes his return that much more powerful.
Ian: It's not really the case that Hartnell's two week vacation pushes Ian to the fore. After all, he was already there. At this point, Ian has consistently been the heroic lead, with the Doctor often seeming more like the most interesting member of the supporting cast. However, up to this point, his primary screen foil has been the Doctor. With no Doctor, he gets stronger material with Barbara, which makes their relationship much stronger on-screen. This may be the most notable effect of the Doctor's absence.
Barbara: This serial marks the beginning of what will become an unfortunate trend - a lascivious villain threatening Barbara with sexual violence or coercion. It's indicative of how different viewer sensibilities were in 1964 that this would be seen as acceptable in a family program. Two episodes before Vasor (Francis DeWolff)'s attempted rape of Barbara, though, she does get one episode in which she is not the victim, but the lead. The Velvet Web gives Barbara a decent showing, as she wakes Sabetha (Katharine Schofield) from her hypnosis. She also gets to be very proactive in the final episode.
Susan: The destruction of Susan Foreman as a character begins here. After receiving reasonable characterization for the first four serials, The Keys of Marinus sees Susan reduced to mewling, whining baggage. The cliffhanger to Episode Two sees her reduced to sobbing at a few strange noises, when no apparent danger is at hand! She does get one good scene, showing courage and resourcefulness in getting across a chasm to re-tie a rope bridge in The Snows of Terror. With that exception, this serial reduces her to being not only useless, but an irritant. If my memories hold firm, that trend will become the norm for her remaining tenure.
THOUGHTS
Even in a decidedly second-rank story like this one, I love the more deliberate pace of early '60's Who. Practically the entire first episode is set aside for our regulars to explore the strange place in which they've landed. Hartnell may be fluffing every third or fourth line, and the model shots and mattes may not be terribly convincing. The TARDIS materialization - I believe the series' first on-screen one - is particularly clunky. Even so, there's something in the atmosphere and character interplay that just isn't there in later eras. That pure ensemble nature, combined with the willingness to take some time to make it feel as if these characters are authentically exploring - I think that sets the Hartnell era apart from its successors.
The Keys of Marinus is probably the Doctor Who story that is the most purely reminiscent of old Saturday matinee serials. It hops from setting to setting, at a rate of about one per episode, with each setting providing some new danger. The overall plot is just a clothesline on which to hang the episodes, which until the final two parts largely stand alone. It also recalls Saturday matinee serials in its cheapness. Tasked with creating a new set each week, the production is stretched to the breaking point. I don't think the production actually breaks, but it certainly bends quite generously. The chasm which is "too far to jump" in Part Four, but which looks like it could easily be stepped over, is a particularly amusing offender. In almost all respects, The Keys of Marinus is the cheapest-looking Hartnell story I've reviewed thus far.
Despite the laughable chasm, The Snows of Terror is actually my favorite of the single episodes. Francis DeWolff is genuinely threatening, even if the rape attempt is rather poorly choreographed. The ice caves are no more convincingly rendered than any of the serial's other settings, but it's still an imaginative idea - and if you can't look past cheap sets to the ideas behind them, then classic Who is probably the wrong show for you to be watching in the first place. The self-contained story of the episode is simple enough to fit within 25 minutes without feeling rushed, making it satisfying as an individual piece.
The final two episodes do an effective job of tying it all together, and Hartnell's return gives A Sentence of Death a particular boost. Really, as a whole, the serial is extremely watchable. But its episodic nature keeps it from being anything more than the sum of its parts, and it is extremely cheap-looking, even by the standards of early Doctor Who.
Not one of the series' better stories, The Keys of Marinus is nonethless quite enjoyable "rainy day" entertainment.
Rating: 6/10.
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