5) THE KEYS OF MARINUS

​The first adventure quest in the show’s narrative, The Keys of Marinus, is made of up of, not one, not two, but rather several mini-episodes tied together with one basic end goal. Whilst the entire story is somewhat fragmented, there is a whimsical but likeable similarity in the six episodes, where the story and narrative are never taken too seriously.

The plot explores various old and recycled science fiction tropes (mind control, hypnotic powers, aliens resembling giant brains etc.), which only appear for a single episode, play their part in the narrative, and disappear without a trace. Writer Terry Nation will later do a similar thing when writing many of his Doctor Who scripts over the years, which perhaps says something about his overall enthusiasm for the show. The best episode of the six ‘The Snows of Terror’ is intensely shot and is your basic survival-of-the-fittest storyline, with Francis de Wolff providing a memorable performance as Vasor. The weakest is ’Sentence of Death’ which centres round a poorly realised trial narrative with a pretty obvious villain working silently in the background.

The costume and sets design are generally remarkable but the supporting characters, especially most of the villains are rather weak. Yartek is the show’s first bland and forgettable antagonist. Yartek and the rest of the Voords can be summed up in one word – boring. Yartek’s weak personality traits and characteristics are an indication that Terry Nation probably forgot all about him, and just threw in some last minute ideas to give viewers an ‘intense’ confrontation and ‘climatic showdown’. Thankfully Yartek is only in one episode. It’s interesting that the production team tried to cash in on the Voords (Terry Nation’s second race of aliens for Doctor Who), but failed to create another nationwide phenomenon . It’s not that surprising that the Voords faded away from the public’s hearts and imagination, an indicator for how forgettable they are.

The Keys of Marinus has all the potential for being big and epic, but there’s only thing missing – money. Good story ideas with plenty of potential require a decent budget and various production blunders indicate a missed opportunity. Whilst this one is not entirely brilliant, it makes for good compelling entertainment, and that’s all Doctor Who, at the best of times, is meant to be. ***