6 episodes
Aired between 11th April 1964 and 15th May 1964
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Verity Lambert
Directed by John Gorrie
Synopsis
The group land on a desert island as fairy liquid submarines swim to shore.
The TARDIS crew begin exploring the island, finding that the beach is actually made of glass. As they investigate a strange man in a rubber suit complete with a rubber mask and flippers begins stalking them.
Susan decides she wants to go for a paddle in the water, but luckily for her, Barbara accidentally knocks her shoe into the tidal pool, melting it almost instantly and revealing the sea to be comprised of acid! After recovering from her lucky escape, Susan goes and gets a new pair of shoes whilst the Doctor, Barbara and Ian discover one of the submarines, containing the rubber suit of one of the occupants. The Doctor theorises that the pilot had a hole in his suit where the acid got in and totally dissolved the man inside.
Once she has her new shoes on, Susan totters of to a large pyramid type structure that she sees over the bushes. Ian spots it too and when the discover Susan isn't at the TARDIS anymore, they decide to go looking for her around the large building.
Exploring the structure. the group find that it's incredibly old, with every brick being laid with precise distribution of weight in mind so that there's no mortar resting between them. One by one, the group are split up whilst searching the outside, each of them being trapped in revolving walls.
Once inside, Susan comes face to face with a mad monk who simply turns around and walks off. She disregards it and keeps walking, being suddenly captured by one of the rubber suited men who was hiding in the open corridor. Susan struggles briefly with him, until he is stabbed in the back by someone, presumably the mad monk, who reappears and starts walking towards her.
Susan is taken to Barbara and the Doctor who are both prisoners of the monk too. They speculate that the monk is the owner of the building, and that the rubber suited people are intruders. They take solace in the fact that at least Ian is still free.
Ian is wandering around the pyramid when he finds the mad monk being assaulted by one of the rubber suited men. He tussles with the enemy, knocking him into a wall, where the mad monk activates one of his traps, that plunges their opponent into the heart of the acid sea in one of the most hilarious deaths ever seen in Doctor Who.
The mad monk thanks Ian and takes him to his friends. He explains to them all that his name is Arbitan and he is the keeper of a great machine called the Conscience of Marinus (Marinus being the planet they've landed on).
The Conscience was once a great machine that was used as a computerized judge, until the civilization managed to adapt it and use it like a brainwashing machine. It effectively eliminated all evil from the minds of everyone on the planet and for a long time, everyone lived in peace. That is, until Yartek, leader of the Voord (the rubber fetishists who are assaulting the pyramid) learned how to resist its impulses. For safety, four out of the five keys that operate the machine were removed and scattered across the planet.
Over time, Arbitan managed to improve the Conscience enough to make it's power work once more, but by that time, there were few people left with him. Some did go and try to recover the keys, Arbitan's daughter amongst them, but none ever returned. With a heavy heart, Arbitan asks the group to recover the keys for him.
Off screen, the Doctor tells Arbitan to stick it up his arse and the group head back to the TARDIS. They soon find however that Arbitan has placed a force field around their ship and unless they help him, he will let them starve out there on the glass beach.
With little choice left, the group agree to undertake the quest. Arbitan gives them travel dials, wrist watch-like teleporters that will take them to the locations of the keys. Barbara twists hers first and goes marginally ahead of the others.
Arbitan warns them that if they should return and find that the Voord have taken the Conscience, then they must destroy the keys. With that, the group teleport away, shortly before Arbitan is stabbed in the back by one of the Voord.
The group arrive at the first location, in front of a white futuristic door, where they find Barbara's travel dial on the floor with blood spilled across it. The Doctor insists that they shouldn't panic and sure enough, they find Barbara beyond the door in a utopia, sat being fed grapes in a lovely gown. She explains that she was just being "silly" by panicking when she used the travel dial and tried to tear it off her arm, scratching herself in the process.
Only Ian thinks this place is strange, given the fact that a strange light and alarms hurt their mind for a second before fading away, and the servant girls there as well as their host: Altos, want nothing more than to cater to the groups every desire. Barbara thinks Ian's being a spoil sport, and even the Doctor seems to be happy with the place, so they agree to spend the night there.
Whilst everyone is asleep, strange eyes glow from one of the portraits in the room, and a secret door opens, allowing one of the servant girls to enter and place strange discs on each of the companions heads before leaving.
Fortunately, the disc falls from Barbara's head and she awakens, only to be knocked unconscious by the alarms and flashing lights.
The next morning when they awake to a fantastic breakfast, Barbara is horrified and begins to rant that everything is filthy, insinuating that Susan's new dress she asked for is nothing but tattered old rags. When Altos enters and asks her if she would like to see their physician, Barbara runs off.
Altos gives chase but looses her, leaving him no option but to report to his true masters, posh talking, hideous brain creatures in glass jars with slug like eye stalks. They decree the servant girl who messed up the disc must be thrown into the dungeon and Barbara must be found and killed.
Sure enough, the girl is thrown into the dungeon, which is exactly where Barbara has fled to. Barbara soon finds out that the girl is called Sabetha, and she's actually the daughter of Arbitan who sent them on the quest. Sabetha holds the first key around her neck but refuses to give it away.
Meanwhile, Ian, Susan and the Doctor are now completely under the mind altering control of the brain creatures. They believe that the Doctor has been supplied with a state of the art laboratory. Soon enough they are like mindless zombies, carrying out the will of the brain creatures.
When Altos comes to punish Sabetha, Barbara struggles with him, and together the girls manage to knock him out. Barbara leaves Sabetha in the cells whilst she goes to find her companions, running into Ian who grabs her roughly and takes her to see the brain creatures.
Once in the control centre, the creatures explain how they control the city with the power of their brains, and gloat that they will have to kill Barbara as she's seen too much and cannot unsee.
Barbara turns the tables on them however and smashes the life support equipment, killing the brain creatures and releasing all the citizens of the city from their spell.
As the companions get back together, Altos turns up with Sabetha and explains that they were both sent by Arbitan to too, and so agree to help the group recover the remaining keys. The Doctor decides that it's best to come at the problem from two angles and goes ahead to locate the final key, whilst the rest move on to the next destination.
Not wanting to stay for a long goodbye, Susan jumps ahead of the rest, finding herself in a screaming jungle and totally flips out. Seconds later, the screaming subsides and she is joined by Barbara, Ian, Altos and Sabetha.
Ian and the new arrivals go ahead and try to find some clue as to where they should be going, leaving a disgruntled Barbara behind with Susan.
Susan is attacked by a twig and freaks out again, until Barbara tells her to pull herself together. Barbara looks around the immediate area and spots a clear patch in the foliage which leads to a strange statue with arms that look almost human. On top of the statue is the next key.
Ian, Altos and Sabetha return just in time to see Barbara retrieve the key, and the statues hands grab her legs, just as the wall beings rotating. Barbara drops the key and is lost on the other side of the wall. The statue returns a minute later.
Ian is genuinely concerned for Barbara, but Sabetha reassures Ian that she might have used her travel dial to get out of trouble. He suggests that Susan, Sabetha and Altos go for then next key whilst he makes sure that Barbara got out.
Just before she leaves, Sabetha discovers that the key Barbara retrieved was a fake, and warns Ian before she teleports.
Ian lets himself be captured by the statue and finds himself in some kind of garden filled with plants and ornaments. One of the ornaments of a knight has a pressure plate near it, and when Ian steps on it, it raises it's axe to kill him. Barbara pops out from behind a bush and warns Ian just in time.
Ian fills Barbara in on the situation, and the pair begin searching the area for the real key, soon spotting some locked doors. He decides to go and grab some iron bars he's seen down at the bottom of the garden to break through the door. Whilst he's doing that, the doors open by themselves and Barbara decides not to learn from her mistakes and walks straight into another trap. This time it's a piece of netting that falls on her, shortly before the ceiling (bristling with spikes) begins to lower itself towards her. Barbara calls Ian for help, but Ian gets trapped too, behind some bars.
It looks like Barbara is a goner until a strange old man who looks a bit like Arbitan comes and rescues her. He demands to know what she wants with the key, and when Barbara tells him about their quest and who sent them, the man takes her travel dial to authenticate the fact that they are messengers of Arbitan.
By this time, Ian has freed himself and catches up with Barbara, just in time to see the old man get attacked by a twig around the throat. The group bravely fight it off, but the man ends up on his deathbed. Whilst there, he comes to believe that they are sent by Arbitan and gives a cryptic clue as to the location of the key (DE3O2) and says that they will probably die when it gets dark and the whispering starts.
Barbara and Ian are puzzled, and after exploring the area, find out that the code isn't the combination to a safe.
They do however find a lot of research on natures tempo of destruction. It turns out that the man was doing experiments with plants that accelerated their growth rate and subsequent expansion. This discovery coincides with the fact that it gets dark and the whispering starts. Tree branches begin to smash the building apart, and swish about looking for victims as their growth means they will overcome the building.
After Ian sees some of the flasks the trees knock over, he realises that DE3O2 is a chemical formula. Barbara quickly finds the right flask and retrieves the key. They both teleport before the trees get them and wind up nearly freezing to death on a mountainside until a perverted trapper known as Vasor takes them back to his hut.
When they revive and question him, Vasor tells them that he saw two girls in a cave up the mountain (obviously Susan and Sabetha) and that he also met a strange man (Altos) who asked Vasor to take him to them. Vasor didn't risk himself in the cold however, but did trade furs and supplies to the man in exchange for his strange watch. Ian does the same and sets off to find them.
Ian eventually finds Altos, bound on the mountainside who reveals that Vasor double crossed him and left him for the wolves.
Indeed, he has also double crossed Ian too, leaving chunks of raw meat in the bag he traded so as to draw the wolf packs to them. Together, Ian and Altos make their way back to the trappers hut.
Still with Vasor, Barbara finds the travel dials and keys in a drawer. Vasor gloats about it and makes it obvious that he intends to do something less than honourable with her.
Luckily, Ian and Altos turn up and force Vasor to to take them to the ice cave where he obviously abandoned Susan and Sabetha. Vasor isn't happy about this, complaining that there are devils in the cave, but he has little choice but to comply.
Soon enough, the group catch up with Susan and Sabetha and find a rickety rope bridge that crosses a great chasm. They all manage to cross it, but foolishly leave Vasor until last, who unhooks the ropes, leaving them stranded inside the mountain.
With little option left, the group explore the caverns before them, soon coming across four dead knights guarding a block of ice with central heating running around it. Inside the ice is the next key.
Barbara turns on the central heating whilst Ian and Altos cobble together a makeshift bridge. They retrieve the key, just in time for the Ice Knights to awaken and begin attacking them. Susan crosses the bridge whilst Ian holds them off and reconnects the ropes, allowing the rest to get to safety.
They run back down to Vasor's hut and take back all their travel dials and keys, just as the Ice knights come for them. Vasor is killed in the struggle and the group teleport away to the next key.
Ian arrives on his own in some kind of museum. There is a dead body on the floor, and the final key lays in a glass cabinet by its side. As Ian investigates, he is clubbed over the back of the head and knocked unconscious. Whilst out, a black gloved hand places a mace next to Ian and then takes the key.
When Ian awakes, he sees a Guardian (policeman) of Millenius (the city he's now in). The Guardian interrogates Ian and accuses him of theft and murder, arresting him. To Ian's shock, it turns out that the judicial system in Millenius is quite severe, with suspects being guilty until proven innocent.
He is taken away and held in custody for a trial. The companions fear the worst until the Doctor turns up once more and offers to be Ian's defence lawyer, successfully managing to obtain a stay of court for two days whilst he gathers evidence for the defence.
The Doctor explains to the group that the man killed was a contact of the Doctor's who was planning to get the key for him. By using "elementary" he determines that it was likely that Aydan, the relief guard who was the first on the scene that could have committed the crime.
To find evidence, Barbara, and Susan go to Aydan's home. They confront Aydan who becomes angry and tells them to get out, but not before accidentally letting slip that he might know where the key is.
The day of the court case arrives and the Doctor tricks the court by calling Sabetha as a witness, getting her to reveal one of the other keys and pretending it is the one from Millenius.
The Doctor implicates Aydan who admits his involvement, and is about to reveal his accomplice when he's shot and killed.
Despite the Doctor's efforts, the judges who let's be frank, look like they've just stepped off a Monty Pyhton set, agree that Ian was the other accomplice and sentence him to death.
At the conclusion of the court case, Barbara receives a written message from the villain, stating that there will be another murder if the group should reveal the true location of the key. This coincides with Susan phoning her to say that she's been kidnapped.
Not wanting to put anyone in danger, Barbara decides to go with Sabetha and Altos to visit Aydan's wife, in order to get clues as to who might want to kill him. Aydan's wife, Kala, says she doesn't know and breaks down in tears, only to laugh like a true villain once they've left. She opens her closet to reveal Susan tied up and calls her boss on the phone to update them on the progress.
Barbara realises that Kala's conversation had some inconsistencies and rushes back to the apartment, just in time to stop Kala from killing Susan.
With Ian sentenced to death, time is running out unless the group can catch the real villain, which the doctor does by awaiting on him coming back to get the key from its hiding place - inside the mace. The culprit is revealed to be none other than the chief prosecutor, who framed Ian when he wandered into the burglary by mistake.
The Doctor sends Sabetha and Altos forward to the island so she can be reunited with her father whilst he, Barbara, and Susan wait for Ian's release. Finally acquitted of the charges, Ian joins the group once more as they take all the keys back to Arbitan.
There's a problem however. As Sabetha and Altos return, they discover that Arbitan is dead and the Conscience of Marinus is now in the hands of Yartek, leader of the Voord.
As the Doctor and his companions return, they are also assaulted by a Voord henchman, but manage to subdue him. The Doctor entrusts the final key to Ian, fearing the worst. They split up into two teams to search for Arbitan. Ian and Susan finally meet up with him, but he's... different. He hides his body totally inside his robes, his voice has changed and his head has elongated to three times the size, but don't worry, he's just....ill. Yes, ill from a power leak caused by the machine.
Ian accepts this and gives the final key to "Arbitan" and leaves with Susan to find the others. Yartek lets them go, believing that he has no more use for them.
Ian and Susan meet up with the group once more, who have found Sabetha and Altos tied up. The big plan is exposed but Ian happily reveals that he gave Yartek the fake key that they found from the statue.
When Yartek enters the key into the machine it blows up in his face and the pyramid is destroyed. The group barely manage to get out alive.
Back at the TARDIS, Sabetha and Altos decide they are going to use the travel dials to go back to Millenius as they are now in a relationship. The Doctor, Barbara, Susan and Ian all wish them well and say goodbye. Barbara says she's going to miss them before Ian coaxes her back into the time machine and they fade away onto their next adventure.
Trivia
- This is another story that see's William Hartnell taking a holiday, hence the decision for the Doctor to jump on ahead and meet the rest in the location of the final key.
- The original plan was for the next space story following Marco Polo to be about a planet hidden behind the sun (for more on this, see the Tenth Planet). However, this story ended up being significantly delayed, so the production team approached the author of the previous story, Terry Nation. Nation was researching for another Doctor Who script about the Indian Mutiny, he had gained a reputation as someone who could turn around scripts fast, after all, the Daleks was written as a full episode per day and look how successful that had been. So, they turned to Terry Nation to work his magic again and this is the end result.
What worked
- Don't know if it's just me, but when Ian and Barbara are discussing their utopia, they move very close. In that moment, they really act like a married couple and it's almost as if they're going to kiss each other goodnight.
- In episode 2, the illusions and use of camera work to allude to it work well. I love the bit when the doctors examining a filthy mug and waxing lyrical about how amazing everything looks. It works very well.
- I know they're not up to 2015's standards of effects, but the brain creatures do hold something creepy about them.
- Feel free to judge me, but I liked the murder mystery element. I found myself engaged by the cliffhanger at the end of episode 5 where Susan says she's going to be killed. I think it's mainly because I wanted to know who was behind it all, and I never would (or could) have guessed the culprit in a million years.
What didn't work
- In episode 1, there's lots of crew mistakes. the boom mic shadow is there again whilst Barbara and Ian chat outside the pyramid; when Barbara is taken inside one of the revolving doors, you can clearly see the hand of the crew pushing it open; and in the very next shot, one of the crew is seen running out of the corridor as Ian makes his way down it!
- Hang on, Arbitan has a machine that effectively brainwashes the population of an entire planet, and the Doctor has no problem with this until AFTER they've gone and got all the keys to make it work?
- The Voord lackey's don't talk much, and when they do, they just sound boring (apart from that comedy scream as one falls into the sea of acid).
- The submarines coming ashore at the beginning of episode 1 look like something built by a Blue Peter presenter (for those of you who live outside England, I suggest you Google Blue Peter, and probably Tracy Island while you're at it). And, they're obviously pulled on a string.
- The cliffhanger from episode 1 to its resolution in episode 2 is far too quick. It would have been better to build on the ideas presented in the Edge of Destruction and have the bright light drown everything out, and knock everyone unconscious, with the crew waking up afterwards to the sights of utopia.
- The production team in episode 4 make using your imagination really hard. There's a gale blowing, but it doesn't affect loose snow; they're in the mountains, but there's not even foggy breaths, and Altos can run around in just his underwear and not be affected. Then there's the way Susan just goes across the ice bridge in episode 4 whilst everyone stands there and watches Ian fight for his life.
This is an ambitious story. Coming off the back of Marco Polo, where the sets probably cost a bomb (I imagine), this story requires Ray Cussick (see the Daleks) to build not one, but five different styles of sets. We go to a tropical island, a futuristic city, a jungle and even a glacier. The strain of this ask can be seen in the quality of the props and costumes.
The story is done in a quite unique style and feels the better for it. I wouldn't be surprised if a tiny bald headed know-it-all turned up and gave everyone cryptic clues and light bows or shields to help them on their way. This is Dungeons and Dragons ten years before it was first published.
The fact that there is a quest element doesn't necessarily give the Keys of Marinus it's main selling point though. I think that the best thing about this story is that it's more than just one story. It's four or five stories put together, and although they may be cheesy or even obvious now, I think each one has a good premise to it that can still be really enjoyable if you allow your imagination to make up for what the props and scenery fail to do. As a bonus addition to this, unlike any other story we've had this far, and indeed since, we get to see different continents of the same planet. Just like Skaro's war torn past, this method allows the story to develop some depth where we get a sense that there's more to this planet than first meets the eye, and it's telling that it's written by the same author.
But whereas the elements of the Daleks comes together and miraculously works, Nation doesn't quite manage it with this one. The continents are just too different from each other, and "cheesy" to boot. The bad guy's look too human and don't have any kind of cool monster voice for the school kids to imitate, On top of that, the method of travel gives Nation the same problem of "why don't they just leave?", just like the TARDIS has ever given anyone who has written an episode of Doctor Who.
Terry Nation will try again, but this is one of only two stories that Nation wrote for Doctor Who that didn't include the Daleks.
Rating
7 out of 10
The sets are a bit naff, but if you're prepared to use your imagination, you will get a lot of enjoyment out of this story.
There are lots of promising sub plots that will keep you surprisingly hooked, due to the fact that it's like a new adventure each episode.
Rewatchability Factor
5 out of 10
It's a good story to watch when you want something you can dip in and out of without too much thinking, but that's also it's downside. The episode just suffers from being a little too disjointed and the effects are just crappy.
Watch this if you liked...
- The Key to Time series (The Ribos Operation, The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll, and The Armageddon Factor)
- The Infinity Quest
- The Web Planet (for the introduction of weird alien planets)
- ...to play Dungeons and Dragons
"I liked the trip to Morphoton. What was your favourite zone of the quest and why?"
No comments:
Post a Comment